Of the pines and evergreens there are a number which produce nuts of which Dr. Morris has told us. Some of them are rapid growing trees and there seems to be good reason why we should not plant out evergreens which produce fruit and are just as attractive and fine as those evergreens which produce shade only.
I have not mentioned one tree which I believe to be the most promising for this locality—that is the pecan. It has been demonstrated that we can grow the pecan on our native hickories and from what I have seen of the wonderful growth of the first year of the bud I am sure we will be able to produce as fine pecans as can be produced in any section of the country, and further than that, we have an unlimited number of native hickories on which we can graft this finest of nuts. The pecan is hardy in this locality and farther north. I have seen it grown to a fair sized tree in Connecticut. I have seen it on the south side of Long Island and have seen one tree planted possibly over 100 years near Oyster Bay, L. I. which today is more than 3 ft. in diameter and reaches possibly 75 ft. in height. The pecan, too, is fruiting on Long Island and I believe we will have it fruiting in this locality within the next two or three years. During the last few years I have talked with numbers of people, many of them owners of large estates who could hardly believe it is possible to grow the English walnut and pecan in this latitude.
I have said that were we to limit our shade trees to those trees alone which produce edible nuts we would then have a greater assortment than one could hardly suppose. Each and every one of the trees I have mentioned were they not to produce a single nut would in themselves equal or surpass almost any tree in beauty and majesty.
Were we to develop a park and limit the plantings to nut trees alone how attractive such a park might be—the taller trees in the background to be of the black walnut and beech. These trees to be banked with the smaller trees of the butternut and English walnut. Over the rocky places we could plant the chinkapin and hazel. We could then put in specimen trees of the hickory and pecans with groups of filberts, dotted here and there with plantings of nut bearing pines. I believe such a planting would be as attractive as a planting of an added number of our ordinary shade trees. Let us imagine what the return from such a planting might mean to the public or the owners. In fifty years from this time, and in speaking of nut trees looking forward to fifty years is but a comparatively short time, our roadside trees could be replaced by nut bearing trees which are as attractive as any shade tree. I have no doubt that in this city alone were the roadsides planted with nut trees and these received reasonable care the returns from these trees would pay the entire city and town tax.
Dr. Morris: Mr. Bartlett said that the hickory belonged only to North America. That was supposed to be the case until very recently Mr. Meyer, an agricultural explorer, found an open bud hickory in China.
Mr. Olcott: Mr. Bartlett said he hoped the day would come when the filbert and hazels would be produced in this country. I saw last week the report of a crop in Rochester, New York, on five-year old filbert bushes that had been pronounced as good as imported nuts in quality and certainly were in size, and finer in coloring. I have some photographs of the trees on which they grew. These were the trees which were described in detail in a paper read at the National Nut Growers' Association at Nashville last year by Mr. McGlennon, of Rochester. He told me that all he said at that time stands, with the addition that since then he has had proof regarding the absence of blight and the extreme hardiness of the trees and their continued bearing. The trees are grown for propagating purposes and not for fruit, and therefore they are not in their best condition for bearing. Mr. McGlennon is a business man of Rochester, with no special experience except that he became interested in some southern pecan plantings. Afterwards the filbert planting came up and he worked with Mr. Vollertson, who was experienced in this work in Germany. He and Mr. McGlennon imported 22 kinds of filberts from Europe. They are so far blight-proof and extremely hardy and are bearing.
Mrs. Irwin: I would like to say that I do not think there is enough publicity given this organization. There are a number of people, to whom I casually mentioned yesterday, that I had become interested in this thing, but they had not seen the Advocate and knew nothing about the meeting. They are interested, I think, and it seems to me that an organization for growth must have publicity and a lot of it.
A Member: We were discussing this morning why we did not have a larger number of people here from Stamford and Greenwich. It is the merest chance I saw the notice. I have been interested for some time. I think there should be greater publicity because only by large membership can we get the growth and the standing that we want.
Dr. Morris: Even a good many people in the vicinity who knew about this conference and said they would be interested to come, have not appeared. Our meeting came to Stamford this year because there are so many wealthy people interested in horticulture in Stamford and Greenwich. Very large funds are required for development of this subject, experimental orchards, publication and publicity. We believed here we would strike the sort of men to further public interest in the subject. This is by all means the smallest local attendance, however, that we have ever had since the beginning of the Association in any part of the country.