Meeting re-convened at 8:00 P. M.
The President: The first thing on the program will be an invitation to join the association. For the purposes of our organization we need members, and we especially need anyone who has any interest whatever in nut culture. The membership of persons joining now will expire on the 31st day of December, 1914; the membership dues are $2 per year, which includes a copy of the annual report. By joining now you get this report and the three preceding ones.
Professor Close: Mr. Chairman, may I say something regarding the annual report?
The President: We will be glad to hear you, Professor Close.
Professor Close: It seems to me that those who pay dues for 1914 ought to receive the report of the meeting for 1914 no matter when it is printed, even if it is not for three or four months after the end of the calendar year. In that way the reports will match the calendar year; that is they are the reports for the year that the meeting was held and the papers and discussions took place, and this one should be known as the report for 1914. That is the way we run them in the other societies and it seems to me there would be no confusion at all if it were managed in that way.
The President: The chair very heartily agrees with that suggestion and thinks that should be the practice of the society. The chair would be very glad to entertain a motion to make that the rule.
Professor Close: I should be glad to make the motion that the proceedings of the meeting of each calendar year be reported as of that calendar year and distributed to the members who pay dues for that calendar year.
(Seconded and carried unanimously.)
The President: Are there any other candidates for admission to this society? If so, hold up your hands and our distinguished secretary will visit you immediately. Are there any committee reports?
W. C. Reed: The committee on nomenclature desires to report as follows:
Voted on the Smith and Potter resolution to recommend changing the name of the Busseron pecan to Vincennes; Posey pecan to Wabash; Buttrick pecan to Illinois. It was the opinion of the committee that the other names of pecans had been established by the Department of Agriculture by printing in the year book, and that it was not advisable to change them.
We recommend, as advisable for members introducing new varieties, to confer with the committee on nomenclature before listing new names.
Signed.
W. C. Reed,
W. C. Deming,
R. L. McCoy,
R. T. Morris,
C. A. Reed.
A Member: I move the adoption of this report.
A Member: I second the motion.
The President: It has been moved and seconded that the report of the committee on nomenclature be adopted. Are you ready for the question? All in favor of the motion make it known in the usual way. It is unanimously carried that we adopt this report. Are there any other committee reports?
Professor Close: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The committee on exhibits has not had a very arduous duty, because we can't have at this time of year very extensive exhibits. But what we have are very interesting. Mr. W. C. Reed has an exhibit of English walnuts, hickory nuts and hardy almonds. You have all noticed the exhibits he has in the glass case. That is very instructive and is put up in such a way that it can be carried from place to place. He also has some photographs of trees. Mr. Wilkinson has an exhibit of fruiting limbs of shagbark hickory and pecans, and various seedlings. To some of us some of those things are almost new. Colonel Sober has an exhibit of grafted chestnut trees. He also has the burrs and in glass jars he has the nuts. Then there is quite an exhibit of the native varieties made by our president, which is very fine. There are also some persimmons. I think, everything considered, the society is to be congratulated upon the quality of the exhibits even though the quantity is not so very great.
The President: If there is no objection the report of the committee on exhibits will be adopted. The report is adopted. Are there any further committee reports?
Mr. Potter: The committee on resolutions reports as follows:
Resolved, That we extend our thanks to the Mayor and the Citizens of Evansville, Indiana, for the courteous entertainment they have favored us with, and for the excellent facilities that they have placed at our disposal.
Second—That we extend to the Evansville Business Association, and to the members thereof, our deep appreciation of their entertainment and courteous treatment that they have extended to our association.
Third—That we extend our deep appreciation and gratitude to Hon. T. P. Littlepage, our president, and Dr. W. C. Deming, our secretary, for their untiring and valuable services in behalf of this association.
Fourth—That we express the thanks of the association to its members and others who have attended this meeting, and helped to make it a success.
Fifth—That we especially extend our thanks and appreciation to Mr. C. A. Reed of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C., and to Col. C. K. Sober, for their excellent lectures and special work in behalf of this association at this meeting.
Sixth—That we express our most sincere thanks and appreciation to J. F. Wilkinson, for his courteous treatment and entertainment of this association at his home.
Seventh—Be it further resolved, that we especially thank each and every individual member of this association, for their attendance at this meeting, and for their earnest efforts and interest in behalf of the same, in helping to make this meeting a success in every way, and making it the most enthusiastic meeting that has ever been held by this association, and we thank any and all members for any special work or research that has been carried on by said member in behalf of this association, as disclosed by this meeting.
Eighth—Resolved, That we extend to Mr. W. C. Reed our sincere thanks for his kind invitation to the members of the association to be his guests at his home in Vincennes, Indiana, on Saturday, August 22d, 1914.
Signed.
W. O. Potter,
H. R. Weber,
J. Russell Smith.
The President: If there are no objections, the report of the committee on resolutions will be adopted. It is so ordered. The next thing on the program will be the lecture and lantern slides by Mr. C. A. Reed.
Meeting called to order at Enterprise, on Friday, August 21, at 10:30 A. M.
The President: I want the records to show that this meeting convened in Enterprise, Luce Township, Spencer County, Indiana, where the members of the Northern Nut Growers Association visited and studied the native Ohio River pecan trees, and I want to hear the opinions of the different visitors. The state entomologist, Mr. Baldwin, will please express himself upon the native pecan trees on the Ohio River.
Mr. Baldwin: My remarks will be so brief it will not be necessary for me to go forward. I don't know that it is necessary for me to mention the fact that I have never lived in and very seldom visited, localities where pecans grow in this state and cannot, therefore, express an authoritative opinion as to the merits and demerits of the pecan trees in this section. It is noticeable that the trees are more free from insects and fungus trouble than trees in many places. Mr. Simpson, who has had considerable experience in the South, called my attention to a very destructive pest that does not exist here in numbers sufficient to be destructive, as it is in Florida, but he is of the opinion that it was introduced into that section from this section.
Mr. President: What is it?
Mr. Baldwin: Mr. Simpson says—I didn't see any of the insects, and probably you couldn't identify it without labor,—but Mr. Simpson says there are two broods and the second brood is now at work. This certainly is a good field for work for the entomologist. Of course the same thing would hold true with this insect that is true of others; when a new species is introduced into a country where it has not heretofore existed, where the natural parasites are not found, it is more destructive than where the natural parasites exist. That point is illustrated very well by the moths that are so very destructive in New England, and don't do very much damage in the countries from which they come. From my observations on other native nut trees I was greatly impressed with the abundance of nuts that some of the native trees bear here. I am sorry I am not able to talk about something that would be more interesting to those interested in pecans and other nuts.
The Chairman: I should be glad to have our secretary put in the record a few of his observations.
Dr. Deming: Mr. Littlepage has been talking to us about these pecans since we started this organization, and has long promised to show us these trees. We can't get any idea of such trees without seeing them. We have had many word pictures of them but I had not been able to form any idea of how great they are. They have a beautiful outline as we see it silhouetted against the sky, and every evidence of being trees that bear lots of nuts, which is the kind of trees we are all looking for. We don't have the pecan tree in the North as a native at all. There are a few in New England, a few scattered here and there, but none bearing. I have heard of a pecan not far from my home, possibly twenty-five miles, that does not bear. I have seen in the city of Hartford a pecan tree that was nine feet and three inches in circumference and ninety feet high, of unknown origin, but not bearing. The nut tree that grows best through our part of the country is the shagbark hickory. It is very much like the pecan tree here, but never grows to anything like its size, is not nearly so beautiful a tree and I don't believe it bears as heavily. I think the average hickory nuts there are very much inferior to the average pecan here. We also haven't the black walnut there as a native. That is I have never seen it native though it probably was originally so in parts of the country. However, when planted it grows to a very large size, and makes a magnificent tree. About ten miles from my house is the largest in the state. We have lots of butternuts over the country but no nut tree that compares in beauty and usefulness with the pecan here.
The President: Dr. Smith should be able to size up the situation and give us some of his impressions. I want to get them in the record.
Dr. Smith: Gentlemen, I don't see how anybody can live by these trees here and not realize that they are a source of fortune. I can't understand how men can look at them every year, gather and sell the nuts and not realize that they are a source of livelihood. I just measured a big tree in a tobacco field down the road that was thirteen feet and eleven inches in circumference, that had a sixty foot reach, and was about one hundred and twenty-five feet high. We measured another, that had a sixty-six foot reach and they were all bending down with fruit. It was marvelous and they were certainly giving us their evidence that the thing for us to do is to go ahead and reproduce them.
The President: Dr. Van Duzee, tell us your impressions of these trees.
Col. Van Duzee: Mr. Chairman, I simply will add this. As I came through this wonderfully fertile section of the country, I observed people building bungalows and cottages and setting out trees other than pecan in their dooryards. That is the pity of it. As Dr. Smith says these people here are living close to some of the most magnificent natural trees I have ever seen, and yet they will go and plant around their gardens trees that will do nothing in the world but produce shade. It seems to me there is room for the best kind of missionary work here. I am glad the nut growers met here and I hope the effect will be to cause people to think. As we came down the road we estimated that on one tree there were four or five hundred pounds of nuts. The owner of that tree didn't study the soil that produced that magnificent crop. Our driver said they had had two years of failure in their farming operations and yet right here in the same place nature has handed them another magnificent crop. I have an idea that the average annual value per acre of crops on the farms of southern Indiana and Illinois will run in the neighborhood of a ten dollar bill, and here is a tree, one tree, presenting thirty dollars. I have no doubt in the world that there will be fifty or sixty dollars' worth of nuts on this tree up here, and it doesn't occupy a quarter of an acre of land.
I want to speak about the insects. I don't believe you need to worry about these unless the planting goes away beyond what I think it will in this section. Here is the proof, right here in this river bottom in the nuts we see on these trees and the growth of the trees. They are thrifty, not mutilated by insects or dying. They are at home and the conditions are absolutely favorable. I have been very much pleased and very glad I came, and if I were not thoroughly tied up in a section I think is more adapted to nut growing, I should come up here and undertake to do something in this section, for I see great possibilities.
The President: That is an opinion that is of real value. Now I will call for volunteers. Those of you who have been sight seeing here and have impressions and ideas you would like to express we should be glad to hear from.
Professor Close: One thought that has interested me is this. If we should take away from this neighborhood about half a dozen men this great industry would be forgotten. It is to these men who have done this kind of work that we owe a great deal. They are engaged in a wonderful work. I presume they realize how great it is. It means the developing of an industry that will grow in the United States and could be carried to other countries. These great trees are a wonder, no question about it, and the fact that here is a new industry being pushed by half a dozen men is still more wonderful.
The President: If this section of the country had been planted to seedling pecans it would have made every man who owned forty acres of it, comfortable. We have with us Mr. Dodd, who is one of the old residents of this neighborhood. He can tell us some interesting things. He was here long before I came and looks at present as if he might be here many years yet. We certainly hope he will be. If it were not for him we would not know that Enterprise is on the map. He reports for the county paper and keeps the world in touch with Enterprise. I should like to hear him tell about the old pecan trees when he first knew them, and I want what he knows about them to go into the record.
Mr. Dodd: Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: I'm no speech maker, never made one in my life, but I guess I know something about the pecan business. These trees were here when I came and that was in 1852. Those big trees that you looked at were big trees then, and must have been fifty years old, I judge, from what I have learned from older people. So you see they have been there a long time. I have a piece of ground here and if I had known as much about the pecan business then as I do now I would have had every foot of my land in pecans. I make a right smart little money in pecans as it is. Littlepage knows that. I have shipped pecans to him off my trees, shipped them to him many times. They are no better than the others, but we are old friends and he wanted me to send them to him and I did. I don't know anything about the pecan business in a general way, as to what they will produce or how much money they will average, but I think we have slept on our rights in this country for seventy-five years. If that is any good to you, you are welcome to it, and we are glad you are here today.
Mr. Pomeroy: One tree out in the back here looks as if it might be fifteen or sixteen years old and it is bearing well. It is a large tree well filled with nuts, notwithstanding the fact that lightning has struck it twice and destroyed at least two years' crops. It seems to me there are thousands of dollars to be made in an investment in nut trees here where they do so well.
The President: Now has any one else any observations to make? Mr. Weber.
Mr. Weber: Out here you remember you showed us quite a number of seedlings growing in a corn field like milkweeds, growing right alongside of them, and one of us thought the milkweeds were the pecans, as they looked much the same. It seems to be hard to keep them down.
The President: That reminds me that when this organization was formed I had the honor of being the first man on the ground. Dr. Deming called the meeting to order, Dr. Morris was there and so was Professor Craig, who has since passed to the great beyond, and a number of others, and I remember telling the bunch who were there at that time, that if I ever had the opportunity I would take them into a country where the pecans really grew. I have attempted to make good. If there remains any doubt in your minds we will proceed to lose you in the great Green River pecan woods, and if you are not pretty well stocked with provisions, you may never get out. I told Professor Close who is making a study of the pawpaw for the Department of Agriculture, that we also grew pawpaws in southern Indiana and that I would show him some large trees. So he came down with us and we went to Boonville and got in Senator Hemenway's automobile and I introduced him to a pawpaw tree six feet and a half in circumference at the ground, five foot in circumference three feet from the ground. So the chair takes some pleasure in having been able to show the things that were promised. Let us hear from Mr. Riehl.
Mr. Riehl: I think you folks are very unfair to me. You have said everything I wanted to say before you called on me and I really don't know what else I can say. I had in mind what Professor Smith has been saying to me, and what some of you people have already said, that it is time for you people here to wake up. You don't know what you have got. You are like people in many other sections of the country, they don't appreciate what they have at their very doorways. If I were a young man, I would come here and plant pecan and walnut trees, but I am too old now to make such changes. In a few years you may remember what I have said. The walnuts are as profitable as anything else, and much more so than any farm crop you can grow. Nothing will produce as much value and with as little trouble as nut trees. I am convinced of that.
Professor Smith: If they would follow your suggestions they would soon have another Garden of Eden.
The President: Professor Smith has reminded us that the crops in the Garden of Eden were purely tree crops, and they grew without effort. But after the fall Adam and Eve had to go out and cultivate the soil and raise corn. Probably in that garden they had pecans and walnuts. I believe that is his theory and it may be good.
Professor Smith: O, beg your pardon, that is in the book of Genesis. The text describes nothing whatever except trees, and then Adam fell and had to dig in the ground and make his bread by the sweat of his face.
Mr. Potter: Is the tree of knowledge the pecan tree?
The President: I don't know. Can any one else say?
Professor Smith: My remarks on the Garden of Eden were brought out by what our President said, but I have published others that are not very lengthy and you can buy them.
The President: Let's hear from Mr. Lockwood.
Mr. Lockwood: Dr. Knapp wants me to expose my ignorance and tell you the crimes I committed and intended to commit. It was about three years ago that we purchased a little over a thousand acres in Gibson County, near Grayville, and about three hundred and fifty acres of it were in timber. We decided to clear up as rapidly as possible all the forest land and cultivate it in corn. Now comes the crime which Dr. Knapp wants me to expose and I am going to confess it. We deadened probably a hundred of as fine pecan trees as you ever saw, from six to eighteen inches in diameter, and Dr. Knapp heard about it and visited our farm, and it was on his account principally that we quit cutting the pecan trees. Now if anybody else cuts them we have them arrested. We have the second best orchard in Gibson County. I have joined the association and came here to get a line on you and I have got a good many good things by coming. I would like to have you visit our farms. We have some very fine trees to see and I will also give you something to eat, because I am the chief cook. I want to emphasize the remark one member made that it is a great work these men are doing. You get that impression when you come to the meeting, and it shows great sacrifice and love for their fellow men.
The President: That is very good, Mr. Lockwood. Now Dr. Knapp will tell us what he thinks.
Dr. Knapp: I know very little about pecans but I was interested in Mr. Lockwood's trees because he had a magnificent pecan orchard, possibly five hundred trees, and they were contemplating having the trees cut down because they thought they were in the way of the cultivation of the land for corn. This is not the case because the pecan tree goes away down deep for water and is not like the surface root trees. I have seen large wheat fields in the same location with large pecan trees in them, and men have told me that they produce just as much per acre on the land where the pecan trees are as where there are no pecan trees. I went to see Mr. Lockwood and took him what little literature I had on the pecan industry and promised to send him some more, and insisted that he read it before he destroyed his trees. He kept his promise and I am glad to see that he has taken an interest in the pecan industry.
The Chairman: You are a real benefactor, Dr. Knapp, and entitled to great praise.
Professor Smith: While we are distributing things gratis I want to make a little statement in the same vein as a previous speaker. He points out the work that a few enthusiasts are doing. Most of the things worth while are done by the people who never get any credit in a financial way. You will find the things that count are started and done by that live force of men that work for the fun of working with no promise of reward. Why should Mr. McCoy or Mr. Reed come down here and tell us how to bud trees, and what varieties to use? It is plainly a labor of enthusiasm and love. I want to express my particular appreciation of the work done by Mr. Thomas P. Littlepage. We hear from Indiana through Mr. Littlepage. On every occasion when we get in trouble and want bud wood, along he comes and helps us out. He seems to have all kinds of equipment for keeping it or he can always go to a pecan tree and get it. We never hear of the trouble or expense. He spends money as if he had a barrel of it. He has spent lots of money trying to get the people to know there was an Indiana pecan. We also know that Mr. McCoy and Mr. Wilkinson and others too numerous to mention have lost thousands of dollars and have worked long and hard to get this industry started. The industry needs enthusiasm and no end of work. It means work to get out and hunt trees and bud wood and these men are entitled to lots of credit for their efforts.
The President: The chair appreciates that compliment but he is hardly entitled to so much praise. However, all the efforts we have made to create interest in the pecan have been well spent. We have had lots of trouble in getting bud wood and if it had not been for Ford Wilkinson we never would have gotten anywhere. He is the best climber in the country. He has gone at all times and under all conditions and has done more real hard work than all the rest of us put together. He always climbs the trees. The Major tree is about fifty feet to the first limb. We couldn't have gotten along without him. And Mr. McCoy is entitled to great credit. The first time I ever saw the Posey nut Mr. McCoy brought some to my home in Boonville. That was a number of years ago. He first stimulated Mr. Brown to put the Warrick pecan on exhibition. As I grew up I knew where these pecan trees were and who kept a dog and what time he got up and there were not many pecan trees then I would not attempt to climb, but I wasn't as large as I am now. Of late years Mr. Wilkinson has done more than I have along that line.
Mr Wilkinson: I appreciate what you say of me but it takes all kinds of people to make a world and to grow pecan trees. I have tried to do my part but without the others I couldn't have done anything. We expect to continue at the work as long as there is any success in sight at all and hope soon that some of the hard part will be over.
The President: Before we leave that subject I want to say that a few years ago some of us who had begun to think we knew something about the pecan and were quite sure of our ground, induced Mr. C. A. Reed of the Department of Agriculture to come down here and make some trips through these woods and tell us what he knew, or what he thought of these pecans. We gave him all the facts we could, and the suggestions he made started us on the right track as to the varieties to propagate.
The President: The boat is ready, but before we go I want the report on nominations. I want the officers elected in Enterprise.
Dr. Deming: I would like to say this before we proceed to the election of officers. There has been some talk among us that it would stimulate interest in our work and meetings, and would enable us to confer honors on more people, and more members who deserve such honors, if the term of the presidency were limited to one year. There has been no rule about it but our first two presidents have each held office two years. They have been re-elected to office as a matter of courtesy and appreciation of their efforts. If from now on we limit the term of the presidency to one year I think it would be better. We think it would be desirable to make the rule that the President shall not be eligible for immediate re-election, that is, he shall not follow himself. I mention it so that if this rule is adopted in the revision of our constitution and by-laws the person who is about to be elected President, and the members of the association, will understand that there will be nothing personal about such action.
The President: In connection with that I should like to say that the present President has at different times heard suggestions of that kind made, and I am glad you mentioned it. I wasn't fortunate enough last year to be at the meeting, as I had to be in St. Louis to help try a case before the interstate commerce commission, or I should have brought that up then.
Dr. Morris is absent and Professor Close is the next on the committee on nominations. Professor Close, will you report?
Professor Close: I did not know I was the next member and Dr. Morris did not leave any data with me. However we discussed it and decided to recommend the election of J. Russell Smith for President, Mr. W. C. Reed for Vice-President and Dr. Deming for Secretary and Treasurer.
The President: Any remarks on the report of the nominating committee? If not, those in favor of adopting the report, thereby declaring the officers named elected, make it known by rising. (Vote taken.) Contrary by the same sign. Your officers for the next year will be Dr. J. Russell Smith, President, W. C. Reed, Vice-President, and Dr. W. C. Deming, Secretary and Treasurer. I congratulate the association.