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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?"