THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
33 
The Wellhouse orchards, owned by the “Apple King ” 
of Kansas, cover twelve hundred and thirty-seven acres. 
Four hundred and thirty-seven acres only are in bearing, 
and from this portion the sales of last year amounted to one 
hundred and forty thousand dollars, leaving a net profit of 
eighty-eight thousand dollars. 
Secretary Morton has created a new division in the 
Weather Bureau to be known as the Division of Agricul¬ 
tural Soils. Prof Milton Whitney has been appointed chief 
of the new division. The purpose of the new division is to 
pursue investigations of an analogous character—carrying 
the climatic observations of the Weather Bureau intoihe soil, 
where the moisture effects its work and makes its influence 
felt upon the plant life. 
WHAT TREES SHOULD BE PLANTED. 
W. H. Ragan, secretary of the Indiana State Horti¬ 
cultural society, says : “Mr. Charles W. Garfield, of 
Michigan, than whom there is no better authority, said 
at the recent meeting of the Illinois State Horticultural 
Society : ‘ A number of years ago I advocated and stuck 
to it, that there was no other way in which trees should 
be propagated, except by the piece root system. After 
I went out of the nursery business I thought the only 
way on earth was the whole root plan, and a little later 
I advocated fully as strong crown grafts, and now to 
save my life I cannot tell you which I would prefer, but 
am satisfied with a tree that is well grown.’ Now here is 
all there is of a vexed question, save the advertising dodge. 
The tree that is well grown will by necessity be a good 
tree and will have a good root notwithstanding it may 
have been grafted on a whole or a piece root, or it may 
have grown from a rooted cutting.” 
RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 
Of making books there is no end and the entire English 
speaking world may well be thankful that there was encour¬ 
agement in this prolific age of literature to design and exe¬ 
cute the production of what stands at the head of all that 
has been issued from the press at the present day—the 
Standard Dictionary. The magnitude of the undertaking 
precludes the possibility of a description within ordinary 
limits which would do it justice. The work has been four 
years in preparation and nearly looo experts in all the lines 
known to man have been employed in its production. It is a 
work in which absolute accuracy of detail is essential. The 
plan upon which it has been constructed leaves not the 
sli'^’^htest room for doubt as to its claim to the title of stand- 
ard ; it will become the highest authority at once. There 
have been good dictionaries ; there have been improvements 
on the old ; but until now there has been lacking a work 
which would satisfactorily answer every question put to it. 
A million dollars have been expended in its production. Its 
completeness is attested by the fact that it contains nearly 
75,000 more words than the Century, which has 100,000 
more than \Veb.ster. A staff of 247 editorial writers, includ¬ 
ing doctors of divinity, doctors of medicine, and professors 
of all the arts and sciences, compiled the information which 
was gathered from every source, the hundreds of assistants 
including some as far away as Australia, India, Natal and 
the Cape. The Standard is not a revision of an old diction¬ 
ary. It is really a new work intended to take its place as 
the leading dictionary wherever the Pmglish language is 
spoken. The Standard has many special features, all of 
which make it superior to any other. Among these are the 
following : The etymology is placed after the definition ; 
in the definition of words the most common meaning is 
given first, order of usage being given preference over his¬ 
torical order; the scientific alphabet prepared and recom¬ 
mended by the American Philological Association and 
adopted by the American Spelling Reform Association is 
used in the pronunciation of words ; the quotations are lo¬ 
cated ; di.sputed pronunciations were referred to a committee 
of fifty philologists in American, Phiglish, Canadian, Austra¬ 
lian and East-Indian universities; there are nearly 5>0^0 
pictorial illustrations made expressly for this work, including 
several full-page lithographs by Prang; the compounding 
of words has been reduced to a system ; the vocabulaiy is 
extraordinarily rich and full. The work is, in short, a mag¬ 
nificent triumph of patient, laborious painstaking, a monu¬ 
ment to American industry. It will prove of vast service to 
all who cultivate the literary arts on either side of the Atlan¬ 
tic, and its cost, which is consistent with the reputation of 
the publishers for producing valuable works at a minimum 
price, places it within the reach of all. At no previous time 
have the conditions been such as to make possible such a 
work. The Standard Dictionary has more than fulfilled the 
promises of its compilers. New York, London, Toronto: 
Funk & Wagnalls Company. 
A valuable little book of 228 pages is that entitled 
“ How to Grow Cut P^lowers,’’ by M. A. Hunt, of Terre 
Haute, Ind. It is a compilation of facts concerning green¬ 
house work, of inestimable value to the amateur and of no 
little interest to the professional. It is founded upon the 
experience and observation of a lifetime. The book treats, 
in thirty-nine chapters, of greenhouse construction and heat¬ 
ing, soil, ventilation, mulching, watering, shading, grading, 
packing and preservation of flowers, insect exterminators 
and many other subjects. Terre Haute : M. A. Hunt. 
The twenty-sixth edition of the catalogue of Mee¬ 
han’s Nurseries at Germantown, Pa., is one of the most 
complete and carefully prepared that come to our table. 
These nurseries present a large list of deciduous trees 
and shrubs among other lists. The catalogue is a recog¬ 
nized authority on this class of nursery stock. 
Botanists were interested during the winter by the issue 
of a pamphlet on “ Sugar Maples and Maples in Winter,’’ 
by William Trelease, reprinted in advance from the fifth 
annual report of the Missouri Botanical Garden at St. Louis. 
