THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
118 
Little and Samuel C. McKown, recently admitted, and was 
known at the Rochester Commercial Nurseries. The busi¬ 
ness was located at Culver and Clifford streets. Mr. Little 
was an elder of the Third Presbyterian church and, as a 
member of the building committee, had taken an active part 
in the construction of the new edifice. In 1864 Mr. Little 
was married to Miss Carolyn Crafts, of Cherry Valley, who, 
with five children, Julia, Louise, Mary, Carolyn and Charles 
Little, survives him. He also leaves two brothers, Ur. 
David Little and P'rank W. Little, of this city. 
PREPARATION OF TREE ROOTS FOR EX¬ 
POSURE TO COLD. 
Many years ago we had in Southern Texas an un¬ 
usual season in the early winter. For forty days we did 
not see the sun. We had just taken up a lot of peach 
trees from nursery rows. The refuse seedlings that ac¬ 
crued among the lot were also taken up in the order in 
which we came to them, and while the nursery trees 
suited to market were heeled in, the refuse trees were 
thrown down on the ground promiscuously to be gath¬ 
ered for burning at a convenient time afterward. This 
remarkable, cloudy, misty, showery and moderately 
warm weather continued, as stated above, for forty 
days. I do not think the thermometer got below about 
50 degrees during the whole time. We continued pack¬ 
ing and shipping every day. We had sometimes left 
lying over night a few trees that were not heeled in. 
About Christmas time we had an unusually crowded 
day. When we came to close up in the evening, there 
were several considerable piles of trees left without 
heeling in. These trees had been kept heeled almost 
from digging time. We had about $2,000 worth of trees 
in transit for delivery at different points We had no 
railroads then, and wagon transportation was our only 
means of freighting. Well, that night there came one 
of the coldest snaps that we ever got in Southern Texas. 
The thermometers went down to 20 degrees above zero, 
for several hours. When we reached our packing 
grounds in the morning, all we had to do with the trees 
which we had left unheeled the night before, was to 
carry them to the brush pile. In a day or two we began 
to get messages from the wagon loads of trees in transit. 
In every case they were a total loss. The warm sun 
had now begun to shine out every day. After about a 
week we had occasion to go to the refuse seedlings re¬ 
ferred to. We were surprised to find that every one of 
■fhem was in the best possible order. We planted a few 
as a test, and found that all grew well, and were not at 
all injured. It then occurred to us that if a lot of trees 
could be rendered proof against injury from a freeze by 
such conditions as we had seen these exposed to in a 
natural way, why could we not subject tree roots to 
similar conditions by artificial means, and secure simi¬ 
lar results. 
As a test we then placed some roots in a cellar with 
shade and sprayed them every day for about a month. 
We then threw them out into the open air and let them 
take sunshine, frost and winds for a couple of weeks, 
during which there was a freeze. ’ At the end of that 
time they seemed to be in prime order. A couple of 
them were planted and showed no sign of injury. 
I do not know how much value there is in the above 
history of the facts, but the thought came into my mind 
that we could thus prepare trees for exposure to either 
sunshine or frost, and that there might be a commercial 
value to the facts. In a country like Southern Texas, 
where trees reasonably packed will stand any exposure 
required without special preparation, with our vastly 
improved means of transportation, we do not now need 
to resort to it. But are there not portions of the United 
States where a special preparation of the roots of trees 
to resist cold would diminish the risk of transportation.^ 
Nursery, Texas. G. Onderdonk. 
SCIENTIFIC GARDENING. 
It may be that the host of Battersea sub-tropical 
plants may never be set aside. It may be that in nov¬ 
elty and variety and distinctive congruity, with absence 
of peculiarity we may never see Gibson’s creations ex¬ 
celled ; never again see such a distinctive and universal 
trade demand created for ornamental material. 
But to my mind the chief charm of the Battersea 
work consisted, not so much in the novelty of the ma¬ 
terial, as in the manner of blending that material with 
thewell-woyi occupants of the arboretum and shrubbery. 
In this subtle disposition of material Gibson towered 
head and shoulders above any of his contemporaries, or 
imitators, or critics, and it was there that his Himalayan 
travels told their story. 
His park was a summer park, its material was chosen 
to endure the London season, it splendidly fulfilled its 
every mission, and has endured amazingly—in spite of 
much of the most childish distortion ever practiced upon 
gardening material by imitators, who are caricatur¬ 
ists without knowing it. 
But there are signs in every direction of a desire 
for progress. The mere aggregation of material of ail 
kinds, hardy and tender, during the past thirty years 
begets this. Gardening in this country must be largely 
for the masses of the people ; it should be comprehen¬ 
sive, instructive and distinctively American. It should 
not be a mere zig-zagery of drives, paths, plant masses 
and ponds, like Stornberg’s Chinese garden without 
breadth, unity of expression, or grandeur ; such a fitting 
together of detached parts as occurs in a child’s puzzle 
map, and with even less geographical unity as a whole, 
for nowhere does nature torture her surfaces as do the 
engineers of American parks—and railroads ! 
