we ought not to go on with this discussion at this
time.

THE PRESIDENT: The next thing on the program is an address by Dr.
William A. Taylor, Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry, on "The Place
of Nut Trees in our Northern Horticulture."

THE PLACE OF NUT TREES IN OUR NORTHERN HORTICULTURE

WM. A. TAYLOR, WASHINGTON, D. C.

We are somewhat inclined in America to consider none but the big things
worth while.

We like to do the big things and the quick ones. To organize billion
dollar corporations; grow billion bushel wheat crops; to have the
swiftest motor boat or auto; to receive the largest income per man, per
year, or per acre. Concentrating our attention on cap sheaves and
superlatives rather generally we very easily lose sight of features less
conspicuous though highly important.

Such an one is the rational development of nut culture in our Northern
States. Since the scouring of our chestnut forests by the Asiatic
chestnut blight has practically eliminated that nut from consideration
for orchard planting in the infected territory until resistant varieties
yielding good crops of nuts of acceptable quality are obtained or
developed, we can hardly say with assurance that we have any nut of
proved adaptability in sight which is worthy of planting on an extensive
scale for its crop alone, on productive agricultural land in the
Northern States.

Along the southern fringe of "the North" as in Delaware, Maryland,
southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri exception in favor of the
hardy varieties of pecans should probably be noted but in the light of
present knowledge orchard planting of the commercially important almond,
Persian walnut, and pecan must be left to the Pacific Coast and in the
South.

This fact has been so generally recognized that we have been inclined to
give up all thought of attempting nut production in the North merely
because large scale operation is not attractive. There is much ground
for belief that this view is erroneous and that there is need for
localized planting.

If the world war taught any economic lesson to civilized men which they
should remember and act on, it is that low cost food reserves should be
provided against possible exigencies. They are not needed every year but
when needed their value can hardly be estimated. Only to a limited
extent can such reserves be accumulated out of the production of our
ordinary cereals and commonly cultivated crops. Potential