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tion^ — Senator Harvey A. Penney, CJiairman of the University Legis- 

 lative Committee in the ^lichigan State Senate, for introducing the 

 first real bill enacted into law in this country, for practical road plant- 

 ing work. This act is now being persistently called for, copied and 

 used throughout the United States. In the years — yes centuries to 

 come, majestic trees and beautiful slirubs, every one of them of much 

 worth to the human race will bear witness to the inestimable value of 

 the initial work of organizations such as this. 



THE ENVIRONMENTAL REQUIREMENTS OF NUT TREES 



Dr. Geo. D. Moore, Director, Missouri Botanic Gardens, St. Louis, Mo. 



The environmental requirements include the air and soil, every- 

 thing that goes on in the soil and air. Of course we all recognize 

 that nuts are very susceptible to their environment. Perhaps this may 

 be illustrated by an instance which occurred not very far from here, 

 a case of a tramp coming to a farm house and asking for something to 

 eat. The housewife said, "I will give you your dinner if you will 

 work for it." He said, "I don't work." She asked, "What do you 

 do.''" The tramp said, "I am a vaudeville entertainer and I enter- 

 tain." "All right," she replied. So he began telling some of his 

 jokes. While he was talking they heard a bigi noise on the table. He 

 finished his performance and got his dinner and left. The housewife 

 on going to the table, found that nearly all the nuts that had been in 

 the basket had split their sides laughing at those jokes. The next 

 diay she was surprised to again hear a noise in the nut basket. Being 

 astonished to hear it again when there was no apparent reason for it, 

 she went to the basket and found that this time it was the English 

 walnuts. This story illustrates how easily the nuts are influenced by 

 their environments. 



We have been growing a few nut trees at the Missouri Botanical 

 Gardens and we have come to the conclusion that the environmental 

 air of the city is not good for them. We have had only fair success, 



