1890. 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



247 



n\akinK simple trellises; and the gardener 

 may use whatever his own fancy or ingenu- 

 ity may dictate. 



National Registration of Plants. 



A law to secure exclusive propagation 

 and sale rights, for a cert^iin length of time, 

 to oriRnators of new plants, etc., is at pres- 

 ent the subject of thought, study and di.s- 

 cussion. We fear that the plans now pro- 

 posed and which embrace an elaborate clas- 

 sification of species and their varieties, to- 



Ti'inato Treltli made of Slata and Honps. 



gether with illustrations and descriptions, 

 and tests by the State Experiment Stations 

 are much too complicated to give us prac- 

 tical results. 



That we are skeptical as to the utility of 

 any measures designed to protect orig- 

 inators of plants and varieties which are 

 based upon descriptions, illustrations and 

 tests we do not disguise. This is because 

 we know somewhat of the degree of un- 

 stability that prevails in the characteristics 

 of species and varieties. A mechanical in- 

 vention can be defined and illustrated so 

 accurately, that it may be identiUed beyond 

 a doubt wherever found, hence it may 

 readily be protected by letters patent. But 

 with a plant it is entirely otherwise. A 

 description or illustration that would accu- 

 rately fit a species or variety under one 

 condition of climate, altitude, soil and cul- 

 ture might not lit it at all under a thousand 

 others. All students of botany, who depend 

 upon printed descriptions— and such as are 

 made by the most skillful experts in descrip- 

 tion too — in determing species and varieties 

 know of the uncertainty that always 

 prevails in relying upon such descriptions. 

 The same thing is true of fruits as is seen 

 in the Smithsonian Institute collection of 

 fruit models, where are shown types of cer- 

 tain varieties, say the JEsopus Spitzenberg 

 Apple, as grown in the eastern states and per- 

 haps quite a different type of the same var- 

 iety asgrown in Missouri or Kansas. What 

 jury of experts familiar with the Ben 

 Davis Apple as known in Michigan, could 

 positively swear that certain specimens 

 raised in Arkansas were or were not the 

 same variety. 



Such are a few of the obstacles in the way 

 of protecting owners of novelties by means 

 analogus to patenting inventions, that is by 

 depending upon descriptions and illustra- 

 tions. But there is another remedy and a 

 more practical one for attaining the same end 

 namely to make the name of the variety a 



trademark as applying to the use or sale of 

 said variety. This, as was pointed out in 

 the discussion at the recent meeting of 

 nurserymen in New York, has been tried 

 with satisfactory results in a number of 

 instances. It is possible that the present 

 trade mark laws could be amended to adapt 

 them even more perfectly to the end sought, 

 A trade mark affords perfect protection 

 in the use of the name, thus shielded. By its 

 use, all that an originator of a valuable 

 variety the name of which has been thus 

 secured to him, would have to do for pro- 

 tection, would be to get up a large stock of 

 his novelty before commencing to put it out, 

 merely as a safe guard against the remote 

 possibility of some unscrupulous persons 

 buying largely of the stock and selling of 

 the same under some other name and de- 

 scription. 



The Meeting of Nurserymen in Nevi? 

 York. 



BY OUR STAFF CORltESPONDENT. 



(Continued from page 210.) 



Root-grafted and Budded Nubsert 

 Trees. Prof. L. H. Bailey, in his paper said 

 this whole subject might be divided into two 

 different parts, and discussed one as whole- 

 rooted trees, (grafting on whole roots) and 

 another as piece-rooted trees (grafting on 

 small pieces of roots) and again in regard 

 to budded trees. In England the piece-root 

 method of propagation is used to rather a 

 limited extent for ornamental trees mostly. 

 It allows us to make more trees from 

 our stocks, as you all know, it allows us 

 to double and sometimes quadrupple trees. 

 It sometimes cheapens, and it hastens mul- 

 tiplication, it allows deep setting, and is of 

 value especially in our great northwest, 

 where seedlings are apt to vary, and some 

 of these seedlings may be tender. 



Mr. Albaugh of Ohio, said that in this 

 nursery there has not been a piece-root graft 

 for the last six years. Grafts grown upon 

 whole roots, these have been anything like 

 the failure of forinerly with piece-roots. 

 He advocated the use of roots, a fibrous 

 character. Stand them in the orchard so 

 that the union is under the surface. 



Mr. Carpenter, of Nebraska, thought the 

 question was a sectional one. In his section 

 whole roots and budded trees are not a 

 success. The soil is too light and they are 

 subject to root freezing unless banked up. 

 The soil also is too rich, and they make too 

 strong a growth and run wild. He had 

 tested seedlings enough to know that (iO per 

 cent, would not stand Nebraska winters, 

 hence they take the piece roots every time, 

 and produce as good trees as eastern men 

 would dare to produce. They produced 

 more laterals, or side roots in his section, 

 and the trees were less subject to blowing 

 over. The tap root never supports the tree 

 from blowing over, but the side roots do. 



Mr. Stark, of Missouri, had been growing 

 whole-root and piece-root trees for many 

 years, and the whole-root will mature 

 earlier than the piece-root and will average 

 from one-third larger, and they will make 

 much finer rooted trees. Piece-root trees 

 tend to throw out roots from oue side only, 

 and in the nursery row will twist over, 

 while the whole-root tree will stand straight 

 and make better trees for the orchard. 



Mr. Thurlow, of Massachusetts, believed 

 that budded trees are better than grafted 

 trees. Borers find concealment better in a 

 graft than in a bud. 



Mr. Albaugh ventured the statement that 

 in grafts as spoken of the point of union, 

 may have been above the ground, thus leav- 

 ing a place for the borers to work in. 



In regard to covering the union lietween 

 the scion and the root, in grafting they 

 turn the root in a wooden spoon of hot wax, 



covering over every part of the grafted por- 

 tion, below and above; they turn the graft 

 quickly, so that it will not only cover up the 

 union between the two, but will prevent 

 any water from getting under, eitlier below 

 or above. 



Stock dug and shipped to early in the 

 FALL. Mr. G. E. Meissner, of Missouri, in his 

 valuable paper referred to the fact that 

 because the dealer is anxious to get 

 through with his fall deliveries while the 

 weather is fine, the nurseryman or grower 

 must gather his forces early. Men and boys 

 are put to work ruthlessly stripping the 

 foliage from trees, plants and vines, long 

 before the leaves have completed their func- 

 tions. The days of delivery have been set 

 commencing in the very beginning of Oc- 

 tober, often regardless of latitude or season, 

 so the nurseryman must commence his 

 work weeks in advance. The stock must be 

 dug, sorted, packed and shipped at a season 

 when the the mid-day sun is as hot and 

 burning as in August. The immature roots 

 exposed for hours or longer, and the unripe 

 soft wood may shrivel, but the agent is "on 

 time" with his delivery. He turns over his 

 stock, collects his money, settles up with 

 his employer or nurseryman who has 

 "packed" him, and is ready for the spring 

 campaign, arguing to himself that "fall 

 trade don't amount to much anyway." 



Now look at the result for the planter. 

 He was perhaps told that "fall planting is 

 no good in this part of the country, " but 

 the agent soon persuaded him out of this 

 notion. What a disappointment when 

 spring and summer come! Quite a number 

 of the carefully planted trees will not grow 

 at all, others start out with a puny yellow- 

 ish growth, and finally die, and a few sur- 

 vive. After much time and money has 

 been spent, after much work and fretting, 

 the farmer has started a sickly plantation. 

 He has practically lost a year's'time besides 

 his money and labor. The consequence to 

 the trade in general from such proceedure is 

 a grower, popular prejudice against all fall 

 planting, bringing it into disregard, not to 

 say disrepute. 



All of our best authorities in horticulture 

 tell us that fall is the best season for trans- 



TomaU) Trellis made of ,s(a(s. See opimsite. 

 planting fruit and forest trees, shrubs and 

 vines. No authority that I know of, ad- 

 vises us to accomplish the "fall of the leaf " 

 by a savage tearing off of the foliage long 

 before nature has given the first signal that 

 the period of rest is at hand. The young, 

 white reotlets are still at work, leaves are 

 still converting the sap into nutrition, and 

 returning these to be stored away for new 

 leaf and growth, in the following spring. 



