404 BOAKD OF ACilUCUJyrUiiE. 



dustry and put it on a footing tliat would bring in millions of dollars to 

 the State, instead of being a tax on our people, as it now is. 



With the little means it could command, bj' voluntary contributions 

 and assessments, the State Horticultural Society has established the only 

 experimental farm in the world devoted to the improvement of the apple, 

 the leader of all fruits. Here the work of originating new varieties is 

 being carried on, in rather a small way, of course, for lack of funds, but 

 this farm is being watched carefully by leading horticulturists all over 

 the world and great things are expected of it. 



Another thing we need is more local horticultural societies, extending 

 out into such parts of the State where fruit farming could be made profit- 

 able. By these organizations there would be an awakening to the pos- 

 sibilities of Indiana as a horticultural State, our fruit products would be 

 greatly multiplied and millions of dollars annually added to her income. 



Meanwhile, it is our duty, as well as it should be our highest aim as 

 horticulturists, to go ahead in all lines of progress, letting our light shine 

 into "the dark places" as much as possible, be ever on the alert in our 

 profession and hope for that reward that comes from good intentions and 

 good works, superintended by good and unselHsh motives. — W. W. Stevens. 



WHAT BECOMES OF THE NURSERY STOCK? 



While 250,000,000 trees were sold by nurserymen last spring only 150,- 

 000,000 are alive today, including all planted by fruit growers in past 

 years. This is as nearly as I can quote Professor Bailey's first words 

 before the recent Nurserymen's Association at Niagara Falls. I quote from 

 memory and may not be quite accurate in figures in every instance. Only 

 one in five lives to yield any fruit. Only one tree in sixteen lives at all. 

 Only one tree in one hundred that lives gives anything like good results. 

 The loss of seeds is equally as great. These facts indicate great careless- 

 ness or lack of experience in planting trees or seeds, yet the loss is no 

 greater than that which seems to occur to the usual forces of nature, 

 though in nature tliere is no waste of substance. The robin hatches, say, 

 five young birds each season. If all the young lived, in ten years the in- 

 crease from one pair of birds would amount to fifty thousand birds; thus 

 the world would be overrun witli roljins. In nature not one seed in one 

 thousand lives to make a plant or tree, and of those that live not one 

 in one hundred ever reaches the blossoming stage. Not one fish egg of 

 one thousand hatches, and but few that hatch survive long enough to 

 reach mature size. If all the fish eggs hatched, and all young fishes 

 lived, the waters of tlie earth would become solid witli fish, so as to 

 impede navigation. 



It is not the fault of nurserymen that more trees sold and planted do 

 not live to produce alnuidant harvests of fine fruit. Many people who 

 plant trees have not the experience necessary to make them live and 



