xed them in my
mind in a way that they could not have been otherwise. Many of them have
been corroborated by others. For example, Mr. Jones has shown me walnut
trees of the same size set out at the same time, some severely pruned
and others not, where the severely pruned ones in two or three years had
so far outstripped the others as to make it very noticeable and it
seemed as if the difference in vigor would continue. On the other hand
it is possible that there may be points where the experience of others
differs from mine.

* * * * *

THE PRESIDENT: There is one more address this morning. That is by Doctor
Morris, the subject being, "Pioneer Experience and Outlook."

DOCTOR MORRIS: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:

Lord Byron said that the reason why he did not commit suicide was
because he was so curious to know what was going to happen next. For any
one to do pioneer work in almost any department of human activity there
are two essentials: First, he must be more or less stupid and not read
the handwriting on the wall; and in the second place he must be very
obstinate and persistent. Given those qualities one may succeed in
pioneer work in almost any department of life.

Something over twenty years ago I had the idea of putting upon my
country place every kind of American tree that could be grown there. I
planned to occupy a little time away from professional work and attend
to this. As I began to acquire information the subject grew so rapidly
that I found it would be necessary to give up my profession wholly and
employ several assistants in order to carry out this idea. Consequently
I cut down my ambition to include only coniferous and nut trees. This
study in turn grew so rapidly that I found it necessary to cut out
everything except nut trees, and then I found that one might devote his
entire life to the subject of hickories alone to the exclusion of all
other occupation.

In the beginning of the development of my nut trees there were failures
continually and it became interesting. Lord Byron found it interesting
to live in order to see what was going to happen next. My failures were
so interesting that I was very curious to know what was going to happen
next. I started in with a very large lot of shagbark hickory trees. I
had them grafted for me in the South. I think I expended something like
$250 for that lot. I had it grafted upon the common hickory stock of the
South.