some. Our secretary sits at the table, ready and anxious to
receive the dues and names of new members. I have always felt that we
never treat new members with sufficient deference. I think we should ask
them to talk about their experiences, to tell us what they have done, to
tell us what they would like to do, to ask us questions, and that we
should make them feel more at home.

THE PRESIDENT: That is very much to the point.

DR. DEMING: Why isn't the chestnut more appreciated in this
country? Why aren't the farmers acquainted with the possibilities of
growing chestnuts here in the middle west? Yesterday Dr. Zimmerman and I
were at Mr. Harrington's and there we saw chestnut trees that would make
your heart warm to look at. Why can't the people of the middle west,
where the chestnut is not native, be awakened to the great possibilities
of growing the chestnut commercially? It is easy to grow. It bears
early, and abundantly. What can we do to make it better known? I would
like to ask Dr. Zimmerman.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: Chestnut growers say "We can't keep them."
Several years ago I got a hundred pounds of chestnuts down in Illinois.
I sold them out to friends of mine. In a few weeks those chestnuts were
dry enough to use for roller bearings. That is the reason they don't
like the chestnut. I think that hurts the chestnut business more than
anything else.

MR. HERSHEY: I would like to ask why insist on introducing the
chestnut when we have the black walnut? I would just as soon eat bran as
a chestnut. Now the black walnut you can keep for two years.

DR. ZIMMERMAN: In the last few years I have been in intimate
contact with chestnuts. I don't see why the people here don't take them
up. If you don't do it the people on the west coast are going to plant
chestnuts and ship them to the eastern market. You people can raise
chestnuts. The eastern markets are full of chestnuts from Europe. What
we need is chestnuts like the Riehl's. The large European chestnuts are
of poor flavor. Take the varieties you can grow around here and send
them to the East and you will get 50 cents a pound for them. Authorities
tell us the trees will die off. I tell you you will all die off after a
while. You aren't going to quit working because you are going to die
off. Within three years you will have trees that will bear. You may get
from twelve to fifteen crops off of them before they die. So far as the
food quality of the chestnut is concerned it is