1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



579 



ries; but although they send out great quanti- 

 ties of these things they do not produce any 

 thing like the quantity of fruit as at the Ohio 

 Experiment Station. With the crowd of work- 

 men they employ they say it is hard to keep 

 perfect specimens. Then I passed through one 

 of their great frost proof combined cellars and 

 warehouses, where stuff can be secure from 

 frost, and be packed for shipment. This build- 

 ing has heavy walls that not only keep out 

 frost, but preserve the requisite amount of 

 dampness to handle nur.sery stock to the best 

 advantage. A little further on 1 saw an appa- 

 ratus, to be drawn by a horse, that blows air- 

 slacked lime or any other Kind of oust all over 

 the crops where it is desired to keep off insects 

 or for other purposes. The blast of air is pro- 

 duced by a fan that is moved by pulling the 

 thing along — the wheels of the machine fur- 

 nishing the motive power to drive the fan. 

 Acres of trees or plants may be dusted at a very, 

 insignificant cost by horse power. 



Just as I was getting to be a little tired, our 

 veteran friend Mr. Storrs himself took me in his 

 buggy, and we went out across the broad acres. 

 Mr. ytorrs commenced work in this locality to- 

 ward fifty years ago. Their grounds now ex- 

 tend over something like one and a half miles 

 along the lake shore, nursery stock growing 

 clear up to the edge of the water. Did you ever 

 hear of roses growing outdoors by the acre? 

 Well, there were not only rosebushes by the 

 acre, but at one place we saw the most beauti- 

 ful roses that imagination ever conceived, so it 

 seemed to me, and literally acres of blossoms. 

 It seemed almost like enchantment. I exclaim- 

 ed, " Why, Mr. Storrs, do you mean to tell me 

 that such roses as these are left to 



'blush unseen 



And waste their sweetness on the desert uir '?' 



At the prices that such perfect buds and blos- 

 soms are usually rated, there is a heap of honey 

 going to waste every day." 



" Yes. Mr. Root, these beautiful specimens 

 are really in one sense wasting their sweetness. 

 The trouble is, the fashion nowadays is such 

 that everybody who has a rose must have one 

 with a long stem to it; and these long stems are 

 worth more to us for the purpose of budding 

 than the flowers themselves. We tried selling 

 them with short stems; but it was not the fash- 

 ion, and so we gave it up. See here. That 

 crowd of men off there are budding roses. Be- 

 fore we use any of the wood wo want to be sure 

 it produces the right kind of flowers. So these 

 blooms are really tests. When we are satisfied 

 with the product, then we can let our men take 

 the cuttings from the plants, you see." 



May be I have not got this thing quite right, 

 but that was my understanding of the matter. 

 The men work along in a row side by side. 

 Every little while one stoops down and does 

 something to the plant at his feet. Then he 

 rises up while he cuts the bud for setting in the 

 next plant, and so on. 



" Well, why don't these men get down on 

 their knees, as they do in budding peach-trees?" 



** Because we have found they will do more 

 work, and do it better, by standing up." 



"They do not work by the piece, then, as 

 they do in budding peaches?" 



" No, sir. The work they are doing is of too 

 much value, and the importance is too great; 

 for every plant must produce blossoms true to 

 name. The men all work by the day, and they 

 are all trained experts in the work." 



Pretty soon we saw acres and acres of peach- 

 trees. Why, it seemed as if the whole wide 

 world could hardly use so many. My compan- 

 ion told me that nearly all of them were alrea- 

 dy sold at wholesale, a whole acre of trees fre- 



quently going to one man. Like the sycamore- 

 trees, each peach-tree was exactly like Its neigh- 

 bor — a model of symmetry, beauty, and luxuri- 

 ance. All were budded, and very plain labels 

 that could be lead at a distance proclaimed to 

 the passerby what each tr ee should produce. Q 

 ! Ihese beautiful grounds are mostly under- 

 drained. We saw them doing their work as we 

 passed by. Large quantities of stable manure 

 are used to get the requisite fertility, and they 

 are now gettiug excellent results by turning 

 under cow peas, soja beans, rye. and various 

 other green crops. The land is up to a high de- 

 gree of fertility; and whenever a farm crop is 

 put ill to get the requisite rotation, or to pro- 

 duce feed tor their own large numbers of horses, 

 great crops are secured. Many of their work- 

 men have cottages scattered over the grounds, 

 so they will not have too great a distance to 

 travel. In one part of the grounds I believe 

 they have a chapel, and they endeavor to have 

 their people attend religious worship as much 

 as possible. 



This great business has been built up by 

 studying the real wants and needs of their 

 customers, and not by planning to make a self- 

 ish deal every time they get an order. I have 

 several times of late .sent to Storrs & Harrison 

 for certain things, telling them to fill the order 

 if the plant would probably do as the catalogs 

 claim it will; and a good many times I receive 

 answer that they have the plant or shrub in 

 question, and that they would be glad to sell it, 

 but that the claims made for it are so much 

 exaggerated they think best not to fill the 

 order. And this reminds me that, a little over 

 a year ago, I wrote with considerable enthusi- 

 asm about our Rocky Mountain cherry, the 

 bush no larger than a currant, that bears great 

 quantities of beautiful luscious cherries. Dr. 

 Miller, in a " Straw," cautioned me in regard 

 to writing up the plant in that manner before 

 testing the fruit. Well, last season the frost 

 scorched all my cherries. This year the bushes 

 are pretty well loaded again, and the cherries 

 are certainly as large as the raorello. They 

 look just like sweet black cherries, and have a 

 cherry-stone inside of them; but instead of 

 being a delicious fruit, as the catalogs claim, 

 they are not fit to eat; in fact, they are not to 

 be compared with the common wild cherry. 

 They are handsome to look at, but they are 

 neither sweet nor sour. The man who sold 

 these bushes for 50 or 75 cts. apiece, and let his 

 customers watch and care for them for two or 

 three years until they came in fruiting, and 

 then be disappointed, ought to fail in business; 

 and I do not think it is very much of an excuse 

 to say he took the word of somebody else for it. 

 The man who puts out a catalog should grow 

 the plant Jiiiaself on his otvn (jroiincU before 

 he booms it as a great acqusition of modern 

 times. To get out of it by saying the descrip- 

 tion he gave was put in quotation-marks, and 

 was simply the originator's claim, is, in my 

 opinion, a very poor excuse. If anybody else 

 has a Rocky Mountain cherry that is tit for 

 anybody to eat, I should like to hear from him. 

 We have three bushes, and the fruit of all is 

 just exactly alike. 



Now, while Storrs & Harrison keep posted in 

 regard to all novelties in the line of nursery 

 stock, they will tell you the honest truth about 

 these things, even if they fail in making a sale 

 as a consequence of telling the truth; and the' 

 consequence of telling the truth straight for 

 fifty years is this colossal business which they 

 have built up. We have fruits and plants 

 all around our home, purchased of Storrs &, 

 Harrison during the past ten or fifteen years; 

 and every tree, as it comes into bearing, proves 



