her night my wife and I
strolled over and looked at them and when we were on our way back we
passed a neighbor's house where there were a number of maple trees on
the lawn. I said to my wife, "Those maple trees are fifty years old, and
there by the side of his lawn is a chestnut tree that is forty-four or
five years old." She made the remark, "Those English walnut trees over
there cast a much more beautiful shade than those maples," and it was
true. I think Mr. McGlennon saw them.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes; that's so. I thank you very much, Mr. Pomeroy.
Mr. G. H. Corsan, of Toronto, Canada, is known as the "Canadian Johnny
Appleseed." Mr. Corsan goes about the country and when he can find nuts
and seeds of what he thinks are good trees and plants he gathers them up
and arranges to distribute them. If Mr. Corsan will give us about ten or
fifteen minutes I should certainly appreciate it very much.
MR. CORSAN: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: Our friend here called
me Johnny Appleseed, I suppose because I went around among my friends
who had gardens and said, "Let me plant this," and I would plant a nut
tree. I said, "Why don't you plant something with a utility value as
well as a thing of beauty?" I said, "Why not plant something that will
not only grow rapidly and cast a splendid shade but that will also
return you something in the way of food?"
I first devoted twelve acres to the culture of nut trees. I afterwards
added four more. I just planted seedlings. In the year 1912 I joined the
Nut Growers' Association and I set out a hundred chestnut trees. When I
found the blight was in them and I cut them all down but two. I have
those two now and last year I gathered a peck of very large chestnuts
from them which caused the Ontario government to take notice of what I
was doing.
I bought a great many other trees, among them some of Mr. Pomeroy's. I
had a hard fight with Pomeroy's trees. They would die down one year and
grow a foot or a foot and a half the next and then die down again. But
each year they increased a little in size and now they are over my head
and are not dying down at all.
I tried a lot of others, among which were seedling English walnuts from
St. Catherine's. They did not freeze down at all, but whether they will
throw as good a nut as Mr. Pomeroy's I don't know. They are certainly a
different nut.
Then I got a Chinese walnut of Black's nursery, Hightstown, New Jersey,
and it is growing remarkably
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