e latter
furnishes quite as much ornament, just as much shade as were it some
other kind of tree. Even if one cannot live long enough to eat nuts from
his own planting, plant grafted hickories anyway. Left to their own, and
most people's council, their lesser tree selections would approach the
eventual worth of a good hickory. Why not make the choice a good one?

No one knows, so far as I have ascertained, the age of a hickory. It is
much beyond that of an apple tree, at least in my locality. Of its close
relation, the pecan of the south, it has been said there are pecan trees
there now bearing nuts that were here when Christopher Columbus
discovered America.

Not long ago I read that there are something like five thousand
telescope nuts in the country. (You know we here are all interested in
nuts.) I can understand that it is interesting to search off in vast
spaces to ascertain facts, but it is hard to understand why more people
cannot find interest in rare and useful nut sports that can be strived
for and, in addition to that enthusiasm, help give to future mankind
that first of all essentials, food.

Whether we can get a helpful clue with experiences of the past I do not
know. But I often cannot help but recall a bit of the blindness of man
when I think of the potato. It was once said that they were fit only for
hogs to eat. Many years back when they were having war in Ireland,
soldiers would go through people's home and take all they had to eat. It
was found, however, where there was a potato patch soldiers would run
right over them, giving no thought of there finding food. There then was
a chance for home dwellers to better hold their own and it gave the
impetus, the beginning of potato growing, to the Caucasian race and the
name we have to this day, Irish potato. Years later, when they still had
kings in France, their ruler realized his poor subjects could help
themselves so much if they would only grow potatoes. There seemed no way
of getting them to do so. One day, however, the king went and had a plat
of ground planted to potatoes, set guards around it day and night, and
let it be known they were the king's potatoes and no one was going to be
allowed to steal them. That awoke the people. If potatoes were that good
the king would have them, they would have them also.

Franklin Roosevelt likes trees. Do you suppose we could get him to be a
king to lead for the finest in tree planting, grafted hickory-nut tree