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DOCTOR MORRIS: Mr. Chairman: Canada is the next country in which great developments in all of the branches of science will occur. It is to develop, of course, in our present cultural period and I hope this movement for the development of nut culture in Canada will keep pace with the other developments.
I want to speak about one point of Mr. Corsan's. Game breeding can go very well with nut raising. Wild geese will graze like sheep, they will keep the grass and weeds down, and after they are ten days old they need no feeding at all until winter comes. They will graze like sheep, live out of doors like sheep, take the place of sheep, and will return to the land immediately valuable fertilization.
The pheasants Mr. Corsan spoke about are tremendous destroyers of insects. I have had pheasants in my garden this year and the other morning I looked out of the window and saw a pheasant in the midst of a nest of fall web worms. The pheasants will destroy insects of every sort. The only difficulty is that where there are rosebugs in abundance they will kill young pheasants.
I hope every one will take a copy of this "Game Breeder" that Mr. Corsan has left on the table. The subscription price is very small and we may profitably add game breeding of certain kinds to our nut breeding with benefit all around.
MR. BIXBY: Mr. President: There are some points brought out upon which I could throw some light. I have some specimens of Juglans mandschurica which were sent by E. H. Wilson from Korea. I also have a young tree growing that is apparently larger leafed and with thicker shoots than even Juglans cordiformis. The nut is rougher than the other.
I had the privilege of talking to Doctor Wilson regarding his travels in Japan, particularly in relation to the Japanese walnuts. He tells me that Juglans sieboldiana is a wild tree he has found all through the Japanese islands, from the southern part of the northern island Yezo to the mountains of Kyushu, the southern island. He says that Juglans cordiformis is a cultivated tree found in only three or four provinces in central Japan where the walnuts are cultivated. He also tells me he has never seen any of the so-called Japanese butternut type with the rough shell.
I devoted some time three or four years ago to finding out what this so-called Japanese butternut really was. I could never find any instance of where Japanese walnuts, either cordiformis or sieboldiana, had been imported from Japan and planted here and trees grown from them, where those trees had borne rough-shelled nuts like butternuts. In every case where I found any trees bearing those so-called Japanese butternuts they were grown from nuts, Japanese walnuts, which had been grown in this country. In a number of instances I was able to find that the nuts which were planted were smooth-shelled nuts, either sieboldiana or cordiformis. When they were planted and the trees grew they bore these rough shelled Japan nuts. In a number of instances I was able to find native butternut trees not far away.
The other question was about the varieties of the American hazel. We have here specimens of the best variety which we have found, the Rush hazel. The gentleman who asked about it may see specimens on the table. I believe that will be commercially valuable.
THE PRESIDENT: I think you have all enjoyed Professor Neilson's address quite as much as I have. I wonder, Professor, if it would be agreeable to you that we, as an association, should communicate with these people who answered your questionnaire, inviting them to membership in this association.