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THE PRESIDENT: I feel that we have got to get busy and get some more members and more money. At nearly every convention a deficit is reported; it ought to be the other way, and it can be. We will all agree, I believe, those of us who are in the habit of attending these conventions, that they resolve themselves largely into meetings of a mutual admiration society. Outside of Dr. Deming, Mr. Bixby and one or two others, there is very little thought given to this association during the year except immediately prior to the convention. Of course, we can't get ahead very far that way. Ever since I have been actively connected with this association I have given first thought to the matter of membership and the improvement of our finances. I do hope that at this convention some definite and specific action will be taken so that a year from now there will be a decided increase of members, because I am confident we can do it if we put our shoulders to the wheel. Then we will have a surplus instead of a deficit. As I said in my paper this morning, the association is engaged in scientific work, but we are not going to get very far along unless we have more money, and we can't get more money unless we get more members. We ought to put our shoulders to the wheel and pull this association up to a membership that is worthy of its title. If each member would get from three to five new members during the year we would have a membership in the neighborhood of a thousand another year and that would give us a surplus of money. I hope that definite action will be taken at this convention to stimulate that development of the association. If any of the other members have anything to say on that subject I would be very glad to hear from them.
MR. OLCOTT: I think that the membership is really one of the most important things for this association to consider. But I do not think it would be well to go away from this convention with only the idea that each member should try to get three or four others. That is all very well and it would mean considerable IF they would do it. I think there are enough business men here and brains enough here so that if this matter were referred to a good big committee that would spend some time on it, and before we go would report some definite way of stimulating interest in nut culture and in this association, that it would bring the membership up to a point where it could accomplish something in a business way. It is not a matter for individual action but a matter for association action. It needs publicity and a good comprehensive plan. The money will come as more members come. The wider knowledge of what this association is doing for an active membership would make a bigger membership. If you will remember President Linton suggested that each state should provide twenty-five to fifty members; it does seem as though there should be twenty-five or fifty members, men and women, in each one of the twenty or so northern states. If there were fifty there is a thousand members in the twenty states. He pledged, I believe, twenty-five names from Michigan on his own account; I don't know whether he made good or not but the plan is good to aim at fifty members in each of twenty states.
MR. SPENCER: I am very much interested in the production of nut trees largely as a matter of curiosity. My home is in Decatur, Ill. Illinois has 56,000 square miles, 30,000 square miles of that state are, or were, covered with hard wood timber. In Bureau County the hickory, the hazel, the walnut and butternut grow with a great deal of vigor; less than two blocks from me there is an ordinary sweet chestnut brought from the East by a gentleman a great many years ago. I measured it last fall and it is six feet nine inches in circumference, it has a spread of about sixty feet and it is about seventy-five feet high. The neighbors told me that they got a bushel of chestnuts every year off that one tree. I presume if they took better care of it and gave it some fertilization they would get more than that. I happen to be the chairman of the tree committee of the Bird and Tree Club. The city of Decatur purchased 42 trees and planted them in seven parks of the city of Decatur; members of the Bird and Tree Club came to me for advice and last year I placed 114 trees for them. They placed a number of trees with the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, chestnut trees, and they planted them on the campus. I believe that persons who are associated with different clubs would take up the matter of nut growing. That means that you can interest the children and if you can interest the children then you get the parents interested. In Macon County alone the county surveyor told me there are 20,000 acres of ground that are absolutely worthless except for pasture because they form bluff land along the Sangamon river. It isn't a large stream, I suppose down here you would call it a creek, but the city has put a dam across the river and trees were planted. I tried to create a sentiment to have that shore planted with nut trees instead of ash and elm and the various trees that can bear nothing but leaves, but the hardest thing in the world is to start a new idea.
An ordinary crop of nuts after a tree commences bearing is worth a great deal more than a crop of wheat or oats and in the meantime you can use the ground under it if you want to.
Now these are simply my individual efforts in Macon County to get people interested in nut-bearing trees. It is a hard road and I am like some other people, I don't like to be pointed out as a crank, but I am pretty near that on this subject. With the co-operation of Mr. Reed a year ago I delivered an address, illustrated with pictures that were supplied by the Bureau of Plant Industry, on the subject of "The Value of the Nut Trees for Shade and Food," with the idea of having farm homes made beautiful by trees and attractive by the fruits thereof to keep the children home. Last year I delivered an address on "Nut Trees and Roadside Planting," also illustrated by pictures sent me by Mr. Reed and through the courtesy of McMillan & Company I reproduced pictures describing Dr. Morris's new way of grafting. If you will take steps along those lines and work through the Bird and Tree Clubs and get the children interested I believe you could do something toward spreading the gospel of nut culture. I thank you for your attention. (Applause.)
MR. CORSAN: As to getting new members, I am ashamed to say that since I joined in 1912, I just got one new member actually into the club and that was Dr. Kellogg. I interested hundreds of people but he was the only person I got in. The only way to do is to step right up and ask a man for his money as soon as you give him the proposition. Now that is where I fail. I struck Mr. MacDonald, the permanent Boy Scout Director, 200 Fifth avenue, New York City. He is very enthusiastic but he hasn't come in as a member. Then the Overseer of the Boy Scouts, a tall young fellow with sandy hair and a good complexion, I have forgotten his name, but he is a splendid fellow. He was enthusiastic but he hasn't come in as a member. I met Mr. McLean of the Orphan's Home and he is going to have the Orphan's Home planted with nut trees, but he didn't join the society. I suppose I didn't beg them enough. I suppose I should say, "Give your money to me right now, immediately, and let me send it over to Mr. Bixby." I think that would be the best method of getting in new members. Then they will read the literature and keep in touch with the association. I must confess downright negligence for not getting members into the association. I thought we were a kind of a rich gang and don't need money. But we have got to have money in order to get people into the idea of growing nut trees.
THE PRESIDENT: What seems to be the objection?
MR. CORSAN: No objection at all except I had that fault of not gathering in their membership while I was speaking to them upon the possibilities of nut culture.
THE PRESIDENT: If you don't get some members in this year there will be trouble!