LETTER FROM F. H. WIELANDY, ST. LOUIS
Gentlemen:
First of all I congratulate you most heartily on being members of an organization which means so much to the public, as consumption of nuts is largely increasing and I much fear that the present day production is not in line with the demand.
Although only a nut culturist by proxy I have manifested a deep interest in this for many years, which is exemplified by the fact that on my different hunting trips, in which I have indulged for over thirty-five years, in the past twenty-five years I have also made it a point in the fall of the year, to have with me a large pocket full of such nuts as I thought would more easily come up and benefit some one in the future. I usually carried with me black walnuts, hickory nuts, pecans and acorns, and in my rambles through the woods and along the highways, I would plant these where I thought there would be less chance of their being molested if they developed.
In going over the same ground quail shooting, last fall, ground that I had covered more or less for a good many years, I began to see the fruit of my efforts, and felt repaid many fold for what I had accomplished.
Unfortunately we are a nation of destruction, rather than of construction, so far as our timber is concerned, and this is more noticeable in fruit and nut trees than in other varieties; although, being interested chiefly in these I possibly am biased.
When we stop to consider that a country such as Norway began to replant and reclaim their forests before Columbus discovered America, it strikes me that it should be a lesson for everyone in this country. Consider too, if you please, that before the war Germany paid her entire road taxes from nothing but the production of nut trees along the public roads. We also know, although a very small country in area, that it produced enough timber each year to satisfy the need for building and commercial purposes in the form of packing cases, casks, etc. And here we are, a country forty times larger than Germany, and forced to depend on countries such as Canada and Norway for wood pulp out of which we manufacture a great many grades of paper.
Some twenty years ago I had a political friend introduce a bill during a meeting of the state legislature, which made it mandatory for the road overseer to plant nut trees along the right of way all over the state; but like many meritorious bills, it was pigeon-holed until the next meeting of the legislature. It seemed an impossibility to resurrect this and an exceptionally fine forestry bill.
Unfortunately I promised to preside at a meeting of conservationists and it is for that reason that I am unable to meet and be with your honorable body, for I would like so much to be permitted in a humble capacity to assist in carrying on the work which you gentlemen are doing, as it is going to mean so much to future generations. I am sure that each of you feels as I do in this matter and that is that "He who serves others, best serves himself."
When the matter comes up for consideration I would like very much to have your next convention here in the Middle West, either in St. Louis or Alton, Ill., which is only a few miles north of St. Louis and in the vicinity of a splendid nut-producing section, particularly the pecan.