Fellow Members, Northern Nut Growers Association,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Our Association meets today under the most favorable surroundings. We have this splendid building in which to hold our meetings, furnished gratuitously also have with us in this wonderful Institution several thousand guests, men and women of ability and prominence in their respective communities, from all parts of the United States.
Dr. Kellogg has been very kind and generous in extending an invitation several times to this association, and your speaker has thought there was no place quite so well suited for a winter meeting. It gives me great pleasure to be able to be with you and preside over a meeting as the guests of Dr. Kellogg. There is probably no man in America who has done so much to further the use of nuts, to show their benefits, and to explain their uses, as a food for mankind.
Conditions have changed greatly since our last meeting, September 1917, at Stamford, Connecticut. At that time the greater part of the world was at war, and owing to conditions prevailing during 1918, it was impossible for this association to hold its annual meeting. Your speaker is still holding the office of President because you have had no meeting at which new officers could be elected. It is to be regretted that the past three years have been crowded so full of events, that it was impossible to give the association matters the attention they deserved, and devote the time to them I would have liked to have done.
With the armistice came a cessation of war, and we are all happy that the terrible struggle is over, but with it have come conditions that are almost as terrible as war. Famine and want stare millions of people in the face on the continent of Europe. Our own country is at present in the grip of strikes for higher wages, the like of which has never been known. Yet we are prosperous beyond the greatest dreams of any nation on earth, but with this prosperity comes many duties. Our yields of food crops have been great, but to us has fallen the lot of feeding the world, and this will continue until industrial and agricultural conditions of Europe, have been reestablished on a pre-war condition.
There never was a time when meats of all kinds were so expensive, and to many almost prohibitive. Many have learned the use of nut meats in varied ways until all kinds of edible nuts are quoted on the markets today at prices undreamed of in former years. These conditions will not always last; crop failures will come; and production will be curtailed. Land values are advancing so rapidly that the production of cheap meats will be impossible. To help supply this deficiency, there will be an increased demand for nuts of all kinds.
To help meet this demand, much can be done by road side planting. On our main market highways, such trees as the grafted black walnuts could be planted profitably, in many sections of the country; the English walnut in some parts where they succeed the best; and the pecan and chestnut in other parts of the country where they are specially adapted.
While commercial planting of nut trees may not be attractive to the average man, home planting of a few nut trees can be recommended for every where space is available. They will make beautiful shade trees, and produce crops that will eventually be of great value. To land owners who are planting private parks, avenues and pastures, we would recommend nut trees.
The production of nut trees is very difficult, and the development and testing of new varieties, a slow and expensive process. We need the Government's helping hand, and are very glad that there has been set aside by Congress an appropriation to help develop this industry. We have with us, the Nut Culturist from the Department of Agriculture, who is devoting his entire time along these lines.