35 



finances. I do hope that at this convention some definite and specific 

 action will be taken so that a year from now there will be a decided 

 increase of members, because I am confident we can do it if we put 

 our shoulders to the wheel. Then we will have a surplus instead of 

 a deficit. As I said in my paper this morning, the association is 

 engaged in scientific work, but we are not going to get very far 

 along unless we have more money, and we can't get more money 

 unless we get more members. We ought to put our shoulders to the 

 wheel and pull this association up to a membership that is worthy 

 of its title. If each member would get from three to five new mem- 

 bers during the year we would have a membership in the neighbor- 

 hood of a thousand another year and that would give us a surplus 

 of money. I hope that definite action will be taken at this convention 

 to stimulate that development of the association. If any of the other 

 members have anything to say on that subject I would be very glad 

 to hear from them. 



Mr. Olcott : I think that the membership is really one of the 

 most important things for this association to consider. But I do not 

 think it would be well to go away from this convention with only 

 the idea that each member should try to get three or four others. 

 That is all very well and it would mean considerable IF they would 

 do it. I think there are enough business men here and brains enough 

 here so that if this matter were referred to a good big committee 

 that would spend some time on it, and before we go would report 

 some definite way of stimulating interest in nut culture and in this 

 association, that it would bring the membership up to a point where 

 it could accomplish something in a business way. It is not a matter 

 for individual action but a matter for association action. It needs 

 publicity and a good comprehensive plan. The money will come a 

 more members come. The wider knowledge of what this association 

 is doing for an active membership would make a bigger membership. 

 If you will remember President Linton suggested that each state 

 should provide twenty-five to fifty members; it does seem as though 

 there should be twenty-five or fifty members, men and women, in 

 each one of the twenty or so northern states. If there were fifty 

 there is a thousand members in the twenty states. He pledged, T 

 believe, twenty-five names from Michigan on his own account; I 

 don't know whether he made good or not but the plan is good to ain: 

 at fifty members in each of twenty states. 



Mr. Spencer : I am very much interested in the production of 

 nut trees largely as a matter of curiosity. My home is in Decatur, 

 111. Illinois has 56,000 square miles, 30,000 square miles of that 

 state are, or were, covered with hard wood timber. In Bureau 

 County the hickory, the hazel, the walnut and butternut grow with 

 a great deal of vigor ; less than two blocks from me' there is an 

 ordinary sweet chestnut brought from the East by a gentleman a 

 great many years ago. I measured it last fall and it is six feet nine 

 inches in circumference, it has a spread of about sixty feet and it is 



