Mr. B. G. Foster: Mr. President and Fellow Members: I realize that children should be seen and not heard and I am merely a child in this organization. At the same time I believe under modern conditions children are being more and more heard and the older people are being put more and more in the background. So I am going to take the liberty of making a few remarks particularly with reference to the president's address. This is my first attendance at a meeting of the Northern Nut Growers' Association and I have profited very greatly by it. I have become very much interested in nut culture. In a small way I am stumbling along and learning something of the work and the development of this industry. At present it is merely a fad with me but I do not know but what it may become something more as I get into it. I have been particularly impressed this morning with the address of the president. There were one or two suggestions that he makes that I wish to refer to. I think it is an excellent suggestion to get the children interested in nut culture through historical nut trees if nuts can be secured from such trees and delivered to different school authorities.
Another is the question of having a representative from every state. I would like to inquire from the secretary if some such provision has been adopted.
The Acting Secretary: We have always had a list of state vice-presidents which you will find in each one of the reports. Those state vice-presidents have been selected because of their being the most active members in each particular state but they have never been especially active more than to turn in some communication about their work. I have never been able to get any of them to make any special campaign for new members.
Mr. Foster: Then, as I understand it, the president's idea is to urge these vice-presidents to take a more active interest in the affairs of the association.
The President: That is the point I desire to make.
Mr. Morris: When the constitution of the United States was drawn up it was said to be "insanely ideal." We do not have to stretch our imaginations this morning to the point of a question of our sanity when our president's compositions are put before us. His paper seems sanely ideal. There is only one thing that interests a child more than history, (unless it is Sunday school), and that is a dollar bill. Now if we are going to approach the children let us introduce the pragmatic side of giving the child an object lesson showing where the planting of a nut tree will bring a return in dollar bills that will ripen along with the leaves every autumn instead of just leaves alone. We should have in connection with various educational institutions a few object lesson trees. It seems to me that this is a responsibility of the state. A number of responsibilities have been put upon the state in the past and a number of responsibilities have been put upon the educational department in every state. So many of them, in fact, that hardly any legislature will stand without hitching when there is a question of diversion of "pork barrel" funds away from river and harbor appropriations toward education. We can show that very much larger river and harbor requirements will follow if our children raise so much of this great new feed supply that we have more things to transport. The question may be taken almost seriously from that point. In fact if you give further consideration to the matter it seems to me that this statement of mine, made somewhat in the spirit of levity, is like many other statements made in the spirit of levity. It has a basis in real fact. The development of that basis I will leave to your imagination.
Mr. McGlennon: In regard to Dr. Morris' remarks relative to the financial consideration, that appeals to me with peculiar force and I think we can very materially provide for it in an enlarged membership. For some time I have been giving very serious thought to the subject of enlarging the membership of the Northern Nut Growers Association. I think quite a substantial gain was made last year and I believe that a very large gain can be made this year. I think we ought to have a membership in the neighborhood of a thousand anyway. I believe we can increase it this year to at least 500. Probably I am particularly fortunate in having a source of supply of membership that perhaps the rest of the members have not, through the L. W. Hall Company. This company is handling our improved filberts and is getting a large number of orders and the people who have received plants during the past couple of years seem to be very much pleased with them. In many instances they have already borne fruit. The Hall company has received splendid letters in regard to them. In the fall and in the spring the Hall company sends out a large number of catalogues. This fall they will send something like a thousand, in the spring from five to seven thousand and in each of these catalogues the literature of the Northern Nut Growers Association can be included. We experimented a little last year along this line and I believe Mr. Bixby will bear me out in saying that there was quite a tangible response. I got a few members in and about Rochester through friends but I believe that I can almost guarantee at least a hundred members myself this year and probably more, particularly through the medium of the Hall agency. But, as Dr. Morris says, or practically said, there is nothing in this world that talks louder than a dollar so I thought I would come here prepared to back up my position and to guarantee at least 25 members for this year.
There is another matter to which I think we ought to give serious consideration and that is the matter of the American Nut Journal. It is the only nut journal, as I understand, in the country and I believe there is an inestimable future for it if we seize our opportunity or enable Mr. Olcott to seize his. At this time, I believe, he is not getting the support that he ought to have from this Association and the other nut associations of the country. He is a very able man, at one time the editor of the Post Express in Rochester, the classiest paper in Rochester, and we have some classy ones there, he is an educated man of large experience and very versatile and it seems to me he ought to have substantial support. So I came here with a certified check for 25 memberships to the association and 25 subscriptions to the American Nut Journal as a guarantee of good faith. I believe I can add 75 more.
There are some other things that I think we ought to give consideration to and that is the work that is being done by Dr. Deming and Mr. Bixby. I think these men should have special and substantial support, real support, money support, so that they can do things as they ought to be done at the time they ought to be done. I think we are selfish in asking these men to give so much of their time and attention and money to the affairs of this association without giving them better support. If we have more members we will have more money and more members will bring more members. This propaganda will be spread far and wide. The interest in nut culture is growing by leaps and bounds. I think this is the time to strike as a scientific organization. I think the Northern Nut Growers' Association is the most scientific of all of the nut growing associations. That is something of a guess, of course, but if they were put to the test I believe it would come out on top. Anyway put me down for the very best efforts that I can render to the end of building up membership and financial support of this association. It seems to me that with men like Deming, Bixby, Morris, Littlepage, and others whom I could mention, the scientific and practical ends of this association are being pretty well taken care of. We meet here in association and it is very lovely, something of a mutual admiration society; we go away and are likely to forget until it is about time to get busy with another meeting. Now it seems to me we ought to be busy all the year doing something so that when we come to the meeting like this we have something to report in the way of membership and money. That will make possible these plans that Dr. Morris suggested. I was unable to hear the president's address but it seems to me that more attention should be given to the matter of finances of this association and the membership.
I just want to add a remark or two in regard to Mr. Vollertsen who is going to read a paper on the filbert. We have found, and we certainly believe, he and I,—and he knows more than I do because he is on the ground all the time—I look after the sales end of it,—we have found that several of our smaller varieties of nuts are, in our estimation, decidedly superior to some of the larger varieties. While we believe that the consumer is going to give first thought to size he will be making a mistake if he passes by some of our smaller varieties which are splendidly filled, filled to capacity, very rich, and thin-shelled. I do not want the smaller varieties passed by.