Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 13th Annual Meeting / Rochester, N.Y. September, 7, 8 and 9, 1922

by Unknown

NORTHERN NUT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION

In Account With

WILLARD G. BIXBY, Treasurer

Receipts:

From annual members, including joint subscription
to American Nut Journal $222.25
From contributing members, including joint
subscription to American Nut Journal 80.00
From contributions 357.50
From advertising in report 5.35
From sale of reports 12.00
From sale of Bulletin No. 5 8.58 $685.68
———
From Life Membership W. L. Linton 50.00
———
$735.68

Deficit September 1, 1922:
Balance Special Hickory Prize $25.00
Balance Life Memberships 95.00
Deficit for regular expenses 176.87
Net deficit 56.87
———
$792.55

Expenditures:

American Nut Journal—their portion of joint
subscription $74.00
1921 Convention 71.46
Printing report 12th meeting 212.19
Printing and stationery 142.82
Nut contest 111.01
Postage and express 5.00 $616.48
———
Deficit October 1, 1921:
Balance Special Hickory Prize $25.00
Balance Life Memberships 45.00
Deficit for regular expenses 246.07
Net deficit 176.07
———
$792.55

The work of the treasurer for the past year has not been satisfactory to him.

The amount of attention he has been able to give it has been much less than he had hoped. While supposed to be retired with nothing to do except just what he wants to this is far from the facts. While it is true that in 1919 he did retire from business, in which he had spent practically all of his time since leaving school, he has never been able to retire entirely and is still president of one corporation and vice-president of two. In the case of one of these the conditions under which it operated have changed so entirely that he has had practically to get back into business and the work of the association has had to be sandwiched in as best it could and at times has had scant attention. Had it not been for Mrs. Bixby's help on the work of the treasurer proper, he would have had to resign.

There is a deficit[1] shown by the treasurer's report although less than that of a year ago. The attempt to induce a rather large proportion of our members to become contributing members, paying $5.00 per year as membership fee, including subscription to the American Nut Journal, has been reasonably successful, about one-quarter of our receipts of membership fees being from this source. The real difficulty, however, is that our total membership is not sufficient to enable receipts from dues to pay expenses. In every year, for a good many years, receipts from contributions have been about equal to those from dues and apparently that condition will have to continue until our membership is doubled, unless the activity of the association is materially reduced, which course seems inadvisable to your treasurer.

[1] This was wiped out at the meeting by contributions and guarantee of new membership which more than equalled the amount of the deficit.

The results of the nut contest the past year have been unsatisfactory. The nut crop was a failure over quite a portion of the country covered by the association. The number of nuts sent in was not over one-tenth of those received in 1920 and no nuts of notable excellence were received. Were it not for the fact that this year promises to be a great year for nuts in the northeastern United States, one might think that the nut contests had outlived their usefulness. They have, however, brought us so many good nuts and are so comparatively inexpensive that your treasurer would not want to give them up yet.

During the past year an earnest effort was made by the treasurer to get new members by getting nurserymen to enclose in their catalogs circulars regarding the association as well as membership application blanks, over $100.00 being expended on this item. The nurserymen on the accredited list responded heartily. The results, however, were far from being as satisfactory as a year ago when the literature sent out by the nurserymen simply called attention to bulletin No. 5. Literature regarding the association and membership application blanks were inserted in bulletin No. 5 and between five and ten per cent. of those who received bulletin No. 5 became members, the number being considerably greater than those from similar efforts this year.

This shows conclusively that direct appeals, unless there is personality behind them, do not have much force. A year ago bulletin No. 5 in the possession of one interested enough to purchase it, supplied the personality and gave force to the appeal that was lacking this year.

Thirty-eight new members have joined the association since the last report, making 561 since organization, of whom we have 249 at present, making 312 who have resigned, or dropped out, or have been removed by death. The additional members obtained this year are largely due to the personal efforts of the president and those in his office.

During the past year we have lost by death our only honorary member, Dr. Walter Van Fleet of the United States Department of Agriculture, and one life member, Col. C. K. Sober of Lewisburg, Penn.

Respectfully submitted,

WILLARD G. BIXBY, Treas.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: I feel that we have got to get busy and get some more members and more money. At nearly every convention a deficit is reported; it ought to be the other way, and it can be. We will all agree, I believe, those of us who are in the habit of attending these conventions, that they resolve themselves largely into meetings of a mutual admiration society. Outside of Dr. Deming, Mr. Bixby and one or two others, there is very little thought given to this association during the year except immediately prior to the convention. Of course, we can't get ahead very far that way. Ever since I have been actively connected with this association I have given first thought to the matter of membership and the improvement of our finances. I do hope that at this convention some definite and specific action will be taken so that a year from now there will be a decided increase of members, because I am confident we can do it if we put our shoulders to the wheel. Then we will have a surplus instead of a deficit. As I said in my paper this morning, the association is engaged in scientific work, but we are not going to get very far along unless we have more money, and we can't get more money unless we get more members. We ought to put our shoulders to the wheel and pull this association up to a membership that is worthy of its title. If each member would get from three to five new members during the year we would have a membership in the neighborhood of a thousand another year and that would give us a surplus of money. I hope that definite action will be taken at this convention to stimulate that development of the association. If any of the other members have anything to say on that subject I would be very glad to hear from them.

MR. OLCOTT: I think that the membership is really one of the most important things for this association to consider. But I do not think it would be well to go away from this convention with only the idea that each member should try to get three or four others. That is all very well and it would mean considerable IF they would do it. I think there are enough business men here and brains enough here so that if this matter were referred to a good big committee that would spend some time on it, and before we go would report some definite way of stimulating interest in nut culture and in this association, that it would bring the membership up to a point where it could accomplish something in a business way. It is not a matter for individual action but a matter for association action. It needs publicity and a good comprehensive plan. The money will come as more members come. The wider knowledge of what this association is doing for an active membership would make a bigger membership. If you will remember President Linton suggested that each state should provide twenty-five to fifty members; it does seem as though there should be twenty-five or fifty members, men and women, in each one of the twenty or so northern states. If there were fifty there is a thousand members in the twenty states. He pledged, I believe, twenty-five names from Michigan on his own account; I don't know whether he made good or not but the plan is good to aim at fifty members in each of twenty states.

MR. SPENCER: I am very much interested in the production of nut trees largely as a matter of curiosity. My home is in Decatur, Ill. Illinois has 56,000 square miles, 30,000 square miles of that state are, or were, covered with hard wood timber. In Bureau County the hickory, the hazel, the walnut and butternut grow with a great deal of vigor; less than two blocks from me there is an ordinary sweet chestnut brought from the East by a gentleman a great many years ago. I measured it last fall and it is six feet nine inches in circumference, it has a spread of about sixty feet and it is about seventy-five feet high. The neighbors told me that they got a bushel of chestnuts every year off that one tree. I presume if they took better care of it and gave it some fertilization they would get more than that. I happen to be the chairman of the tree committee of the Bird and Tree Club. The city of Decatur purchased 42 trees and planted them in seven parks of the city of Decatur; members of the Bird and Tree Club came to me for advice and last year I placed 114 trees for them. They placed a number of trees with the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, chestnut trees, and they planted them on the campus. I believe that persons who are associated with different clubs would take up the matter of nut growing. That means that you can interest the children and if you can interest the children then you get the parents interested. In Macon County alone the county surveyor told me there are 20,000 acres of ground that are absolutely worthless except for pasture because they form bluff land along the Sangamon river. It isn't a large stream, I suppose down here you would call it a creek, but the city has put a dam across the river and trees were planted. I tried to create a sentiment to have that shore planted with nut trees instead of ash and elm and the various trees that can bear nothing but leaves, but the hardest thing in the world is to start a new idea.

An ordinary crop of nuts after a tree commences bearing is worth a great deal more than a crop of wheat or oats and in the meantime you can use the ground under it if you want to.

Now these are simply my individual efforts in Macon County to get people interested in nut-bearing trees. It is a hard road and I am like some other people, I don't like to be pointed out as a crank, but I am pretty near that on this subject. With the co-operation of Mr. Reed a year ago I delivered an address, illustrated with pictures that were supplied by the Bureau of Plant Industry, on the subject of "The Value of the Nut Trees for Shade and Food," with the idea of having farm homes made beautiful by trees and attractive by the fruits thereof to keep the children home. Last year I delivered an address on "Nut Trees and Roadside Planting," also illustrated by pictures sent me by Mr. Reed and through the courtesy of McMillan & Company I reproduced pictures describing Dr. Morris's new way of grafting. If you will take steps along those lines and work through the Bird and Tree Clubs and get the children interested I believe you could do something toward spreading the gospel of nut culture. I thank you for your attention. (Applause.)

MR. CORSAN: As to getting new members, I am ashamed to say that since I joined in 1912, I just got one new member actually into the club and that was Dr. Kellogg. I interested hundreds of people but he was the only person I got in. The only way to do is to step right up and ask a man for his money as soon as you give him the proposition. Now that is where I fail. I struck Mr. MacDonald, the permanent Boy Scout Director, 200 Fifth avenue, New York City. He is very enthusiastic but he hasn't come in as a member. Then the Overseer of the Boy Scouts, a tall young fellow with sandy hair and a good complexion, I have forgotten his name, but he is a splendid fellow. He was enthusiastic but he hasn't come in as a member. I met Mr. McLean of the Orphan's Home and he is going to have the Orphan's Home planted with nut trees, but he didn't join the society. I suppose I didn't beg them enough. I suppose I should say, "Give your money to me right now, immediately, and let me send it over to Mr. Bixby." I think that would be the best method of getting in new members. Then they will read the literature and keep in touch with the association. I must confess downright negligence for not getting members into the association. I thought we were a kind of a rich gang and don't need money. But we have got to have money in order to get people into the idea of growing nut trees.

THE PRESIDENT: What seems to be the objection?

MR. CORSAN: No objection at all except I had that fault of not gathering in their membership while I was speaking to them upon the possibilities of nut culture.

THE PRESIDENT: If you don't get some members in this year there will be trouble!

MR. CORSAN: Why not give a tree with every new membership so that the member can plant a nut tree on his own farm, and the Boy Scouts and also the Girl Scouts would come into this thing, too, as the tall gentleman from Decatur has said.

MR. PATTERSON: I should like to tell you what happens in our association in the south of Georgia. For a number of years our treasurer has come up with a deficit each year. The only practical way that we have found in the southern nut growers' association for increasing our membership and getting additional funds is to do it by subscriptions taken at the meeting. Let each man pledge so many members and turn over the money to the treasurer to pay up for the members that he has pledged. Then let him go out and get the members to reimburse himself. In that way we have increased our membership very much. I do not say that that is the way that it should be handled here but that is the only way we have found of solving the problem.

MR. TAYLOR: I represent the Northern Apple Growers' Exchange. We want to get people who grow apples into our association and the first thing of all is to get them interested. You first have to attract the attention of a man, your prospective member, and then you have to arouse his interest and you have to create a desire. We found that in order to attract his attention a circularization of people who were eligible for membership accomplished a great deal. These people were circularized, given little bits of information here and there, not the information that was given the members as a rule, not to that extent, but they were given a certain lot of information from time to time to let them know that the Apple Growers' Exchange was there. After a while they were approached personally and if they said "No" we continued circularizing them a little while longer along a different line. Finally, when we thought we had gotten them to a point where they were interested, the problem was to get them properly signed up. So we then made a drive for those particular individuals by showing them what they could personally get out of it. After he had joined our problem was to hold him, to keep him interested until he became enthusiastic. Unless you keep them interested they are liable to cool off, and once they are cooled off it is almost impossible to get them interested again. We find the members who have gone out are the hardest to get back. A way of keeping that new member in, and helping him to feel that he is a potent factor in the organization, might be by having some sort of a special communication with him at the time he joins, or at the next meeting of the association. I know that in California that is the way they work it. Keep members informed, not merely with reports of proceedings but with something like an occasional sheet or two on the latest thing that is going on, especially for the new members. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: I would like to have any other suggestions. Dr. Morris, have you anything to say?

DR. MORRIS: No, I have been doing a lot of thinking.

THE PRESIDENT: It seems to me it is the one vital thing for us to consider. We have got to increase our membership.

MR. OLCOTT: Apropos of the remarks of Dr. Taylor comes the question of the desirability of giving a prospective member something for his money. Our first problem is to interest someone to the extent of membership and then to keep him after we get him. Those are problems that require thought. I think the President in his address suggested that the association produce young nut trees to be given away to someone to plant, to interest that someone and others who see it. Would you give him another tree at renewal time?

THE PRESIDENT: That was the idea.

MR. OLCOTT: The renewal proposition with trees selling at $2.50 to $3.00 apiece would be pretty expensive for the association—for a member to pay us $2.00 and get a tree for nothing. My personal idea has been that there should be a state organization in every one of the northern states, subsidiary to this association; that each association have its monthly meeting, or maybe quarterly or annual, taking in those who cannot find it convenient to come to the parent association's convention.

DR. MORRIS: I will pay the dues, and subscription to the Journal, for any Boy Scout for ten years if you will make that the object for striving for a prize in some organization of Boy Scouts.

THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate that very much.

THE SECRETARY: I have two suggestions for ways of drawing attention to our association. The first is lectures. There are a number of our members who have given lectures on the subject of nut growing. Mr. Spencer has just told you that he has and Dr. Morris loses no opportunity to give them. I have given them myself and Mr. Reed of the Department of Agriculture speaks on nut culture. There is hardly a member of this association but belongs to some agricultural society or club. That is one possible place for bringing nut culture to the attention of people who are interested in either agriculture or horticulture. I am sure that Mr. Reed of the Department of Agriculture will send a collection of lantern slides on nut growing to responsible persons. These slides make lecturing much easier. I will undertake to get Mr. Reed to make up a collection of slides to be sent out to members for the purpose of illustrating lectures. My other suggestion is the writing of articles for magazines, horticultural and agricultural, and especially high-class horticultural magazines that reach wealthy people who are interested in new things and in trying experiments, such as the Country Gentleman, Country Life in America and the Garden Magazine. What we really want is some person who will give himself continuously to the promotion of this nut-growing idea. It is a great misfortune that Mr. Bixby has taken up business again because he made a splendid beginning in devoting himself to the interests of nut culture. I did a great deal more myself in the earlier days of this society but circumstances have been such that lately I have not given it much attention. I feel that there must be members who are all ready to do work, members who would like to jump in and take a hand. I would be very glad to share my work as secretary. I would be glad to hand over the entire work of secretary to some member who feels an itch to get in and do this sort of work.

THE PRESIDENT: You are very liberal in your service but I think others ought to take a bigger share so that your duties will be easier and also Mr. Bixby's. Now that we have this thing going I hope we will stick to it until we get something concrete because I can't see that we are going to make much progress just meeting from year to year with an increase of twenty to twenty-five members. I personally will guarantee a hundred members for this year for this association. I speak advisedly because I know what we have been doing in our office this last couple of months. I am satisfied that I can bring to the association a hundred new members this year if the rest will bring ten each. We have got to get more members and more money; let's get down to bed rock and look the thing squarely in the face and make up our minds to go to it and do it.

MR. CORSAN: Where can these slides be got?

THE SECRETARY: I will undertake to furnish them through Mr. Reed of the
Department of Agriculture. There is also a good moving picture film of
Colonel Sober's chestnut grove that I think can be had. I have used it
myself two or three times.

MR. KAINS: Rochester, as a good many of you know, is the center of the fruit industry in western New York. Right here is also the scene of one of the greatest fights to get an association on a paying basis that ever occurred. Some of you probably know that away back in the fifties Patrick Barry and Mr. Worter and several others of the fruit growers got together and formed the Western New York Horticultural Society. Gradually people came in and took an interest in the work but, as always in the beginning, there was trouble to make ends meet and Mr. Barry and some of the others put their hands in their pockets to keep the association going. At last it got so bad and the amount of the deficit was so great that it was decided to have a closed meeting, no one to be admitted except those who had actually paid their one dollar membership fee. The year that it was announced that this would be put into effect the following year there was all kinds of a fuss at the meeting. The next year the people came there in a crowd to see if the rule was going to be put in effect and the result was the largest meeting the association had ever had. The only men and women who got inside the door had paid their dollar. That was the first year that the association got on its feet. One other method that could be used to spread the love of nut growing would be to have the association offer a nut tree to different schools where they would plant it as an Arbor Day tree. In that way the children would learn the value of the grafted nut tree and the value of real first-class nuts. The result would be that other people would become interested in grafted nuts and thus extend the interest in the whole nut-growing proposition, and your membership would most likely increase. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: I will ask for nominations from the floor for the nominating committee.

Mr. Pomeroy, Dr. Morris, Mr. Olcott, Mr. Rick and Mr. Patterson nominated and elected.

THE PRESIDENT: The next order of business is to call for the reports of any of the standing committees.

THE SECRETARY: The chairman of the committee on incorporation, Mr. Littlepage, wrote me not long ago that he was taking active steps to incorporate the association. I don't know whether Mr. O'Connor may know if Mr. Littlepage has done anything about it or not.

MR. O'CONNOR: I can't say about that.