By John E. Cannaday, M. D., Charleston, West Virginia
It is a pleasure to meet here under such favorable auspices and to be received with these hospitable words by Dr. Gourley. In recent years, Ohio has gone far in nut growing under his leadership and that of his staff. Pennsylvania also has done a great deal to put nut growing on its feet. My own state, West Virginia, is also making good headway.
In the early 1900's I got the 'bee', but I lost two or three of my first few trees. In 1917 I imported some chestnuts from Japan for planting and tried out various schemes in nut growing. In my opinion, chestnuts are the most important nuts for human food that grow in the temperate zone. It is interesting to observe how chestnuts follow true to seed in many respects. I have been advised that all of the chestnuts grown in China are from selected seed.
Every foot of steep mountain land in some sections of Italy is said to be completely covered with chestnut trees. In my state, the weevil is the scourge of chestnuts; I had hoped that after the chestnut blight destroyed our native chestnuts, the Chinese and Japanese chestnuts would be free from that pest. Where it came from I do not know, unless it came from the chinkapin. West Virginia has chinkapins and these, being blight resistant, apparently have kept up the supply of weevils. Occasionally, shortly before the chestnuts begin to ripen, a few decay from some type of rot.
I took a census of my chestnut trees recently and found 80 trees of bearing age. Some of the largest are 22 to 24 feet in height, with a trunk diameter of 5 inches or more. None have been pruned but have maintained their normal branch formation and grow low. The timber tree must be yet to come. I have read interesting statements to the effect that in parts of China and Burma, there are chestnut trees of timber shape and size. Chestnut trees are likely to become of extreme importance in our future economy. The nuts fill a very significant place in our dietary needs. We should continue to plant chestnut trees and take care of them. I have also from 350 to 400 younger trees that are coming on, and I want to plant additional chestnut trees every year. The black walnut and hickory nut are very important, but the chestnut crop is the corn crop of the nuts.
Address of Retiring President
Carl Weschcke, St. Paul, Minnesota
Our last convention at Hershey, Pa., in September 1941, was a very outstanding one. Not only was it successful because of good attendance, excellent addresses and the places of interest we visited, particularly the home of Mildred Jones, our Secretary, at Lancaster and of the late Dr. G. A. Zimmerman at Linglestown, but it was important because it marked the beginning of a long period during which we had to forego our conventions. The death of Dr. Zimmerman shortly before that meeting dampened our usually jovial spirits when we were entertained at his home, but his wife did much to alleviate this.
To me, the last convention we held was by far the most important since the very first one at New York in November, 1910, because at it I received the honour of being chosen president for the ensuing year. This was during the era when presidents were usually re-elected for a second term, but I assure you that I have not served as president for this long period because I have been seeking to emulate other presidents, but only because the war years prevented our holding the annual meetings at which our officers are elected.
In mentioning any part of the history of our group, we should always remember that we owe its existence to Dr. Deming, who is now Dean of the Association.