PROFESSOR SMITH: While we are distributing things gratis I want to make
a little statement in the same vein as a previous speaker. He points out
the work that a few enthusiasts are doing. Most of the things worth
while are done by the people who never get any credit in a financial
way. You will find the things that count are started and done by that
live force of men that work for the fun of working with no promise of
reward. Why should Mr. McCoy or Mr. Reed come down here and tell us how
to bud trees, and what varieties to use? It is plainly a labor of
enthusiasm and love. I want to express my particular appreciation of the
work done by Mr. Thomas P. Littlepage. We hear from Indiana through Mr.
Littlepage. On every occasion when we get in trouble and want bud wood,
along he comes and helps us out. He seems to have all kinds of equipment
for keeping it or he can always go to a pecan tree and get it. We never
hear of the trouble or expense. He spends money as if he had a barrel of
it. He has spent lots of money trying to get the people to know there
was an Indiana pecan. We also know that Mr. McCoy and Mr. Wilkinson and
others too numerous to mention have lost thousands of dollars and have
worked long and hard to get this industry started. The industry needs
enthusiasm and no end of work. It means work to get out and hunt trees
and bud wood and these men are entitled to lots of credit for their
efforts.

THE PRESIDENT: The chair appreciates that compliment but he is hardly
entitled to so much praise. However, all the efforts we have made to
create interest in the pecan have been well spent. We have had lots of
trouble in getting bud wood and if it had not been for Ford Wilkinson we
never would have gotten anywhere. He is the best climber in the country.
He has gone at all times and under all conditions and has done more real
hard work than all the rest of us put together. He always climbs the
trees. The Major tree is about fifty feet to the first limb. We couldn't
have gotten along without him. And Mr. McCoy is entitled to great
credit. The first time I ever saw the Posey nut Mr. McCoy brought some
to my home in Boonville. That was a number of years ago. He first
stimulated Mr. Brown to put the Warrick pecan on exhibition. As I grew
up I knew where these pecan trees were and who kept a dog and what time
he got up and there were not many pecan trees then I would not attempt
to climb, but I wasn't as large as I am now. Of