Meeting called to order at Enterprise, on Friday, August 21, at 10:30 A. M.
The President: I want the records to show that this meeting convened in Enterprise, Luce Township, Spencer County, Indiana, where the members of the Northern Nut Growers Association visited and studied the native Ohio River pecan trees, and I want to hear the opinions of the different visitors. The state entomologist, Mr. Baldwin, will please express himself upon the native pecan trees on the Ohio River.
Mr. Baldwin: My remarks will be so brief it will not be necessary for me to go forward. I don't know that it is necessary for me to mention the fact that I have never lived in and very seldom visited, localities where pecans grow in this state and cannot, therefore, express an authoritative opinion as to the merits and demerits of the pecan trees in this section. It is noticeable that the trees are more free from insects and fungus trouble than trees in many places. Mr. Simpson, who has had considerable experience in the South, called my attention to a very destructive pest that does not exist here in numbers sufficient to be destructive, as it is in Florida, but he is of the opinion that it was introduced into that section from this section.
Mr. President: What is it?
Mr. Baldwin: Mr. Simpson says—I didn't see any of the insects, and probably you couldn't identify it without labor,—but Mr. Simpson says there are two broods and the second brood is now at work. This certainly is a good field for work for the entomologist. Of course the same thing would hold true with this insect that is true of others; when a new species is introduced into a country where it has not heretofore existed, where the natural parasites are not found, it is more destructive than where the natural parasites exist. That point is illustrated very well by the moths that are so very destructive in New England, and don't do very much damage in the countries from which they come. From my observations on other native nut trees I was greatly impressed with the abundance of nuts that some of the native trees bear here. I am sorry I am not able to talk about something that would be more interesting to those interested in pecans and other nuts.
The Chairman: I should be glad to have our secretary put in the record a few of his observations.
Dr. Deming: Mr. Littlepage has been talking to us about these pecans since we started this organization, and has long promised to show us these trees. We can't get any idea of such trees without seeing them. We have had many word pictures of them but I had not been able to form any idea of how great they are. They have a beautiful outline as we see it silhouetted against the sky, and every evidence of being trees that bear lots of nuts, which is the kind of trees we are all looking for. We don't have the pecan tree in the North as a native at all. There are a few in New England, a few scattered here and there, but none bearing. I have heard of a pecan not far from my home, possibly twenty-five miles, that does not bear. I have seen in the city of Hartford a pecan tree that was nine feet and three inches in circumference and ninety feet high, of unknown origin, but not bearing. The nut tree that grows best through our part of the country is the shagbark hickory. It is very much like the pecan tree here, but never grows to anything like its size, is not nearly so beautiful a tree and I don't believe it bears as heavily. I think the average hickory nuts there are very much inferior to the average pecan here. We also haven't the black walnut there as a native. That is I have never seen it native though it probably was originally so in parts of the country. However, when planted it grows to a very large size, and makes a magnificent tree. About ten miles from my house is the largest in the state. We have lots of butternuts over the country but no nut tree that compares in beauty and usefulness with the pecan here.
The President: Dr. Smith should be able to size up the situation and give us some of his impressions. I want to get them in the record.
Dr. Smith: Gentlemen, I don't see how anybody can live by these trees here and not realize that they are a source of fortune. I can't understand how men can look at them every year, gather and sell the nuts and not realize that they are a source of livelihood. I just measured a big tree in a tobacco field down the road that was thirteen feet and eleven inches in circumference, that had a sixty foot reach, and was about one hundred and twenty-five feet high. We measured another, that had a sixty-six foot reach and they were all bending down with fruit. It was marvelous and they were certainly giving us their evidence that the thing for us to do is to go ahead and reproduce them.
The President: Dr. Van Duzee, tell us your impressions of these trees.