After the banquet the President spoke as follows:

Once upon a time I read a poem, which unfortunately I do not have here but in effect it was this: In our progress through life a great deal of injury is wrought by not showing our appreciation of people while they are with us. Let us give them our flowers now. We do want now to say a few things about the founder of our organization. In my history of this association Dr. Deming was the person who first proposed an association of this kind. I believe this was about 21 or 22 years ago, perhaps longer than that. At any rate the association has been going for some time and it was brought into existence through the thought of Dr. Deming. We should be very glad to hear from Dr. Deming.

Dr. Deming: Thank you. It is very gratifying indeed but I wish you hadn't. It is very difficult to express gratitude properly. I cannot make a speech like our friend Dr. Smith here, who I hope will make one. I can't tell a good story like our President. In fact, I feel like that man who said, "How happy is the moron, he does not give a damn. I wish I were a moron. My God! perhaps I am."

David Fairchild says that it takes the energies, the fortunes and the lives of pioneers, the best people of our country, to build up a new plant industry. I congratulate you all in being included in that class of pioneers, the best people of this country. But we haven't yet built up the great nut industry that we would like to build.

I might tell you how the idea of the nut growers association arose. In 1907 I got a little farm of forty acres in Connecticut. In 1908 I read an article by Dr. Morris, "Nut Culture as a Side Line for Physicians." I immediately wrote the doctor and he said in fifteen years I could have an income of $100.00 an acre from nuts alone. That seemed to me exactly what I wanted, $4,000 a year and live very comfortably. So I bought all the nut trees I could find. I bought nut trees from every nursery in this country that offered them in the North. I got pecans from the South. I sent to California and got filberts and English walnuts. I sent to Europe for English walnut seeds. I bought twenty acres of chestnut sprout land and grafted the sprouts. Just as the chestnuts were beginning to bear the blight came along. That ended them. The English walnuts I set around in fence corners and they grew a little smaller every year and, finally disappeared. That was the end of the English walnuts. At that time I couldn't graft hickories. With great labor I collected hickory scions and sent them to nurseries in the South and had them grafted. They arrived in the North after the ground had frozen. I told the hired man to heel them in. He heeled them in but left the top of the roots out. In the spring they were all dead. By that time my dander was up a little. I thought there must be other men who were having the same trouble. If we could have a little organization we could tell each other our troubles and perhaps work them out together. I wrote Dr. Morris, John Craig, Professor Close, Mr. Hales, and one or two others, and we met together in the Botanical Museum in Bronx Park and organized the Northern Nut Growers Association. That is all I had to do with it. Whether we will ever come to the place where they will have bands out and ticker tape flying, when we come to town—that is the thing I used to dream about a little when we first started. But I don't think we are destined to burst wide the gates of fame yet. We may after we have achieved our objects. As Dr. Fairchild has said, all our money, lives and energies must be devoted to them. We then may achieve post-mortem fame.

I want to say one thing, however, before I stop. We can't advocate the planting of nut trees if there are no nut trees to be had. Therefore, I think the Northern Nut Growers Association should do all that is possible to encourage the nursery men who are propagating nut trees. We should consider the propagating nursery men as a vital and essential part of the work we are trying to do.

The President: Dr. Deming made some reference to stories. Once in a while a story does flit across my mental horizon. I want to tell you how the word "nut" may have a very humorous interpretation. Once upon a time in Michigan a man died. After he died the local minister went around to console the widow. When he came of course the lady was grieving. This clergyman was a very young man and he attempted to console her thus: "Now, my dear Mrs. Smith; that which you see is just the husk, the nut has gone to heaven." Another time I addressed the Women's Canadian Club. I was invited to address this group on nut culture and the President in introducing me told a story about a minister too. In this case the minister got up in his pulpit and made an announcement: "My dear friends, my sermon is on liars. I am glad to see so many present." This lady said, "Of course, Mr. Neilson cannot say 'I am going to talk today on nuts, I am glad to see so many present'." I would like to give you an outline of the progress made during the past year. In writing this I had to inject into it a great deal of my own activities. I simply couldn't get out of it. I ask you to overlook the frequent references of a personal nature.

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS