Then, there are those of us—and I am one—who reasoning that the "groves were God's first temples," flee to a twilight hill top or to a forest shade, and, as Mr. Stokes said, "Sit humbly at the feet of the great mother of us all. There is wisdom and healing in the shadow of her wings."
We need this philosophical attitude to generate encouragement and inspiration to withstand the hard knocks that we have had—and will have coming. But, the NNGA must be more realistic and really do some grappling.
Read the experiences which all our reports are filled with. Mr. G. A. Miller on page 99 of the 1940 report handles this matter of success and failure very well. We live on our successes and not on our failures. Nut culture is pioneering, and it is well to be fully aware of the possibility of failure so that we may be steeled for it when it comes. Failure makes our successes sweeter.
Abraham Lincoln's life was a series of failures. Thomas Edison usually failed. Plant breeders at our stations nearly always fail. But, once in a while they succeed. In the nut business, if we succeed 1 in 10,000 times, success may be cheap at that.
Dr. MacDaniels stated so many important aspects of the NNGA that I want to list his outline here and then simply hang some thoughts on the skeleton of his report. For your own enjoyment and understanding, please read again Dr. MacDaniels's address "The Forward Look," which is found on page 27 of our 1952 report. I just mention his subjects and comment on them for emphasis.
1. Variety Evaluation
The Ohio Nut Growers did a fine job of getting this job of evaluation in the groove. Read about it on page 29 of the 1946 report. How many of us here have wasted years on varieties that good evaluation might have discarded, before we started to plant the nut.
2. Judging Standards
Which covers such things as—
(a) Sealing of nuts (b) Recovery of halves (c) Size, quality, etc.