While it is believed that there are such in America, perhaps as many or more than in Europe, and efforts should be made here to find such, there are many reasons for believing that a search in Europe will be more immediately productive of results than will the search here. The beech is much more esteemed in Europe than here and has been extensively planted in forests that for centuries have been operated for constant production of timber. It is believed that the contents of those forests are as a class better known to their keepers, at least the beeches there are better known than in the forests in the United States. The number of propagated ornamental varieties noted in the second paragraph gives evidence of this. The history of one or two of these varieties will make this clearer.
Three beeches with red or copper colored leaves as far back as 1680 were recorded as growing in a wood near Zurich, Switzerland. Most of the purple beeches now growing are believed to have been derived from a single tree discovered in the last century in a forest in Thuringia in Germany. There may be or may have been many such in America but they would not have appeared valuable to the woodmen who probably would be the only ones who would see them and then the leaves would not have been visible in the winter when trees are most frequently cut. That the Deming purple black walnut is in existence is due solely to the observation and action of Dr. Deming who gathered scions and got them growing before the original tree had been cut for the purpose of getting space for improving a road. That this tree could be seen from the road was how it came to the attention of Dr. Deming. Had it been in the midst of a large forest it might have been cut in winter for timber without the cutter knowing it was unusual.
That we have such a wealth of varieties of the beech valuable as ornamental trees and none valuable for the large nuts they bear, certainly suggests that the tree varies in every way except in the size of the nuts it bears, but this is not believed to be so. The growing of ornamental trees is an old industry. There are hundreds of nurserymen today growing ornamentals and only few in comparison growing nut trees. It is not so many years ago that there were none growing nut trees. A beech with purple leaves appeared valuable 100 years ago and was disseminated by nurserymen while one with nuts 10 times normal size would probably not have been propagated for there would not have been sale for it. It would have only been known locally as unusual and probably the tree would have been cut for timber when it reached the proper size.
The search for a large fruited beech is not going to be easy but it is believed that persistent work will eventually triumph, much as the 1929 contest brought more shellbark hickories of value to the attention of the association than all previous contests put together. The shellbark is a tree the best varieties of which it is difficult to learn about. Unlike the shagbark hickory it is not generally found growing near buildings or in fields or pastures. Its natural habitat is the bottom lands of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, lands that are overflowed part of the year. There will have to be a campaign, perhaps for several years, till people begin to look for large fruited beeches; then will come a harvest of them.
The relatively few beeches that have come in to the contests suggests that methods used heretofore should be somewhat modified in beechnut search. Probably a campaign of education among foresters might be more productive of results than among farmers, at least it should supplement it. The search for improved beechnuts evidently has more different kinds of difficulties than the search for any other nut and considerable thought on the matter leads me to suggest that a committee be appointed to study the nut and to seek large fruited specimens especially to look into methods for getting them and report to the association a year hence, said committee to finance itself.
This suggestion is made because it is believed that efforts made in Europe to find a large fruited beech will be more immediately productive of results than in America for the reasons noted above. Even if the committee consists of but one man correspondence abroad would be better carried on in the name of a committee of the association than in the name of an individual and it is believed would be more productive of results.
THE 1929 CONTEST
By Willard G. Bixby, Baldwin, New York
This has at last been finished. It is a memorable achievement in many ways. It has taken much longer to award the prizes than at any previous contest, which is a matter of deep regret to me. But, if we except the shagbark hickories and the beechnuts, the value of the nuts is so far ahead of those received in any other contest as to make the results of all previous contests commonplace in comparison.