THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
17 
not good for as clearly as he tells what they are good for, 
as he can by possessing himself of the desire to introduce a 
certain number of novelties each year and to plant them in 
such faultless colors that every thoughtful man knows that 
they are false. 
CENTURY PLANT TO BLOSSOM. 
A century plant, agave Americana variegata, in the 
greenhouse of W. Austin Wadsworth, at Geneseo, N. Y., 
is preparing to blossom. Much interest was taken when the 
century plant belonging to PTlward A. P'rost, the well- 
known nurseryman, of Rochester, bloomed twenty-five 
years ago. Mr. P’rost thus describes the plant at Geneseo, 
which he saw a few days ago : 
“The plant has been in the possession of the Wads¬ 
worth family over fifty years and originally came from John 
Greir, of Canandaigua. The first indication of its flowering 
was discovered January 20th and its daily growth has aver¬ 
aged about 3 inches since that time. The plant has about 
forty leaves, and the huge asparagus-like flower shoot or 
stalk starts from the center. The large box in which it 
grows has been sunk in the ground on a level with the floor 
of the green-house and the flower stem has now reached the 
height of eleven feet and nine inches from the ground. The 
roof of the green-house has been removed. A tower or 
cupola of glass about seven feet square and twenty feet in 
height has been erected to allow the flower shoot plenty of 
room for upward growth. This large flower shoot is fully 
five inches in diameter where it leaves the heart of the plant, 
and from its present indications will probably reach twenty 
feet. At about the height of ten feet there are buds behind 
the sheath on the side of the stalk, which will form a side 
shoot or arm, extending outward in a curved, graceful, can¬ 
delabra form, about two feet in length ; and other arms 
fifteen or twenty, will be thrown out as its growth continues, 
and at the termini of each arm there will be a cluster of 
flowers about the size of a crocus blossom, measuring sev¬ 
eral inches across, with over fifty flowers in each cluster. 
The largest cluster or bunch will be the center, or the la.st 
one to come, at the extreme top. ■ The first to blossom will 
be on the first arm that comes, and the last to blossom will 
be the one at the top.” 
In the horticultural department of the Midwinter 
Fair in California there will be held in April a series of 
fruit conventions. Horticulturists throughout the world 
will be invited to participate in these congresses. Emory 
E. Smith is chief of the horticultural department. 
A large sized boom in apple tree planting in Oregon is 
likely to result from its fine exhibition at the World’s P'air. 
California should have more good orchards of the best 
winter apples .—California Fruit Groover. 
LATE MARKET STRAWBERRY. 
A recent bulletin of the New York Agricultural 
PLxperiment Station, Dr. Peter Collier, director, refers to 
experiments with strawberries. Regarding the demand 
for a late market strawberry the bulletin states: “ A 
cross of Johnson’s Late by Sharpless, is of interest in 
this connection, because it combines in itself some of the 
most valuable characters of each of its parents, thus in¬ 
dicating the possibilities of improvement by systematic 
breeding. Sharpless, the male parent, is well known as a 
vigorous grower with large, dark green, coarsely serrated 
leaves, large, bright scarlet fruit, rather variable in form, 
sometimes with unripe tips. The flesh is firm, light red, 
and of good quality. Ph'uit ripens mid-season to late. The 
other parent, Johnson’s Late, a variety net commonly 
known, is, in some respects, a remarkable strawberry. It 
is a chance seedling sent here in 1885 by R. Johnson, of 
Shortsville, N. Y. Its fruiting season is one of the very 
latest among hundreds of varieties grown here during the 
la.st few years. ” The frontispiece of this issue illustrates 
this new variety which has not yet been thoroughly tested. 
RESULTS OF SPRAYING. 
A recent bulletin of the Cornell Experiment Station 
quotes the opinions of several practical fruit growers 
who strongly favor spraying orchards and ^ays of the 
results of spraying: “The foliage of a tree, when 
kept healthy by spraying, persists longer and does better 
work, and this is seen in the size of the apples. The 
size of Fall Pippins was practically doubled by keeping 
the trees and fruit free from fungus. The increased 
health and vigor of the tree also intensifies the color of 
certain varieties, and the keeping qualities of the Fall 
Pippins and Maiden Blush were apparently augmented, 
and all these improvements were so evident that in the 
market the price of the sprayed apples over those not 
sprayed was increased on an average by $i a barrel by 
the applications made during the season.” 
PRUNE RAISING IN OREGON. 
Regarding a recent note to the effect that an Oregon 
nurseryman recently placed an order for 20,000 prune trees, 
J. H. Settlemier & Son of Woodburn, Ore., writes : “ We 
frequently fill orders for as high as 50,000 trees to one 
dealer and have this year already sent out two orders for 
30,000 trees apiece and several from 10,000 to 20,000 trees. 
The most of these go to California, to dealers, though we 
have sold as many as these to planters direct. Prune rais¬ 
ing in Oregon has taken on sudden life within the past two 
or three years and in that time thousands of acres have been 
planted.” 
