customer of ours,
reports plants doing splendidly and fruiting well. Mrs. Jones of Jones &
Laughlin Steel Company reports plants growing splendidly there. Those
are just a few of the instances I could cite. As I suggested to some of
the gentlemen today at the next meeting it might be well for me to bring
specific references from different parts of the country where our plants
have been planted and are bearing fruit and are doing well, with no
reference whatever to blight having appeared, and I shall be very glad
to do that.

* * * * *

It seems to me, too, that the filbert is one of the best nut producing
plants for use here in the North. Usually it is grown in bush form. It
is very hearty and begins to bear early and abundantly under proper
care. In view of the exceptionally wide range of climates and soils it
seems to be one of the good nut producing plants for this association.
Now it can be consistently considered that I have an ax to grind as I am
producing filbert plants for sale, but I assure you, ladies and
gentlemen, that it is not with this thought in mind that I make these
references. I have the interests of this association very much at heart.
My whole time and attention and money is given to nut culture. I am
extensively interested in the culture of paper shell pecans in Georgia.
Successfully, I might also add. And I want to be equally successful with
the filbert because I believe that it is the one great nut bearing plant
that this association can stand back of and urge the people to plant,
not because I am producing them but because I am a member of this
association, and I want to see this association a success.

Three weeks ago last Monday, on account of my interest in pecan culture
in the South, and having a good crop at our grove this year, I went to
New York and spent the day there conferring with a big commission man
down in the Washington Street section who handles large consignments of
nuts. The subject of the filbert was discussed and I found a very great
interest on the subject. They were one and all, I think I can say,
appalled when I told them that there was a nursery in New York State
producing filbert plants and filbert nuts. Mr. James, vice-president of
the Higgins & James Company, showed me a very fine filbert, a variety
with some unpronounceable name, I think Italian, and he said, "Isn't it
a beauty?" It was. But when I told him that we had just as fine in