THE SECRETARY: Mr. Wycoff of Aurora, N. Y., has brought here a little branch containing two well developed Indiana pecans grown on a grafted tree. I think that is the first instance in which a grafted pecan tree of the Indiana variety has borne in the North. Mr. Snyder says he has fruited a Witte pecan at his place. A number of us have been striving to make the record for first bearing of a grafted "Indiana" pecan tree in the North. Mr. Wycoff has won it.
Mr. O'Connor, I think, has brought with him a number of branches of pecans grown in Maryland.
MR. O'CONNOR: I have some hazels and also some chinkapins.
THE SECRETARY: Have you any pecans fruiting down there this year?
MR. O'CONNOR: Several nights of frost hurt us pretty bad this spring. We have one tree that has got a few pecans on this year; last year the same tree had over a hundred; this year it hasn't got more than a dozen, but it promises to have a heavy crop next year.
THE PRESIDENT: What variety of pecans?
MR. O'CONNOR: If I am not mistaken, it is the Indiana. There are several trees that promise to bear heavily next year. In the spring we had a severe frost for seven nights in succession and that hurt our trees pretty bad. We are in the frost belt down there. Last year we didn't have any apples or peaches; this year we have some apples and some peaches but the grapes were severely hurt by the frost, also there are very few walnuts on the trees this year.
MR. CORSAN: From traveling around as much as I do I can vouch for that gentleman's statement in regard to the frost. I was up in the extreme northern part of the United States, northern New York, and I never saw such a crop of hickory nuts in my life and I have gathered nuts since I am able to remember. I have also seen more peaches up in Ontario and even north of Ontario. When you talk about frost and the South having such an advantage over the North, it is entirely wrong; I have had that idea knocked out of me for a good many years.
THE SECRETARY: I wish also to say that I brought here a small branch from the Hartford pecan tree bearing two nuts. The Hartford pecan tree is undoubtedly the largest pecan tree in the North. It is about ten feet in circumference, over seventy-five feet high and has a very large spread. I will ask Mr. Weber if he will give us the account again of the finding of that black walnut in the river and tell us the result of his investigation.
MR. WEBER: Whenever I come across a black walnut I want to open it up and see what it looks like inside. Following that custom when I found a walnut that had lodged against the dyke north of the central part of the city, I was surprised when I opened it because the partitions were very thin, like an English walnut. Later on I found another similar nut lodged against the dyke of the river about a quarter of a mile along. Then through a statement in the paper and an advertising campaign we tried to locate the tree. Finally we got the name of a man in Floyd, Va., who said he knew of the existence of such a tree, but a few years previously they had cleared the land and it had been cut down. So that finished that. But he gave me the name of the man who had owned the place and said that there were some other trees that had originated there and that they were bearing. It is down in Virginia at the extreme western end and off the railroad and rather hard to get to. I thought possibly on my way home I would get there this trip.