REPORTS OP DISTRICT AND LOCAL SOCIETIES. 345 



home grown or cultivated nuts at our fairs, but I believe that the time has come when 

 this branch of husbandry should be recognized and encouraged by our fair associations. 



It should ever be the aim of every country to produce everything it can for supply of 

 its wants, and, so far as possible, so much as it needs. Home industries should not be 

 neglected. Tiae more we can export and the less we need to import the better will be 

 our prosperity. Therefore, let us go hand in hand to improve and develop our own 

 resources. 



We have been much delighted with the American sweet chestnut, and it well deserves 

 its extended pupularity, but it does not seem to thrive in our clay soil. I have found 

 it to flourish on the sandy ridges below Cleveland, Ohio, and there are some very large 

 trees growing wild on some sandy knolls at Monroe, in this State, but I have not noticed 

 that where planted on our clay soils, the chestnut has done very well. 



The black walnut flourishes best on rich bottom land, but does not grow well on wet 

 land, and becomes scrubby on elevated knolls, or in poor soil. Yet, whenever the right 

 •conditions exist, it is one of the most valuable nut trees we can grow. 



The hazel nut grows wild and abundantly here in our county, and bears quite regu- 

 larly. Some monks in Bavaria have produced some new and improved varieties of the 

 hazel nut which are much larger than our wild nuts. It may be well for us to 

 experiment with these in a limited way and watch results. I have a large bush of the 

 English filbert growing, but so far it has not fruited. The number of varieties of nut 

 that promise to be successful are at present quite limited, yet there are enough of them 

 to make a beginning. 



The southern states are now looking to the pecan as a sort for a money enterprise. 

 It is found to grow so far north as Missouri, but it is claimed that the best pecans grow 

 in Mexico, and that the further north from there it grows, its shell becomes 

 thicker. Comparing the pecan, however, to our black walnut I don't see that we are 

 at any disadvantage in not being able to grow it here in the north. 



I have a piece of land on my fruit farm which is not in good shape for cultivation, but 

 as it IS covered with nice hickory trees and a few butternuts, I will let it go into a nut 

 grove. I am cutting out everything but the nut trees, and intend planting other sorts 

 than are now growing wild there, to fill up the gaps. In the coming spring I intend to 

 plant blatk walnut trees in the streets where I own land, as shade trees, instead of 

 maples. 



President Scott said that the cultivation of nuts might be made as 

 profitable as any other branch of fruit culture. It had come to his notice 

 that a gentleman had realized $18,000 from the timber of nut trees, on 

 ten acres of land. His own experience in cultivating nut trees has been 

 very favorable. He planted on his residence ground, here, at Ann 

 Arbor, a number of walnut trees, which attained a height of twenty feet. 

 The planting of nut trees he believed a good thing for fence posts, leaving 

 or planting the trees where the fence is wanted, attaching the wire to the 

 trees. 



Prof. E. Baur spoke of nut oil being used in Europe in the prapara- 

 tion of salads. It is largely used in Germany and other places for culi- 

 nary purposes. 



Mr. E, NoRDMAN discussed the paper at length. As a pioneer farmer 

 he found the nut trees largely cumbersome, but when the nut tree can be 

 used for shading pastures, and along the highways, he believed them 

 useful. 



At the April meeting President J. Austin Scott presided. The meet- 

 ing was fairly well attended. The subject selected for discussion, " The 

 Art of Grafting and Budding," brought in a number who had never 

 attended before. President Scott gave his life-long experience in graft- 

 ing and budding, and he was very often asked questions. He was eagerly 

 listened to throughout the meeting. He favored seedling bodies for apple 

 trees, top-grafting them after setting into the orchard; favors low-headed 

 trees, and to keeping them well cultivated till coming into bearing. Mr. 

 W. F. Bird exhibited the Field knapsack sprayer, and a barrel pump for 

 spraying trees, etc., made bv the same company, at Lockport, N. Y. Mr. 



