From C. K. Sober, Lewisburg, Pa.:

My bearing chestnut trees, most of them, have gone out but in the 40 acres of chestnut nursery stock I find there are thousands of trees that seem to be immune from the blight up to this time. While they stand right beside trees in the nursery that have died from blight yet there is not a spot on them.

From W. O. Potter, Marion, Illinois:

I am putting forth every effort to develop a nut orchard here in southern Illinois the like of which will not be excelled in this state. My pecans are doing nicely. I have five acres already set to budded trees and fifteen acres planted to seedlings which I hope to bud next year. I have budded chestnuts, black walnuts and almost all varieties of nuts that will grow here in the North. I am using filberts for fillers among my pecans.

I have just harvested my first crop of filberts from my experimental garden here in town and my bushes at Halcyon Frunut Gardens (this is the name of my nut farm) are growing nicely and some have catkins for next year's crop. The filberts that I have just harvested were borne from three Cosford bushes of the French strain. I have some German strain that I received from Mr. McGlennon that are full of catkins for next year.

I had some pecans to bloom last spring, but they failed to set any nuts. I have about a peck from two budded Thomas black walnut trees that are four and five years old. I have one Stabler that has two nuts on it now only three years from transplant. My Rush seedling chinquapin that bore last year has only about six nuts on it this year but they have not yet matured.

I hope some day to have a nut orchard that will be the show place of southern Illinois and then I will invite the association to have an annual meeting here and at my farm.

From G. H. Corsan, Toronto, Canada:

This time I can say that my trees never looked so well. All passed through last winter and the terrible winter of three years ago. My list consists of the following: Constantinople hazelnuts, Kent filberts, Manchurian juglans regia, Jap heart nuts, Pomeroy juglans regia, Canadian seed juglans regia, common native chestnuts, Col. Sober's paragon chestnuts, castanea crenata.

The chestnuts grow a foot more from all terminal branches, not a twig winter-killed. Constantinople hazelnuts grew two feet from all terminal branches and not a bud winter-killed. Kent filberts killed back some branches, others did not, grew well this summer from 1½ feet to a yard.

There is a huge crop of Pomeroy paragon chestnuts on my trees this year. No blight near me, as thank heaven the farmers around me are too stupid to plant chestnut trees and in fact no farmer ever planted a nut tree with two exceptions within 20 miles of me. But one farmer by name of Anderson planted a mile of black walnuts along the roadside 75 years ago. These trees are loaded with nuts and boys just now and they reach away up higher than the tallest phone wire (that is the lowest branches do).

All juglans regias grew a yard from each terminal bud. My Pomeroys after killing back for several years have at last got a real good start and are going to live and bear. When I see a bluish tinge to the leaf of juglans regia, together with a smooth glossy leaf, not too long—having 7 and not 17 leaves to the stalk—and having a very white grey bark, then I know that the nut will be EXTRA good, and though that type of tree is a bit tender and requires water in the early and mid-dry summer, as well as hard wood ashes, lime and chicken manure in the late fall, this is the tree that on the north aide of Lake Ontario where I am now some day will bear and ripen real nuts.

My grapes and peaches ripen well this fall, though we as all others had a late spring and my Indiana and Iowa pecans actually grew 2 feet from terminal buds.

Were I an old man of 80 I would plant nut trees to the exclusion of every other work. First, I would be growing a crop of food 150 years after my death. Second, I believe that every man who has vitality to live over 80 has been a bad man in his youth and he owes it to the world. Third, it is a healthy occupation, stooping down and digging and takes the rust and poisons out of the system. Fourth, there is a joy seeing the leaves and branches grow the next summer and in old age one must feed and take joy from the eye and ear more and more and less and less from the mouth and stomach. Fifth, it is not at all an unreasonable supposition that as a boy again I may be climbing the same trees that I planted. And if I know for certain that I would not be then some other boy will take my place.

The salvation of the future is more and more food from trees and less and less from animal sources. The day is fast passing when the farm consists of a tobacco barn, a pig pen, a cow stable and a hennery. From living upon a badly selected type of food we fear the flu and other diseases. No disease will ever come out of a nut tree. But we are a lot of fools and blame the absolutely innocent cucumber for what a vile mixture of salt and vinegar does to us and thus these same asses will say, "that nuts are unhealthy" and we pay a billion dollars out every three months to have the dentists fix our teeth that never receive any nut grinding exercise!

From J. F. Jones, Lancaster, Pa.:

I expect as you do that there will be no need of much room for the convention. The fact is that without any commercial nut planting in the territory covered by the Northern Nut Growers Association it is remarkable that there has been as much interest as there is. I happen to know that the southern pecan (National) Association was kept going by the nurseries down there for a good many years, or largely by them, and without the commercial planting of the pecan there I do not think the Association would have kept going very long even if it had been founded.

I believe eventually there will be some interest in commercial planting north but it will go pretty slow and be after our time I judge. In commercial planting I mean plantings of not less than ten acres. I occasionally sell orders of 50 and even 100 trees, but they are usually scattered as to kinds and varieties of nuts and evidently designed to test out on a fair scale the merits of the different nuts. A man was here a few days ago and gave me an order for nearly a hundred black walnut trees. He has been planting for several years, starting with a half dozen trees three or four years ago and reports the trees doing fine. I presume you could call his planting this year a small commercial planting as that is what he has in mind.

The boom in planting fruit trees has taken some interest away from nut planting and this will continue as long as fruit is selling well.

From T. C. Tucker, Sail Francisco, Ca.:

Your program for the approaching meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association, which has just reached me, is a most interesting one. It is with regret that I find I shall not be able to be with you. This is shipping season for the California Almond Industry and my presence here at this time is imperative.

While through the California Almond Growers Exchange I have for some time been a member of the Northern Nut Growers Association, I have not as yet had the pleasure of meeting with you, but I want to extend you a cordial invitation to visit California and I hope that at some future date a convention of the Northern Nut Growers Association will be held in this state. Here, as nut growers, you will find much of interest. This is the only state in the Union producing almonds commercially. Our 1919 crop was worth approximately $4,000,000.00 and represented 7000 tons of nuts. Here in this state we also produce the California Walnuts which in 1919 brought a return of approximately $20,000,000.00. Both of these industries are in their infancy, particularly is this true of the almond. It is estimated that there are 100,000 acres in California planted to almonds, the major portion of which is non-bearing.

We are now preparing for the future through an energetic sales campaign and by making plans for manufacturing by using almonds in new and attractive preparations. In 1919, the California Almond Growers Exchange, a non-profit association of 3800 farmers, spent approximately $208,000.00 for National Advertising and the expenditure in 1910 will exceed a quarter of a million dollars. This is done not only to sell the crops of 1919 and 1920 advantageously, but to educate the consumer up to the high food value of the almond and incidentally to lay a substantial foundation for future business.

We believe that the outlook for the California Almond is promising, but it is only as promising as the growers co-operate to that end. We believe that by a strong association of growers, quality and grades can be improved, distribution widened and the public made acquainted with the value of our product through the medium of our advertising.

We are also taking up at this time the cultural question endeavoring to eliminate the undesirable varieties and improve those which are commercially profitable.

We have some eighty odd varieties of almonds in this state, many of which are not known commercially. You will thus see that we have quite a problem in cultural lines.

The principal object of the Northern Nut Growers Association, I believe, is the diffusion of knowledge on cultural questions, but a word of co-operative marketing may not be amiss.

Our investigations have shown that for twenty-five years before the war Nonpareil Almonds (our highest priced variety) retailed at about 30c per pound. The grower received from 7c to 10c per pound, the average being close to 8c. This was before the association was formed. After the association was organized, the grower received, through co-operative marketing and by the elimination of speculation and waste in distribution, a range of from 14c to 20c for Nonpareils with an average of approximately 16c while the price to the consumer remained about 35c. During the past two years, the price to the consumer has of course advanced to meet the increase in cost of transportation, cost of doing business and of production. As a matter of fact, the increase in price to the consumer has not kept pace with the big increase in the cost of production. The point I wish to make, however, is that co-operative marketing has on the average, by the elimination of speculation and, as before said, by minimizing waste in distribution, secured for the almond grower a living price.

We do not believe that the marketing problems of the farmer will ever be satisfactorily solved until he takes them up through co-operative methods and solves them himself.

My work for the past eleven years has been in connection with the sale of almonds and I am happy to say that while our country is going through a period of trying re-adjustment at the present time, the association has meant to the almond growers of California a wonderful insurance against loss. The consumer, too, has been benefited as this association has been able to lay down almonds in the markets of the United States at a lower distribution cost than would otherwise have been possible.

However, assuming that this convention is interested mostly in cultural questions, I shall refrain from further discussing the marketing problem. Let us not however, lose sight of the fact that it matters not what may be the quality of our product if we cannot dispose of it at a profit.

A satisfactory margin of profit means improved varieties, better culture, increased yields and better satisfied producers. Scientific yields and better satisfied producers. Scientific cultural effort, to achieve its highest possibilities must inevitably be linked with commercial success.