144 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
changes, which anyone with the least knowledge of facts 
would condemn ? The entire confidence of the exhib¬ 
itors in every branch rests with the judges, and their 
decisions should not be tampered with, as such actions 
will keep others from accepting the honorable appoint¬ 
ment as judges, if they cannot enjoy the full trust of 
the public at large and the society, and be permitted to 
act according to the dictates of their consciences. Many 
such actions will create dissatisfaction, lessen the num¬ 
ber of exhibitors, and our fairs, which are a source of 
instruction, will lose in interest. The premium lists of 
our fairs should be revised in every department accord¬ 
ing to improvements and new introductions. 
Rochester, N. V. Chas. Mitzky. 
NURSERY STOCK ON THE FREE LIST. 
Congressman Sereno E. Payne of Auburn, N. Y., 
who had as much to do with the agricultural schedule of 
the McKinley bill as anyone, said a few days ago : 
It seems to me that Rochester ha,s received a very severe blow 
indeed. The democratic members of the ways and means com¬ 
mittee propose to put nursery stock on the free list. There is 
probably no county in the United States so closely interested in 
this item as Monroe county. Competition among nurserymen has 
been spirited and this competition has reduced prices so low that 
even with the protection afforded by the McKinley bill the Roch¬ 
ester nurserymen have had to sail very close to the wind to make 
a dollar in competition with the French. Now, if that protection 
is removed entirely, France will occupy many of the fields now 
controlled by the people of Rochester, and American enterprise 
will suffer for the benefit of France. Nor will the purchaser of 
nursery stock receive adequate benefits. The principal and prac¬ 
tically the only result will be to seriously embarrass a business 
which it has taken years of energy and toil to build up. 
The largest importer in this country is Irving Rouse. 
He said ; '‘I would be pleased to see a specific duty on 
imported nursery stock so that only the best quality 
would be imported. I am willing, however, to await the 
result of free importation and note the effect. The 
majority of nurserymen, I think, are in favor of free 
importation.” 
William C. Barry said ; “ In the opinion of most 
nurserymen the bill is satisfactory. As far as I am con¬ 
cerned I would be glad to see a moderate duty imposed 
on several kinds of stock. It will be to the interest of a 
great many nurserymen that stock should come in free of 
duty. The disadvantage lies in this, that growers abroad 
will take advantage of the opportunity to ship into this 
country grades of stock that can be sold cheaply and the 
country will be Hooded with goods that come in direct 
competition Vv^ith home grown stock. American nursery- 
I'ien buy largely abroad seedlings of the apple, plum, 
cherry and pear, and while they believe that in purchas¬ 
ing these goods free of duty they are securing good bar¬ 
gains, there is another standpoint from which to look at 
the matter. The competition sure to arise from this 
stock’s coming in free of duty will, in my opinion, be 
detrimental to business, rather than otherwise.” 
THE IOWA APPLE CROP. 
P"or a number of years in succession wc have been able 
to exhibit at the state fair from lOO to i6o varieties of fine 
smooth apples. This year with the most careful selection 
we could not show more than a dozen varieties and the spec¬ 
imens of these would be poor. The causes are very evident. 
Last year every tree nearly was loaded with fruit, and the 
season in this section was the culminating of three years of 
drought. The water level was so low that thousands of 
forest trees in the timber were wholly or partially killed. Of 
course the apple trees had a hard time in developing their 
fruit and could not make any preparation for even blossom¬ 
ing the past spring. The Russian apples last spring had no 
blossoms except on.varieties that bore lightly or not at all 
last year. This is true with the iron-clad varieties over the 
whole of Northern Iowa where the apple crop was heavy in 
1892. In the south part of the state the varieties of the old 
list failed to bear last year and by this rule they should have 
been laden this year. But it will be remembered that scab 
of leaf was more general last year with our common sorts 
and the wild crab than was ever before known in the West. 
This condition of foliage would be a sufficient cause for the 
dropping of the fruit this year. This is common over the 
prairie .states and the blast to the Atlantic. Hence the show 
of apples this fall at the World’s Fair was the poorest 
ever seen at our expositions, or the Pomological .Society ex¬ 
hibits. This is truly unfortunate this year when we have so 
many thousands of foreigners who will not believe that this 
Columbian year is the one off year of the century. Yet on 
the lower soils of Western Iowa, from Decatur county north 
to Sioux county, can be found specimens of fully 100 varie¬ 
ties of the apple that will grade fairly well, also many varie¬ 
ties of pears and plums. In the line of grapes we can dur¬ 
ing the fall make an exhibit that cannot be duplicated in the 
Eastern states .—loiva State Register. 
PROFESSOR BAILEY ON APRICOTS. 
Few new fruits have been more indiscriminately 
praised, and concerning which so little is known, as the 
Russian apricot. Probably the chief reason for this 
indefinite knowledge is the too common feeling that, at 
best, apricots are not suited for growing in the northern 
states, and no serious attention is given them, yet, if 
care in selection of site is observed and some attention 
is given to varieties, apricot-growing is capable of afford¬ 
ing excellent commercial results even in New York state. 
There are now considerable plantations of apricots in 
Western New York, the most prominent being the large 
orchard of E. Smith & Sons, on Seneca lake. The 
apricot-tree is fully as hardy as the peach. It blooms 
early,_ and is liable to be caught by late spring frosts, 
therefore it is essential that the site be one where vege¬ 
tation starts late or where the spring temperature is equal- 
