For the benefit of those of you who do not know what "Things of Science" is, it is a movement sponsored by Science Service, located in Washington, D. C, whereby 12,000 subscribers to "Things of Science" receive every month a little kit through the mails dealing with all kinds of subjects in science. It is usually a little box, as in the case of the one on nuts, or it may be simply an envelope with some things in it to taste. The idea is to give people all over the country who are interested enough to pay $5.00 a year one kit a month, each one dealing with a different phase of science.
Many groups subscribe to this service; for instance a boy scout troop, libraries and industrial plants. So it goes to literally many thousands more people than the 12,000 actual subscribers that it has.
So when Science Service came to us and said, "Would you be interested in helping us work up a kit on nuts", naturally, we wanted to do what we could towards helping these people, and our first thought was this organization as an official sponsor for it. So we contacted the directors, the officers, Dr. MacDaniels and J. C. McDaniel, and as a result, the Northern Nut Growers, through its board of directors, because we had no other means to authorize it, went ahead and sponsored this move.
To do it, we approached the California Walnut Growers Association, the California Almond Growers Association, the Northwest Nut Growers Association, and the Southeastern Pecan Growers Association, with the idea of having their names mentioned in the kit, and in return they would furnish samples to distribute. The Northern Nut Growers Association furnished the hickory nut samples. The kit was composed of, as I recall, six different kinds of nuts—Persian walnuts and almonds from California, filberts from the Northwest, Pecans from the Southeast, hickory nuts from the Northern Nut Growers Association, and pistachio nuts furnished through the Department of Agriculture by Captain Whitehouse at Beltsville. He secured the pistachio nuts from the trees in California. The kit was composed of a little box about four inches long, an inch and a half deep and three inches wide, containing two or more nuts of the various kinds, together with a brochure that we helped the science people work up. Dr. MacDaniels and the various cooperating groups worked up this brochure of information. The kits include a set of directions for the subscriber to follow in using the material. There are several different possibilities, all along the lines of scientific experimentation.
The idea is to get these youngsters and young people to become familiar with different kinds of nuts.
I think that's all I should say, Mr. President. That covers pretty well the effort that was made and those who made the effort. (Applause.)
PRESIDENT MacDANIELS: Thank you very much, Dr. McKay. This project is one in which there were deadlines as to time, and we had to work rather fast. Air mail, special delivery, the long distance telephone and telegraph played quite a part in it. The Science Service was paying the cost of assembling and mailing. The only cost to the Association was for the hickory nuts.
MR. MCDANIEL: We were late on that and unable to get the quality nuts we would like, but we did get enough to fill the kits, not all of which were worthy.
PRESIDENT MacDANIELS: We would like to have secured Carpathian walnuts, but the nuts from known sources of supply were so discolored with husk maggot that we were ashamed to send them out. We were not able to locate and to furnish any considerable amount of any kind of northern nuts. Twelve thousand of these kits went out, and each one of them is in a position where it probably contacted a dozen or more on the average, so that I am sure as a result of the effort a great many people not only became more familiar with nuts and their various sources and uses, but also learned that the contest was sponsored by the Northern Nut Growers Association. Mr. Prell, who knows something about advertising, thought it was a very worthwhile project.
That completes the reports of the officers and of the committees. We will now take ten minutes recess.