THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
6i 
about for a more profitable crop. The rapid increase in 
fruit growing during the last few years had attracted atten¬ 
tion to that industry and many who have grown little or no 
fruit heretofore, are planning to devote considerable land to 
fruit culture. In the West the demand for trees has in¬ 
creased in large degree. 
WORLD’S HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
The organization of the World’s Horticultural Society 
which was formed in Chicago last summer, is progressing 
slowly. Prosper J. Berckmans, of Augusta, Ga., is the 
president; Henri L. DeVilmorin, of Paris, vice-president; 
and Professor L. H. Bailey, of Ithaca, N. Y. temporary sec¬ 
retary-treasurer at large. It is not expected that the society 
will hold definite meetings. Its purpose is to promote cor¬ 
respondence, interchange of plants and the publication of 
information. Nothing can be done until the various coun¬ 
tries of the world have oppointed their officers. Secretary 
Bailey has recently received acceptances of various officers 
in different parts of the w^orld and he has no doubt that 
within a few months’ time the society may begin active 
operations. 
In behalf of a committee of the Society of American 
Florists, charged with the preparation of a catalogue of 
the decorative plants handled by the American trade, 
for adoption as the official list of the society, the 
chairman. Professor William Trelease, of the Missouri 
Botanical Garden at St. Louis, asks all nurserymen to 
send him at once three copies of any catalogues or lists 
which they may have published within the last year. 
The assistance of the nurserymen will be greatly appre¬ 
ciated by the society. 
Professor L. H. Bailey of Ithaca, N. Y. , is en¬ 
gaged in the revision of Gray’s “ Field, Forest and Gar¬ 
den Botany,” which is the only manual in North 
America which gives the names of cultivated plants. 
Professor Bailey is making the revision with particular 
reference to the needs of nurserymen and horticulturists 
in general. It is expected that the book will be ready 
for sale in July. 
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A PROBLEM SOLVED. 
W. H. Dolby, Nicholsville, O.—“I owe you an apology 
for not sending you the dollar. But I am in a strait. I can’t spare 
the dollar and I can’t spare The National Nurseryman. But 
as I have some chance to get another dollar and no chance what¬ 
ever to get another National Nurseryman T herein send the 
dollar with best wishes for your success.” 
THESE TREES WERE NOT BURNED. 
On April 20th, Stark Brothers of Louisiana, Mo., 
offered every boy and girl in Pike County, Mo , whose 
parents would give him or her an acre of land, a free 
orchard. “ We will give ” said Stark Brothers, “ seventy- 
seven apple trees, sufficient to plant the acre, of Ben 
Davis, Missouri Pippin and other standard sorts. Plant 
twenty feet apart north and south and twenty-eight feet 
apart east and west ; if in the corn field so much the 
better, for a young tree to do its best needs only the 
same care necessary to grow a hill of corn—no more, no 
less. Let each tree represent a hill of corn ; the acre 
will produce almost as much corn as without the trees, 
and will be worth $77 more by fall—for the decision of 
the New York courts is that each year’s growth of an 
apple tree from the time of planting to bearing is worth 
$1. The income from these orchards is to be the boys’, 
and girls’ own. We will furnish 25,000 trees or more 
this spring, which means many new orchards for Pike 
county. The certain results will be to net yearly to her 
ambitious, industrious youths from $100 even up to 
$1200 or more per acre. The country needs more 
money making fruit, less 50-cent wheat and 30-cent 
corn. To the young orchardist who raises the most and 
best apples on his acre within a given time (to be named 
later) we will give 1000 trees, to the second 750, to the 
third 500, to the fourth 250. 
On May 4th, the Louisiana Press said ; “ Parents 
with their sons and daughters flocked in from all points 
of the compass, on foot, on horseback, in wagons, live¬ 
lier than a circus. ‘ First come, first served’ was the 
order of the day. Seventy-seven trees were promised 
to each son and daughter, but ‘every last one of them’ 
got eighty-eight or more, to which was added a number 
of fine rose bushes, etc. The intense excitement reached 
the boys and girls of Pike county. Ill., and fond parents 
from across the river, came trooping into town and set 
up the claim that Stark Brothers had also nurseries in 
their fertile valley, and so should be counted in. Illinois 
as well as Missouri Pikers, however, are being cared for 
although the original proposition was intended only for 
the citizens of Joe Bowers’ native ‘state.’ To date, 
500 free orchards have been disposed of and the line of 
claimants is still unbroken, and the good work contin¬ 
ues. Forty-five thousand trees have already been 
planted, besides 4,000 rose bushes. Although the 
25,000 apple trees originally promised have been used 
and nearly as many more, the Messrs. Stark ask us to 
say that they still have several thousand each of apri¬ 
cot and plum trees. Owing to the great demand, each 
family had to be limited to two orchards—the remaining 
children, as well as others, can get these apricot and 
plum trees while they last.” 
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