Northern Nut Growers Association, report of the proceedings at the eighth annual meeting | Page 5

well. I
have a great many beech trees on my place from one year to more than
one hundred years of age, and they came from natural seeding, but the
seeds in this part of Connecticut are very small and shrivelled. They are
not valuable like the ones in western New York, for instance, and I do
not remember even as a boy to have known of eastern beech trees with
well-filled nuts. Many of these inferior nuts will sprout, however.
MR. LITTLEPAGE: I think Dr. Bigelow has hit upon a point of a great

deal of interest. For example, on my farm in Maryland I think there are
perhaps three or four hundred beech trees of various sizes, probably
none of them under ten years of age and up to fifty, and in the four
years that I have been observing these beech trees, there has never
grown upon them a single full, fertile beech nut. I have observed very
carefully. On my farm in Indiana I have been observing the same thing
for probably ten or twelve years, and I have never seen a single filled
beech nut. There are some beech trees there two feet in diameter.

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.
W. C. REED, INDIANA. (Read by the Secretary.)
FELLOW MEMBERS NORTHERN NUT GROWERS'
ASSOCIATION, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
Our association convenes today under changed conditions not only in
this country but throughout the world. Upon the United States rests the
burden of feeding the world, or at least a large portion of it. With
seven-tenths of the globe's population at war, surely this is a mammoth
undertaking.
The government is urging the farmer to increase his acreage of all
leading grain crops, to give them better cultivation, and is guaranteeing
him a liberal price.
CROP VALUES.
Crop values have increased until today there is land bringing more than
$100.00 per acre for a single wheat crop. Corn has sold above $2.00 per
bushel, beans at 20 cents per pound, and hogs at $20.00 per 100 pounds
on foot.
LABOR ADVANCES.
With these high prices all along the line the price of labor has advanced
to the highest point ever known. Surely it is up to the American farmer

to husband his resources by the use of labor-saving machinery, by
using the tractor and other power machines to conserve horse feed, by
the cultivation of all waste land possible and by practicing economy
and thrift.
MORE INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE.
In the more intensive agriculture that is urged upon us the Northern Nut
Growers' Association can do a splendid work by the interesting of all
land owners in the conservation of the native nut trees and the planting
of grafted nut trees in gardens, orchards and yards, to take the place of
many worthless shade trees.
HIGHWAY PLANTING.
With the government and states working together in the establishment
of market highways and the building of permanent roads, now is the
time to urge the planting of trees that will last for this generation and
the ones that are to follow. In sections of the country the different kind
of nut trees suitable could be selected and, if planted and given proper
care, would be a source of large income in the years that are to come.
Community effort is needed for such work and if the members of this
association will use their influence it will help to bring this about.
There is one county in England where all the roadsides have been
planted to Damson plums, which has not only made the landscape more
beautiful and furnished the people with much fruit, but the past season
has furnished many tons of plums that were picked half ripe for the
manufacture of dyes that had become scarce owing to the war.
If such a movement as this had been taken in this country in the
planting of nut trees in former years our roadsides today would be more
beautiful, the country more healthy, the farmer more independent,
having these side crops that require little labor and that could be
marketed at leisure. Our soldier boys might today have sealed cartons
of nut meats included in their rations on the European battle fronts that
would be very acceptable as food and add little to their burden.

NUT MEATS IN PLACE OF PORK.
If every land owner had enough nut trees to furnish his family with all
the nut meats they cared to use, and all the nut bread they would eat, it
would go a long way in solving the high cost of pork and beef. The
better grafted varieties of the black walnut are specially well adapted
for use in nut bread and can be grown in many places where pecans and
English walnuts will not succeed so well.
WHAT THIS ASSOCIATION HAS ACCOMPLISHED.