Therefore, one of the principal problems of the nut industry, as I see it, just as with delphiniums or the peony or the dahlia or iris or in others that I might mention, is the problem of plant materials, more specifically, the breeding or discovery of varieties that are superior and that consequently can really compete with the English walnut and pecan and that likewise are productive and that can be produced at a low cost. As a matter of fact, in all of your meetings up to the present time the finding, testing, and the evaluating of chance seedlings that appear to be of promise has constituted not only an essential but one of the larger features to claim attention. Furthermore, I believe it will continue to claim attention for many years to come.
Practically all of your present materials, from the Fairbanks hickory to the Thomas or Stabler walnut, have just happened--that is, occurred as chance seedlings. They have been found and recognized as something a little better than the general run. Someone has brought them to the attention of the public, your Association placed approval on them, and they have been propagated and finally become more or less disseminated.
I presume that by a more thorough combing of the territory more good material will be found and brought to the front. However, after you do a certain amount of combing, you eventually exhaust the resources. Nevertheless, when that time comes in a matter of this kind, a good deal more can be done. If the plum or grape grower had stopped when he had scouted all of the territory where vines are native and had introduced into cultivation the best of the chance seedlings that nature had given us, we wouldn't have the grapes or plums or other fruits that we have today.
At this point I wish to make a suggestion as to one thing that this association, as an association, and perhaps some of its members as individuals, can give some attention to as a part of your program in the years to come. It is the job of breeding superior varieties of nuts, because much improvement is called for in walnuts, hickories, and the other kinds before they are all that you or the consuming public wants of them. The situation is essentially the same with nuts as with other fruit and ornamental plants. We have some pretty good peaches, but ten years from now the producers in Michigan will be growing very few of the varieties that they are growing today, and I dare say that twenty-five years from now they will be growing hardly any of them. We have some very attractive delphiniums and dahlias, but in 1950 few of today's favorites will be in cultivation. They will be superseded by new and superior varieties. In 1950, or 1975, we should be growing nut varieties that are far superior to what is available at the present time.