Teaching
I have been wondering whether all of the Agricultural Colleges give instruction in nut culture. If they do, just how much consideration is given to this important matter. It is one thing to give a careful, thorough, systematic course, covering a whole term or semester but quite another proposition to give a few disconnected lectures. If a committee of this association could look into the matter and formulate a suggestive program for the Colleges, it would stimulate greater interest in the subject in all of the Agricultural Colleges.
In this connection let us not lose sight of the fact that the number of College boys on our farms is increasing very rapidly. Not long ago I attended a Farm Bureau meeting in Washington County, Pennsylvania, at which there were twenty-five to thirty young men who had taken Agricultural courses at The Pennsylvania State College. We can readily see what an opportunity it is to teach these College boys the benefits of planting nut bearing trees on their home places.
Again, we should manage in some way or other to permeate our town and rural schools with the nut planting spirit. Thousands and thousands of shade trees are planted where nut trees would be much more desirable. Every country school ground might well serve as a demonstration center of the best nut producing trees for that community. If such a scheme were carried out intelligently, our farmsteads would soon abound with nut trees. Let us not lose sight of the value of the demonstration idea in any nut propaganda work that may be undertaken.