id="id00195">ARTICLE II. The names of all members whose dues have not been paid by
January 1st shall be dropped from the rolls of the Society. Notices of
non-payment of dues shall be mailed to delinquent members on or about
December 1st.

ARTICLE III. The Annual Report shall be sent to only those members who have paid their dues for the current year. Members whose dues have not been paid by January 1st shall be considered delinquent. They will not be entitled to receive the publication or other benefits of the Association until dues are paid.

SECTION V.—MEETINGS

ARTICLE I. The place and time of the Annual Meeting shall be selected by the membership in session or, in the event of no selection being made at this time, the Board of Directors shall choose the place and time for the holding of the annual convention. Such other meetings as may seem desirable may be called by the President and Board of Directors.

SECTION VI.—PUBLICATIONS

ARTICLE I. The Association shall publish a report each fiscal year and such other publications as may be authorized by the Association.

ARTICLE II. The publishing of the report shall be the responsibility of the Committee on Publications.

SECTION VII.—AWARDS

ARTICLE I. The Association may provide suitable awards for outstanding contributions to the cultivation of nut bearing plants and suitable recognition for meritorious exhibits as may be appropriate.

SECTION VIII.—STANDING COMMITTEES

As soon as practical after the Annual Meeting of the Association, the
President shall appoint the following standing committees:

1. Membership 2. Auditing 3. Publications 4. Survey 5. Program 6. Research 7. Exhibit 8. Varieties and Contests

SECTION IX.—REGIONAL GROUPS AND AFFILIATED SOCIETIES

ARTICLE I. The Association shall encourage the formation of regional groups of its members, who may elect their own officers and organize their own local field days and other programs. They may publish their proceedings and selected papers in the yearbooks of the parent society subject to review of the Association's Committee on Publications.

ARTICLE II. Any independent regional association of nut growers may affiliate with the Northern Nut Growers Association provided one-fourth of its members are also members of the Northern Nut Growers Association. Such affiliated societies shall pay an annual affiliation fee of $3.00 to the Northern Nut Growers Association. Papers presented at the meetings of the regional society may be published in the proceedings of the parent society subject to review of the Association's Committee on Publications.

SECTION X.—AMENDMENTS TO BY-LAWS

ARTICLE I. These by-laws may be amended at any Annual Meeting by a two-thirds vote of the members present provided such amendments shall have been submitted to the membership in writing at least thirty days prior to that meeting.

Forty-Third Annual Meeting

Northern Nut Growers Association

August 25, 26, 27, 1952

Spencer County Court House, Rockport, Ind.

The opening session of the Forty-third Annual Meeting of the Northern
Nut Growers Association convened at 9:20 o'clock, a.m., at the Spencer
County Court House, President L. H. MacDaniels presiding.

PRESIDENT MacDANIELS: The gavel with which we open this forty-third annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association has some historical significance. It was made from a pecan tree which grew in the orchard of Mr. Thomas Littlepage in Maryland, near the city of Washington, and it has been the custom of the Association to open its meetings with that gavel.

The forty-third meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association will be in order. To open the session we will have the presentation of the colors. You will all stand, please, and remain standing through the invocation. (Colors presented by Boy Scouts and the invocation given by the Reverend William Ellis of Rockport.)

PRESIDENT MacDANIELS: At this time we will call on Mr. Hilbert Bennett to bring us greetings from the people of Rockport. Mr. Bennett of Rockport.

Address of Welcome

HILBERT BENNETT, Rockport, Ind.

Some are here that were here in 1935 and 1939. I was on the Citizen's
Committee in each of those years. It was the purpose of the Citizen's
Committee to take notice of your coming and to try to make you
appreciate our interest in you and in your coming.

Why was I on that Committee in 1935?

Why was I on that Committee in 1939?

Why am I on that Committee in 1952?

I will tell you.

When I was a boy two other young men, somewhat older than I, were young men in the same township and somewhat closely located. I knew those boys and I knew them well. You came to know them and know them well. One of those boys was the late Thomas P. Littlepage, a charter member of this Association. It was my good pleasure to teach school with him. We attended College together. At college we roomed together. We attended conventions together and were close personal friends. I think I was in position to know him and know him well. The other boy was R. L. McCoy. We too, were close personal friends. We too, taught school in the same territory and contemporary with T. P. Littlepage. Prior to any organization of the N.N.G.A. I went with these two boys (men by that time) on trips of investigation and inspection of certain nut trees about which they had heard and which they wanted to examine.

If the trees examined met the proper standards, they wanted to use them in propagation. If not they would pass them up.

Another boy somewhat younger than myself and the two above mentioned boys, joined most heartily into the nut discussions and investigations and explorations of promising clues. With them he helped to run down clues when they would hear of a promising prospect. The jungles were never too dense, the distance too far, the road too muddy or rough, for those three characters to run down in those horse and buggy days, any prospect in which they were interested. This boy also became a member of your most valued organization. I have a special interest in this boy. I was, especially closely associated with him and his family. He went to school to me. My signature appears on his Common School Diploma. Their home was my home whenever I sought to make it so. I was free to come and go. I came a lot. Ford Wilkinson, the third character, and I have been close friends ever since.

Another one of your fine members became a good friend of mine. He came into our county and planted a farm to nut trees and nut production. It is now the largest nut orchard in the county. I am informed that at that time it was the largest nut farm of hardy northern varieties in the world. I got acquainted with him early and became endeared to him. It was none other than the late Harry Weber.

When it became known that you were to meet here in 1935, it was a natural sequence that Ford Wilkinson, knowing that I would gladly help in any way I could and knowing I was his genuine friend saw fit to place me on the Citizen's Committee. If he had not, I positively would have climbed aboard anyway. You couldn't have