Therefore it is with a double pleasure that I respond to the address of welcome given by Dr. Worsham.
The President: We will now hear from Hon. W. O. Potter of Marion, Illinois.
Mr. Potter: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: This meeting to me is something out of the ordinary. I can remember that when I was a boy I knew every good hickory nut tree in the community where I was raised, but after I left my native heath and went into the practice of law and got into politics, I forgot all about the hickory trees until just a few years ago when, by accident, I picked up a nut journal. I don't know how it came into my possession but I got it and I read some article on the Indiana pecan, and I read an article on the development of nut trees in the south, and I got interested and commenced studying the subject. I wrote to the Department of Agriculture and got some articles on nut culture from Mr. Reed and others and became still more interested.
However, nut culture doesn't mix well with politics or law, and, therefore, it is more or less of a side issue with me. I have gone into nut culture only on a small scale. On my lot in the city of Marion where I live I have set out some pecan trees, and after a hard battle in court all day it is quite a pleasure to get home in the evening and to pull off my coat and to get on some old clothes and go out among my trees. There is nothing better to get one's mind off the daily combat of life.
I was very much impressed with Dr. Worsham's address of welcome and also Dr. Morris's response. I believe that this country is beginning a new era; we are going to experience a metamorphosis. I think we will shed this old shell, take on a new dress and start afresh.
I presume it is here as in Illinois where I was raised. Our farmers came from the south principally, and about all they knew of farming in those early days was to raise corn and some tobacco, but mostly, through our section, corn, and in a few years they corned the land to death. You can go through our country and see old hillsides red with clay and farmers barely eking out an existence. Those people will never be much better off than they are now, but as they pass off and the newer generation comes on, departments of agriculture and horticulture will be organized in the universities, where it has not already been done, and the farmers will be a class of people right up to date. Modern civilization tends to drive the sons back to the farm and that is overdone sometimes. People think they want to go to farming when they don't. We ought not to take up this idea "back to the farm" too largely at once but gradually grow into it. I know what it is to be on the farm and work hard day after day; there is no chance for us under the old conditions; but in higher forms of agriculture or horticulture the American people will find the greatest benefits and pleasures. It gets monotonous for a man who has a profession to stick to that all the time, day in and day out without change, week in and week out, year in and year out, and he gets to driving in a rut. If he will take up a side line it will do him much good. I have gone into nut growing for recreation, not profit, and I think it is an occupation most conducive to a strong mind and a healthy body.
This country is getting to a point where we are going to have more producers. We have too many consumers in this country. We talk about the tariff and whether it raises or lowers the price of articles. That is neither here nor there. The thing that will control the prices of foods is the amount of food produced. As Dr. Morris said awhile ago we don't need so much meat as we used to think we needed nor so many other kinds of foods. All the food elements that keep man alive and his body in a healthy condition are contained in nuts, fruits and things of that character, and this to a great extent will eliminate the need for meats. Meat is getting scarce and high. Beef steaks and pork chops are a great deal higher than they formerly were and some of us who are not making as much money in our professions as we need will have to find something else to take the place of them. It seems to me that the solution of the problem is in the production of nuts. The peanut is being manufactured in a great many ways and we are using them on our tables daily, and it will only be a few years when the pecan will be fixed up in as many different ways.
The hickory nut I think is another great nut of this country and great attention ought to be paid to it. Its culture is still in its infancy. I believe that in a few years the hickory nut and pecan will help solve the food problem.
I would not know how to graft any kind of a tree. What trees I need I buy from some good responsible nurseryman and let him do the work of grafting.
I am glad to be a member of this association, although this is the first meeting I have ever attended. I get a lot of enthusiasm from the other members and I have had lots of information from being a member of this association.