fficult problem because if the Department of Agriculture should say
today that Winesap apples grow beautifully on Maryland hills some fellow
would promptly capitalize that and go to selling the Maryland hills, the
water underneath, the air above them and everything around them for the
modest sum of ten times what it was worth. So that is the other side of
it. It makes it necessary for the Department of Agriculture, of course,
to be cautious. I know, however, that you all think as I do because you
have said so to me but you do not all have the nerve to get up here and
say as I do that the Department of Agriculture ought to give us more of
these data; that they ought to give it to us for what it is worth today
and in this lifetime, leaving it to us to have a little common sense to
know that what they say must be taken as they say it. However, I did not
get up here to say all of those things. My purpose is to introduce the
speaker.

* * * * *

Now, I happen to know a great deal about Mr. Reed's work. I know that he
is one of the most active men in the Department and one of the men who
has, as much as anybody in the Department of Agriculture, the confidence
of those of us who know about the project that he is working on. Mr.
Reed has more work in the Department of Agriculture than he can do and I
have been trying to lay out some additional work for him. For example,
we have found in Southwestern Illinois a larger pecan than any
propagated in the North. I saw it in a bunch of Schleys which is the
premier pecan of the South. It was larger than many of the Schleys. We
don't know anything more about the pecan but I would like to know about
this and several others. That is one little job that comes under Mr.
Reed's supervision and he ought to have more time and more help. As a
matter of fact everybody in the Department thinks he should have more
money for his particular project. Those of us who are interested in nut
work think the nut people should have more money. The Department was
very fortunate in receiving Mr. Reed who came from Michigan. I have
talked to him many times and I have never found him yet to make a
statement about anything in the nut world that he could not back up. In
an illustrated lecture of this kind you have the good fortune to get a
great many data that you cannot get in any other way. I wish the whole
country that has an interest in these matters could hear it. If I could
t