We are also going to plant an Arkansas hickory, that Mr. Dunbar has had dug from the park nursery, a short distance from where the walnut is planted. I think this, too, is an appropriate tree to plant because of the success of the hickory in this community. Mr. Dunbar tells me that practically all of the varieties of hickory of North America are planted on this park slope. We took great pleasure in driving through here the other day and listening to an explanation of their history by Mr. Dunbar.
We are honored today by the presence of the Dean of the New York State School of Forestry, Dean Mann, who has consented to address us. It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you Dean Mann.
DEAN MANN: President McGlennon, ladies and gentlemen:
I assure you it gives me great pleasure to be here because as a forester and tree lover by profession I am also a tree lover by nature. I can conceive of no more worthy, more beautiful nor attractive memorial than a tree dedicated to the Father of our Country, something which will grow in size, in beauty and in productivity as the years roll by. As foresters would remind you, ladies and gentlemen, the Father of our Country served his apprenticeship long before he became a land owner and patriarch on those broad Virginia acres. The Father of our Country started out in life as a forester and surveyor. You may remember that he piloted, or was to be one of the pilots of Braddock's expedition, having gained his knowledge of the woods through his early life as a young surveyor in the forests of Virginia.
There are in New York state approximately fourteen million acres better suited to tree crop production than to field crop production. Here in the northeastern corner of the United States, where our great centers of population are found, we have in the state of Maine seventy per cent suited to tree crop production but unsuited to tillage; we have similar conditions in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Throughout this northeastern section of the country we have a tree soil domain which will grow trees and which can't be plowed with profit. All who are interested in the production of trees for whatever purpose should realize that this nation cannot permanently prosper unless every acre of its land is put to its best permanent use.
I think that you will agree with me that it requires no prophetic eye to see the day not far distant when we will have, stretching from the Island of Manhattan up to where Albany now stands, one vast series of teeming cities with suburb touching suburb. The problem then will be how to feed this multitude. Developments in Russia show that, no matter how idealistic one's theory of government may be, food, in the last analysis, is the thing which makes or breaks a nation.
Those of you who have studied some of the interpreters of early Scripture will remember, perhaps, that the Garden of Eden was in reality an oasis of trees in the great valley of Mesopotamia, and even today "garden" in the oriental term means a group of trees. It has been proven by experience in these different tropical realms that where tree production is biggest and nuts and other products are grown under intensive cultivation, an acre will produce more food than where grazing is practiced. I spent a very pleasant year in California and saw some of the operations of the California nut growers, where they are growing English walnuts on a most extensive scale. I believe I will be making no false statement when I say that those areas in southern California which are growing nuts produce more in fats, proteins and calories for the maintenance of the health and strength of the human race than do the acres which are given up to the growing of animal crops.
So I applaud the idea of planting a tree in the memory of the Father of his Country. I believe I belong to your group, at least through interest, because I have been doing a little experimenting of my own in my back yard at Syracuse where I have an English walnut which I planted in 1915 which is this year producing for the first time. I am going to take those nuts and see what can be done with them in perpetuating that particular variety, because it is hardy, fast growing, and early to mature.
The New York State College of Forestry has a platform as broad as the entire state. We are interested in every kind of land which is not suited to agriculture, fish, game, recreation, conservation of water, and I pledge to you the sympathy and the support of the New York State College of Forestry. We have three experiment stations; one in Oneida county, one in Onandaga county, and another in Cattaraugus, with a fourth in St. Lawrence, if you wish to call it such. We would be delighted to receive from you any slip or any sort of fruit which you wish us to try out at these experiment stations. I believe that the time will come when some combined system of forestry and horticulture can be maintained which will aim at the production of food stuffs from trees, with lumber, perhaps, as a by-product. That works out in the old country and the day is not far off when it can be practiced here.
I congratulate the members of this association on having completed what was, from all accounts, a most successful meeting. I regret that I couldn't have been here earlier and met the other members of your body. I congratulate you; I wish you God speed, and I again tender the support of the College of Forestry.