Col. Van Duzee: Mr. Chairman, I simply will add this. As I came through this wonderfully fertile section of the country, I observed people building bungalows and cottages and setting out trees other than pecan in their dooryards. That is the pity of it. As Dr. Smith says these people here are living close to some of the most magnificent natural trees I have ever seen, and yet they will go and plant around their gardens trees that will do nothing in the world but produce shade. It seems to me there is room for the best kind of missionary work here. I am glad the nut growers met here and I hope the effect will be to cause people to think. As we came down the road we estimated that on one tree there were four or five hundred pounds of nuts. The owner of that tree didn't study the soil that produced that magnificent crop. Our driver said they had had two years of failure in their farming operations and yet right here in the same place nature has handed them another magnificent crop. I have an idea that the average annual value per acre of crops on the farms of southern Indiana and Illinois will run in the neighborhood of a ten dollar bill, and here is a tree, one tree, presenting thirty dollars. I have no doubt in the world that there will be fifty or sixty dollars' worth of nuts on this tree up here, and it doesn't occupy a quarter of an acre of land.
I want to speak about the insects. I don't believe you need to worry about these unless the planting goes away beyond what I think it will in this section. Here is the proof, right here in this river bottom in the nuts we see on these trees and the growth of the trees. They are thrifty, not mutilated by insects or dying. They are at home and the conditions are absolutely favorable. I have been very much pleased and very glad I came, and if I were not thoroughly tied up in a section I think is more adapted to nut growing, I should come up here and undertake to do something in this section, for I see great possibilities.
The President: That is an opinion that is of real value. Now I will call for volunteers. Those of you who have been sight seeing here and have impressions and ideas you would like to express we should be glad to hear from.
Professor Close: One thought that has interested me is this. If we should take away from this neighborhood about half a dozen men this great industry would be forgotten. It is to these men who have done this kind of work that we owe a great deal. They are engaged in a wonderful work. I presume they realize how great it is. It means the developing of an industry that will grow in the United States and could be carried to other countries. These great trees are a wonder, no question about it, and the fact that here is a new industry being pushed by half a dozen men is still more wonderful.
The President: If this section of the country had been planted to seedling pecans it would have made every man who owned forty acres of it, comfortable. We have with us Mr. Dodd, who is one of the old residents of this neighborhood. He can tell us some interesting things. He was here long before I came and looks at present as if he might be here many years yet. We certainly hope he will be. If it were not for him we would not know that Enterprise is on the map. He reports for the county paper and keeps the world in touch with Enterprise. I should like to hear him tell about the old pecan trees when he first knew them, and I want what he knows about them to go into the record.
Mr. Dodd: Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen: I'm no speech maker, never made one in my life, but I guess I know something about the pecan business. These trees were here when I came and that was in 1852. Those big trees that you looked at were big trees then, and must have been fifty years old, I judge, from what I have learned from older people. So you see they have been there a long time. I have a piece of ground here and if I had known as much about the pecan business then as I do now I would have had every foot of my land in pecans. I make a right smart little money in pecans as it is. Littlepage knows that. I have shipped pecans to him off my trees, shipped them to him many times. They are no better than the others, but we are old friends and he wanted me to send them to him and I did. I don't know anything about the pecan business in a general way, as to what they will produce or how much money they will average, but I think we have slept on our rights in this country for seventy-five years. If that is any good to you, you are welcome to it, and we are glad you are here today.
Mr. Pomeroy: One tree out in the back here looks as if it might be fifteen or sixteen years old and it is bearing well. It is a large tree well filled with nuts, notwithstanding the fact that lightning has struck it twice and destroyed at least two years' crops. It seems to me there are thousands of dollars to be made in an investment in nut trees here where they do so well.
The President: Now has any one else any observations to make? Mr. Weber.
Mr. Weber: Out here you remember you showed us quite a number of seedlings growing in a corn field like milkweeds, growing right alongside of them, and one of us thought the milkweeds were the pecans, as they looked much the same. It seems to be hard to keep them down.
The President: That reminds me that when this organization was formed I had the honor of being the first man on the ground. Dr. Deming called the meeting to order, Dr. Morris was there and so was Professor Craig, who has since passed to the great beyond, and a number of others, and I remember telling the bunch who were there at that time, that if I ever had the opportunity I would take them into a country where the pecans really grew. I have attempted to make good. If there remains any doubt in your minds we will proceed to lose you in the great Green River pecan woods, and if you are not pretty well stocked with provisions, you may never get out. I told Professor Close who is making a study of the pawpaw for the Department of Agriculture, that we also grew pawpaws in southern Indiana and that I would show him some large trees. So he came down with us and we went to Boonville and got in Senator Hemenway's automobile and I introduced him to a pawpaw tree six feet and a half in circumference at the ground, five foot in circumference three feet from the ground. So the chair takes some pleasure in having been able to show the things that were promised. Let us hear from Mr. Riehl.