e second. But the first I have heard little if
anything of, and it is that effort should be exerted to interest women
more actively in nut culture. We have a few women members. Why shouldn't
there be as many women as men? I can think of no reason why there
shouldn't. I believe that women are just as competent as men to conduct
any feature of nut culture, with the possible exception of specific
manual labor. And I can think of no more delightful vocation for women
who love the great and wonderful outdoors--and where is the woman who
does not?--than nut culture, the cultivation of nut trees and bushes,
beautiful things not only for the grace and beauty of trunk and limb,
foliage and flower, but for their real substance, their fruit, nuts, one
of the most nutritious foods for human beings. More and more nuts are
being consumed every day, and I venture to say that their consumption as
a leading item in our dietary is only in its infancy. So I feel that
here is another opportunity for our women to demonstrate the justice of
her recent acquired suffrage in our national affairs.

The other possible source of membership I have in mind is a systematic
campaign to enlist the interest and co-operation of school teachers.
Just think of the possibilities of such a campaign. School teachers,
every one, being the high-class people they necessarily are, would
respond finely, I'm sure, and serve as a most desirable medium through
which that very potent additional force can be reached, namely, the
pupil. What parent would refuse a child's request to enable him or her
to participate in the planting of a tree! Recently I cut out the
following little poem, by Charles A. Heath, from my old-home-town
Canadian paper:

THE MAN WHO LIKES A TREE

I like a man who likes a tree,
He's so much more of a man to me;
For when he sees his blessing there,
In some way, too, he wants to share
Whatever gifts his own may be,
In helping others, like a tree.

For trees, you know, are friends indeed,
They satisfy such human need;
In summer shade, in winter fire,
With flower and fruit meet all desire,
And if a friend to man you'd be,
You must befriend him like a tree.

A beautiful sentiment, I know you will agree, and applicable to any
tree, but especially so to nut trees, for the reason that they combine
all the laudable qualities enumerated plus that of food--food for
man--one of the very finest of foods for man.