Cultivation should commence early in the spring and be kept up until September first. Never allow weeds to grow or ground to become crusted. Nut trees form new rootlets slowly the first summer and require special care. After the second summer they will stand more neglect, but extra cultivation will be rewarded with extra growth at all times.
In looking over the treasurer's report at Washington I find a balance of $21.45, reported at last meeting under date August 14th, 1917. Treasurer reports balance on hand of $14.13 and no obligations. I think he is to be congratulated on being able to make ends meet and issue the reports.
After going over the budget for the coming year I think that we may be able to keep up this record if the membership committee will look after new members and see that all old members renew their membership promptly.
Owing to present war conditions the president would recommend that selection of the next place of meeting be left to executive committee to be fixed later after conditions and crops for next year are better assured. It would seem that some central location might draw the largest attendance and be of greatest benefit to the association for the coming year.
Nut exhibits should be encouraged as much as possible and prizes offered when finances will permit, or where members offer special premiums. This effort will bring out varieties that are worthy of propagation and valuable trees will be saved to posterity. These exhibits can often be held in connection with local horticultural meetings. It is well for our members to keep a watch for such chances.
REASONS FOR OUR LIMITED KNOWLEDGE AS TO WHAT VARIETIES OF NUT TREES TO PLANT.
Agriculturally this continent is about three centuries old. Horticulturally its experience has scarcely reached the century mark. Practically all the commercial fruit industry of the United States is the product of the last half century. Relatively speaking we are quite young and therefore there are a great many things about nut-growing that we may not be expected to know. In the older lands of Europe and Asia they have a horticultural experience going back from ten to twenty centuries.
In this new country the pioneers had necessarily to confine themselves to the fundamentals and it is to be expected that their horticultural operations were confined to a very narrow maintenance ratio. As the country was cleared up and developed certain sections were found to be especially suited to fruit culture. About these centers specialized fruit-growing industries were developed. These planters tried out all available varieties and developed their own methods of culture. As these industries developed horticultural societies were formed for the exchanging of ideas and experiences. In 1847 the American Pomological Society was formed as a national clearing house of horticultural ideas.