or mankind.

Conditions have changed greatly since our last meeting, September 1917,
at Stamford, Connecticut. At that time the greater part of the world was
at war, and owing to conditions prevailing during 1918, it was
impossible for this association to hold its annual meeting. Your speaker
is still holding the office of President because you have had no meeting
at which new officers could be elected. It is to be regretted that the
past three years have been crowded so full of events, that it was
impossible to give the association matters the attention they deserved,
and devote the time to them I would have liked to have done.

With the armistice came a cessation of war, and we are all happy that
the terrible struggle is over, but with it have come conditions that
are almost as terrible as war. Famine and want stare millions of people
in the face on the continent of Europe. Our own country is at present in
the grip of strikes for higher wages, the like of which has never been
known. Yet we are prosperous beyond the greatest dreams of any nation on
earth, but with this prosperity comes many duties. Our yields of food
crops have been great, but to us has fallen the lot of feeding the
world, and this will continue until industrial and agricultural
conditions of Europe, have been reestablished on a pre-war condition.

There never was a time when meats of all kinds were so expensive, and to
many almost prohibitive. Many have learned the use of nut meats in
varied ways until all kinds of edible nuts are quoted on the markets
today at prices undreamed of in former years. These conditions will not
always last; crop failures will come; and production will be curtailed.
Land values are advancing so rapidly that the production of cheap meats
will be impossible. To help supply this deficiency, there will be an
increased demand for nuts of all kinds.

To help meet this demand, much can be done by road side planting. On our
main market highways, such trees as the grafted black walnuts could be
planted profitably, in many sections of the country; the English walnut
in some parts where they succeed the best; and the pecan and chestnut in
other parts of the country where they are specially adapted.

While commercial planting of nut trees may not be attractive to the
average man, home planting of a few nut trees can be recommended for
every where space is available. They will make beautiful shade trees,
and produce crops that will