But I fear my talk has become too discursive, in turning from nuts to ground nuts, and from ground nuts to potatoes; but the subject, bearing as it does on the origin and history of cultivated plants, is one which has great attraction for me, and I hope it may have been of interest to the members of this association.
Professor C. P. Close, Pomologist, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, spoke as follows:
MR. CLOSE: The subject I had intended to speak on was "Extension Work in Nut Growing." Many of you know that I am putting in most of my time on the fruit end of extension work, but I am also doing some extension nut work. I was hoping that there would be representatives from many of the states here, because I wanted to encourage them to get in touch with the state extension men, to work up interest in nut culture.
My talk will be very brief, but I would like to mention that very few of the states as yet are doing extension work with nuts, especially in the North. Some work is being done with pecans in the South.
I have been astounded in talking with the landscape men in the North to find that they have not considered nut trees as ornamental trees. But after I mentioned that a walnut or a hickory or a pecan tree is an ornamental tree, and just as much so as the elm, the oak, or the maple, they thought it would be a good idea to use them and agreed to recommend the use of nut trees as shade, lawn and roadside trees. Then I suggested the filbert for clump planting as an ornamental. I hope in the future that nut trees and filberts will be used more extensively by the landscape extension men in their work throughout the country.
In most of the states there are fruit extension specialists but only an occasional landscape extension specialist; so I try to interest the fruit men in the planting of nut trees, and a few of them are doing this, particularly in Indiana, where the fruit extension specialist has been interested in having pecan and English walnut trees planted in school yards. It seems difficult to get people to comprehend and practice nut tree growing and to understand the various uses of nut trees. We can judge from the small audience at this meeting that there are not enough people interested in nut growing. In my journey throughout the country I occasionally run across men interested in growing a few nut trees, and I try to induce them to become members of this association; but it seems to be a hard thing to do.
A few days ago I called on a man in New Jersey who said he would have twenty bushels of hickory nuts and two or three bushels of English walnuts if the squirrels did not take them. He is up against a state law which protects the squirrels but does not protect him.
I wish we could send out word with you to the states to get at least a few people interested in nut culture, and have them write to the agricultural colleges and the experiment stations and arouse some interest along this line at those institutions, not only among the fruit extension men and the teachers, but also among the landscape men as well. There ought to be more interest taken in this work at our colleges and universities, and nut culture courses ought to be organized. The foresters ought to be induced to use nut trees wherever possible.
That is all of the time I care to take at present, Mr. President, but I wish to say that if there is any way of arousing interest in the states, I would be glad to carry the word from Washington and to push it just as hard as possible.
Hon. W. S. Linton, Saginaw, Michigan, spoke on "Roadside Planting vs.
Reforestation," as follows: