100 



Last year at the St, Louis convention they made me one of the directors 

 of the national organization. I give you this information so that you 

 may understand that outside of my interest in Decatur, I am naturally 

 anxious to forward the efforts of the association in the extension of 

 knowledge of the value of nut trees. 



I expect to attend the national convention, which will be held in 

 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, September 14, 15, 16 and I would like to 

 report to that convention that the Decatur Park Board will establish 

 in one of the parks a planting of nut trees. Sooner or later some of 

 the cities will do this, and tliere is no reason why Decatur, which is 

 practically in the heart of the nut belt of the Central West, sir 

 not have a collection of trees which will thrive in this climate so that 

 the general public and the generations coming on may actually see the 

 trees growing and producing fruit. 



Many of the nut trees are the handsomest shade trees we have, and 

 if we can get the farmers interested, as well as those who own small 

 places in the city, in the cultivation of nut trees, we can have shade 

 trees that are valuable as an ornament to a property and also supply 

 most delicious food for our tables. 



As far as I know at the present time, the black walnut, the hickory, 

 the mockernut, (a variety of hickory nut), the pecan, the chestnut, the 

 filbert, the Japanese walnut, the butternut, the hazelnut, the hard^ 

 shell almond, as well as the papaw and the persimmon, will all grow 

 in this vicinity. These last two are not nuts, but are generally sold by 

 the nurserymen who make a specialty of nut trees. 



Between now and the 5th of September, I wish you would let me 

 know about how much money you would be willing to put into a nut 

 arboretum in one of the parks. Then I can take it up with a number 

 of very distinguished specialists in nut culture and find out the best 

 varieties of these different nuts, so that the collection at Decatur will 

 be something of which your organization and the citizens generally 

 will be proud. I think it is safe to saj^ that good trees, budded so as 

 to produce the variety desired, will cost on the average about $1.50 

 each. This figure is my estimate. I think probably it may vary a 

 little from that, but not much. 



Henry D. Spencer. 



In order to know what could be done, and in order to get before 

 the Park Board with some such information as an attorney would want 

 to have to go before similar authorities to hold up his theory of a case, 

 I wrote letters to Mr. Jones, Mr, Snyder, Mr. Wilkinson and Miss 

 Amelia Riehl. I sent a similar letter to Mr. Littlepage, Dr. Deming 

 and Dr. Morris, excepting request as to what trees they had for sale. 

 I also wrote to Judge Potter of Illinois and Mr. Bixby. All of these 

 people have given me ammunition which will enable me to make a 



