. ■ 18 



held on account of the war. The tenth meeting was at Battle Creek, 

 Michigan, at Dr. Kellogg's Sanatorium. And the last meeting, the 

 16th in 1925, was at St. Louis, chiefly to see Mr. E. A. Riehl's nut 

 orchards at Godfrey, Illinois. 



The proceedings of all these meetings have been published in 

 separate annual reports except that of the first meeting which was 

 included in the report of the second meeting. In these reports all the 

 noteworthy events and accomplishment^ of the association have been 

 recorded and it will not be necessary to allude to them further at this 

 time. But I cannot refrain from referring to the great loss that the 

 association sustained by the death of Prof. John Craig in 1912 and 

 the notable accession to our strength in the inception of the American 

 Nut Journal in 1914. 



The object of this association, as stated in article two of the 

 constitution, written on the date of our organization and never since 

 openly dissented from, is "The promotion of interest in nut bearing 

 plants, their products and their culture." This, of course, is all- 

 embracing. 



The present of the association finds us very little different from 

 the past. We have not notably grown in numbers nor in income. 

 Our activities are of the same nature. We are not satisfied with 

 everything, of course, but we are satisfied that we are on the right 

 path. Most of i.is believe, I think, that our chief functions, as an 

 association, are still to investigate and to teach. I do not think that 

 we should, as an association, try to make it diff'erent. Individually we 

 may strive to commercialize but collectively we should still be scientific 

 and educational. We need feel no scruple in being social, even 

 fraternal, as well. One of the things that we like best is to get 

 together and talk over varieties and methods, to indulge ourselves in 

 technical talk, and there is no reason why we should not do what we 

 like to do. We have been told that it is time to stop talking to one 

 another and get busy ad^vising the public to plant commercial orchards 

 of nut trees. But how can we do this when not one of our members 

 can sliow an orchard producing real commercial results ? Sliall we 

 urge the public to take risks that we do not take ourselves; or even 

 the risks that we do take ourselves.^ If someone asks us, "What nuts 

 can I plant with certainty of commercial returns, with proper known 



