of three members each to consider and report on the following topics at each annual meeting: first, on promising seedlings; second, on nomenclature; third, on hybrids; fourth, on membership; fifth, on press and publication.

Northern Nut Growers Association

THIRD ANNUAL MEETING

DECEMBER 18 AND 19, 1912

AT LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA

The third annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association was held in the Court House at Lancaster, Pa., beginning December 18, 1912, at 10 A. M.; President Morris presiding.

The Chairman: The meeting will be called to order. We have first an address by the Mayor of Lancaster, Mayor McClean. (Applause.)

Mayor McClean: Ladies and gentlemen of the Northern Nut Growers Association:

The Mayor of a city of the size of this, in which conventions meet so frequently, is so often called upon to make a speech that the prospect of having to do so causes him some disturbance of mind, not only on the day of the delivery of the speech but for many days preceding; but I confess that the invitation to come here today has had no such effect on me. I am very glad to meet and mix up with the members of this organization. The evolutionists tell us where we came from; the theologians, where we are going to; but no matter how much we may differ as to the theories of these respective leaders of thought, upon one thing we can all agree and that is that we are here. You ladies and gentlemen representing the Northern Nut Growers Association are here to interchange opinions and discuss questions which have to do with the greater success of the very useful industry, the youthful and useful industry, in which you are engaged. I am here as the Mayor of this goodly town to tell you that you are not looked upon as intruders; that we will be blind when you help yourselves to our wine flasks, but that we will not be deaf should you ask for more. I am thoroughly in sympathy with the purpose of this organization, understanding it to be the encouragement of the planting of nut bearing trees in order that an addition to our present food supply may be provided; and that much waste land, now profitless, may be taken up and converted to practical and profitable uses; and further that through the medium of such tree planting and tree care as you propose, landscape embellishment in greater degree than that which now exists may be provided. We hear very much about conservation these days and it seems to me that the proposition which you advance is conservation in a very worthy and very high degree. The soil and climate of Lancaster County seem to be peculiarly adapted to the growing of trees bearing nuts and fruits, and I am sure that the result of this convention will be to stimulate locally a very great interest in this worthy undertaking. You have chosen wisely in selecting Lancaster as the place for this meeting, because we feel and we are satisfied that you will agree, after you have been here a few days, that this was the town that Kipling had in mind when he wrote of the town that was born lucky. (Laughter.) Here you will find all the creature comforts, everything that makes for the pleasure of existence, good food and good water, and if there be any of you who have a liking for beverages other than water, it may be some consolation to you to know that in this vicinity the mint beds are not used for pasture, the punch bowls are not permanently filled with carnations, the cock-tail glasses show no signs of disuse and the corkscrew hangs within reach of your shortest member. (Laughter.) We are a great people over this way. Perhaps you are not aware of that, but we bear prosperity with meekness and adversity with patience. We feel that we can say to you, without boasting, if you seek a pleasant country, look about you. You may not know it, but it is a fact and the United States census reports ever since census reports have been made will prove it, that the annual valuation of the agricultural products of the county in which you now sit exceeds that of any other county in all this great nation. (Applause.) Another bit of local history may surprise you when I tell you that the combined deposits of the banks of Lancaster County approximate the enormous amount of fifty million dollars, that they are larger than the total deposits of any one of seven states in the Union that I can name and that they exceed the combined deposits of two of those seven states. But I don't want to take up your time with a recitation of local history, because I feel that your Lancaster colleagues will give you all the information, and I don't want to spoil their pleasure in giving it by anticipating them. I congratulate you upon the success of this convention. I applaud the purpose for which you are united. I felicitate you upon your achievements up to this time, and predict for you a greater measure of usefulness and advantage in the time to come, which usefulness and advantage, let me suggest, can be made yours more promptly, certainly more surely, by your proceeding upon the principle that whatever is of benefit to the organization as a whole must be of benefit to each of its members, either directly or indirectly. I trust that you will go on with this good work and stimulate enthusiasm in your purpose in a nation wide way, working together with one common object, proceeding under the motto of the Three Guardsmen of France, "One For All and All For One." I now extend to you the freedom of the city. Roam where you will. Just one bit of advice I have to give. Contrary, perhaps, to general report, this is not a slow town and therefore you are in more danger of being run down than run in. (Laughter.) I will not follow the time honored practice of handing you the keys of the city, for the reason that when I heard you were on the way, I had the old gates taken off the hinges in order that your incoming might be in no way impeded. (Laughter.) And now, in the name of the city of Lancaster, its heart filled with the sunny warmth of July, I bid you welcome and promise that we will try to extend to you a hospitality as generous as golden October. (Applause.)

The Chairman: Will Mr. Littlepage please respond to the Mayor's kindly address of welcome?

Hon. T. P. Littlepage: Mr. President: On behalf of the members of the Northern Nut Growers Association, I desire to thank the Mayor very cordially for his delightful words of welcome to this city. We feel that the words haven't any strings to them, such as were indicated in a little poem I noticed the other day, which said that a young man took his girl to an ice cream parlor and she ate and she ate and she ate until at last she gave him her heart to make room for another plate. (Laughter.) There apparently isn't anything of that in the cordial welcome which we have received here to this great County of Lancaster. I know now after hearing the Mayor's discourse upon the great resources of this county, why it was that a young fellow who had rambled out into the West and happened to drop into an old fashioned protracted meeting, when asked to come up to the mourners' bench, objected somewhat, and finally when they said, "Well, young man, you've got to be born again;" replied, "No, it isn't necessary, I was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania." (Laughter and applause.) I understand now why the young man was so sanguine, why it wasn't necessary to be born again, even under the auspices of the Great Spirit. It is very gratifying indeed to be in the midst of a great county of this kind that has made one of the great basic industries so successful. It takes three things to make a really great nation; it takes great natural resources, it takes great policies and it takes great