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THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
HinonG (Browers anb Dealers. 
The Storrs & Harrison Co., Painesville, O., are in the 
market for 50,000 plums. 
S. D. Willard thinks the Wilder currant is superior to 
the Fay’s Prolific, because it is less acid and is more 
productive. 
J. W. Van Horn, of San Leandro, Cal., has given up 
the nursery section of his business and will devote his 
attention to raising flowers for the San Francisco market. 
E. P. Reid, Bridgeport, O., visited Western New York 
nurseries in the early part of August. He purchased 
50,000 gooseberries. He says he will require 90,000 to 
supply his trade. 
Robert H. Asher, of San Diego, Cal., has started grow¬ 
ing bulbs and plants at La Mesa, near San Diego. He is 
the son of the oldest nurseryman in San Diego County 
and has had some experience as a collector. 
The John Wragg & Sons Co. was incorporated July 12th 
with the principal place of business at Waukee, la., and 
the capital stock $25,000. John Wragg is president, M. 
J. Wragg, secretary, and N. C. Wragg, treasurer. 
Nanz & Neuner, Louisville, Ky., on July 31st., made an 
assignment. Liabilities are estimated at $25,000 ; assets, 
$50,000. They state that the business will be continued 
without interruption. The assignee is the Fidelity Safety 
Vault and Trust Co. 
D. M. Moore of Ogden, Utah, has fifteen acres of 
nursery within the corporation limits of the city and 
reports a good trade this season, says the Deyiver Field 
and Farm. He has been at the business for seventeen 
years and his nursery compares very favorably with many 
larger nurseries of the East. 
Prince Hiller Foster, North Babylon, L. I., whose death 
was announced in the last issue of this journal, began the 
nursery business at Babylon in 1856. He was an expert 
florist and gardener and he had few superiors as a grower 
of nursery stock. Three years ago with S. K. Williams, 
he established the Amityville Nursery. 
C. L. Watrous, Des Moines, la., says: “I would 
almost as lief be without a plow in a nursery and fruit 
garden as without a modern spraying outfit. I hope the 
time will soon come when it. will be considered as wanton 
a neglect of opportunity to allow a crop of apples to be 
infested with codlin moth, as it is to-day to allow a field 
of corn to be over-run and throttled with grass and 
weeds.” 
William Parry, Parry, N. J., sends a sample of the 
Starr apple. It is certainly a remarkably fine early apple. 
The sample measured twelve inches in circumference. It 
was perfect in form, of a fresh green color with delicate 
blush upon one side. It was fully ripe on August 5th. 
The flesh is crisp and firm, juicy and of remarkably 
pleasant flavor. It is sub-acid and the flesh is of smooth 
creamy texture. Its cooking qualities are declared to be 
excellent. 
James Vick’s Sons send samples of the Rathbun black¬ 
berry, which are of large size, fine appearance and superior 
quality. The flavor is rich and the flesh firm yet juicy. 
This variety originated on the farm of Alvin Rathbun, 
near Silver Creek, Chautauqua County, N. Y., and has 
been cultivated by him for several years. The plant is a 
strong, erect grower, and produces but few suckers. It 
sends up a strong main stem, which branches freely, and 
these branches curve over and bend downward, and later 
in the season the tips, touching the ground, take root, 
thus propagating like the black-cap raspberry. Previous 
to last winter the hardiness of this variety had been so 
tested as to show that it could stand a temperature of 15 
to 18 degrees below zero without special injury. Last 
winter with a temperature 20 degrees below zero, the 
Rathbun suffered less than most other varieties. 
C. Steinman, Mapleton, la., writes to the loiva State 
Register : “ There are so many things in horticulture not 
understood rightly. My Wolf River apple trees, 16 years 
old, hardly bore an apple. Yellow Transparent, said to 
be an early bearer and some of my trees out fourteen 
years, did not bear one dozen apples to the tree. Whitney 
No. 20, out fifteen years, bore not a peck to the tree. 
Tallman Sweet never saw a full loaded tree yet. 
Alexander is in so many catalogues. I have had it forty 
years and never saw a peck of those apples. So many of 
the New York State winter apples are here only fall 
apples. Who brought sweet cherries to town, or those 
hardy peaches raised in large lots on the other railroads? 
Old reliable varieties are ignored and new untried sorts 
are sold for four prices in order to drop them again ! 
Home nurseries are passed by to go East or South. I 
removed two apple trees I got as a premium from 
Rochester. One had good seedling roots and the other 
had roots killed ; neither had roots from the grafted wood. 
Often editors lean where the dollars come from. Would 
honesty and more truth in this line of business not be a 
good thing?” 
S. L. Watkins, Grizzly Flats, Cal., says: The First 
and Best raspberry, is a type of red raspberry, but quite 
distinct from other varieties, because in early spring, be¬ 
fore it starts to leaf out, it is covered with buds, ready to 
blossom at the first approach of warm weather; in fact, it 
is a raspberry that blooms at the same time as straw¬ 
berries do, and if not killed by frosts, will give fruit 
extremely early ; as early as many varieties of strawberries. 
I have a large collection of raspberries, but in all my 
collection I have nothing that is anything like the First 
and Best, in its habits of blooming. The plants are rapid, 
beautiful growers, and give enormous crops of fruit; the 
berries are a brilliant red, very deliciously flavored, and of 
fair size; they are most excellent shippers, and a splendid 
berry every way, for market and home use ; it is quite 
possible that this red raspberry, under favorable condi¬ 
tions, will ripen its fruit before strawberries. If this 
remarkable berry will hold its earliness in all sections, then 
it will be the champion early red raspberry of the world, 
and a great money maker. It is an accidental seedling, 
and originated in Eldorado County, Cal. It has been 
tested here for three years.” 
