i I 2 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
AN ENGLISH EXPERT’S OPINION. 
George Nicholson, curator of the Royal Gardens at 
Kew, England, recently elected secretary and treasurer 
of the World's Horticultural Society at Chicago, where 
he officiated as judge of horticulture for Great Britain, 
has been visiting the prominent horticulturists and nur¬ 
serymen of the country. In an interview with a repre¬ 
sentative of the New York Tribune he said ; 
The famous nurseries of Ellwanger & Barry of Rochester, 
which cover about 600 acres in all, have about 400 of them in fruit 
trees. I had no idea that the cultivation of fruit trees had attain¬ 
ed such enormous proportions in any one establishment. I saw 
here, too, great numbers of ornamental trees, some of them larger 
than I had seen elsewhere. The large office building is situated 
in the midst of a beautiful lawn, surrounded by trees, and perfect 
neatness and order prevailed everywhere. These nurserymen 
cultivate on their own grounds every new variety of fruit they can 
secure, to test them, but only propagate and sell those varieties 
whose value they have proved. It is the same with grape vines, 
of which there are twenty acres of different sorts in cultivation, 
and they fruit every one and test its worth before they offer it for 
sale. I saw fifteen acres of roses in all, in perfect health. As an 
illustration of the care these people take in cultivating stock, I 
will say that they do not grow the trees twice on the same land in 
succession. After they have removed one lot they hire another 
farm, so that fresh ground can be secured, and by this means they 
always have healthy stock, so that it is a genuine treat to see the 
products of their care. A handsome pavilion was shown to me, 
dedicated to the children of Rochester, and built at the expense 
of this firm, whose public spirit is also shown by the fact that they 
gave twenty acres of land to he used by the people as a park. An¬ 
other notable nursery is the one in Waukegan, Ill., where the 
veteran Robert Douglas, the pioneer in raising forest-tree seed¬ 
lings in America, still grows conifers in enormous number, espec¬ 
ially such Western mountain trees as the blue spruce, the Colorado 
Douglas fir, and the new spruce named after Professor Brewer of 
Yale, with long pendulous branches like a weeping willow. 
One of the most interesting days I spent in America was in 
Germantown, where I visited Mr. Thomas Meehan, the Nestor 
among American tree lovers and planters. I was particularly 
glad to make Mr. Meehan’s acquaintance because fifty years ago 
he was a gardener in Kew, where he laid the foundation of that 
extensive knowledge which has enabled him to build up one of the 
most important nurseries in America. Here I found a larger 
number of American trees and shrubs than can be found in any 
other nursery in the world, and it is through Mr. Meehan’s efforts 
I am told, that American trees are now so much more largely cul¬ 
tivated in their native land than they were a quarter of a century 
ago. In this nursery may be found seedlings of American oaks, 
elms, hickories, dogwoods, and maples by tens of thousands, and 
here is the only place, I believe, where many of the rarer trees 
and shrubs can be had in large quantities. Here, too, I saw re¬ 
markable examples of many rare trees, such as the broad-leafed 
maple of Oregon, the cedrela from northern China, the Hovenia 
dulcis of Japan, a curious tree with thick fleshy fruit stems, which 
are eaten by the .Japanese. Mr. Meehan has done the people good 
service in securing several small parks, including the site of the 
famous Bartram Garden, which was the first botanical garden in 
the New World. During the fifteen years since he entered the 
Common Council of his adopted city he has been instrumental in 
adding eighteen small parks to the park system of Philadelphia, 
“ Germantown itself is a place which every foreigner inter¬ 
ested in American trees should visit, as the people of this suburb 
of Philadelphia 100 years ago were especially interested in the in¬ 
troduction and cultivation of rare trees, and the first cultivated 
specimens of several American trees were originally planted here 
and may still be seen. Among these is the oldest planted speci¬ 
men in America of the beautiful Virgilia, or yellow wood of the 
Southern States, which stands in the grounds of the Germantown 
Cricket Club, a club, by the way, which has a more beautiful 
house and is provided with a better laid-out ground than any I 
have seen in England. The club house, a large brick structui-e, 
was designed by one of your New York architects, Mr. McKim, 
who also made the plan for the architectural walls which surround 
the field as well as the grand stand, which is the only structure of 
the kind I have seen which possesses any claim to artistic merit. 
In this cricket ground is the finest cultivated plant of the cucum¬ 
ber tree that I ever encountered. In Germantown, too, I saw a 
remarkable specimen of the pecan hickory, which was raised from 
seed brought from Arkansas by the English naturalist, Nuttall. 
In Vernon Park, the latest of the parks which Mr. Meehan has 
acquired for Philadelphia, is the first Magnolia Macrophylla ever 
planted in America, and here, too, are remarkable specimens of 
your native papaw, moi’e than forty years old, and with trunks a 
foot and a half through. The roads of Germantown are shaded 
with beautiful rows of native trees, and behind them stretch the 
lawns of innumerable villas. 
Another notable town is Flushing, L. I., which I visited for 
the purpose of inspecting the Kissena nurseries of Parsons & Co., 
because here were cultivated many of the plants which were in¬ 
troduced to cultivation by Mr. Thomas Hogg, Dr. Hall, and other 
American travelers in Japan. In this town, on a piece of ground 
which once formed part of the old Parsons nursery, are three trees 
of exceptional value—the largest plant of the golden larch of 
China which I have ever seen, a remarkably fine purple beech, 
and a weeping beech with a greater spread of branches and larger 
in every way than I had ever seen before. These noble trees 
should be preserved, it seems to me, for future generations, for I 
do not think they can be duplicated anywhere in America. The 
streets of Flushing are better planted perhaps than those of any 
country town which I have visited here, and I particularly admir¬ 
ed the rows of pin oaks which have been largely used here, and 
with excellent effect. Speaking of street trees, I may say that on 
a hurried visit to Washington I was impressed with the systematic 
planting of the streets in that capital. Taken all around it is the 
best planted city I have ever visited. Some fifty species of trees 
are used, and many of the avenues are remarkably beautiful, par¬ 
ticularly one in which the gingko tree is used. I have not time 
to speak of the Botanical Gardens there, or the improvements 
that I found going on under the care of W. R. Smith, superinten¬ 
dent of the Botanical Gardens, who is another old Kew man. 
THE DELAWARE PEACH CROP. 
The largest estimates of the Delaware peach crop 
were exceeded. The crop amounted to more than 
6,000,000 baskets, the largest ever grown in that region. 
The Delaware peaches are marketed throughout the sec¬ 
tion between Richmond and Toronto and westward to 
Chicago. Nine cities in this district have taken over a 
million and a half baskets. Of these cities New York 
leads with about 600,000 baskets; Philadelphia took 
about 480,000; Boston, 210,000; Wilmington, 120,- 
000; Pittsburgh, 48,000; Cleveland, 36,000; Chester, 
Pa., 36,000; Buffalo, 30,000, and Providence, R. L, 
30,000 baskets. Rail shipments to September 5th, were 
5,773 car loads, which means about three and one-half 
million baskets. Another million baskets were shipped 
by water and wagons, and at least a million baskets more 
were taken by canning establishments. The balance of 
the crop was destroyed by storms or accidents. The 
price obtained was about 35 cents a basket ; and the 
crop is particularly remarkable because only a year ago 
the cry went up that the peach orchards of Delaware 
were suffering from hopeless decay. 
