stated.) In 1916 and 1917 there were about six bushels of nuts, probably $75 worth. In 1918 a market basket full. In 1919 and 1920 about $40 worth, including some trees sold. In 1921 about $50 worth were produced and in 1922 $60 worth of nuts and $30 worth of trees.

In the president's own filbert nursery at Rochester over 300 pounds of fine nuts were produced for which 30 cents a pound were offered by grocerymen.

Mr. W. R. Mattoon of the Forest Service of the U. S. Dept. of
Agriculture spoke as follows:

Two years ago, when the Forest Service was planning to get up a bulletin on growing walnut trees for timber, we found the need to include information on the nuts also. Mr. C. A. Reed and I together prepared a manuscript on growing the walnut tree both for timber and for nuts.

It pays to grow walnuts in small groups and singly, rather than in large blocks, for while they have not proven altogether failures when planted in large quantities they have been disappointing. Many of the trees which we planted as close as 6 x 8 feet several years ago, have not given very satisfactory results because they have not had enough light and air. The black walnut grows singly in the forest, although there may be full stands of other trees around it. Our idea is to recommend planting the black walnut in spots around on the farm, in little inaccessible places and on the hillsides, where the soil is good; for the black walnut requires good soil, and we cannot find that quality in large patches, nor is it usual on slopes of ground. So we must put it here and there on the farm, along the fence rows and in various places, but not in groups. The farmer planting in this way becomes its wood which is used in the most expensive furniture. I believe that mahogany is the only other wood so valuable. On the other side of the world they have the mahogany tree for cabinet use, and here in America we have the black walnut, a cabinet wood that is not surpassed.

The present available publications on this subject are limited but we are referring people who inquire about it to Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 933, "The Black Walnut, Its Growth and Management." That is midway between a technical and a popular bulletin, and it comprises about the only available publication that we have at the present time on the subject of growing the tree. Farmers' Bulletin No. 1123, "Growing and Planting Hardwood Seedlings on the Farm", deals with the black walnut along with other trees. Another publication is Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 153, "Forest Planting in the Eastern United States," which considers the black walnut along with the other available trees for planting.

MR. OLCOTT: For a small orchard would it be proper to plant 160 to 180 feet apart?

MR. MATTOON: When planted in that way you would get nut production and at the same time, a timber growth. If pruned you get a good log at the base. The small, ten-foot logs from these trees pay as much as you would get for an 18 foot log of a taller tree. For forestry purposes, pruning is a desirable practice.

THE PRESIDENT: But for nut-bearing, what is your opinion?

MR. MATTOON: I should suppose that you would want your orchard trees to be as low-branched as possible, and with as full foliage as possible.

Mr. Bixby (acting as secretary) then read a paper by H. R. Mosnat of Morgan Park, Illinois in which he spoke of the number of doctors interested in nut growing and the need of all men of that character having a hobby of that kind. He thought that the taxes on many farms might be paid out of the profits of nut trees planted on the farms and along the highways. But these nut trees should not be seedling trees. The apple and the black walnut are said to be the only trees that grow in every state of the Union. Nuts were one of the staple foods of our ancestors. We should not be discouraged if we have not yet found the right nut for the East and the Middle West. We should seek them promptly because of the rate at which nut trees are being converted into logs. By next year, he said, he expected to have 25 varieties of black walnuts in his collection including some hybrids. Machines for cracking black walnuts by power are now practically perfect and one firm in that business has cracked about a million pounds in the last few years and expects to treble or quadruple its business this season if supplies can be secured. The trouble with most walnut cracking machines is that they crush instead of crack and small bits of shell are apt to stick to the meats. But there is machinery now to remove these bits of shell. There are wild black walnuts that run 16 to 18 per cent kernels, though the average is only 12-1/2%. It is not always the largest nuts that produce the greatest proportionate weight of kernels. The picking and cracking expense with black walnuts is very little greater than with pecans, but the final cleaning to render the meat absolutely free of shells has been very expensive. Cultivated black walnuts will of course give better results, because they have been selected for easy cracking, have kernels that separate readily from the shell, the product is uniform, and the nuts require much less grading before cracking than the wild black walnuts, where every tree bears nuts differing in size, as in almost every other quality. Figuring 50,000 pounds to the carload it will take about eight carloads of wild black walnuts to make one carload of kernels of the same weight. More and more English walnuts and pecans are being sold in the form of kernels, and black walnuts also will best be sold in kernels. These can be canned in vacuum glass or metal cans, and the housewife will use more nuts when she can get the shell-free meats with her favorite cooking utensil, the can-opener. Confectioners and bakers will take black walnut meats by the carload in preference to other nut meats because they have more flavor, and so "go further."

The growing of black walnuts in a commercial way will require education, but already there is a growing interest. Several of the large weekly publications have, within the last couple of months, carried full page, illustrated articles on black walnuts. One of these, in a magazine of general circulation which is over half a million, within a month resulted in almost one hundred letters asking for additional information, which shows that a great many people want to know more about the possibilities of black walnuts. This interest will certainly increase when profitable black walnut orchards are actually growing and paying good profits. Already men are putting in black walnut orchards or groves of several hundred acres, and one such planting of 1,600 acres is proposed, but it will be partly hardy pecans. This shows rapid development into a real industry of magnitude.

Report of the Secretary.

On March 1, 1923, the treasurer, Mr. W. G. Bixby, handed over to the secretary the funds and books of the association, saying that his time had become so much taken up that he was able to give too little of it to the duties of his office. Thus it became necessary for the secretary to assume the functions of the treasurer as well.

These functions were, in the first place, the payment of the obligations of the association from the funds available. The funds available for current expenses were not sufficient for the payment of these obligations. The secretary therefore took it upon himself to pay these obligations with funds of the association put aside for other purposes. These funds were money received from life membership payments that had been deposited in the Litchfield Savings Society, as a sort of contingent fund, and other funds from the same source held by the treasurer and handed over by him to the secretary. These two funds were completely used up in the payment of current expenses, as will