a
pecan tree would bear, and how big it would grow within a certain time.
I told him that it depended altogether upon who owned the tree. Nothing
adds so much to the value of a home or to a farm as beautiful trees, and
nothing indicates more the intelligence and taste of the person who owns
a home or farm than the character of the trees surrounding it. In taking
a trip through the country, it is very painful to notice how little
attention has been given to trees, and I take it that this is due to the
lack of information on this subject. A house can be built in a very
short time. It can be furnished beautifully if one has taste and money.
The science of mechanics can do much toward making an attractive place
in which to dwell, but after all, the home that is remembered and
admired, both by its occupants and by others, is the home surrounded by
beautiful trees that bring forth their leaves and blossoms and fruit to
please the eye and the taste and temper the heat of summer. These cannot
be bought with mere money nor made in a day, but when placed there with
care and intelligence come forth with surprising rapidity and beauty and
not only add manifold value to the home and farm, but bespeak for some
one a standard of intelligence and nobility that is better than great
riches; for he who plants and cares for a tree is of the true, the
beautiful and the good.

* * * * *

President Morris: The paper is now open for discussion.

Professor Lake: I'd like to ask Mr. Littlepage a question. What is the
condition of the wood of those large growths of walnuts?

Mr. Littlepage: When I observed it in November, it was ripening off very
nicely. The average frost period for that latitude is about the
twentieth of October, and we had had quite a number of very hard
frosts,--in fact, there had been some ice. It had not been injured.

Professor Lake: That is remarkable.

Mr. Littlepage: I have pictures here of those, taken the twentieth of
June. There was perhaps three feet of growth at that time. They quit
growing about the middle of August down there, and to that I attribute
very largely the fact that the wood ripened up.

Professor Craig: What is your minimum temperature?

Mr. Littlepage: I have seen the thermometer ten degrees below zero. I
have seen the Ohio River frozen over so thick that for a month at
Rockport the wagons could go across the river on ice. In fact, a
threshing machine was haule