5. Nuts are among the very best of the meat substitutes. They contain much of the same food elements as do meats, although in different proportions. Some contain starch and to that extent can be used as are the cereals and Irish potatoes. Nuts are the only vegetable product grown in Michigan, which in raw condition afford a complete and fairly well balanced food for human beings. Every pound of nut food that can be raised from a tree along the street or in the fence corner on the farm is clear gain, and that much added to our national food supply.
6. Nuts are rapidly assuming importance as factors in the lists of American foods.
7. Many species of nut trees are adapted to some parts of Michigan. By planting the best that are now available, and by constantly being on the lookout for better sorts, superior varieties will be certain to develop in a short while, the same as has been the case with all older orchard fruits and farm crops.
8. Whoever intelligently plants nut trees performs a distinct public service. He will receive the gratitude of more than the present generation.
9. Among all kinds of trees, none are more appropriate for memorial purposes to the men who did not come back from France, than is the black walnut. That species itself took a valiant part in warfare. It furnished material for gunstocks the same as in previous wars, but in the World War it rendered what was considered by eminent authority, a greater service in supplying propellors for aeroplanes. The shells of the nuts contributed their part toward the making of carbon for gas masks, and no one knows the extent to which walnut kernels made up the delicacies sent from home to the boys in the trenches. With such a service record as this, the black walnut is entitled to a memorial of its own. Its value as a timber tree, as an ornamental, and as a food producer, together with its great range of adaptability from North to South and East to West, should justly entitle it to recognition as a National tree.
10. Michigan has a law providing for the planting of nut trees along its highways. Thus, the state has officially put its approval on the idea and has become a leader in the encouragement of this great kind of economy and thrift. It has taken a step toward conservation in a direction which is highly developed in certain parts of Europe. The product is sold to the highest bidder and the income used in the upkeep of the road system. In that manner the roadways of those sections take care of themselves. In this country millions of dollars of state and federal moneys are being used this year, (ending June 30, 1921), in the construction and upkeep of public roads.
Desirable as it would be to accomplish these ends, it could not all be done at once. Even though there were an abundance of available trees of tried kinds, it would take a long time to plant them and to care for them until they might become of profitable bearing age, also public opinion would need to be remolded in order to insure their care and protection. Still it can and will be done. The movement is already on; the Michigan law began to operate soon after being passed, and the Division of Forestry at the Agricultural College is raising the trees for planting. Public opinion regarding the care of the trees and their product will take care of itself when the value of the trees and their products becomes apparent. Both in California and in Oregon not only nut but fruit orchards and vineyards, grow beside the roadways with no protection other than that of public opinion; and what has been done in one part of the country can be done in others as well.
The eleven species referred to as being available for Michigan use are as follows: The almond, beechnut, butternut, chestnut, filbert, (hazel), pecan, shagbark hickory, shellbark hickory, black walnut, Japanese walnut, and the Persian or so-called English walnut.
Taking these up in order we will consider first the