Northern Nut Growers Association

(INCORPORATED)

September 10, 11, 1934

BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN

The first session convened at 9:30 A. M., September 10, at the Kellogg Hotel with President Frey in the chair.

The President:

This is the twenty-fifth annual convention of the Northern Nut Growers' Association, our silver anniversary. Fifteen years ago the convention was held in this city. We are glad to be back again and happy to have with us Mr. W. K. Kellogg who has consented to extend a welcome.

Mr. Kellogg:

I am glad to welcome this association, and you as individuals, to Battle Creek. A year ago when an invitation was sent you thru Professor Neilson to make this your meeting place for 1934, we were very much pleased to have the invitation accepted. Now that we have the pleasure of your presence we hope you may have an enjoyable and profitable time.

Battle Creek was undoubtedly put on the map many years ago by the Battle Creek Sanitarium and has since been kept prominently before the public by the extensive advertising that has been done by the companies located here which manufacture ready-to-eat foods. The records indicate that more than 15,000 carloads of these foods are shipped every year to almost every country on the globe. More than 4,500 people are given employment. So much for the magic words, "Battle Creek."

My interest in nuts dates from my earliest recollection when my father took the children nutting. In the evening we often gathered around the kerosene lamp, the kitchen stove and father with an inverted flat iron in his lap and a pan of Ohio hickory nuts near by. These, accompanied by some red-cheeked apples, entertained us royally. No movies in those days. About ten or twelve years ago Mrs. Kellogg and I had the opportunity of listening to a talk by Mr. George Hebden Corsan, Sr. He devoted considerable time to the subject of nut culture, mentioning his own experiences in Canada and also the work of Mr. John F. Jones of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A few years later Mr. Corsan became associated with the Bird Sanctuary enterprise, a few miles west of Battle Creek, and very shortly thereafter was talking nut culture. The result was we began to order nut trees by the carloads.

With this beginning it was only a year or two when Mr. Corsan told me of the wonderful experience, as well as the ability, of Professor Neilson of Toronto in nut culture. As you are doubtless aware Professor Neilson decided to locate in Michigan and he made a connection with the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing. Professor Neilson is present and better prepared to tell you of the work that has been accomplished thru his efforts during the last five years. He may also have an opportunity of showing you the results of some of his work in nut grafting.

Now just a word furthermore with reference to this wonderful town of Battle Creek which in 1932 celebrated its centennial. With the exception of Detroit, Chicago and New York, there is probably no city so well known the world over as Battle Creek, this having been accomplished thru the advertising of the sanitarium since its establishment in 1865, and the advertising of ready-to-eat cereal foods for more than forty years, during which time the magic words "Battle Creek" have appeared on packages of cereals, in newspapers, magazines and other advertising more than six billion times. One of the food factories located in Battle Creek frequently prints, fills and ships more than 1,500,000 packages per day, or the equivalent of 40 carloads. This same factory gives employment to more than 2,200 people, none of whom work more than six hours per day. This six hour plan has been established more than 3-1/2 years and the minimum wage paid per hour to the men is 67 cents.

In conclusion, I must admit that most of my interest in nut culture has been by proxy. Professor Neilson and Mr. Corsan are both with us today and no doubt will have an opportunity of showing you some of the progress that has been made in the vicinity of Wintergreen and Gull Lakes, the State Agricultural Farm and the Kellogg Ranch.

We assure you it has been a pleasure to have you with us on this occasion and we should be glad to have your convention meet with us annually. You have my best wishes for the continued success and prosperity of the Northern Nut Growers' Association.

The Vice-President,

Dr. Zimmerman:

It will be rather a difficult task to respond to an address of welcome of such a notable character as Mr. Kellogg's. However, I want to express my sincere appreciation for being commissioned to respond to such a hearty welcome.

I'm glad to be here for several other reasons. First, because this association represents a number of people who in themselves represent different lines of action. We have first the men and women who are in this association from an experimental standpoint. We have also a number who are here with a commercial planting standpoint. Then we have another group that represents the growing and selling of nut trees. But, in addition to that and most important of all, we have another set that represents the consuming public, notably Mr. Kellogg and his brother. About their work there need not be a great deal said.

I remember, when I first began to become interested in nut culture, I wrote to Dr. J. H. Kellogg. I don't remember at the present time where he said his plantings were, but I wrote to him in connection with pecans, and he said he had a grove of them planted. He said they were quite large but they hadn't borne and he believed that they would not bear in this section because it was so far north. He advised me to get in communication with Mr. J. H. Jones. That was practically the information I got from everybody I wrote to, so I went to see Mr. Jones.

Dr. Kellogg has advanced the idea of nuts as food. Not only that but he has continuously stood for the belief that they are more suitable for human food than many of the proteins of animal nature. In addition to that he publishes one of the best health magazines in the country. Dr. Kellogg is putting out a health magazine that is further advanced than any other magazine that I know of. It gives me great pleasure to respond to the address of welcome and I wish to thank Mr. Kellogg on the part of the association and myself.