Read Ebook: Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 43rd Annual Meeting Rockport Indiana August 25 26 and 27 1952 by Northern Nut Growers Association Editor

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using modern techniques in securing new varieties of hardy nut trees. Some progress in hybridization, of course, has been made, particularly with the filberts, the hybrids developed by J. F. Jones, G. L. Slate, S. H. Graham, Heben Corsan and some others, showing great improvement over previous European varieties in their adaptability to the northern United States. At the present time there are filbert varieties of hybrid origin better than those in the nursery trade which should be propagated and made available. Work with the Chinese chestnuts has also been valuable.

It is my opinion, which I believe is shared by most of those who are familiar with progress in securing new varieties, that we are not likely to find in the wild, varieties or clones which show any marked improvement over those already found and named. There is, of course, always the possibility of the "perfect nut" arising as a chance variation. The recent walnut and hickory contests, however, have been somewhat disappointing for they have not discovered any variety of black walnut better than the Thomas for instance, or a hickory much better than some of those located years ago. This does not mean that members of the Association should not keep a sharp lookout for new varieties occurring spontaneously which will be better than existing sorts. It does mean, however, that if real "breaks" are to be secured, it will be necessary to apply some of the more effective techniques which are known in the plant breeding field. Any such program is a long time project and can only be effectively attempted by experiment stations, or by some of the young men, who begin now to make crosses under the direction or at least with the advice of those who are familiar with plant breeding techniques.

Progress has been made in the Association organization. The constitution has been thoroughly overhauled and amended, particularly to provide for regional groups. Certainly such groups are to be encouraged and have done and will do much to strengthen the national organization in the various states. It is my personal opinion that these regional groups can be of particular value in working with the experiment stations and legislatures to promote the interests of the Association. The state associations should be on the alert to build on the interests of conservation departments as related to wildlife preserves and sportsmen's clubs and other agencies which put the growing of nut trees in proper perspective. I am not at all in favor of securing either federal or state support for every minor project which comes along. However, the Northern Nut Growers Association need make no apologies for its program, particularly as it is related to the conservation of our natural resources; to the promotion of better living on the farm and those values which are real and great, even though they do not show up large in dollar value of crops produced.

Unfortunately, projects in nut growing have been started in various states, particularly Ohio and Michigan only to be eliminated before they really got under way because of lack of support. Experiment station directors, if they are confronted with a shortage of funds, are likely to run the blue pencil through items which cannot be backed up with economic considerations. The approach of the Northern Nut Growers Association it seems to me should not be to seek support on an economic basis but rather on the basis of better living on the farm, improvement of gardens and farmsteads and the advantages of growing nut trees as compared with any other horticultural activity. There has been a real increase in the importance which is given to this approach in recent times and an active state association, which can keep in touch with local conditions and call on the national association for additional support, will certainly be of great assistance in the future.

I personally am not in favor of any sort of a set up by which the national association gives a kick back of national dues to a regional association. The dues are inadequate for the national association at the present time. Looking at the whole situation with some perspective, it would seem that the regional associations might contribute to the national association rather than the reverse. If the constitution and by-laws of the Association are not such as to make affiliation with the national association and the formation of regional associations easy, they can readily be changed to secure the very best pattern that can be devised.

Perhaps one of the most acute problems with which the Association is faced is the struggle to keep financially solvent. We are all aware of our changing economy, particularly the increased costs of printing and in fact of everything that our organization uses or needs, even postage. In my thinking, the finances of the Association are much the same as those of an individual, who is confronted with expenditures that exceed his income. The things that have to be done are obvious and the same in both cases. One is to spend less and the other is to secure more funds. In the judgment of your directors and executive committee, expenditures have been reduced as low as is safe in order to keep a going organization. Members join the Association for the value which they get out of it and a large part of this value is in the form of reports, newsletters, information made available and the organization of annual meetings. If these services were discontinued or curtailed, membership falls off. This has been the experience of other plant societies, of which there are many.

In my judgment retrenchment is not the answer in the present situation. Securing additional funds is the best forward-looking policy. The question comes up as to how this may be done. Experience in our Association and I believe other associations as well, has shown that .00 is about as far as dues can be raised. There comes a point with every society when, if the dues are increased, there is a falling off of membership, which more than offsets the gain. Other obvious procedures are: increasing the number of members; providing different types of memberships to encourage larger contributions; gifts; and special fund raising projects. Of these various ways and means, certainly increasing the number of members is by far the more promising. The overhead of the association is not increased with additional memberships anywhere near in proportion to the contributions of those members. This is particularly true for additional copies of the report and general office expense. The drive for new members under President Best's leadership has produced gratifying results and I believe if this is continued effectively through the next few years, a membership increase can be secured that will assure the Association's balancing its budget. Somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand paid memberships would solve most of our financial difficulties. Provision is already made for different types of memberships and it is to be hoped that many who can do so will join the contributing member class at least until we are out of our present financial woods.

Other societies raise considerable revenue through special projects such as the sale of publications of one kind or another, seed distribution or slide rental. The type of material with which the Northern Nut Growers Association deals is not comparable to some of these other organizations but certainly the possibilities of revenue through special projects need to be explored.

Research with northern nut trees is exceedingly important from the standpoint of accomplishing the objectives of the Association. The matter of breeding new varieties has already been touched on. Other types of research are such that a large part must be carried on by experiment stations which have a continuing program. Much has been done in securing observational information by Association members themselves but some problems are such that they must be continued over a long period of time and set up with adequate checks and provision for securing significant data. Otherwise the results are of no real value. Granted we need all the sound observational experience that all the members can bring to our problems, there are still aspects of culture of northern nut trees that need continuing program of scientific research.

Fortunately, much of the cultural information secured with nut crops of economic value is directly applicable to northern nut trees. This is true of the work with northwestern filberts, western walnuts, southern pecans and even the tung industry. There comes a point, however, when information thus gained needs to be checked under the specific conditions where the crops are grown and very little research has been done in the northern states where the hardy nuts are important.

Of special importance to the northern nut growers is the control of diseases and insects. At the present time the bunch disease of walnuts is becoming increasingly more troublesome and very little is known as to how this is spread or how it may be controlled. In my own filbert planting, the hazel bud mite during past years has made the crop practically a failure. Little apparently is known as to the life history of this insect or when miticides might be applied. Examples such as the bunch disease and mite damage are multiplied many times with other diseases of local or regional importance. In my thinking our best hope for getting something done is to encourage the Departments of Entomology and Plant Pathology in the experiment stations to take up these disease and insect problems, which might be attacked by graduate students as thesis subjects, even though the economic importance is not great.

As I see the situation of the Association, there is need for its members to produce more nuts of better quality. Nothing intrigues the interest of potential members as much as actually seeing and tasting locally grown samples of nuts of superior varieties. On several occasions I have tried to assemble collections of nuts for exhibit or to buy them for one purpose or another and found great difficulty in finding sources of supply. This was particularly true in the fall of 1951 when we were trying to assemble nuts for "The Things of Science" project. We wanted very much to secure Carpathian walnuts that could be sent out and used for seed purposes. There was no source to which we could turn. In several possible sources of supply, husk maggots had so infested the crop that the nuts were discolored and unattractive. It might have been possible to secure enough black walnuts to include in the kit but the problem of state quarantines against the bunch disease could not be easily adjusted.

Finally I believe the Northern Nut Growers Association is doing a very significant work. Our emphasis at the present time at least might very well be on nut growing as a hobby and for conservation, for better shade trees and for better living on the farms and homesteads rather than to emphasize the commercial angles. This will come in time if it can really be demonstrated that growing northern nut trees is a profitable venture. In these days of job specialization everyone needs a hobby and an outlet for special interests. I know of few other fields of endeavor for those who like growing things than the rewards that are to be found in the growing of hardy nut trees.

MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSION

The Monday afternoon session was convened at one o'clock p.m.

PRESIDENT MacDANIELS: The afternoon session will please be in order.

The first paper this afternoon will be, "The Future of Your Nut Planting," Mr. W. F. Sonnemann, Vandalia, Illinois.

The Future of Your Nut Planting

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to appear before the Northern Nut Growers Association. I am just a sprout as far as nut growing is concerned, when we consider the age of some of our old hickory nut trees.

About 25 years ago, I became interested in nut growing and, in particular, the river-bottom hickory nut tree. Then we had so many nut trees growing in the bottom that we never thought of trying to plant a tree or look after one. People could gather all the nuts they wanted and often the trees were cut just to get the nuts. They'd lay a stick of dynamite at the base of the tree to shake the nuts off.

After a few years of that, I thought we might do something to save the nut trees for the future generations. That's when I first started to plant some nuts. Incidentally, I made a big mistake, by not joining the Northern Nut Growers Association.

Naturally, I wanted the largest pecan I could find. I went to the St. Louis market and bought and planted nice Papershell pecans--very nice pecans, but the trees do not mature their crop. Mr. McDaniel and I tried to top-work them, but that's a big job. Had I joined the Northern Nut Growers Association, I could have avoided a lot of those mistakes.

There are some things that I found out in practicing law that can very well apply to nut growing. If you will pardon the reference to personal experience, I can bring forth to you about four situations. One, a good, close friend of mine had a vacant lot close to his home. He had been planting nut trees and papaw trees and persimmon trees for years. On this vacant lot he had a 25-year-old Busch walnut growing back on the alley, on the lawn was a beautiful Japanese flowering cherry, and there were two pecan trees in the yard proper. He sold the lot to a neighbor whose wife was just crazy about flowers, little dreaming that those trees would ever be cut down. I don't believe the ink of the recorder had been cooled or dried before that English walnut was cut down, the Japanese cherry grubbed out of the front lawn, and one of the pecan trees was cut. It just about broke the old owner's heart, and all he could say was, "I am just disappointed in my neighbors." And now there is a house being erected there, and the pecan tree that was 12 inches in diameter was cut. That could have been prevented, had this man given thought to the future.

Another man, named Hagen, who was instrumental in getting me interested in nut growing, had a nice group of river-bottom shellbark trees growing in his field. One of these has been propagated and named the Hagen, and although it isn't a good cracking quality, it's a very large nut.

Another instance of protecting nut trees was when the new U. S. Highway 40 was built across Illinois. I had the job of condemning the right of way and when the engineer and I were out walking over it we noticed a fine group of hickory nut trees on the hillside. I remarked what a nice group of trees it was. He said, "Yes, that's going to be a borrow pit up there." I said, "You mean they are going to destroy those trees?" He said, "Yes, dirt from this borrow pit will make the fill across this bottom."

I said, "Why can't we get the dirt somewhere else? Dirt is dirt."

And the engineer said, "Well, that's the plans." We had a little contrariness there, and I had to threaten to drop the case as far as that tract of land was concerned. If you fight long enough and hard enough in such cases you may find some other person who is interested in nut trees. We did; we found an engineer higher up, and that group of hickory trees is now a picnic area. They used a borrow pit somewhere else, and it gives me a great pleasure to drive past that group of hickory trees and see them still standing there. In the fall of the year you'd be surprised at the number of people at that picnic area, and they keep those hickory nuts picked up clean as fast as they fall.

In our county hospital just started they happened to select a piece of ground I own an interest in for a county hospital. On that are some good hickory nut trees. I told them they'd never get the land until they made some arrangements in regard to those nut trees. The engineer that designed that hospital must have had some sense, because they are building a canopy around one of the trees adjacent to that hospital, and have arranged to cut only one scrub oak. The other trees will be mentioned in the deed with restrictive covenants to protect them.

If you sign anything a company gives you, you are liable to have anything cut on your land. Remember the saying that "the big print gives it to you and the fine print takes it away." And it's the fine print you want to watch in all your right of ways or in your condemnation proceedings.

I know a man who had almost 160 acres of river-bottom hickories. During his lifetime he was very careful about those trees. He would cut the brush around the trees and harvest those hickory nuts as if it was a crop of corn or beans. Upon his death his children were scattered over the various states. They didn't care anything for this hickory grove. It's been cut. Now there is a bulldozer in there trying to clean out those hickory stumps. They are not making much progress. All you now have in that farm is 160 acres of old tree stumps, wild honey-suckle vines, poison ivy and poison oak, and even a coon hunter gripes when he has to take his dogs through there on a coon hunt. Those heirs care nothing about it.

In selling land it doesn't make any difference whether it's a sale to a neighbor, or to a friend or a stranger, you should protect any trees that you have growing upon that land by what we term a covenant running with the land, and that means if a deed is made it will provide that certain trees shall not be cut within a certain period of time. In one case where I am forced to sell some land I am protecting the trees for 10 years.

Each of these situations requires research under your own state laws. I had hoped to be able to tell you something definite and precise as to each situation, but when I considered the membership in the Northern Nut Growers, the many states it covers and the great difference in the state laws, it's just impossible to lay your hand upon one set of facts that governs. You should consult your attorney who is dealing with your transactions and tell him specifically what you have in mind and what you want to protect. He will know whether your state recognizes covenants running with your land and what provision can be made to protect trees that you want to save or secure damages.

Remember, in any transaction, if it is not in the written instrument that you sign, it's just an oral agreement that you make on the side, and it doesn't mean a thing. It has to be in the paper that you sign.

As I mentioned briefly, in what they call "eminent domain", the state has a right to take property for public use. The only thing you can do there is just get your head square and fight, and if you are stubborn enough, you may find someone in the organization that you are dealing with who has some interest in trees. They may not be members of the Northern Nut Growers Association or any tree association, but there are some people who appreciate trees and who do realize how long it takes to have a nice pecan tree or nice hickory nut tree growing.

If they call you contrary, that you won't give in to anything, let them call you contrary, let them call you nuts, but you can protect your trees and make sure that their future is secure.

What will happen to your trees after you are dead? Each individual's situation has to be considered separately. In many states you can provide by will to whom you want your nut planting to go, or you can, by making a trust, give the trees to trustees with certain powers and duties to care for and manage them for a period of time or perpetually, depending on the laws of your state. Usually it is limited to the life of some person or 21 years. In that length of time if your heirs or the person you desire these trees to go to have not educated themselves to the value of the tree, then the planting will be lost anyway.

In all of these cases and all the transactions that you make, if you value your trees--and you surely do when you will carry water for them and plant them and dig that large hole for those roots--it is worth while to look after them during the trees' lifetime, not your own lifetime. And if you will consult with your attorney, particularly mention those trees to him and just exactly what your ideas are, I think you will be assured that you will have a future for nut trees.

PRESIDENT MacDANIELS: Thank you, Mr. Sonnemann.

Are there any questions you wish to ask on this subject. Here is a chance to get free legal advice on the spot. That's unusual.

DR. GRAVATT: There is one point I'd like to bring out, backing up what the gentleman just said. You know we introduced back in 1928 to 1936 very large numbers of Chinese and Japanese chestnuts. Most of them went out to state forestry departments and such; somewhere around a half million trees. We have had some very valuable cooperative orchard plantings, which have been lost because something happened to the man, he moved away, sold his property, or died. With these gentlemen who have passed away, experimental orchard plantings and other trees were part of their lives, but their children, or whoever inherited the property, had no interest in continuing the work.

We have had the same experience with some agricultural experiment stations where one of the horticulturists is interested in the plantings, but has moved away, and we have lost our plantings.

PRESIDENT MacDANIELS: Thank you, Dr. Gravatt. Mr. Becker, do you wish to say something about the Reed Memorial?

MR. BECKER: This is just a word of appreciation to a number of the Northern Nut Growers members who have helped out with the C. A. Reed Memorial.

When we organized the Michigan Nut Growers Association last January it was Professor O'Rourke's idea to have a memorial at Mr. Reed's home town, which is Howell, Michigan. With Mrs. Reed's approval we planned as our first project, planting a nut tree with a suitable plaque in memory of the late Dr. Reed.

As a followup, we issued a little bulletin asking for contributions toward the memorial. We sent these out to people who knew Mr. Reed, many of whom are among this group.

Response has been gratifying and we now have approximately toward the tablet. On Arbor Day a Michigan variety of shagbark hickory called the Abscoda was planted at Howell on the library grounds. The services were conducted with the cooperation of the Michigan State College and the Livingston County garden group. This is a word of appreciation and also to explain what we have done. Thank you.

PRESIDENT MacDANIELS: We will go on to the next paper, "The Value of a Tree," Ferdinand Bolten, Linton, Indiana. Mr. Bolton.

MR. BOLTEN: Members of the Northern Nut Growers Association and ladies and gentlemen: I am just a farmer. I am not a speech-maker, like the lawyer here who makes his living talking. I make my living farming, and I have some ideas, views that I'd like to bring before you.

The Value of a Tree

Members of the Northern Nut Growers Association, ladies, and gentlemen. It may be a little unusual for a fruit grower and farmer to be on this program; however, I have lived a lifetime working with trees on the same farm I was born on sixty-six years ago last May. We have one hundred acres of orchard, several varieties of nut trees, including English walnut, pecans, hybrid pecans or hicans, hickories, filberts, hazelnuts, heart nuts, butternuts, black walnuts; also, persimmons, pawpaws, hybrid oaks and many of the native forest trees. In operating a farm this size, you naturally get a lot of experience and headaches. A very good friend of mine told me a joke that I think fits in with my farm very well. He said a fruit grower delivered a load of apples to the insane asylum. One of the inmates was helping unload the apples. The inmate kept talking about apples, so the grower asked him if he was ever on a fruit farm. The inmate replied that he was before he came to the asylum and, in return, asked the grower if he had ever been in the asylum. The grower replied that he had not. Then the inmate said, "Mr., I have been both places, and I can tell you something. It is a lot nicer here than it is on a fruit farm".

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