May 29, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest. 



263 



County, with all his care in cultivation, had to throw out many 

 defective specimens in sorting for English markets. He in- 

 formed me that in making an extra selection of the very hnest 

 he took at the rate of about one specmien in a half bushel, 

 and these sold for about double the usual price— nevertheless, 

 they did not pay cost. This was some forty years ago. 



I never quite agreed with A. J. Downing Uiat the Newtown 

 Pippin stood at the head of all Apples, and was "unrivalled in 

 all the qualities which constitute a high-flavored dessert fruit." 

 Different individuals have varying preferences, and I have 

 known a person who from early association preferred the 

 coarse Pennock to all others. I would place such Apples as 

 Northern Spy, Swaar, Red Canada and Jonathan, as quite equal 

 in quality to the Newtown Pippin, while Esopus Spitzenburgh 

 is hardly equalled in high flavor by any Apple. The Newtown 

 Pippin loses less by shipment across the ocean than most 

 others, which is doubtless one reason why it is so highly 

 esteemed there. 



I have no doubt that this fruit, as grown in favorable locali- 

 ties in Virginia, is better than in New York, judging from the 

 fact that the Cincinnati specimens which I have received were 

 larger and fairer than our spotted and defective ones here. 



Union Springs, N. Y. J- J. Th07HaS. 



[The letter above was not written for publication, but 

 every statement or suggestion made by Mr. Thomas in re- 

 lation to our fruits is worth preserving. — Ed.] 



The Germantown Nurseries. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir. — These nurseries are situated within the limits of the 

 city of Philadelphia, where land is worth four or five thousand 

 dollars an acre, and when I asked Mr. Thomas Meehan, the 

 senior member of the firm, if he was not cultivating rather 

 expensive soil, he replied that he could not afford to conduct 

 his business on cheap land. He went on to say that if his 

 nurseries were moved back into the country the money saved 

 by reduced interest on the price of land would be more than 

 counter-balanced by the increased cost of labor and manure, of 

 transportation, and, in short, of everything he had to buy for 

 his business. As a matter of fact he sells hundreds of thou- 

 sands of Osage Orange plants, raised on this city property, for 

 hedges on western farm-lands. He added that in a remote 

 location his business could not advertise itself as it now does 

 so cheaply and to such advantage, and he considers this ef-' 

 fective advertising an important factor in the success he has 

 achieved. And really there are few places in the United States 

 where a fine collection of ornamental trees and shrubs would 

 attract so many interested and appreciative visitors. German- 

 town is as old as the big city, which absorbed it more than thirty 

 years ago, and it has always been the home of wealth and refine- 

 ment. Here lived noted botanical collectors early in the cen- 

 tury, and rare and beautiful trees were planted on most of the 

 old estates. Although these estates have been cut up, many 

 of the venerable trees have been carefully preserved. A drive 

 through the town will take one by a Pecan-tree, for example, 

 a hundred feet high, which, by the way, bears fruit about 

 every other year. Not many Pecan-trees were growing in the 

 Middle States when the nut was planted, or the seedling set, 

 which has developed into this superb specimen. Here, too, is 

 a Magnolia Fraseri fifty feet high, which was certainly one of 

 the first ever brought to the North, and a Yellow-wood, which 

 Audubon probably brought here on horseback. Magnificent 

 English Elms, and Yews unmatched in this country, not to 

 speak of countless grand old native trees, testify that the peo- 

 ple of Germantown in the first half of this century had learned 

 to select good trees, and knew how to plant and how to care 

 for them after they had been planted. Under the influence of 

 such traditions and such living examples, the new-comers who 

 have been drawn here to find a country life in the city are 

 lovers of trees and shrubs, and Thomas Meehan & Son stand 

 ready to satisfy their longings. 



It was on the 22d of May when I reached Germantown, but 

 the trees seemed already dressed in the full foliage of June. 

 The Tulip-trees, which are very abundant here, were covered 

 with flowers, and the White Fringe was blossonnng on the 

 lawns. On either side of the entrance to the Nurseries I found 

 a Weeping Elm, and the pair bear witness to the genial con- 

 ditions of soil and climate here, standing some forty-five feet 

 high — a growth made in twenty years. These trees have a 

 distinctively pendulous habit, and were among the earliest 

 planted of the variety which has been sold as the Weeping, 

 Red or Slippery Elm. The seed this year, however, makes it 

 plain that this form is really a variety of the White or Ameri- 

 can Elm. Other trees besides the Elms grow here with notable 



rapidity, euid one of the most interesting studies is a long row 

 of various kinds which were set out fifteen years ago wlien 

 less than an inch in diameter. Of all these, a Celtisnow takes 

 the lead with a diameter of about ten inches, but many of the 

 Oaks are following close after, among them a Red Oak, a Chestnut 

 Oak, a Black Oak and a beautiful Swamp White Oak. These 

 specimen Oaks reminded Mr. Meehan to say that he finds the 

 Oaks, as a class, among the easiest to grow, and he has no 

 difficulty in transplanting even large specimens. He added 

 that if his business liad developed in the direction of any 

 specialty it was towards the sale of large trees. A man who 

 moves into Germantown and builds a house insists on planting 

 some trees about it that are big enough to drop a shadow on 

 his lawn. He wants a tree which he can see now, and not a little 

 seedling with only the hope of a tree in it. He asks for trees 

 twenty-five feet high and he gets them. In Mr. Meehan's 

 practice, that much-talked-of ball of earth about the roots is 

 dispensed with, and yet large trees are rarely killed or severely 

 checked by removal. His process is to spade out a circular 

 ditch two feet deep, with a radius of six feet, say, from the 

 centre of the tree — greater or less, according to size — and then 

 to carefully throw back all earth from the roots within the 

 circle with a fork. The saving of all the smaller roots he con- 

 siders useless. No root carried away with the tree takes up 

 any food or moisture. This work is done by the fine root- 

 hairs that are thrown out after the tree is set. The best fime 

 to take up the tree is after the leaves have ripened in autumn, 

 but before they have fallen ; and this gives time to make 

 working roots before frost, so that the tree can be supplied 

 with moisture to protect it against excessive drying out in 

 winter. Of course the earth should be packed tightly about 

 the roots. Mr. Meehan's directions are to plant the tree as 

 you would set a post — ram very firmly, and then a big tree 

 will need no staking. 



A walk through the sixty-five acres devoted to ornamental 

 trees and shrubs showed that something like a thousand vari- 

 eties are grown here, mainly for a retail trade. Among our 

 western conifers I noticed thrifty specimens of Lawson's Cy- 

 press and Thuya gigantea, while Finns cotitorta, which is often 

 a disagreeable sulaject to handle, did not seem at all unhappy, 

 a result which Mr. Meehan attributed to the fact that it \vas 

 grafted on Scotch Pine stock. }3ut space would fail if even the 

 names were given of all the interesting conifers which are 

 grouped here in the specimen grounds. One, however, must 

 not be omitted — a Thuya {Retinispora) sqiiarrosa which set out 

 in life with the bluish-gray and closely-massed foliage of this 

 variety. But after a year or so the tree saw fit to abandon this 

 juvenile form, and it forthwith assumed another, throwing out 

 the soft green, feathery spra}' of T. plumosa, and so it stands 

 to-day, with the upper branches as distinct from those near 

 the ground, as if one belonged to a graft and the other to the 

 stock. Many other eccentricities were pointed out, as, for ex- 

 ample, a seedling Halesia, which differs from the type in char- 

 acters strong enough to place it in a distinct genus, while seed- 

 lings from it have reverted to the original form. I observed 

 that our native shrubs were grown in great abundance, and 

 Mr. Meehan said that for planting large places especially, there 

 was a rapildy increasing demand for them, and, in fact, for na- 

 tive trees as well. Foreign shrubs, however, are not neg- 

 lected, as a block of two or three acres of Viburnum plicaiuvi 

 testified. These plants were all white with snow-balls, and 

 made a pretty sight; nor were they unprofitable, for every 

 one had been spoken for by a city florist, and the money re- 

 ceived for the crop would go far towards paying for the pro- 

 duction of the plants. This was noticed as another advantage 

 of tilling an urban farm. 



Upon the lawn about Mr. Meehan's house are many trees 

 of exceptional beauty and interest. The original Weeping- 

 Dogwood stands here, and no tree with pensile branches can 

 be more graceful. Near it is a perfect specimen of the 

 lovely Oriental Spruce, and not far away is a very large Ficca 

 pungens which has a softness of outline unusual in this some- 

 what rigid tree. The largest Golden Retinospora I have ever 

 seen is here, and is, I believe, one of the first four which came 

 to this country, having been presentetl to Mr. Meehan by Mr. 

 Francis Parkman. A large specimen of the dark-leaved 

 Japanese Maple was pointed out as an example of the vigor 

 and health which characterize these trees when grown on 

 their own roots, and nearly c\'ery other tree had some special 

 interest from its history or from the lesson it taught. After 

 the instructive walk through these grounds, a delightful hour 

 was spent in the library, wliich contains a remarkable collec- 

 tion of works on horticulture and the sciences related to it. 

 Many of the books are presentation copies from such authors 

 as Darwin, Hooker, Gray and Engelmann. One little manu- 



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