Mr. Olcott: I would like to make another motion that the association do whatever it can to take advantage of this opportunity that Mr. Bartlett has just spoken about, and I would move that the matter be put in the hands of the secretary with power to act.
Mr. Webber seconded the motion and it was carried.
NUT TREES FOR SHADE.
Francis A. Bartlett, Connecticut.
Were we to limit our shade trees to those trees which alone produce edible nuts we would then have a greater assortment of trees than one could hardly suppose, and not only would be varieties be numerous but they would embrace many of our most noble and most beautiful trees.
Let us consider the varieties from which we may draw. In so doing let me ask why, with all these trees, we really need other trees which in themselves are no more ornamental and are non-producing.
Of the oaks there are many, while the nuts or acorns are seldom eaten by man, yet they have often composed his diet when other foods have failed. In many parts of the South this nut has been the principal food used in the fattening, or possibly the sustaining food, of the native razor-back hog.
Our native beech produces the small triangular nuts which have been sought by the boys and girls of centuries and are as popular today as of hundreds of years ago. The beech will grow to immense size and may live sometimes for centuries. A beautiful bright smooth foliage makes it very desirable as a park tree and it does not lose its charm in winter. On an extensive lawn it makes a very desirable tree but in close proximity to the house the one objection there may be is that the dead foliage seems to cling to the twigs sometimes the entire winter. This objection is more pronounced, however, in the younger trees than in the older ones.
Our native black walnut is a magnificent tree which can compare favorably with the finest oak in size, in shape, in picturesqueness and above all, in its huge nuts, which are both wholesome and delicious. Were it not for the great value of its wood for making gun stocks and for cabinet work we would today have hundreds of these trees growing, where now but few can be found; yet there are individual specimens with spread of over 150 feet and as magnificent and majestic as the finest oak.