few papaws. Asimina triloba,
too shaded to bear. This fruit might be worthy of a little attention
from the nut growers. The dictionary speaks of several other species of
papaw.

Any of you who have outgrown the labor of caring for nut trees might
find interest in mycology in which I found diversion and edibles for a
while. Only beware the deadly Amanita and others of that ilk.

I cannot adequately express to you my heartfelt joy at the prosperity of
our association. For one thing the great increase in the membership, for
another the birth of three branch state associations, but above all the
success in the production of nuts. In my time we had mostly, if not
entirely, the promising production of specimen nuts only. We had nothing
like the Jacobs Persian walnut with its imposing spread and its
production of 200 pounds of nuts in one season; Mr. Kyhl's orchard with
its many varieties of Persian walnuts; his success in grafting and his
reporting of a tree which bears three or four bushels of heartnuts
yearly; Mr. Best's 5,000 grafted pecan trees; Mr. Hirshi's chestnuts;
the splendid results of the Persian walnut contests; and the almost
spectacular increase in the number of nurseries selling grafted nut
trees of many varieties. These facts, and many that I have not
mentioned, make it certain that nut growing is now a firmly established
and surely increasing industry. You may be sure that these facts give me
great delight.

Some years ago while I was in possession of a mind as good as it had
been at any time, I did a little grafting of nut trees in a commercial
way for people at their country places, and I had the nerve to charge
them fifty dollars a day. What's more I got paid and never got kicked,
nor did I hear mutterings or see scowls. But then, you see, there was no
other grafter, of the kind, around my part of the country. Almost a
monopoly and, of course, a wicked one. But here my mind goes blank. I
can't recall what luck I had with the grafting, nor can I recall the
name of a single one for whom I did such work.

I strongly advise every one of you to have a good book in which you keep
personal and geographic records of all your work with nut growing. All
the details are vividly in your mind now, but when you get to be ninety
you may find them, as I do, faded away and all washed up. Please go on
with the good work.

Some more good friends have just taken me for a round trip to Litchfield
where my little sister,