Northern Nut Growers Association Annual Report, 1917 | Page 6

greater care in the cultivation of transplanted nut trees. Trees should be set fall or early spring while perfectly dormant. If bodies are wrapped the first summer and first winter it will prevent much trouble from sun scald. If mounds of earth one foot high are banked around trees before first cold weather it will often prevent bark bursting which may be caused by freezing of the trees when full of sap, caused by late growth. This mound can be removed the next spring and in case of any winter injury you have plenty of fresh healthy wood to produce a top.
Cultivation should commence early in the spring and be kept up until September first. Never allow weeds to grow or ground to become crusted. Nut trees form new rootlets slowly the first summer and require special care. After the second summer they will stand more neglect, but extra cultivation will be rewarded with extra growth at all times.
FINANCES.
In looking over the treasurer's report at Washington I find a balance of $21.45, reported at last meeting under date August 14th, 1917. Treasurer reports balance on hand of $14.13 and no obligations. I think he is to be congratulated on being able to make ends meet and issue the reports.
After going over the budget for the coming year I think that we may be able to keep up this record if the membership committee will look after new members and see that all old members renew their membership promptly.
PLACE OF MEETINGS.
Owing to present war conditions the president would recommend that selection of the next place of meeting be left to executive committee to be fixed later after conditions and crops for next year are better assured. It would seem that some central location might draw the largest attendance and be of greatest benefit to the association for the coming year.
NUT EXHIBITS.
Nut exhibits should be encouraged as much as possible and prizes offered when finances will permit, or where members offer special premiums. This effort will bring out varieties that are worthy of propagation and valuable trees will be saved to posterity. These exhibits can often be held in connection with local horticultural meetings. It is well for our members to keep a watch for such chances.

REASONS FOR OUR LIMITED KNOWLEDGE AS TO WHAT VARIETIES OF NUT TREES TO PLANT.
PROF. W. N. HUTT, NORTH CAROLINA.
Agriculturally this continent is about three centuries old. Horticulturally its experience has scarcely reached the century mark. Practically all the commercial fruit industry of the United States is the product of the last half century. Relatively speaking we are quite young and therefore there are a great many things about nut-growing that we may not be expected to know. In the older lands of Europe and Asia they have a horticultural experience going back from ten to twenty centuries.
In this new country the pioneers had necessarily to confine themselves to the fundamentals and it is to be expected that their horticultural operations were confined to a very narrow maintenance ratio. As the country was cleared up and developed certain sections were found to be especially suited to fruit culture. About these centers specialized fruit-growing industries were developed. These planters tried out all available varieties and developed their own methods of culture. As these industries developed horticultural societies were formed for the exchanging of ideas and experiences. In 1847 the American Pomological Society was formed as a national clearing house of horticultural ideas.
The first work the society undertook was to determine the varieties of the different classes of fruits suitable for planting in different sections of the country. Patrick Barry, of Rochester, one of the pioneers of American horticulture was for years the chairman of the committees on varietal adaptation and did an immense amount of work on that line. At the meetings of the society he went alphabetically over the variety lists of fruits and called for reports on each one from growers all over the country. This practice was kept up for years and the resulting data were collated and compiled in the society's reports. In this systematic way the varietal adaptations of the different classes of fruits were accurately worked out for all parts of the country. A similar systematic roll call of classes and varieties of nuts grown by the members of this association would be of immense value to intending planters of nut trees.
In northern nut-growing, however, it may be questioned if we are yet arrived at the Patrick Barry stage. What we need is pioneer planters who have the courage to plant nut trees and take a chance against failure and not wait for others to blaze the trail. It needs men of vision and courage to plant the unknown and look with hope and optimism to the future. So many are deterred