Club Minutes: Horticultural Society, 1918-1925

H/9/1918 -1- 37 Tanglewood Sept. 3rd 1918.

The meeting at Tanglewood on the afternoon of Sept. 3rd was called to order at the appointed time, but some of the members were a little late in assembling.

As the 1st reader, Mary B. Brooke gave us two articles - one entitled "The Farm Army," said "no other industry has ever had men, women & children volunteering to help out in a pinch as they are volunteering to help the farmers, he must assist in the training & mobilizing of these forces from town & city, & if the farmer will meet the situation as whole-heartedly as his fellows in the towns, the present blackness in the agricultural sky will prove to be merely the darkness before dawn - the dawn of a splendid new agriculture of America."

The 2nd article described the raising of an asparagus bed, & the writer

Substitute for Chestnut Tree May Be Found in the Sweet Acorn

An Experiment Is Being Conducted by a Chicagoan, to Transplant Saplings of Grafts from Majorca

Palma, Majorca Special Correspondence Botanists and foresters the world ober are watching with interest the experiment now being conducted by a wealthy Chicagoan to transplant from these islands of the Mediterranean, saplings or grafts of the sweet acorn as a substitute for the American chestnut tree, rapidly becomeing extinct be -cause of the blight. It is impossible to estimate the commercial loss to the American lumber industry and edible nut trade as a result of the blights' record during the past 25 years, but it may mount into millions of dollars. Anyone successfully combating it will be hailed as a public benefactor. The sweet acorn tree is immune from the past and its fruit closely resembles that of the American chestnut. "Sleepers" How to save the American chestnut trees has been for years, and is now the concern of every forester who realizes the monetary value involved as well as the sentimental side of the decimating process, which, so far, has not been stayed. For it was chestnut ties or "sleepers" that bore the rails of that first train across the Union Pacific Railroad, uniting the Atlantic seaboard with California, in 1856. In those days no wooden fence was believed to have either stability or charcter without chestnut posts. And, usually, the laundry that fluttered in the sunshine and the breezes, did so on a chothesline which swung a lifeboat from its davits- of chestnut. Many lands were visited and researches made by the Chicagoan and the experts who accompanied him before this "earthly paradise" (as Chopin described Majorca in 1838) was found to contain a good substitute. Native Mallorquins eat acorns as freely as a Richmond (Va.) pickaninny does goobers (peanuts); indeed, peanuts are common in Palma though acorns seem to have the preference. The latter are not acrid and bitter as is the fruit of the spinnate, white or live oak of North America, but are as sweet and toothsome as the old-fashioned America chestnut and are still more delicious when roasted or boiled. Fed in their raw state to live stock, they are said to have a high food value. The trees yield acorns prolifically, and tests made some time ago proved them to be absolutely "blight resistant." Grafting The possibility of grafting healthy American chestnut scions upon them it said to be in contemplation. Whether the Chicago millionare will import thousands of sweet acorn saplings and, after planting them in the United States, graft or bud them with scions or buds from surviving American chestnut trees is problematical. The United States Department of Agriculture, it is understood, will lend its co-operation in whatever method may be employed to reafforest large American areas swept by chestnut blight. The specific method of handling the problem has not been made public here, but it suffices to say that, before the Chicagoan's departure, he sought and found the services of the best-known authority on arboreal subjects in Majorica, a monk living in seclusion less than an hour's ride from this city. The hillsides of this far away little isle which may supply America with a proxy for one of its most loved and disappearing trees, have other sturdy growths which might well be transported overseas, namely, the Algarroba (locust) bean and stone pine. The algarroba beans are excellent fodder where hay is scarce and the stone pines literally grow out of the rocks.

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said he knew of nothing else that would yield such gratifying returns for so very little care & thought, & he personally knew an asparagus bed, which was started 80 years ago & is still [bearing?] The article read by Robt. Miller was enjoyed by all- It told of western man who has fixed things so cleverly that mechanical devices & a gasoline engine now do most of the hard work. While he sits & reads his daily paper "he can hear the hum of the gasoline engine working for him. It takes the blue out of Monday, & puts the sat in Saturday"! The Forethought said there was less & less need of her report as the months go bybut she gave us good suggestions, as is her habit. She asked the opinion of the society as to which is the better plow, when crops are through bearing, to cut the weeds off & plow each strip as it has done its duty, or leave it all until late fall when the whole garden is plowed? The members think the former plan is the better one,

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thought all do not succeed in getting it done. There was a communication from our Ex-Sec. which gave a full explanation of her relation to the Society.

She did not feel easy being called the "Mother of the Horticultural Society"-as it was three years old when she and Cousin Charlie were made members at a meeting at Olney. Those who are left of the original twelve members families, are Margaret Magruder, Sarah Hallowell, Ellen Farquhar, Frances Stabler, Hannah Stabler, and Roger Farquhar.

The society was six years old in 1869 when she was elected secretary; she said she had tried to give true reports of the proceedings of the meetings, & considered herself only its Scribe, so she was not its "Mother", not even Step-mother! Now this is probably all correct, but I am just wondering if the Horticultural children are not such an unruly set that she does not want to claim them as her own. Let us

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hope that is not why we can not call her "Mother"!!! Alban Thomas spoke of the sweet potatoes being very large. this season, & thought they were ahead of time- but others said they sometimes had them in August, those on exhibit were very large. Sarah Hallowell had seen an article in The Sun paper on the angry treethe following is a description of it.

This Tree Gets Mad. "In Idaho there exits a species of the acacia tree that is entitled [?] classed as one of the wonders of plant life. The tree allows a height of about 8 feet. When full grown it closes its leaves in coils each day at sunset. When the tree has thus settled itself for a night's sleep it will flutter violently if touched, & if you shake the branches it will emit a nauseating odor strong enough to bring on a headache. In Idaho it is called the "angry tree", and it is said that it was discovered by some men who were waking a camp for the night, & placed the end of a canvas covering over one of the