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THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
The National N urseryman. 
C L. YATES, Proprietor. RALPH T. OLCOTT. Editor. 
PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., 
305 Cox Building, Rochester, N. Y. 
The only trade journal issued for Growers and Dealers in Nursery Stock of 
all kinds. It circulates throughout the United States and Canada 
OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN. 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES. 
One Year, in advance, - _ _ _ _ $1.00 
Six Months, - - - - - - _• .'7:^ 
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Six Months, “ “ - - _ 1.00 
Advertising rates will be sent upon application. Advertisements 
should reach this office by the 20th of the month previous to the date of 
issue. 
Payment in advance required for foreign advertisements. 
([[^“Drafts on JSew York or postal orders, instead of checks, are 
requested. 
Correspon lence from all points and articles of interest to nursery 
men and horticulturists are cordially solicited. 
Entered in the Post Office at Rochester, N, Y., as second-class matter. 
Rochester, N. Y., October, 1895. 
WIDE DIFFERENCE OF OPINION. 
A lively controversy has arisen between. Hon. C. L. 
Watrous, of Des Moines, and W. M. Bomberger, horti¬ 
cultural editor of the Iowa Homestead, over the subject 
of Russian fruits in America. It was precipitated By an 
allusion in Mr. Watrous’ paper read before the Indian¬ 
apolis meeting of the American Association of Nursery¬ 
men. Mr. Bomberger in a communication published in 
the August issue of The National Nurseryman, 
championed the cause of Professor J. L. Budd of the 
Iowa State Experiment Station, to whom he applied the 
impersonal reference in Mr. Watrous’ paper. In the 
present issue we give Mr. Watrous’ reply to the state¬ 
ments of Mr. Bomberger. 
The gentlemen are equally confident of their widely 
different opinions. Mr. Bomberger, fresh from a visit to 
the Ames, Iowa, station, where Professor Budd presides, 
thinks Mr. Watrous’ declaration, that vast sums of money 
have been wasted in an endeavor to make Russian fruits 
grow successfully a thousand miles nearer the equator 
than their place of origin, makes singular reading when 
he has just walked for miles along experimental rows of 
fruits counting up into hundreds of varieties from nearly 
every state in the Union, as well as from many foreign 
countries, but most largely from Russia. Mr. Bom- 
berger’s personal ob.servation leads him to assert that at 
the Ames station Russian fruits have proved a grand 
success. Mr. Watrous, on the other hand, has had con¬ 
siderable experience in the propagation of Russian fruits 
himself and he finds the failures far in excess of the suc¬ 
cesses. His queries as to the neglect of the Ames station 
to comment on the failures which have been reported by 
various experiiT^enters with Russian fruits are certainly to 
the point. 
While Professor Budd, as the result of special study of 
the Russian fruits, may have been able to produce results 
where others have failed, we would be pleased to repro¬ 
duce any warning which the professor may have given for 
the purpose of preventing waste of money by those 
who, perhaps, may not so well understand the peculiar 
characteristics of Russian varieties. 
Great credit is due Mr. Watrous for the principle laid 
down in his paper before the American Association. He 
says: 
Nurserymen .should be the first to test all promising fruits and plants. 
They must also bear the responsibility of putting these novelties into 
the orchards and vineyards and gardens of the people, or of withhold¬ 
ing them because of unworthiness, and the last is as important as the 
first. It may be true, as some claim, that there is no place of punish¬ 
ment hereafter, but if there is none, one ought to be made for the 
punishment of those men who, having learned the worthlessness of a 
tree or plant, refuse to tell the truth, but continue to inflict it upon the 
people. 
Such advice tends to maintain the standard of the nur¬ 
sery business to which all honorable nurserymen look. 
In connection with this subject of Russian fruits we 
cannot refrain from noticing the following statement 
published in the edition of August 30, 1895, of the Iowa 
Homestead: 
Some doubt the value of the Russian experiment, and denounce it, 
but with results such as these before us, and their wide test, there is 
something for Doubting Thomases to pause and consider. A large 
share of opposition comes from two sources, first, indiscreet planting, 
and second, from nurserymen. During the earlier stages of the experi¬ 
ment it was very indiscreet to propagate and sell the Russian fruits be¬ 
fore they were tested, no matter what was claimed for them. It made 
a heavy sale of nursery stock under the Russian name, but it was 
neither wise nor honest to have agents, as wuis common, send out 
Russian fruits before they had been tested. Much stock sent out was 
only of the common soiTs labeled to suit the demand during the boom, 
and when these came into bearing and were found to be either common 
fruits already in cultivation or discarded Russian varieties, it only 
served to render Russian fruits unpopular. The opposition from nur¬ 
serymen comes largely from the fact that of late some of these fruits 
are found to be of considerable value and are so widely scattered at 
the sub-stations which Professor Budd has established that any one can 
secure trees and stock easily for propagating purposes from these sta¬ 
tions. This fact largely destroys the nursery trade for the sale of high- 
priced novelties which are usually made “leaders” by salesmen in 
canvassing. This has caused the National Nurserymen’s Association, 
which is a trust, to make an open attack on Professor Budd this season. 
As the official journal of the American Association of 
Nurserymen, The NATIONAL Nurseryman protests 
against the accusation that the association is a trust. It 
is no more a trust than is any state, district or county 
horticultural society, or the experiment station at Ames, 
la. A trust, in a commercial sense, is “ a combination of 
interests for the purpose of regulating and controlling, 
by means of a common authority, the use, supply or dis¬ 
posal of some kind of property.” The constitution of the 
American Association of Nurserymen states that the ob¬ 
ject of the association is “ to promote the general inter- 
