At the thirteenth annual convention of the Northern Nut Growers' Association, held at Rochester, N. Y., September 7, 8 and 9, 1922, a committee was appointed to express the feeling of the association at the death of one of its life members, Coleman K. Sober, at the age of seventy-nine, at his home in Lewisburg, Pa., in December 1921, and to inform his family of its action.

Colonel Sober, as he was most often called, was a frequent attendant at the meetings of the association in its early history. He was a pioneer in the culture of the chestnut in America and the grower and distributor of a variety which he called the Sober Paragon. He developed the production of this valuable variety, and its nursery stock, on a large scale and had demonstrated chestnut growing as the first of the established nut industries in the northeastern United States. He devised methods of grafting and cultivating the chestnut and invented means and machinery for harvesting and shelling the nuts, for which he found a ready market at good prices.

A man of strong personality, capable of large operations and unaccustomed to failure he found it hard to admit defeat of his deeply cherished purpose, and success already within his grasp, by that great national calamity the invasion of this country by the fatal chestnut blight. Undoubtedly he foresaw, as did other advocates of nut culture, the great help and stimulus to the industry that would result from the commercial success of chestnut culture, and it was a bitter disappointment to him to find himself helpless before the irresistable progress of the blight. This failure came too late in life for him to recover and develop new fields in nut culture which, let us believe, he would have done if he had been younger, for we know that he was an advocate of the roadside planting of nut trees and a supporter of the efforts of those of us who are striving for the success of all forms of nut culture.

Nut growing and this association have lost an able and energetic worker.

An account of Col. Sober's life and works may be found in the August 1922 number of the American Nut Journal.

Telegram from Washington, D. C.

TO JAMES S. MCGLENNON:

Deeply regret my inability attend thirteenth annual meeting. Am sure it will be great success and all will enjoy trip to your beautiful city and surrounding country. The next few years will show fine results of efforts our Association, and nut culture in north will take on new life and result in planting thousands of acres trees. I hope Washington will be selected as place for next annual meeting.

T. P. LITTLEPAGE

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Lincoln, Nebraska, September 5, 1922

My Dear McGlennon:

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be in your city this week. I have been through your city five times in three years. If I had known what you have there I should have stopped there three years ago. Since it is impossible for me to be there at this time I will save my coin to purchase trees and nuts for next year.

Dr. Deming's wonderful discovery of a monster pecan tree in Hartford, Conn., together with native pecans north of Burlington, Iowa also two Iowa pecan trees growing in this city for twenty-eight years, makes the field for pecan trees a very large one viz. from the Gulf to the forty-first parallel. Tell Dr. Deming we trust his wonderful discovery does not prove to be a pignut.

Our opportunities in the north for growing nut trees I think are wonderful.

The association with you will be a great success.

Sincerely,

W. A. THOMAS.

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August 23, 1922.

MR. JAMES S. MCGLENNON,
Rochester, N. Y.
Dear Sir:—

I wish to thank you for your very kind letter of the eighteenth, and beg to assure you that it would afford me great pleasure to attend and meet you and others who are doing constructive work in the cause of nut culture. Unfortunately it will not be possible for me to do so. I have been on the sick list for the past few weeks which with my eighty-five years has left me so weak that I could not endure the fatigue connected with such an undertaking.

I would much like to see the results of your work with filberts, as I believe that is one branch of nut growing that can be made a success. Some years ago I planted out some filberts and they grew very well and tried to bear nuts. But unfortunately they had been planted near some woods that contained some squirrels who invariably ate all the nuts before the time they were half grown, so I grubbed them out. Recently I planted some more farther removed from woods and hope to see them fruit soon.

Some years ago I caused some filberts to be planted in ground used by the State Horticultural Society for testing new fruits. These are still living and bearing good crops.

I feel sure you will have a good meeting and am very sorry I can not be with you. Give my best regards to my nut growing friends, to all of whom a cordial invitation is extended to visit me and see what I am doing here with chestnuts.

Truly

E. A. RIEHL.

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NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION GENEVA, N. Y.

June 24, 1922.

Dear Dr. Deming:

It is kind indeed of you to ask me to help you out in your coming convention. Were I to be in the country I should be very glad to do anything I could to help out. I am leaving in a few days, however, to spend the summer in Europe and shall not be home at the time of your meeting.

You may be interested in knowing that we are growing some almonds on the Station grounds and that we have been trying to cross them with peaches. We think we have a cross but just what it will amount to I do not know. At any rate, we are living in hopes that sometime we may breed an almond for this part of the world. We are doing something with other nuts but not as much as I should like. We are always hoping that opportunity may offer to do more and possibly we shall be able to within a year or two.

Very truly yours,

U. P. HEDRICK.

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The Battle Creek Sanitarium
Battle Creek, Michigan
September 5, 1922.

MR. JAMES S. McGLENNON,
Rochester, New York

Dear Sir:—

Enclosed you will find my paper.

I am very sorry, indeed, that I could not be with you, but an unexpected amount of surgical work compelled me to remain at home. I hope you will have a most successful convention. The Nut Growers Association, in my opinion, may prove one of the most important factors in the world movement for race betterment.

Sincerely yours,

JOHN HARVEY KELLOGG.