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scions all come from the same tree. Inspection of seedling trees has 

 shown that some grow much faster than others. If normal growth 

 trees are considered, trees making less than half this are numerous 

 and those making double are rather rare. Apparently we have in 

 seedling stocks enough variations in vigor of growth to account for 

 the variations in growth noticed in grafted trees of the same variety. 

 Mr. Jones tells me that he expects to discard nearly 50% of his seed- 

 lings because not vigorous enough to bud or graft. Then there are 

 some trees which seem incapable of taking grafts or buds. It would 

 seem very desirable to select rapid growing stocks that will take 

 buds and grafts readily and use those but this will mean working 

 out means of propagating them by cuttings, layers, or some asexual 

 method and these have not been well worked for nut trees, other 

 than hazels, although some work has been done on it. 



The above conclusions are largely from the limited observa- 

 tions I have made on my small place. None are very new for I 

 believe I have heard all of them advanced before, but observing 

 them myself has fixed them in my mind in a way that they could 

 not have been otherwise. Many of them have been corroborated by 

 others. For example, Mr. Jones has shown me walnut trees of the 

 same size set out at the same time, some severely pruned and 

 others not, where the severely pruned ones in two or three years had 

 so far outstripped the others as to make it very noticeable and it 

 seemed as if the difference in vigor would continue. On the other 

 hand it is possible that there may be points where the experience of 

 others differs from mine. 



The President : There is one more address this morning. 

 That is by Doctor Morris, the subject being, " Pioneer Experience 

 and Outlook." 

 Doctor Morris: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: 



Lord Byron said that the reason why he did not commit suicide 

 was because he was so curious to know what was going to happen 

 next. For any one to do pioneer work in almost any department of 

 human activity there are two essentials : First, he must be more or 

 less stupid and not read the handwriting on the wall ; and in the sec- 

 ond place he must be very obstinate and persistent. Given those 

 qualities one may succeed in pioneer work in almost any department 

 of Ufe. 



Something over twenty years ago I had the idea of putting 

 upon my country place every kind of American tree that could be 

 grown there. I planned to occupy a little time away from profes- 

 sional work and attend to this. As I began to acquire information 

 the subject grew so rapidly that I found it would be necessary to 

 give up my profession wholly and employ several assistants in 

 order to carry out this idea. Consequently I cut down my ambition 

 to include only coniferous and nut trees. This study in turn grew 

 so rapidly that I found it necessary to cut out everything except 

 nut trees, and then I found that one might devote his entire life to 



