THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
59 
We are glad to report that Dr. Collier of the experi¬ 
ment station is im[)roving from a long and very serious 
illness. We learned while at the station that experts have 
recently visited Geneva and after a thorough canvass 
have found no San Jose scale in the orchards or nurseries 
of this section. 
The weather for the past ten days has been cold and 
some nights we had frost, but little or no injury is visible 
on nursery stock. 
Some of us had too many dwarf pears and cut leaf 
birches, but, aside from these two items, first class stock 
was used up sufficiently close to prevent overgrown stock 
for the fall trade. 
Growers of roses and shrubbery have had their experi¬ 
ence this spring with the effects of “ free trade” on this 
department of their business. Three years ago when this 
subject was agitated we believed the effect of taking the 
duty off all nursery stock would be injurious; now we 
know it. We do not mind fair competition with our fel¬ 
low countrymen, but we cannot compete with the long 
seasons and low wages of France and Holland, and do not 
the frugal Dutchmen tell us they are getting more and 
more trade in the United States and do they not tell us 
they are increasing their plants so as to supply us still 
more? Have pity on the national treasury and put duties 
where they were. 
Do retail merchants in other lines of business set prices 
for the producers? Why do the producers of nursery 
stock let prices be set by the retailers in this our favorite 
business? AnoN. 
CAUSE OF NEW BUGS AND BLIGHTS. 
A writer in the Rural Nezv Yorker, referring to his 
interviews with Professor Bailey of Ithaca, N. Y., says : 
Now, the first thing I asked Professor Bailey was a point 
that has bothered me for a long time. “ Why do we hear 
of so many new bugs and blights nowadays? Every year 
seems to bring half a dozen new ones. Why didn’t they 
show up in old times ?” I’ll guarantee that many of our 
readers have asked themselves that question. In fact, so 
many new bugs, blights and bulletins have appeared upon 
the scene, that some farmers have actually gone so far as 
to say that the scientists have brought these things in to 
give themselves a chance to talk and work. 
Professor Bailey’s explanation of this was simple and 
interesting. As an illustration, he took the potato beetle 
—which we all know. Sixty or more years ago, that insect 
was found only in the Rocky Mountains, living on certain 
wild plants—nothing but a great curiosity to scientific 
men. It was few in number because its food was limited. 
When people began to raise potatoes in Colorado, this 
bug developed a great fondness for potato vines. It left 
the wild mountain plants and went to the potato fields. 
This increase of food meant an increase of insects, and it 
spread from one field to another all over the country. It 
was simply an increased food supply and better oppor¬ 
tunity that spread the bug. If potatoes had never been 
grown in Colorado, there would probably never have been 
any potato bugs in your field. No doubt, there are 
dozens of other insects now comparatively harmless simply 
because their food supply limits their increase. A borer 
that works on apple trees affords another illustration. 
This insect formerly worked on oak trees entirely. It 
liked apple better, and as orchards became more and more 
numerous, this insect left the oak for the apple, and 
became a dangerous pest. That is the way it goes. New 
methods of culture, new crops and new farm areas give 
these insects and plant diseases a new lease on life, and 
newer and easier means of transportation enable them to 
be carried about more readily. This is a reasonable 
explanation. 
NURSERY PRUNING. 
George Trigg, Richland, la., writes to the Iowa State 
Register di'^ follows; “ Will you please inform me in regard 
to nursery pruning? When should it.be done, and how? 
I think my three-year-old nursery trees have been pruned 
too much, as they have slim stems and some of them are 
top-heavy. Does it make any difference whether we cut 
our scions from the nursery rows or from bearing trees as 
to time of coming into bearing?” 
The replies : Nursery pruning is not under¬ 
stood in the West as generally as it should be. When 
the root graft or budded stock starts into growth the 
growth should be confined to one shoot. The leaf bracts 
on the little stem are nature’s protection and are aids to 
growth. In no case should they be rubbed off. About 
the middle of May of the second year chip off the forks 
and side limbs of the stem and start the top with a cen¬ 
tral ascending stem with radiating branches, but do not 
rub off the protecting leaf bracts of the stem. The third 
spring, after the leaves are two-thirds grown, keep the 
side limbs from the stem and favor proper shape of the 
top, but still retain the leaf bracts of the stem and main 
branches. Never forget that the weak stem is caused by 
the too common method of rubbing off the leaf bracts. 
This makes a clean stem that buyers like, but not good 
trees for orchard planting. Scions of Longfield, Olden¬ 
burg, or any other hardy early bearing variety, will come 
into bearing as early when cut from nursery as from bear¬ 
ing trees if the wood in both cases is well ripened with 
strong healthy buds. But experience has demonstrated 
that the upright points of growth of nursery or orchard 
trees are better for scions than the side limbs, as in nur¬ 
sery they will make stronger and more upright trees. 
The International Horticultural Exhibition at Paris, to 
be held under the auspices of the National Horticultural 
Society of France from May 22d to May 28th, in the fine 
gardens of Tuileries, promises in every way to be a great 
success. Entries from exhibitors are already very numer¬ 
ous, both from F’rench and foreign horticulturists. The 
jury has at its disposal upwards of 30,000 francs to be 
awarded as prizes. 
