Part 15
As time goes on there should be opportunities to farm out projects to individual growers. Mr. Fickes, for example, by experience and because of his favorable location could well carry out experiment suggested by a specialist, (or as a research worker to help with one of his own.)
It would seem, apart from large scale operations to be mentioned later, that the specialist or expert should make his headquarters a clearing house for information sent by members. It should be his job to study some of the scientific phases of nut culture, such as artificial crossing, pollenizing data on various species and varieties of nut trees, genetic investigations, value of the proper root stocks, and, as time and information would warrant, the publishing of monographs on phases of nut growing. Finally such specialist might consider broadly the problems of securing an increased food supply from Ohio forests.
2. Devote the 9 acres at Apple Creek to nut tree planting. Plant two or three trees of each variety that has especially good traits. Also set out numbers of seedling stock upon which to graft scions of promising trees. By having the main planting near the Experiment Farm, the plant breeder at Wooster should also attend to nut trees.
3. The Forestry Department should procure seed of hardy English walnuts and of other nut trees; grow one-year seedlings and distribute these in small numbers (not over five or six) to people who will plant them in good locations. Such action should be started at once; in twenty years or less something good might result.
4. Continue the planting of all promising varieties of the different species of nut trees at Mahoning so that the bearing habits, production, etc., could be under strict observation and study, and so that a supply of scion wood might be available for other plantings and for commercial propagation.
5. Establish a similar project in some other section of Ohio; the southeastern section would seem to be the logical place when nut growing becomes a commercial industry in Ohio.
6. a. Graft promising hickories in the tops of established hickory seedling trees. There is a volunteer stand of such hickories on the lands of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District that would be ideal for such top-working. No doubt many other such places could be located.
b. Same as "a" but using black walnuts.
c. Same as "a" but using English walnuts.
Suitable black walnut seedlings are now growing on the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District for projects 6b and c.
7. Encourage the planting by the Forestry Department of better seed from the best named varieties. While this would be a long-range program it would be preeminently worth while. The forests of Ohio have all but disappeared. Organizations with vision and unselfishness must begin to replace them.
8. Urge a program of education. Nut trees require good soil and proper care. It would be folly for an organization to sponsor a program for nut tree planting, unless the growers are provided with proper cultural directions. The tendency in the past has been to plant nut trees in out-of-the-way places, and let nature take her course. Nature took her course; the result, scrubby trees and disgruntled planters.
9. Initiate future nut contests for the purpose of arousing public interests in nut growing and for bringing to light new varieties. Four-H clubs, county agents, boy scout troops, sport clubs, all might be urged to co-operate with the Forestry Department, or with our own organizations, in making a state-wide survey for better nuts. One member of the committee thinks that the Ohio Farmer contest did not bring to light all the good wild trees, although every nut grower is indebted to that splendid paper for its cooperation in the past.
10. Favor a moderate amount of publicity. Any plans, developments, or discoveries should be put before the public in scientific journals, farm papers, and the daily press. But propaganda of a sensational of exaggerated nature ought to be discouraged. In other words, the committee thinks that false claims and high pressure publicity on new varieties would do more harm than good.
11. Study the pollenizing problems of all the better varieties of nut trees, especially the black walnut, chestnut and hickory species, and test the better varieties to find those best suited to Ohio conditions.
12. Develop and perfect a simplified means of propagating nut trees and incorporate this information in a bulletin for all who are interested in nut trees. Many farmers and fruit growers shy from nursery prices for nut trees. If they could propagate their own they would be more likely to plant them.
13. a. Urge a means of developing better kinds of nut trees and nut hybrids for Ohio. Specifically, embark upon a program of artificial crossing and hybridizing. While some might object to the length of time required to check results, the committee thinks it possible to check three generations within a 20 year program. This could be expedited by budding or grafting the crossed seedling upon the stock of a bearing tree. The original seedling should be saved to check its growth, shape and other characteristics not apparent in the grafted branch. A Thomas-Elmer Myers cross might possibly combine the desirable traits of both parents, or a McAllister-shagbark cross might increase the productivity of the former. A nut, for example, having the cracking qualities of the English walnut, and the hardiness and retention of flavor when cooked or baked of a black walnut, would be a worthy achievement. Also, securing pollen from a hybrid English black walnut and back crossing with either species might produce the dream tree.
N. B. Hybrid vigor might be a blessing for the quicker growth of all forest trees. Experiments in nut trees might be applied to other species.
13. b. Establish in the same tree two varieties suitable for crossing. This seed should be distributed for propagation by the Forestry Department to public institutions and to others for reforestation on waste lands or water-shed project or private grounds.
By selecting isolated trees for this mating, the nuts would either be self-pollinated or a cross of the desirable varieties. This it would seem would yield better nuts than the hit-an-miss methods of nature.
14. Use a new yard stick for measuring the value of nut trees for commercial production. Size of nut, thickness of shell, cracking qualities are desirable traits but they might not be deciding factors in evaluating a tree. Other factors equally important perhaps even more so, are size of nut clusters, rate of growth, consistency in bearing annual cross, yield per tree of shucked nuts, resistance to blights and insect nests.
15. Compile a list of the best articles that have appeared in the N.N.G.A. reports and print them in pamphlet form for distribution to Ohio growers. All the articles on black walnuts would be found in the one booklet, and so on for all other trees in which Ohioans would be interested.
16. Check carefully the experiences and observations of all the members so as to assemble data on the behavior of nut trees. This information would be more useful in determining what crosses would be desirable. The Thomas nut, for example, has been both praised and condemned. What would be the concensus of opinion on the merits of this much debated variety?
17. Make northern Ohio the nucleus of the N.N.G.A. Geographically and climatically, this section of the state represents an ideal spot for nut tree experimentation, in the northern states. The experiment farms at Wooster and Canfield, the Findley State Forest, the various state properties, all could be brought into a closely knit functioning project.
CONCLUSION
The committee thinks that a 20 year program along these 17 lines, or a modification of them, will eventually prove successful. If such an organization can offer farmers and all others interested in nuts and conservation a better walnut, filbert, hickory or chestnut suitable for Ohio soils and Ohio climate the effort would seem worth while.
So far people interested in nut culture have been called "nuts." Practical-minded people are apt to smile at such nut experiments, but a glimpse at our state proves that nut enthusiasts have vision, and a faith in the future; that they are modern Johnny Appleseeds with more of Johnny's methods but less of his madness.
The history of our state is a history of squandered natural resources, of get-rich-quick methods, of wanton destruction of all forms of plant and animal life. If this organization can in a small way stop the erosion of gullied hillsides, check the rampage of swollen rivers, arrest the fertility of Ohio farms from floating to the Gulf or the Ocean, if it can find some substitute for the magnificent chestnut trees now gone forever, if it can make better nuts grow where none or poor ones grow now, if it can sell conservation and a love of trees to every farmer in Ohio, this organization or any other will be conferring a rich legacy upon future Ohioans.
OBITUARY
_Dr. John Harvey Kellogg_ died at the age of 91 at his home in Battle Creek, Michigan, on December 14, 1943, from pneumonia. Until his death he was one of our two honorary members, the other being his brother, W. K. Kellogg. Our only other honorary members have been Henry Hales, H. E. Van Deman, and Dr. Walter Van Fleet. The Kelloggs were thus honored because of their large gifts to the association, their entertainment of the association twice at Battle Creek, and the numerous papers on nuts as food sent to the association by Dr. Kellogg. He once gave us $500 as prizes for a nut contest. He was present at our Stamford meeting and at those in Battle Creek. A full account of his life and works was printed in the N.Y. Times for December 16, 1943; and from a medical standpoint, in the Journal of the American Medical Association for December 25, 1943, p. 1132. Other accounts may be found in the Michigan newspapers and elsewhere. He was certainly one of our most eminent members. He was resolute and sincere in his beliefs, forceful and persistent in advocating them though they differed quite radically from the beliefs of most of the medical profession. He would not permit his patients to use alcohol, tobacco, meat in any form, or tea and coffee. Those who had been excessive users of these things were often immensely benefitted by a stay in a Kellogg sanitorium. He joined our association on account of his advocacy of nuts as food to replace in part the absence of meat. Of late years he had laid more emphasis on soy beans. Whatever may be thought of his radical views on food there can be no doubt that he did an immense amount of good not only by his treatment of individual patients but also by the wide dissemination of his teaching and his invention of many useful forms of so-called "health foods."
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