So that little poem strikes a real note about a person's hobby. You keep your nose to the grindstone, you will forget all these things. You need to get away from the grindstone once in a while. I don't mean to neglect your work, but I do mean to at least take a little time to go out and look at your trees and forget your troubles and relax and get away from the stresses and strains that modern living places on us.
Going back now to the subject; we asked you, through the Nutshell and through members of the Program Committee, to send in the biggest problem in connection with whatever nut species you grow.
The seventeen replies received included eight problems as follows: (1) brooming disease of walnut; (2) early vegetating particularly of Carpathian walnut and frost damage resulting therefrom; (3) delayed fruiting of chestnut seedlings; (4) season too short for ripening of fruit; (5) squirrels get the nuts; (6) failure of hicans to set fruit; (7) grafting problems under which are grouped all asexual propagation and cuttings; and, finally, (8) getting hickory trees established.
This is a rather low number, but I think out of those eight problems submitted you have a good representation of some of the things about which members of this Association talk when they come to meetings. I will first ask the audience if there is any one who would like to ask a particular question at this time.
MR. BECKER: At the Weber planting at Rockport, Indiana last year, we saw no nuts on the trees. I would like to know what is the cause for those trees not bearing.
DR. MACDANIEL: I would think that failure to bear was caused by a combination of things; lack of soil fertility, in the first place, soil physical conditions, probably insect damage and diseases like anthracnose keeping the trees from being vigorous, overcrowding now, with many of them, and perhaps to some extent genetic, some varieties that just naturally don't fruit very heavily.
DR. McKAY: Any others in the audience care to comment on that question?
MR. STOKE: Weather conditions, freezing may have caused it.
DR. MACDANIELS: My impression was that the trees were starving to death. Cutting down the competition with the weeds and feeding them nitrate would help.