President Davidson: Come to order, please. The first speaker on the afternoon program is Mr. Shivery. I think I will get Mr. Chase to say a word. Mr. Chase: Our next speaker is Mr. George Shivery, Extension Forester for the University of Tennessee, and I know that the interest of this Association is in the planting of improved black walnuts, and I simply can say this man arranged for the planting of more Thomas walnut trees than any other man in the world. George Shivery. The Black Walnut Situation in Tennessee GEORGE B. SHIVERY, Extension Forester, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee. Mr. Shivery: Mr. Chairman and members of the Association: I certainly appreciate that compliment made by Mr. Chase, 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.