ase, and I want to assure all
of you that we certainly are interested in the black walnut in
Tennessee. In the past we have had to depend pretty much on the wild
black walnut, and we will for years in the future. But we have done
everything possible to get distribution on this Thomas improved black
walnut which has been propagated here through the efforts of Mr. Chase,
Mr. Zarger and other members in his division.

It seems to me that this black walnut kernel industry is sort of a
tradition, particularly in East Tennessee. If you have lived in this
state as long as I have, you have become curious about its history.
Well, in the early days there were no railroads in this state, and
commerce moved pretty much by means of wagon team, and the supply center
seemed to be Baltimore, Maryland. Now, I can visualize very well that
on outbound trips they doubtless carried black walnut kernels, and on
the way in, of course, they'd bring clothing and other materials that
were not produced here at home.

In the early days they produced tremendous amounts of maple sugar and
maple syrup. Doubtless this was consumed at home and nowadays we don't
have any evidence of that, because the climatic conditions in New York
State and other northern states and New England are much better suited
to the flow of the sap. The weather, I believe, is not so changeable up
there. Our weather is changeable. We may have a very severe cold week,
and then in ten days it will be balmy and pretty weather. We haven't
made any effort to bring back the sugar maple industry. We don't
consider it economic in this state, because cane sugar in the past has
been cheap in price, and then we have another product that some of you
may not be familiar with, sorghum molasses. That serves as dessert lots
of times in many meals, hot biscuits and sorghum to finish up the meal.

Now, I might mention something about the size of the black walnut
industry in this state. We estimate that there are eight million pounds
of uncracked whole walnuts produced on the average in a normal crop year
in Tennessee, and there is another five million pounds that is never
gathered, never hulled, never enters the market, never used, and the
value of this crop in a normal year would be around $750,000. That is
for the nuts, the fruit, the kernels. If you speak of timber it will
amount to $960,000. That is in the form of lumber and veneers, and if
you figure that in the form of a log at the shippi