I have told you something of what we are doing and of what we hope may result. I hope that you will all visit the offices of the Department carrying on this work, and that you will get acquainted with the men handling the various projects, and tell them what your troubles are, that they may know how to proceed, and that they may discuss with you the best ways of attacking and handling the problems with which you are confronted.
Prof. Lumsden of the Federal Horticultural Board spoke of the chestnut bark disease and the fact that our experts advise us that within the period of twenty-five years the destruction of the native American chestnut will have been accomplished. The tanners and related interests of the country are now scouting around to find some species of tree to use as a substitute for tanning operations. Castanea mollissima is capable of developing into a good sized tree. From an economic standpoint the texture of its lumber is good, while the quality of its fruit is fair, and as an ornamental tree it has a future. It has resistance to the chestnut bark disease. It may become a substitute for C. dentata. Several crosses have been made between C. dentata and C. mollissima and some of them show considerable merit. Selection of these hybrids will have to be made for two purposes, namely wood production and fruit production.
Corylus colurna, the Constantinople filbert, is destined to become popular as an ornamental. On the Pacific Coast a bacterial blight occurs in some sections on corylus. A great work can be done in this country by the Northern Nut Growers Association by publishing bulletins advocating plantings of nut bearing trees for a three-fold purpose, timber, food, and beauty.
Communications were read from Miss Frances L. Stearns, Instructor in Botany of the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Junior Colony, asking information about planting nut trees, and from Mr. J. A. Young, Secretary of the Tree Lovers Association of America, asking the association to adopt their slogan and to co-operate with it in urging the more intelligent planting of trees, shrubs and flowers.
The evening session on Sept. 26th was called to order at 8:10 and a moving picture reel, "The Almond Industry in California," loaned by the Dept. of the Interior, was shown. Following that an address with lantern slides was given by Mr. C. A. Reed of the Dept. of Agriculture, on his recent trip to China.
MR. REED: In 1910 certain Americans in China conceived the idea of exporting the walnuts produced in that country to America. The experiment proved so successful that they continued to do so, and shipped their walnuts to this country year after year. The business built up very rapidly, until the war broke out when, for the time being, the industry was forced to a standstill. But as soon as the war was over the business picked up again, and had assumed such proportions, about two years ago, that American growers wanted to know how much longer the Chinese would be able to send walnuts over here. Most of the nuts from China were of inferior quality to those produced in this country. Records of the exports showed that there had been an increase from China each year; but as to the methods used, the extent of orcharding, or the growth in planting, etc., the matter had not been written up, and the consuls had not the remotest idea. It was finally decided by Congress, therefore, that a special appropriation for an investigation should be made. So a special trip was made to China to ascertain, first of all, the probable trade from there for the next ten or twenty years. Our people felt that more walnuts would be coming here, and they wanted to know about this before they planted any more here. It fell to my lot to make the trip, a year ago this summer.
We went first to Honolulu; then to Manila and Japan, and finally to China. We went into the section just to the right of Tientsin. By superimposing a map of China over that of the United States you may see that China more than covers this country; China is considerably larger than the United States.
Our basic point was Peking, which is in about the same latitude as Philadelphia. We found that walnuts were grown all through this section of China, not very much farther north than Peking, but not much farther south than Shanghai. There are walnuts cultivated here, in the Chinese way, over a great area; but we were convinced that the exportation of walnuts to this country was not likely to increase, for the business has apparently reached its height. American trade takes the best nuts; the second best go to Canada, the third to Europe and the fourth and fifth to Australia.
Our first expedition into the country was almost directly north of Peking. We went down the railroad about 15 miles, to Shaho, where we employed donkeys and a ricksha, and rode across country some 12 or 15 miles. Here we found a very excellent Chinese hotel, and surrounding orchards of perhaps 300 trees. Some of the consular reports in China stated that this place was one of the three sections in which the finest shipments of nuts were produced.
We next went to the east of Tientsin where we found quite a number of orchards and trees claimed to be from 150 to 200 years of age, although we found, after travelling a short time and inquiring from the Chinese farmers, that the figures they gave to us were probably inaccurate. We finally ceased to ask the Chinese farmers for figures of that sort. It was very interesting to note the difference in Chinese and American methods. For instance, in China, the land may be owned by one or by several people, who will lease the land or the trees, or perhaps even an individual tree, for a period of years. White marks placed on the trees indicate their ownership.