THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
51 
There is a tone of disappointment in Chief Samuel’s 
report which will be echoed by every nurseryman who 
desires this country to take no step backward upon an 
occasion when the products of all countries are in com¬ 
petition, Surely this state of things at Chicago will be 
remedied at once. There is ample time for wide-awake 
firms to prepare an exhibit. Doubtless many have 
intended to do so as soon as the Spring pressure of busi¬ 
ness is over. Chief Samuel’s statement regarding the 
American Association is in error, because we know of at 
least one or two members of the association who are 
already represented by exhibits. The florists will make 
an elaborate display, and there is no reason why the 
nurserymen should not have an attractive and interest¬ 
ing exhibit that shall be both varied and comprehensive. 
Reports from nearly all the states indicate that the 
prospects for an abundant yield of fruit this year are 
good. There is much encouragement in this to the 
nurseryman as well as the fruit grower, for a productive 
year is needed to restore confidence in the benefits of 
fruit growing and sustain a demand for nursery stock. 
Of great importance to nurserymen is the work of 
Luther Burbank, of Santa Rosa, California. Mr. Bur¬ 
bank is engaged exclusively in the production of fruits 
and flowers which are new in the highest sense of the 
term. They are creations produced by scientific com¬ 
binations of nature’s forces guided by long and carefully- 
conducted biological study. That we are just at the 
gateway of scientific horticulture is shown by the fact 
that limitations once thought to be real have proved to 
be only apparent barriers. At his experiment grounds 
at Santa Rosa, Mr. Burbank is making rapid progress 
in a display of life-forces in plants and has produced 
startling results from cultivation, crossing, combination 
and selection. Mr. Burbank’s is wholly a private enter¬ 
prise and the most extensive of its kind. The results 
of his work are of the greatest interest to nurserymen 
whose business it is to propagate and disseminate in 
large quantities, the new as well as the old varieties. 
Mr. Burbank has succeeded in improving old varieties 
to almost as great an extent as in introducing new kinds. 
His work will continue to be watched with interest. 
PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF NEW VARIETIES. 
To the Editor of The National Nurseryman : 
I think Mr. Charlton’s article on the .Crandall currant 
in your March number brings to the surface some facts 
which would be well to emphasize. We surely need to 
be careful in taking hold of the baits thrown out labeled 
‘ ‘ new varieties. ’ ’ They sometimes have a concealed hook 
attached, which has no value to the biter, except the 
sting it leaves. Such a sting is sometimes profitable. I 
have been for the past four weeks trying to find some one 
who has some personal knotvledge of the Lincoln coreless 
pear, and have written to some dozen or more parties, 
most of whom are catalogueing it and sending out the 
beautiful plate (half section), but can find no one who 
has fruited it, or who can say from personal knotv ledge 
anything regarding its superior excellence. I hope these 
lines may come before some one who can give the desired 
information, as I am anxious to find out its superiority. 
I do not try to “frown it down” unless its excellence 
cannot be established. 
Cayuga, N. Y. H. S. Wiley. 
THE OUTLOOK IN THE SOUTH. 
/ 
The present season has been a lively one in nearly all 
kinds of nursery stock in the South, and the demand has 
exhausted the supply of most of the prominent kinds. 
Pear trees of the LeConte and Keiffer varieties, have 
been heavily planted, noticeably so in Southern Kansas. 
Peaches have been planted in large quantities all through 
the South, and particularly in the vicinity of Fort Valley, 
Ga., and DeFuniak Springs, Fla. Japanese plums have 
had a wide distribution, and though mostly in smaller 
quantities than peaches and pears, yet the aggregate has 
been large. The planting of orange and lemon trees in 
this state has been larger than common, and the nurser¬ 
ies are generally well cleaned up in first-class trees of 
citrous stock. The Satsuma orange has been in heavy 
demand throughout what might be called the extreme 
northern portion of the citrous belt, and this valuable 
hardy variety will be in demand again the coming season. 
Grapes are being planted, and prove profitable in many 
sections of the South, where, only a few years ago, they 
were entirely ignored. The demand for Pecan trees still 
keeps up, and large orchards of them are being planted. 
Japanese persimmons have proved profitable all through 
the cotton belt, and with the more careful nomenclature 
now prevailing in this hitherto badly mixed fruit, the 
planting of them is on the increase. The winter through¬ 
out most of the South has been wet with an entire 
absence of the damaging droughts that have characterized 
several previous seasons. In some sections cold weather 
has damaged the prospects for early peaches, but we 
think the injury so far has been comparatively light, and 
that the prospects for heavy crops of nearly all kinds of 
fruit in the South, taken as a whole, are extremely good. 
A cold, wet winter in the South (of course, barring 
damaging freezes) is generally followed by a heavy fruit 
crop, and our pears, plums, oranges, and most varieties 
of peaches, promise to yield abundantly the present 
season. 
In the absence of any national calamity that would 
affect the South, as well as other portions of the country, 
we think the outlook for the nurserymen of the South is 
good, L. Taber. 
Glen St. Mary, Fla. 
