President Linton: The four young walnut trees that we have before us are grown from walnuts from trees at Mount Vernon near the tomb of General Washington. The trees there were planted unquestionably during the lifetime of Washington, and have grown to be fine specimens of their particular species. Last fall the ladies of the Mount Vernon Association gave to the Northern Nut Growers Association all of the walnuts upon the trees at Washington's home. They divided those nuts into two lots and the best ones were presented to the association for the purpose of public planting. Under no circumstances were the nuts to be commercialized or sold for gain but were to be planted by the school children of the land, if it could be satisfactorily arranged in the short time that we had before the end of the planting season. We found it impossible to distribute these walnuts throughout the country, although the demand kept coming for them from many states, so they were distributed first to the district schools outside of the city of Saginaw in the County of Saginaw and there planted by the school children with appropriate ceremonies. Then our city schools asked for them and in every school yard in the city of Saginaw are some Washington walnuts growing today. Following this distribution to the schools we had still several bushels of the nuts, and one bushel was presented to what is known as Merlin Grotto, a branch or division of the Masonic Order. As General Washington was a member of that organization it seemed fitting that that society should have some of the nuts. So in the beautiful grounds outside of our city that are owned and controlled by Merlin Grotto there were also planted some of these Mount Vernon walnuts. Then we still had about two dozen of them left, and they were planted in what is known as the Ezra Rush Park in Saginaw, our largest city park. They are there in rows to be transplanted this coming spring and will be again distributed to the schools, or to public places desiring them, as long as they may last. The four specimens that you have before you, gentlemen, are from nuts from trees planted during President Washington's time at his home. We trust that they may live in this beautiful park in Lancaster and that they may go down in history showing the source from whence they came.
Prof. Herbert H. Beck: Gentlemen: It is a very great privilege to represent Franklin and Marshall College in extending a word of greeting as well as comradeship to the Northern Nut Growers' Association. I use the word comradeship advisedly because we have interests that are indubitably kindred. Our two institutions are both concerned with the cultivation of something that will contribute to the strength and happiness of each as Americans—your institution in the cultivation of useful trees—our institution in the cultivation of useful men. It may well be said, show me a man who loves and cultivates trees and I will show you a man who loves his fellow men and puts that love into practice. That cannot be said, unfortunately, of every man who graduates from college. It is to be doubted whether the name of John Harvey, considered abroad as worthy of a higher place in the annals of American horticulture, is greater than the name of Johnny Appleseed, the man who took apple trees out into the frontier of the open road. My only regret is that I have never been in a position to do so. I can say, though, with Dr. Holmes, for whose opinion on such things I have a most profound admiration, that I have an intense, passionate fondness for all trees in general and for certain trees in particular. When I go out among the trees I have a kinship there. I am never lonely when I am in a forest and I cannot say that when I am alone in a big city. I like to look upon an old tree as a patriarch with not only an honored past but an interesting story locked up under its bark. As I go to such a place as Valley Forge, I like to lay my hand on the rough bark of an old tree and say, "Oh, but that you might tell your tale; you are the only thing left which looked upon the scene in which a few were crucified that many might live." Such are the thoughts that come to me when I stand by an old tree. I like to let my mind run back to the beginnings of trees, to the pre-historic times when this bed rock was laid down, when all this region was an inlet or bay from the Atlantic Ocean and the upland was treeless as our rock record shows. Then there were the beginnings of low fern-like growth and clotted mass which gradually increased in size until they assumed the enormous proportions which made the coal beds possible. And then I like to follow the growth of trees on to the broad leaf. We have the beginnings of the broad leaf, the sassafras, the poplars, the maples, and the oaks, and then, as the crowning feature of the evolutionary process, the nut tree. I like to let my mind run ahead a bit, particularly at such a time as this when we are setting out new trees. What sort of people will these trees live to see? Will there be a decadence of the taste and fondness for trees, which we hope is growing? Will these trees live to see a race of people who take no interest in such things except a commercial one, who have no thought for the beauty of the trees nor for the rights of posterity? Will these trees perchance live to see an upheaval of the happy affairs which now exist in this country? In one hundred and fifty years many things can happen. There is much in the existing turmoil of war conditions that suggests possible disaster within the next couple of centuries, and possibly that the fair constitution of Franklin and Washington may be submerged in a chaos of something that means nothing. The remote possibility of the invasion of a conquering race to destroy all these things—but banish the thought. God grant, that these young trees may grow up to furnish shade and fruit in proper season to thousands of happy people, that they may always be useful and that they may not live to see the time when disaster may come to this fair land.
In closing, gentlemen, I wish to compliment you on what seems to me to be the excellence of your personnel and organization. I am strongly impressed with the fact that your organization has a prime scientific value as well as a profound practical significance. I congratulate you on these excellent qualities and traits of your association, wish you all success and thank you for the privilege you have given me.
Dean R. L. Watts: This seems to me almost like a sacred moment. As I stand here in this circle, the ground upheaved there and that hole in the ground, I think of something else that we stand around sometimes. In a very large degree, especially in considering the remarks of Professor Beck, it is a sacred occasion. What could be more sacred? What could we regard with greater solemnity than the planting of trees that will help all mankind.
Particularly in connection with the planting of young trees I think of my own boyhood experiences. Whenever I think of the boys and girls in the woods picking up nuts it is pretty hard for me to think of those boys and girls going wrong. One of the biggest things we have to look at in this country is the question of maintaining high standards of manhood and womanhood. In that the safety of our country rests.
I wonder why I was asked to speak at this meeting of the Nut Growers' Association. I do not know whether my friend Professor Fagan suggested that I be placed on the program or not. Perhaps he had heard about what happens in my own home. I have never gotten away from liking a little manual labor. I do not want too much of it but I do like a little of it, making garden and taking care of the furnace. Mrs. Watts sometimes blames me for wanting to take care of the furnace in the cellar in the winter time from the fact that I have always a bag of nuts down there. When I go down she hears me cracking nuts. From my earliest boyhood days I have been tremendously interested in the whole nut proposition. What I have to say here today I have put in written form.
A NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE PROMOTION
OF NUT CULTURE
Dean Watts
I am highly honored in being invited to present a paper before the members of the Northern Nut Growers' Association.