TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 253 



AMERICAN NURSERY INDUSTRIES. 



BY MR. CHARLES E. GREENING OP MONROE. 



No special subject having been assigned to me, you will not take it 

 amiss if I select a topic which naturally occupies my thoughts. It is one 

 of vast importance to all in any way connected with the interests of hor- 

 ticulture. I refer to the nursery industry, one of the most important 

 industries of our country, which has kept pace with the wonderful prog- 

 ress made throughout this country. The nursery business is one of the 

 great factors in commerce, giving direct employment to thousands, and 

 indirectly to millions, of people. Nurserymen ought to be considered 

 benefactors of the country, for they not only promote a healthy move- 

 ment of the nation's circulating medium, but contribute naturally to the 

 health and happiness of the people, creating an appetite for refreshing, 

 healthgiving fruits, and furnishing the plants that bear them. Do they 

 not deserve appreciation and the meager profit so grudgingly bestowed 

 by many? 



Seriously speaking, you will agree with me that the nursery industry 

 is worthy of our earnest consideration. Permit me for a moment to 

 glance back at the industry as it was carried on in the years gone by. 



The first impressions of nursery life are still vivid in my mind; not Qnly 

 the impressions made by the famous birch rod that never decays, but 

 more so of the impression made by father's work among the trees. The 

 work at that time differed, not so much in principle as in method, the 

 tools and working material being behind those of today. The scions for 

 grafting, I remember, were cut principally from bearing trees. The 

 bandage cloth for grafting was prepared in the primitive way, on the 

 kitchen stove, the sticky mass giving off volumes of smoke and odor not 

 much relished by the more delicate members of the household. And 

 thus it was in many other respects a slow, plodding kind of work. 



As to the varieties of fruit, the list was small, the few better sorts hav- 

 ing a high price. When the Concord grape was first introduced, one-year 

 vines sold at |5 apiece, and they were well worth this price. Today the 

 price of Concord vines has dropped to almost nothing; still, the Concord 

 is today the standard all-purpose grape, and has the esteem of the people. 



Some of the fruit varieties of earlier days are extensively planted today 

 because of their standard qualities. Although varieties are changing, 

 and excellent new sorts are being brought into the market, yet many 

 older sorts, such as the old and tried Baldwins, Spy, Wagener, and others, 

 still bear comparison with our best sorts of today; and among the pears, 

 Bartlett, Anjou, and Angouleme are holding their own. 



Formerly many new varieties were imported from Europe. I remem- 

 ber well when my father imported some German sorts for introduction, 

 among which were the famous Borsdorfer apple and the different sorts of 

 Bergamont pears. This experiment taught us that most of the foreign 

 varieties must be improved here in order to be of any value. Our home 

 varieties are superior to the foreign kinds, and should be preferred by 



