your distinguished president as a
fellow pecan nut. He is largely interested in Georgia and we see his
smiling face frequently in that section of the world. We are interested
to see him succeed there and I am sure the members of this association
are all interested and pleased to see what he has accomplished in
developing the filbert right here in the shade of Rochester. (Applause.)

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Patterson, I thank you. I feel that I cannot let this
opportunity pass to correct an impression that might have gotten over
from one remark of Mr. Patterson's about the filbert nurseries being the
result of my efforts. That is a long way from being so. In every
successful operation I believe the master hand can be traced. In this
operation of ours here the master hand has been that of my esteemed
friend of long standing and very close cooperation covering a period of
over a decade, Mr. Conrad Vollertsen. Mr. Vollertsen is entitled to the
full credit for the success of our industry. I feel that I am justified
in claiming for myself in connection with it the credit for the
enterprise. Each of us in life has our particular place to fill. Mr.
Vollertsen brought to me the idea of this filbert operation some years
ago, over a decade, especially the idea of propagating the filbert from
the layer instead of from the bud or graft, it being my belief up to
that time that it could be propagated only by budding and grafting. He
had worked in the nurseries in Germany as a young man and had told me of
his experiences. So I sent to Germany and got five plants of twenty
varieties, leaving to the nurseries from which I purchased them the
selection of the varieties. I think the plants were six to twelve inches
in size. From these, under the ability and knowledge of my friend,
Conrad Vollertsen, has been developed what you saw this afternoon. I am
mighty proud of it and so is he because he and I alone know what we have
had to buck these last ten or eleven years. Speaking frankly, it has
been pretty hard going sometimes, but personally I feel tonight, after
what has been said to me by many of our members at our place this
afternoon, especially the praise of our faculty to which I referred in
my paper, that we have accomplished something really worth while, and it
is my ambition and Mr. Vollertsen's, too, I know, to prove that we have
a really worthwhile thing for the people. The pecan is the highest i