Read Ebook: Northern Nut Growers Association Report Of The Proceedings At The Tenth Annual Meeting. Battle Creek Michigan December 9 and 10 1919 by Northern Nut Growers Association Editor

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it can be digested by the body.

During the past few years, it has been found that we must have in our foods a certain amount of substances whose chemical nature is at present unknown and to which the name of vitamines has been given. It is not my purpose to discuss with you the many phases of vitamines and their relation to nutrition, but I only wish to impress upon you the fact that it is of the utmost importance for a dietary to contain these substances; fully as important as that the protein, fat, carbohydrate, and inorganic salt content shall be satisfactory. Lack of these vitamines brings on various evidences of mal-nutrition. One vitamine which is found in animal fats and the leaves of plants and is soluble in, and associated with fats, is, for that reason, called fat soluble vitamine. Another called the water soluble vitamine is widely distributed in cereal seeds, vegetables, and legumes. The third, the so-called antiscorbutic vitamine because of its action as preventative and cure for scurvy, is found in certain fruits and vegetables.

We then ask the next question: Are nuts adequate as far as their proteins contain these essential amino acids, and do nuts contain vitamines? That is, is their biological value as satisfactory as their digestibility?

Dr. Hoobler of Detroit, in a study of the diets of lactating mothers and wet nurses, a year or so ago, compared the value of proteins from animal and vegetable sources for the elaboration of milk. He found that a mixture of the almond, English walnut, peanut and pecan, furnished proteins that were equal to the animal food tried, and far superior to other vegetable proteins. Here then is evidence that nuts provide the necessary building stones to form milk that food par excellence for the newly born individual. Drs. Mendel and Osborn, experimenting on white rats have shown that the principle proteins of the Brazil nut will maintain animals through the growing period. Bureau of Chemistry workers and others have found similar results with the coconut and the peanut. I have now, experiments underway at New Haven, on the biological value of the filbert, English walnut, pine nut, almond, and pecan. While these tests are yet incompleted, it can at least be said that to date there is no evidence that the proteins of these nuts are in any way less satisfactory than those of the peanut or Brazil nut that have been thoroughly tested out.

As to the vitamine content, abundant quantities of water soluble vitamine have been found in the peanut and the coconut. Experiments that we have in progress as well as a series conducted here at Battle Creek under Dr. Kellogg's direction give promise to increase this list of vitamine containing nuts to include at least many of our common nuts. Along with our vegetable oils in general, coconut oil and peanut oil contain insufficient quantities of the fat soluble vitamine to maintain growth in young animals. Whether the other nut oils will prove more efficacious in this respect, is now under investigation. As far as I am aware, the antiscorbutic properties of nuts have not been studied.

With the population of the world on a steady increase, it continually becomes necessary for mankind to seek out new sources of food, and utilize products that formerly had received little attention as possible foods. Conditions that disturb normal food production and distribution, such for example as were brought about by the world war, produce serious food shortages in the world, and emphasize how close is the margin that determines whether the peoples of the world have adequate quantities of food or whether they are faced by shortages, and, in many cases, by starvation. In this continual development of our food resources, nuts stand out prominently as offering possibilities which are very great. Not only do they represent a very concentrated form of food which is highly digestible, but they possess a number of characteristic and highly pleasing flavors that recommends them for use in all manner of culinary procedures. The variety of uses to which nuts can be put in the kitchen is amply demonstrated right here in Dr. Kellogg's sanitarium and I feel sure that even he has not exhausted the possibilities of nuts in the dietary. The forms of nut products on the market are steadily increasing. The nut butters, nut pastes, nut margarines, meat substitutes, and so forth, all point to the variety of ways that nuts can be handled as foods.

The tremendous increase in the use of nut oils in the form of the oil itself and as nut margarines within the last few years is a striking example of the utilization on a large scale of relatively new food products. The press cake which remains as a by-product of this oil industry finds ready use as concentrates for cattle feeds. Many of our ideas in the feeding of our domestic animals are undergoing development along with the idea of human nutrition. Just recently, investigators at the Wisconsin Experiment Station, reported that the well known "home grown ration" for dairy cows that consist of cereals, silage and hay, is not a large milk producing diet. Their recommendation is to supplement this ration with protein concentrates. Nut meals recommend themselves most highly as protein concentrates. It certainly is safe to say that the day when the fruits of our nut bearing trees will be allowed to fall ungathered from the trees, is at an end.

There are many problems that still call for an answer by the chemist and dietitian. The nutritive value of the individual nuts should be firmly established in all its phases. The causes that have made the use of certain nuts unprofitable commercially, should be studied with the view of correcting these stumbling blocks. For example, the freeing of the horse-chestnut from its poisonous saponins and enable us to use this starch rich nut as food is well within the range of possibility as indicated by experiments conducted in Austria during the war. Why do nut oils tend to become rancid easily and can this tendency be remedied? Is the freeing of the acorn and its tannin and other objectionable substances a practical consideration? What is the irritating principle of the English walnut?

All these problems and many others wait solution. Research on nuts is in progress in many places. It involves time consuming experiments that are often times expensive. As a result, progress is slow, the amount of research being limited by the financial factor. The value of the pecan nut crop alone of the year 1918, was over 91 million dollars and the value of the imports and exports of nuts and nut products during the same year amounted to over 51 million dollars. If one one-hundredth of one per cent of this sum should be devoted by those interested in the development of our nut industry in this country for the study of the nutritional and chemical properties of nuts, I feel sure that they would be amply repaid for their investment.

PRESIDENT REED: I believe this will complete our program for tonight. We have quite a full program for tomorrow morning. Mr. C. A. Reed, nut culturist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, is with us and was to have been on the program tonight, but he has been busy all day and was hardly ready for tonight's program, as he has been busy getting the exhibit in order, and he will be on the program tomorrow morning, and three or four others, among them Dr Kellogg, I believe, so that there will be quite a full morning's program, and we will be glad to have all of you come who can. We meet in the parlor of the Annex at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. If any one desires to join the Association and will speak to the secretary, he will give yow the necessary information.

END OF TUESDAY EVENING SESSION

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1919, 10:00 A.M.

PRESIDENT W. C. REED IN THE CHAIR

PRESIDENT REED: Mr. O. C. Simonds of Chicago will talk to you on "Nut Trees in Landscape work."

NUT TREES AND BUSHES IN LANDSCAPE WORK

O. C. SIMONDS, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

In considering material for landscape work the places that come to mind where such work would be required are home grounds, highways, parks, cemeteries, school grounds, city squares and woods. The highways would include city streets, parkways, usually called boulevards, and country roads.

BLACK WALNUTS

The objections that one might raise to the use of black walnuts would be, first, the comparatively short season of the leaves. These come out rather late in the spring and drop early, probably these trees can not be improved very much in this respect. Second, boys will sometimes throw sticks at the trees to bring down the nuts. If a boy comes in home grounds to do this, he will be considered a nuisance. Branches are sometimes broken and the trees disfigured from this cause. Along highways this objection might perhaps be lessened somewhat by planting enough trees so that there would be more nuts than the boy would want, or by improving the manner of the boy. Third, the trees are often attacked by caterpillars. This objection can usually be obviated by spraying or destroying the pests in other ways.

BUTTERNUTS

The remarks made about the black walnut would apply in many ways to the butternut, its nearest relative. Butternuts have a range extending further north and they are more subject to disease than the black walnuts. Like the walnut, their leaves come out late and drop early. They are subject to the attacks of boys. When healthy, they are attractive in appearance and they deserve to be planted in most places where trees are used for landscape effect, but in the list I suggested, they would come below the black walnut.

HICKORIES

There is a time of the year when the shagbark, which produces such sweet nuts, would be more attractive than any neighboring tree. It is when the big buds swell and send out yellowish green leaves surrounded by large, red bracts. At this time they are as showy and as beautiful as any flowers. The bracts soon fall, but the leaves turn a rich green and are attractive until early fall, when they are sometimes yellow, and sometimes drop without any marked coloring. The trunk of the hickory is unique in appearance as the bark separates from the tree in long platelike strips which hang on at one end and give the scraggly appearance from which the tree derives its name. All of the hickories are attractive in appearance, but some of them drop their leaves early. The hickories are difficult to transplant but this is nothing against the beauty of the tree. An established tree is more valuable on this account. In some places hickories are quite subject to disease or to the attacks of borers. Like the walnuts, hickories which produce edible nuts are subject to the attacks of boys, but, on account of the toughness of the wood and the roughness of the bark, they are usually quite able to withstand these attacks. Hickories are suitable for use in all landscape work so far as their appearance is concerned. The fact that they are not so used is due to the difficulty of transplanting them. In the fall when a maple tree has colored up beautifully and a hickory near it has dropped its leaves, we are apt to compare the two unfavorably to the latter, but we should remember the appearance in summer and especially when the leaves first unfold. Hickory trees are beautiful also when the leaves are off, their branches making beautiful etchings against the sky in winter. The pecan, which is the largest of all hickories, is an exception to the general rule because it is planted quite extensively, especially in the South. It is a beautiful tree and where it is hardy there is no reason why it should not be used as a street tree, a tree in home grounds, in parks, or any other place where deciduous trees are needed. It is raised extensively in some nurseries, while the other hickories are raised very sparingly, and some not at all.

THE BEECH

Some would consider the beech the most beautiful of all nut trees. Its comparatively smooth, bluish-gray bark makes it a distinctive tree at all seasons. Its branches, spreading straight out from the trunk, give it an appearance of strength. Its fine branches form a specially pleasing skyline, its sharp buds are trim and neat in appearance, its leaves are beautiful in shape and texture. Their fall coloring, while not as brilliant as that of the maples, is really beautiful, being either yellow or a rich brown. The leaves are apt to hang on all winter, especially on the younger growth, and then they often turn a straw color. If a list of beautiful trees for February were to be made, I am rather inclined to think that the beech would stand at the head of the list. A young beech with its bluish-gray bark, its straw colored leaves, and flecks of snow here and there, seems to me the most beautiful of all deciduous trees in winter. The young leaves also are especially attractive when they first appear and the blossoms are sometimes objects of interest, although not showy in color.

HAZELNUTS

Often in old pastures one finds forlorn, scraggly looking bushes and is told they are hazelnut bushes. One would not pick out bushes like these to plant in his front yard, and yet, when given a chance, there is scarcely a more attractive shrub than the hazel. It is one of the first shrubs to blossom, the staminate flowers hanging in slender, graceful yellowish-brown catkins, while the pistillate flowers are little points of purplish-red protruding from the buds. These blossoms appear long before the leaves. The latter, when fully developed, are beautiful in outline and soft in texture and they have a rich coloring in the fall including various shades of yellow and red. The hazel should certainly be used extensively in landscape work. The nuts, with their leaflike involucres, are attractive in appearance in August and September. In connection with our own hazel one would naturally think of the filbert, which is a European relative. The filbert is often planted for ornament. There is a variety with purple leaves which some people admire.

THE OAKS

CHESTNUTS

There is a tree which a few years ago would have been considered along with the oak in landscape work, but which now would not be thought of in certain regions on account of a disease which has practically destroyed it. This tree is the American chestnut. It grows to a large size, and if it were not for this disease, would be worthy of a place in any park. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent without success in endeavoring to exterminate the disease. Some of the introduced varieties are apparently exempt from this disease, but only the future can tell whether the chestnut will again become valuable in landscape work as well as in the raising of food and lumber.

In designing landscapes, we think first of open spaces and then bound these spaces with trees and shrubs having pleasing shapes and foliage. The tops of these trees form the skyline and the lower growth a margin of lawns, or perhaps of walks and drives. For these purposes the beeches, hickories, hazels, walnuts and butternuts are all valuable, their value being approximately in the order named.

HORSE CHESTNUTS AND BUCKEYES

There may be some question about including these in a list of nut trees. I understand, however, that the seeds of all of these trees have been used for feeding stock and perhaps some way may be found for making them available as food for men and women. There is no question about their usefulness for ornamental trees. In Europe, the horse chestnut has been used extensively for park and boulevard planting and it is also largely used in the United States. There are several varieties. The leaves appear early, the blossoms coming out later. Our own buckeyes are handsome in appearance and all are adapted for use in landscape work.

The arguments for and against the use of nut trees in landscape work would be somewhat similar to such arguments regarding fruit trees. A luscious fruit tree like the snow apple, would be omitted from the list of trees for the park, not because it lacks beauty, but because its fruit would lead to its destruction. Apple trees might, however, be very appropriate for private grounds. They have sometimes given a name to a home, as "The Orchard". The same is true of certain nut trees, "Walnut Hill," and "Hickory Grove" being not uncommon. The hazel, too, is frequently used in naming home grounds, streets or localities. A name would not be used in this way unless the object bearing it was held in esteem. I am glad there is an association to encourage the raising of nut trees and I hope to see such trees used in this way extensively, for the purpose of developing attractive scenery as well as for food production.

MR SIMONDS: When Mr. Bixby asked me to prepare a paper and come here and read it, I wrote back I would prepare a paper and send to him to read; and afterwards Mr. Reed came to see me, and knowing that he would be here, I concluded I would come. I dictated a paper and afterwards I found I had left out a few nut trees, and I want to speak just a word regarding those before I read my paper. One of those is the coconut palm. I was thinking more particularly of trees in this locality when I dictated the paper; but the coconut tree aside from raising the coconuts, I think is the most magnificent palm that we have. There are other trees that some like better, but I think the coconut palm is the most picturesque, the finest tree to plant. I prefer it to the other large palms. It has great spreading leaves, sometimes fifteen or twenty feet long, a feathery top, and the trunk is not quite straight, and I like it a little better because it is not. Then here is the English walnut. I did not speak in my paper about the English walnut, but there is a tree that is a beautiful tree, and where it is hardy it should of course be planted for ornament as well as for the nuts. And then there is the almond which we do not have here as a nut tree, but which they have in California, which has some attractions, and might be planted, although it is really not so ornamental as some of the nut trees; still it is worth planting. .

PRESIDENT REED: Are there any questions you would like to ask Mr. Simonds while he is with us, or is there any discussion?

DR. MORRIS: There are two or three points for discussion. Mr. Simonds does not think highly of the almond. I do for decorative purposes. When I drive in my driveway at Stamford and face that magnificent blaze of blazing clouds of almonds in the springtime, I think it is something worth while; it is the hard shelled almond. It will grow as far north as the peach does. The only trouble is they are a little more subject to leaf blight and need a little more attention. But where the peach will grow you can raise the almond profitably. Among the hazel nuts the most beautiful of the entire series is the tree hazel that grows about as large as the smaller oaks, and that is said to bear twenty-five or thirty bushels of hazelnuts a year,--enormous crops. That is perfectly hardy here, and the beauty of the tree is such that I believe it to be a very important addition. I would like to hear Mr. Jones' opinion on that point. I use it for grafting purposes for other hazels. The Japanese walnuts, almost tropical in their rapid growth, sometimes grow six feet in a year in rich ground, and with their great sprays of leaves sometimes a yard in length, and the seedballs of the heart nut variety give really a tropical appearance to the grounds where the ground is rich enough. They will grow almost any place, but in rich ground they are certainly very wonderful. Among the chestnuts, of course, we have a number of hybrids now that resist blight very well; and the little chinkapins for lawn bushes are very attractive. One of our most beautiful chestnuts is splendid for a lawn specimen and is evergreen in the South. When I was a boy I never had plums enough; so one of my ambitions was to have plums enough so I could see some of them rot on the ground. We can do the same thing with nut trees--have nuts enough so the boys will be full and have nuts enough. It seems to me it ought to be one of our ambitions to have so many nut trees along the roadsides in the parks, etc., that the boys and the squirrels can not use them all up.

MR. SIMONDS: I think the Doctor is right in some of his criticisms. In fact, the almond is something like a peach, and I had not prized it for use in landscape work so very much on account of certain diseases which would be apt to affect it here if it were not taken care of as we would take care of trees in an orchard. The hazel tree, of course, would be attractive if it is hardy here. I have had doubts about its being hardy because of its coming from southern Europe.

DR. MORRIS: It is hardy in all Canada. They have fine tree hazels in the park at Rochester. They have there probably the largest tree hazels in the country.

MR. C. A. REED: I would like to have more questions asked. I feel as though I had accomplished a real achievement in getting Mr. Simonds here. I was under him a short time a number of years ago and learned something of his skill as a landscape gardener and the reputation that he has; and I felt that we could not hope to have a better authority on these points that he has discussed than we could in Mr. Simonds; and it is something that is constantly coming up. The Department of Agriculture have to consider that people want to know what trees they can plant in the landscape; and I feel particularly glad to have Mr. Simonds here.

DR. MORRIS: It seems to me we ought to talk more about the nut-bearing pines in the landscape, because where you are planting pine trees, you might as well plant the nut-bearing kind as the others; they are just as beautiful, and you combine the Greek idea of beauty and utility.

MR. SIMONDS: Certainly, that is a tree I have omitted, because in this region we have not had any nuts.

DR. MORRIS: There are four pines that will bear nuts here--the Korean pine, the pignolia or stone pine, the Italian stone pine and the Swiss both. There are five nut bearing pine trees that are all market trees for nuts, that I know will grow and bear here, including the lace bark pine.

MR. SIMONDS: Are they raising nuts in Michigan on pines?

DR. MORRIS: No, but they might. Those five kinds would grow here and bear nuts here, so they have a double value.

MR. SIMONDS: I think we ought to raise them. Of course they are beautiful in the landscape.

DR. MORRIS: The whole idea of your paper is to approach the Greek ideal--add utility to beauty.

MR. SIMONDS: That is what nature does. It makes beautiful leaves, then uses the leaves for plant food.

MR. C. A. REED: I wonder, Dr. Morris, if you can tell where these pines can be had.

DR. MORRIS: The Korean pine is from northeast Asia, and you can get those from the original pine seed; the lace bark pine is from northeastern Asia where the climate is like ours. The Swiss stone pine and the Italian stone pine are from Switzerland and Italy and closely related--both excellent trees. The fruit now you buy as the pignolia in the markets. Both those are sold as pignolia nuts. It is a commercial nut of Europe. The white barked pine you would get from the West. It has a beautiful fine large nut, and you would get that from any Pacific coast dealers in nut trees.

MR. SIMMONDS: Has that another name?

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