Northern Nut Growers Association Incorporated 39th Annual Report / at Norris, Tenn. September 13-15 1948

by Unknown

SECTION X.—AMENDMENTS TO BY-LAWS

ARTICLE 1. These by-laws may be amended at any Annual Meeting by a two-thirds vote of the members present provided such amendments shall have been submitted to the membership in writing at least thirty days prior to that meeting.

PROCEEDINGS of the Thirty-ninth Annual Convention of the Northern Nut
Growers Association, Inc.

Meeting at NORRIS, TENNESSEE SEPTEMBER 13-15, 1948

The meeting was called to order by President John Davidson at 8:45 o'clock, a. m.

Address of Welcome

GEORGE F. GANT, General Manager, Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville,
Tennessee

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: It is a distinct pleasure to welcome you to Norris and to the Tennessee Valley. You have had very fine weather here, and we hope that you will enjoy the climate and the scenery and the fishing and the pleasures of this part of the country during your short stay.

The Northern Nut Growers Association is a much older organization than I had thought, and it is much older than the Tennessee Valley Authority, but a review of some of the things, you have done and some of the interests you have expressed from time to time indicate that we have many interests in common, your organization and the TVA.

You are concerned with experimentation of new and better ways of growing tree crops. You are concerned with the environment in which tree crops must find a place in our economy and in our culture, because, as I understand it, your interest goes beyond mere economics to the full use of trees.

Now, the Tennessee Valley Authority is likewise concerned with experimentation. As a matter of fact, it is an experiment, a new and different way of achieving a better use of natural resources.

There is nothing new in what the TVA does. There are no activities conducted by TVA that have not been or are not being conducted by other agencies all over the country and which have been conducted by Federal agencies for many, many years. The TVA has no new regulatory or coercive functions. As a matter of fact, the TVA has no coercive functions. It has no new or unique or different governmental functions. There is only one thing that is different about TVA, and that is the way in which it approaches the job of resource use on an overall basis.

Now, I might illustrate that by referring to the construction of dams and reservoirs. In the Tennessee Valley the TVA builds dams and reservoirs to prevent floods, to produce a navigable channel, to produce power, and in its reservoirs it also has the responsibility of achieving the best uses of reservoirs and reservoir lands in the interests of fish and wild life, in the interests of recreation, and in the interests of malaria control.

Now, the unique fact here is not that these things are going on or being done, at least in part, through a Federal agency, but that one Federal agency is responsible for achieving a balance between all of these activities and with the administrative responsibility for doing that. In other efforts the situation is different, with as many as eight agencies having something to do with the development of some one of these activities in a way which might or might not be integrated.

Now, the second illustration, I think, is that unity can be accomplished only if all of the agencies which are concerned with the use of resources have an environment in which they can work effectively. The Federal Government is not and should not in the Tennessee Valley be developing all of these resources itself. It feels that the unified development of the resources depends upon the participation of the people of the Tennessee Valley and their institutions, the local and the state agencies. There can't be unity any more if local agencies are conducting one program and a Federal agency conducting another program, than there can be if several Federal agencies are conducting several programs.

Consequently, the Tennessee Valley Authority, except for the operation of these huge new facilities which have been added to the resources of the Tennessee Valley, conducts its activities in collaboration with local and state agencies. That not only avoids the expense of duplication, but it achieves the collaboration, the participation, the active interest of the people in getting a full job done.

That is true in the field of forestry. Forestry has a particular role in the Tennessee Valley. First of all, the TVA is concerned with the effective use and control of water, not only in the river channel itself, but on the land. Forestry, together with engineering and agriculture, must come together, not only come together within the administrative framework of TVA, but within the framework of what our colleges and state departments are doing and with what the land owners are doing in these watersheds.

Further than that, the TVA is fully aware that watershed protection cannot be achieved except within the economy of the region. That means that the best use of forest lands from the economic point of view, from the productive point of view, as well as from the conservation point of view, must be taken into account.

For these reasons the TVA is concerned not only with multiple-purpose dams, but with multiple-purpose land use. These activities are not conducted directly by TVA, but in cooperation with the land grant colleges and with the appropriate state departments.

I think and I hope that as you review the several activities which are going on in the Tennessee Valley area that you will keep these characteristics of TVA in mind. We are very happy to have you here. I hope that many of you will be able to extend your visit or to come back and see us another time.

* * * * *

President John Davidson: I am personally very glad to have heard this talk. I know quite a bit more about the fundamental principles of the work underlying TVA than I did before.

Dr. MacDaniels, will you say a word on behalf of the Association?

+Response+

Dr. L. H. MacDaniels: Mr. President and members of the Northern Nut Growers Association, I am sure that I voice the sentiment of all of the Association to you, Mr. Gant, and all of the Tennessee Valley Authority our very great appreciation of your allowing us to come and meet with you and use the very fine facilities which are available here in Upper Norris Park.

As far as I am concerned, and probably I am in the same situation as most of you in the North; we have heard a lot about the Tennessee Valley Authority, but mostly it is bandied around in the newspapers and usually connected with some sort of a political argument of one kind or another. And I think that to come here and to see the place and to live in the cabins and drive through the forests, to swim in the lake, as some of us did yesterday afternoon, went far away around the bend, and went in swimming—I think you might improve the mud bottom in some places, which is not too good, but it reminds us of our youth, at least—and to fish in the lakes, although not too successfully. After we have done that we certainly know much more about what sort of a development the Tennessee Valley Authority is.

Another thing, as a member of the Northern Nut Growers Association and as you are members, I think we all appreciate what the Tennessee Valley Authority has done for the Northern Nut Growers Association. The Tennessee Valley Authority has been the first, you might say, large agency which has taken northern nut growing seriously and has used the knowledge which has been developed by this Association in an extensive way in the planting and developing of new varieties, developing of new techniques in the use of the plants, the nut trees and the persimmons, and what not, with which the Northern Nut Growers Association has been concerned.

As we drive up the valley here and we see these thousands of walnut seedlings which are still to be used and see the plantings which you will see more intimately later, we can realize just how extensively the Tennessee Valley Authority has been concerned with the development of our forest resources and particularly these plants which are of economic value, inasmuch as they are nut trees, and their relationship to wildlife and a project of this kind in which forest resources and tree resources are to be made use of.

I have noticed that you did mention fishing as one of the things that has been developed by the Tennessee Valley Authority. I also am reminded of the fact that some of us, including our president, tried to go out and exercise some of these fish, without much success, and I have been trying to think of the reason. I know, as far as we are concerned, we used all the plugs and spinners and floating baits and sinking baits, and I went completely through my tackle box and pulled out the one that we call the "Christmas tree," a big bunch of spoons with a place to put a minnow on the end, and we dragged that around, almost swamped the motor, but did get around; didn't catch anything.

It reminds me of an incident there at Cornell. We have a director, who was head of the Pomology Department at that time. He had a dog that wasn't disciplined very well, he wouldn't come when he was called, and so on. The foreman out at the orchard had a dog that was very well disciplined. He'd say, "Go get my hat," and he'd get the hat, and "Go quickly," and he'd go quickly. And this head of the department asked the foreman, "Well, how was it that you trained this dog, and how do you train a dog, anyway?"

"Well," he said, "first of all, you have got to know more than the dog." Perhaps that's the case with some of us and the fish. Anyway, we didn't catch any fish.

I don't care to say any more, except, Mr. Gant, to express our appreciation to you for the excellent facilities which you have furnished.

President Davidson: Thank you, Dr. MacDaniels.

I believe the next order is the little talk by myself.

President's Address

JOHN DAVIDSON, Xenia, Ohio

When I was notified that this Association, in session at Guelph, had named me as its president, I was surprised and deeply honored. I suppose there is not a single member of this body who does not have the feeling that the Northern Nut Growers Association is "different," unique, and, very special: Here are all kinds: scientists and rule-of-thumb planters, experienced professionals and inexperienced amateurs, conservationists and hobbyists, all bent on one objective—to enlighten Americans and themselves on the values and opportunities that lie in the study and practice of planting forest trees which bear crops—specifically, nuts.

But the interest of most of our members is rather broader than our name would indicate. Forest crops, not merely nuts, are the logical outgrowth in interest that such an organization as ours stimulates. Dr. Zimmerman's work with papaws is a case in point. Mr. Wilkinson's work with the Lamb curly walnut is another. The persimmon, the papaw, the mulberry, the haws, the juneberries—you are likely to find them all, sooner or later, among the nut trees of our members. You will hear presently about a wood from one of our nut trees that is so valuable, and so possible to grow, that we may presently be planting for extraordinarily beautiful and valuable timber.

Patience is what it takes, and faith. Trees are an example to us. If we could only look at the procession of the centuries with the eyes of the sequoias, we should see creation moving on marvelously with magnificent fruitfulness, and we should take courage.

Has the process of evolution been more successful with plants than with the human race? Should benevolent creation fail at its highest point? Certainly it should not. Nevertheless it certainly will fail there so long as so large a body of the race is undernourished, ill-born, hopelessly submerged—dragging downward rather than lifting upward.

Who knows the total answer? Education, of course, is a part of it—in industry, in eugenics, in moral responsibility. But you can't preach education effectively to a starving or half-starved man or child. The multiplication of population, the better distribution of goods throughout the world (which means in the end the avoidance of extremes of over and under-production)—these are the world's next greatest problems. I personally have the feeling that we are on the verge of an almost unthinkable increase in food productiveness through chemurgy's better and more complete use of plant life. We shall yet learn to gauge population to food supplies and food to population. Both are essential.

We need more plant breeders and more organic chemists at work on food supply all over the world. We need more people of good will and long vision, fewer political and social parasites; more producers.

Singularly, at the very moment of writing these words, a letter from a well known plant breeder is dropped upon my desk. In it he turns down the idea of an hypothetical executive position which most people would regard as promotion. The importance and interest of his work is so great in its own right that he would not think of changing.

That is what I mean. We need more of his kind in the world. It is hoped that in this Association such men may find the kindredship and comradeship they so richly earn.

This was the spirit with which our Association was organized by Dr. Robert Morris, Dr. Deming, and a few far-sighted men in the early days of this century and carried on by them, by Mr. Reed, Dr. Zimmerman, Professor Neilson and their kind since. We salute them all. Their works follow and honor them by their multiplied fruits.

I shall not take the time in this full program to review the events of the past year. Some of our speakers will do this far better than I. But I wish to greet our visitors and the new members who may not have been with us before. We hope you will feel very much at home in our family of kindred minds.

Also, these remarks would not be complete without recognition of the efforts of those who unselfishly and unstintingly have given of their time and strength to this important work: our Secretary, Joe McDaniel! You all know him by his exceptional service to us all. (Let's rise and give him a hand.) And while we are on our feet—one of the best treasurers any organization ever had, efficient, kindly, but a veritable watch-dog of the Treasury, Mr. Snyder! Also a hand to the members of our important committees, Mr. Chase, Dr. MacDaniels, Mr. Slate, Mr. Stoke—I can't name or praise them all as they deserve. The NNGA could not possibly be what it is without them.

And now let us get on to the business before us.

Secretary's Report

J. C. McDANIEL, Nashville, Tennessee

The membership of the Association seems to be increasing fairly steadily. When I checked the mailing list early last October, it had 667 names, as compared with 691 listed in the 37th Annual Report. When I left Nashville last week, the number had increased to 742, according to my stenographer's latest count. There have been some discontinued memberships, as will happen almost every year in any organization, but the new members have more than compensated for them, in numbers.

We did not add up a total on all the mail sent out in response to inquiries, but it has been voluminous. Close to 800 requests for our nut nursery list have been received solely as a result of Mr. Stoke's Southern Agriculturist chestnut article in last February's issue, and they are still trickling in. Some new memberships have resulted from these contacts, but more have come as a result of our column in the American Fruit Grower, and a Chinese chestnut article in The Flower Grower early last spring, which gave our Association a boost.

Some members have said they did not find their American Fruit Grower subscriptions of much value to them, particularly since the inauguration of The Nutshell, our news bulletin which has been issued four times since the last annual meeting. I will take some of the blame for this, since as editor of The Nutshell, I am somewhat in the position of competing with myself as columnist for the Fruit Grower. Space is limited in the latter publication, too, and sometimes publication of the "Nut Growers News" column is deferred a month or two, and again, I have been known to miss a deadline. Most of the columns, as in the previous years, are digests of material previously given in our Annual Reports. This practice seems to be justified as a matter of keeping nut news before the orcharding public and as a means of attracting some new memberships for the Association. I do not know of a better conditioned list of prospects than the more than 150,000 American Fruit Grower subscribers all over the continent, who are at least interested in some kind of fruiting trees or plants. In that many, by the law of averages, are many with some interest in nuts. Several hundred will write to the secretary or other N.N.G.A. members who are mentioned during the year, and at least a few score normally will join us.

This does not minimize the desirability of having other publicity outlets. More of you who have a knack at writing should try your own contributions to national, regional or even community-wide publications. Even short letters to the editor, in such cases, may be read by "kindred spirits," and you will be read by men and women whose interest in nut trees (even though it may have been a dormant interest) will be stimulated to the extent of becoming N.N.G.A. members. Then it is up to our officers, the program committee members, and our contributors to keep them interested enough to renew their memberships another year!

Your comments on The Nutshell have been quite flattering to its editor. You all can help make it a better publication by contributing short original observations or clippings of good items on hardy nut trees from other sources.

There is a continuing shortage apparent in the supply of good named varieties of hardy nut trees in nearly all areas. This seems particularly the case with Chinese chestnuts. Few propagators at present have them in even enough quantity to catalogue, and the demand which has been built up by the good publicity on chestnuts exhausts most nurseries' supplies each spring before all orders can be filled. Our nursery list in the Winter issue of The Nutshell has gone to some 2,000 people and has helped the nurserymen to sell out their trees quickly. We hope this will lead to a sound expansion in the commercial propagation of good nut trees.

I should again call attention to our affiliation with the American Horticultural Society. This enables our members in good standing to receive their good quarterly publication, The National Horticultural Magazine, for only $3.50 a year. You may obtain your affiliate membership through our Treasurer, or directly from the American Horticultural Society, Room 821, Washington Loan and Trust Building, Washington 4, D. C.

* * * * *

President Davidson: You have heard the Secretary's report. Has anyone any revisions or modifications of this report to suggest?

Dr. MacDaniels: I move acceptance with thanks.

(The motion was seconded, a vote taken, and the motion carried unanimously.)

President Davidson: If the Secretary will also read the Treasurer's report, we will proceed with it.

Mr. McDaniel: Mr. Snyder wrote recently, regretting that he would miss this meeting (for reasons of health). He says he can not accept the position of Treasurer another year.

Treasurer's Report for Year September 1, 1947 to September 1, 1948

D. C. SNYDER, Center Point, Iowa