• Where Were We in 1991
• Some Exotic Messages

Where Were We in 1991

Spring Auction
The super spring sale took place on Saturday, April 13,1991 at the Civic Garden Centre, Don Mills, Ontario. Spring was early in 1991 and the sale resulted in more than 80 attendance and a large turn-out of trees too! Many a new nut grove resulted from this auction. May the trees and seeds grow on to make wondrous things!

Annual Meeting
Ridgetown College hosted the Annual Meeting of SONG on Saturday, July 27,1991. Chris Nanni was the spark plug who organized a delicious barbeque, a woodlot tour and an overview of an agroforestry experiment with nut trees, soya beans, wheat and com. SONG extends thanks to both Chris Nanni and Ridgetown College for a wonderful day. Also, a generous SONG thank you is extended to Steve and Sandy Erny for the tour that they gave members through their agroforestry project. The nut trees are showing excellent progress in their third year of growth. The Emys are looking forward to future years when they will be able to have their picnics beneath the shade of a great and mighty forest.

The business session of the Annual Meeting produced the following results: The newly elected executive are -
President - Ken Weston
Vice President - Chris Nanni
Secretary - Robert Hambleton
Treasurer - Marion Grimo
Honorary Director - James Harvey
Editor - Doug Campbell
Auditor - Joyce Branston
Nominating Committee: Murial Braham, chair; John Sandham, Peter Huys.

Directors - It is the function of the President to appoint two directors to the Board from the membership at large.

Fees - The fees are changed by due process as follows -1 year membership - $12.00; 3 year membership - $30.00

Heather Apple agreed to organize a SONG display for the 1991 Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto.

Further discussion took place on the publication of the SONG handbook. Publication of the final product is projected for late 1992.

A motion was passed for the President of SONG to send a letter of confirmation to OMAF - Ridgetown College assuring that SONG is vitally interested in the continuation of the agroforestry projects involving nut crops.

Fall Meeting
The harvest season meeting took place on Saturday, September 14, 1991 at the Reservoir Property of the Credit Valley Conservation Authority. Some nuts still remained on the hazel bushes but some collection of agents had made off with the rest of the harvest Heartnut trees continue to be the best performers for growth followed closely by black walnuts, butternuts and numerous others. Altogether it's impressive to see the nut growing progress which is being made at Orangeville - especially since this area is reputed to be one of the coldest in southern Ontario.

Other People's Meetings
The Northern Nut Growers Association put on a fine show at Corvallis, Oregon from August 4-7,1991. The feature of this meeting was the large commercial hazelnut industry. Several large orchards with 60 year old trees were visited. A tour was taken through a commercial hazel processing plant. A newly established orchard of sweet chestnut was surveyed. Here was an example of a chestnut grove based on the European species. In particular, most of the nursery stock came from the popular California cultivar - Colossal. The results were very interesting. No less interesting was the town of Corvallis... a medium-sized urban area with a park-like environment... where the neighbour's lawn might have a redwood tree 35 metres high, or a cascading chamaecyparis, a tall and solid ponderosa pine or a spire-like calocedrus... and then there were southern magnolias.. 10 metres high and in bloom... All of this plus house-high rhododendrons made the town as interesting as the meetings! A nut grower should never miss an event like this.

Ridgetown College's June 2-7,1991 meeting on Windbreaks and Agroforestry was a new experience for many Ontario growers about the diversity of tree growing around the world... for example:

• the methods that Philippines use to provide windbreaks for their crops to mute the force of typhoon winds/storms!
• ways and means of re-establishing mesquite forests on southern Californian sand dunes where air temperatures in summer reach 55C daily and temperatures inside growing tubes reach 65C! Furthermore - during much of the year, there may be high as well as freezing temperatures on the same days! (Do we worry about the occasional spring frost in Ontario?)
• tactics to reduce browsing of young trees by giraffes... a type of tall deer common in Africa.
• the use of European chestnut for windbreaks and coppice timber production along the windy Atlantic-facing coastline of France.
• traditional practices for windbreak control of grain fields and water conservation techniques used to maintain marginal lands in mother Russia.
• reforesting farmed-out, eroded highlands in the Andean Mountains of Bolivia... where tree crops may be surprisingly similar to those in southern Ontario!
• using mango as a shelterbelt species in the vegetable fields of Costa Rica where 100 kph winds occur almost every day!
• establishing property rights for crops in a country/culture where a tree is owned by its planter (rather than the landowner!)

So... after reviewing some of the tree growing challenges of the world, you soon realize that there is no growing problem like an Ontario growing problem!! Like... what is separating Ontario growers from great tree growing achievements??

Miscellaneous Meetings
Several organizations offer meetings which although not strictly about nuts, often contain methods/techniques useful to all forms of growing. The Canadian Organic Growers usually have a convention in February and they have useful approaches for reducing/eliminating intervention upon the natural growing cycle of crops with foreign materials/sprays/dusts etc. The Heritage Seed Program specializes in the maintenance of available seeds of diverse varieties of vegetables, herbs etc., so that growers may have access to uniquely useful strains which otherwise may become extinct. The Ecological Farmers Association offers methods/techniques for farming to reduce impact on our heavily burdened environment. SONG members who want to explore the great wealth of activities which are available to growers in Ontario, should inquire about what is current at the next SONG meeting event. Let the action begin!

Some Exotic Messages

We are interested in a small supply of paw-paw plants to assist us in the breeding of the Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly - Eurytides marcellus. Our farm is dedicated to the breeding of butterflys/moths for zoos, schools, collectors and we supply them as living insects.
Pete and Carole Noyle, R.R.#1, Hillsburgh ON

I have a 150+ year old pecan tree in my back yard It is about 150 feet high with a trunk girth of over 10 feet. In fall of 1991, I harvested over 100 pounds of nuts and the squirrels/birds got even more!
Tom McLaughlin, 311 Park Avenue, Salisbury MD

Provided by SONG. Feel free to copy with a credit.