Vol. LXI No. 2738. NEW YORK, JULY 19, 1902. $1 PER YEAR 
STILL ANOTHER NURSERY ROGUE. 
VAN DEMAN’S CAUSTIC COMMENT. 
The Most Remarkable Fruits Yet! 
There has been a man around here for about three 
weeks claiming to represent a nursery firm at Dayton, 
Ohio. He professes to sell Canada stock improved 
upon by his nursery and extremely hardy. He guar¬ 
antees trees to be all three years old and to bear the 
next year after transplanting. He has a gooseberry 
called Canada which he says is grafted on a shrub 
which looks very much like an oak. He says the 
worms never eat the leaves, and it never fails to bear; 
that it never can be propagated except by grafting, 
and will bear the next year after transplanting. 
Berries very large—an inch in diameter; he had five 
in a glass bottle. The “Canada plum” has a fuzz on It 
like a peach, which renders it curculio-proof. Two 
peaches, the “Canada Red,” which is red to the pit, 
and the “Canada Yellow” are very hardy and never 
fail to bear. His pears, he says, are grafted on a 
Honey locust, and will bear the next year after trans¬ 
planting. Also, the Rough Rider strawberry will bear 
until July 15. He is also selling the Red Grape cur¬ 
rant, which, he says, is grafted on a 
grape stock which make the currant 
larger, and it resists the attack of the 
Currant worm. He is also selling the 
Transparent blackberry, which he 
claims is the best and has no hard core. 
He is also selling a tree rose which he 
guarantees will have three different 
colored roses on it. He has apples too, 
that he guarantees to bear the next 
year after transplanting. He says they 
have all other varieties of- apples, 
pears, plums, peaches, etc., but he does 
not recommend them, as they take 
from three to six years to Dear. He is 
selling only special varieties—im¬ 
proved Canada varieties, which he says 
hear earlier and are very much hardier. 
He has several victims already. 
Versailles, Ind. f. m. d. 
It does seem remarkable that west¬ 
ern Ohio is the headquarters of many 
of the most shameful nursery frauds 
in all the world. There are some good, 
honest nurserymen there, for I have 
long known them to be such, but there 
are others there and elsewhere who are a disgrace to 
the nursery business. This “concern” that is now re¬ 
ported as being at Dayton is new to me, and I do not 
say that there Is not a shadow of truth in some of the 
things the alleged agent is claiming, but it is only 
a shadow and a very thin one at that. To take the 
items in course, the plain truth about them is as 
follows: 
Why his nursery should have “Canadian stock” and 
how it could be improved in Ohio is beyond my under¬ 
standing. There are good nurseries in Canada, as I 
have often seen, but the duty on their trees and plants 
is practically prohibitive. I do not believe it any bet¬ 
ter than that grown in Ohio and elsewhere within the 
United States, nor that this agent is selling any such 
thing. The trend of the nursery trade was from here 
to there until the danger of San Jos6 scale caused pro¬ 
hibitive laws to be enacted. If the trees were three 
years old they would not “bear the next year,” and 
are not liked as well by orchardists as those that are 
two years old. 
Gooseberry bushes are grafted on a shrub “much like 
an oak,” that cannot be propagated any other way, 
that has leaves proof against worms, and bears fruit 
an inch in diameter without fail every year, and the 
specimens In the bottle are shown as proof. This 
must be a xwanberry instead of a gooseberry, or the 
result of the “old oak process” applied in a new way. 
Perhaps the leaves are tanned with oak bark and taste 
to the worms like old leather boot tops. Gooseberries 
an inch in diameter are not uncommon, and I have seen 
them even larger; but who can believe that a man 
who will tell falsehoods would not get berries of any 
size or kind that suited his purpose and show them to 
his own profit? Canada plums that are so woolly that 
the curculio will not sting them are a wonder, indeed. 
Maybe the cold climate of northern Canada has In¬ 
duced a growth of wool or fur on the fruit to keep It 
warm. What a big lie all this is! Canadian peaches 
are just like our own. There are kinds with red flesh, 
as every well-informed fruit grower knows, but any 
kind will fail to bear sometimes. Pear trees grafted 
on the Honey locust are another marvel of the bril¬ 
liant Imagination of this descendant of Ananias. There 
Is a true Rough Rider strawberry, but it ripens with 
the ordinary kinds, which is the last of May and early 
in June in Indiana. 
The true Red Grape currant is an old variety, but 
the idea of grafting it on grape stocks to enlarge the 
fruit is entirely new. The truth is, that grapevines 
are very hard to graft among themselves, but these 
nursery experts may have a secret method, perhaps, 
some sort of gas treatment, that it vaporizes and thus 
unites the diverse nature of the grape and currant 
wood and then swells the fruit to abnormal size a 
little later in the season. White blackberries I have 
grown for many years, but they are of almost no 
value. Perhaps this “transparent” variety, which our 
fakish friend sells as having no core, is so very 
ethereal that there Is no place for the core. Tree rose 
bushes may be made that will bear flowers with 
“three” or more colors by budding the desired number 
of varieties on one stock. This is true. But, will a 
liar furnish true stock? Nearly all of these state¬ 
ments are false. How anyone can remember to tell 
them over the same way is a wonder. Maybe it is not 
necessary, as the people who believe them and buy of 
him are so trustful that they would believe almost 
anything. It may be that the agent has gone to school 
to a certain “boss liar” that I have long known to live 
in that part of Ohio. I have heard him brag at nur¬ 
sery conventions, of what he has said In class meet¬ 
ings and Sunday school, while at the same time he 
and his associates had gangs of nursery agents gulling 
the people much as this man is doing. If the victims 
of this fraud will refuse to accept the stock and con¬ 
test the matter in the courts, under the advice of a 
careful lawyer, they can easily win. There are plenty 
of honest nurserymen, and it Is not necessary to buy 
of such rascals. When the profit on an honest nursery 
business is so good as it is I see no reason for pro¬ 
prietors or agents acting dishonestly. 
If. E. VAN I)EMAN. 
INFORMATION WANTED ABOUT CABBAGE 
I wish to become an expert cabbage grower. This 
is my first experience in this line. I sent for Greiner’s 
“How to Make the Garden Pay” and Prof. Massey on 
“Crop Growing and Crop Feeding.” They assume 
that a reader knows too much—for instance, Greiner 
says “give the plants plenty of room,” and “cultivate 
as any good farmer would.” Now, we don’t know 
what plenty of room means, and the “good farmer” 
died before we got here. I just moved here this 
Spring. I live on the east side of Illinois, about east 
of St. Louis. There are two kinds of soil here—one 
called white and one called black soil. I have both 
kinds on the farm; it is flat or nearly so. Craw¬ 
fish work in it; as the dry dirt falls down their holes 
I can hear it strike the water about 
six feet below. It is very dry here 
now; very little rain for a year; no 
corn raised here last year. Usually 
the farmers sell corn to the elevator 
men; this year it Is the other way, the 
farmers are buying corn. If I can 
raise one-third of a crop of cabbage 
this dry year it will be worth more 
than a full crop in a good year. I am 
now setting out cabbage on land that 
was plowed in the Spring and kept 
cultivated since, and it seems in good 
condition. I stir the ground, then set 
plants and give a pint of water to each 
plant; then nearly cover the plant 
with dry soil. I set some a month ago 
—the Danish Ballhead. The first 
planting was set out 18 x 24 inches; 
next 18 x 32; last will be 24 x 36. How 
close and how deep must I cultivate 
with a good wheel hoe? Some of the 
lower leaves break off. Is that injuri¬ 
ous? Some of the plants are starting 
two and three heads. Is such a plant 
worthless, or shall I cut off two of the 
heads and try to make it grow one good one? Shall 
I allow the dirt to remain about the plant or draw It 
away when the plant gets established? Soon after 
they were set out they did not look well, and on close 
examination I found a hundred or more very small 
black insects that resembled ants. I threw dry dirt 
on them for a week or more, and I think they have 
disappeared. Now the white millers have appeared, 
and they are quite numerous. Can a lantern be used 
to catch millers at night? I made a wire paddle and 
killed 10 of them yesterday, but it does not look very 
well to see a man of my age racing over a cabbage 
field. I could not tell what was eating the cabbage 
until a friend got over and showed me the green 
worms, as they look so much the color of the cabbage 
that I had overlooked them. It Is a tedious task pick¬ 
ing them off by hand, and I have sprinkled the plants 
with ashes and slaked lime. Does that injure the 
cabbage or harm the worms? I sent to a prominent 
seedsman and bought a hundred pounds of Insect 
powder which, it is claimed, is also a fertilizer as well. 
Prof. Massey says to give the plants “rapid cultiva¬ 
tion.” I don’t know what that means. a. jp. y. 
White Co., Ill. 
R. N.-Y.—Writers of gardening books find it very 
difficult to give explicit directions, covering all cases, 
IRRIGATION FOR WOOLLY-BACKED STOCK. Fm. 196. 
