MR. KINTZEL: Because we know more about that than any other.
DR. CRANE: That is right. I expect there are four or five times as many Thomas walnuts propagated and sold by nurserymen in the United States as all other varieties.
MR. CORSAN: It always has a bigger crop, too.
DR. CRANE: It bears, that's one thing. It may not always fill, but Thomas is a good variety. But we in the Nut Growers' Association haven't the nerve to come out and say the Thomas is a good variety. It has its faults. I know I am going to be wrong in a lot of cases by planting Thomas.
MR. CORSAN: But don't plant it outside the peach belt.
DR. CRANE: Well, the peach belt is an awful lot of territory. I know I am going to be wrong, but I know I am going to be safer with Thomas variety than I would be with some of the others.
Now, I think that it's time, and I think that the biggest thing that the Northern Nut Growers' Association can do is to give very serious thought and take action at this meeting some way looking towards the Association's giving consideration to methods and means whereby we can properly evaluate varieties that we have that are growing so that we can recommend and tell others the varieties that they should grow.
You know, here is the situation exactly. In the territory of the Northern Nut Growers we don't have a commercial industry at the present time. I doubt if there is a single family of the Northern Nut Growers who are here that depend on the sale of nuts for their living. Well, when your living depends on something, you take an awful lot of interest in it. And that has been true in the case of apples, for example. I don't know how many there are, but twenty years ago or more there have been fifteen or sixteen thousand apple varieties that have been described and have been planted and propagated, and you can name all of the commercial apple varieties grown in the United States almost on the fingers of your hands. That is, the important ones. Oh, the list has grown, would probably take in 200, but that 190 hardly make a drop in the bucket as compared to the ten big ones.
Well, the same thing is true with peaches. The Elberta peach just is completely outstanding. It's a big commercial peach. Now, in all of the Association here, almost every paper that is presented always has some commercial aspect mentioned in the paper, but we could never have any commercial industry as long as we are fooling with a lot of these varieties with nobody giving them the serious consideration that they deserve, in an effort to properly evaluate them.
This evaluation of a variety is our problem. I have given an awful lot of thought to it over the years and how to get around it, how to come up with the proper answers within the near future so that we can be of help to others and stop a lot of our amateurs, those who are attracted to the industry, from making mistakes and getting discouraged. That is the problem. And that is the thing that I want all of you to be thinking about tonight and help us with the suggestions.