THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
133 
Hmono (Srowers anb IDealete. 
Lewis Kaufman, recently with the Southern Nursery 
Co., has started the Phoenix Nursery at San Antonio, 
Tex. 
G. Bunyard & Co., Maidstone, England, have been ap¬ 
pointed by royal warrant fruit tree nurserymen to the 
queen. 
The Mallinckrodt Nursery Co. has been incorporated 
at St. Clares, Mo., by Robert Mallinckrodt, A. J. Blair 
and H. J. Osterhoh. 
The firm of Gaiser & Co., Tecumseh, Neb., has been 
dissolved. Mr. A. Gaiser continuing the business and 
Lewis Imler retiring. 
James Vick’s Sons have vacated the seed house which 
was built by their father and have located in a large build¬ 
ing near the New York Central railroad station, Rochester. 
The Perry Nursery Co , has been incorporated to deal 
in nursery stock in Rochester, N. Y.; capital, $10,000. 
Directors : William P. Perry, R. C. Brown and J. C. 
Brown, of Rochester. 
J. R. Johnson, Coshocton, O., sends samples of the 
Zoar apple, one of his specialties. It resembles the 
Maiden Blush but is sweeter and of higher color, and the 
tree is of very different growth. It is a fall apple. The 
tree bears when young and is very hardy and prolific. 
“ It is incomparably the most beautiful and best selling 
variety in my collection of 75 varieties,” says Mr. John¬ 
son, “and is altogether the most satisfactory apple I know 
of, aside from the fact that it is not a keeper.” The 
specimens bear out all that is said of this apple. 
A. H. Griesa, Lawrence, Kan., sent samples of his 
Early Melon apple, a large fine red fruit, of which he 
says : “ It may be of Russian origin ; it has fruited six or 
seven years without failure. The tree is very productive 
and the fruit adheres to the tree when ripe, and is com¬ 
paratively free from scab fungus or insects. Its cooking 
quality is of the finest; superior, I think, to that of Van- 
devere, said by Dr. Warder to be the best. The Early 
Melon is earlier here than all other kinds, except Yellow 
Transparent. 1 think this apple will be prized by 
growers.” 
, Silas Wilson sends this description of the Tatge plum : 
This fine hardy plum is of European strain, a seedling 
originated at Belle Plaine, Iowa, by Elder Tatge, some 
twenty-five years ago. Trees fifteen years or more old 
are still in full bearing. Its parentage is not known but 
it evidently belongs to the Lombard family—but this 
seedling is larger in fruit, finer in quality, much darker in 
color and more round than the Lombard. A fine grower, 
with beautiful foliage, an early and profuse bearer, it has 
stood all the test winters the past fifteen years and seems 
to be the most productive long-lived plum known. The 
heavy bearing of the Tatge is unequaled by any other 
variety. 
JAPAN PLUMS IN TEXAS. 
Austin, Texas, October 5.—We have been having some 
old-fashioned rains lately, and they are the first since the 
middle of June. It seems we are going to have a wet 
fall, and we have had so many dry winters of late years 
that big rains are our first request. The financial ques¬ 
tions are insignificant when compared with a fall and 
winter without rain. Many who intended to plant last 
winter did not do so because it was so dry. There were 
fine rains in May and June, which made a big corn crop 
and ran up peach and plum trees six and seven feet by 
the middle of July, and since then they have not grown 
any. 
The finest plums shown by the State Horticultural 
Society this year were the Hytankio. They were about 
six inches in circumference and were exhibited from both 
black prairie and sandy land. Possibly this variety does 
not bear big crops when young, like Abundance and Bur¬ 
bank, but Texas nurserymen who have become acquainted 
with it, will consider it a standard hereafter. It follows 
Burbank in ripening. 
Normand, another Japan, was also shown, over ripe. 
It is yellow, as large as Burkank and in ripening covers 
last half of the season of Burbank and first half of Hy¬ 
tankio. It seems to keep for several days, and is less 
juicy than any Japan plum we have seen, but equals any 
in flavor. 
Ex-President Kirkpatrick, of McKinney, showed a 
transparent yellow Japan plum shaped like Simonii, which 
he had been keeping in cold storage. Think it ripened 
with Abundance. It was greatly admired and orders for 
buds were freely offered. He had gotten it under the 
name of White Japan and for a wonder no one had any 
synonyms. 
President Kerr had enough of the Alamo pears to let 
us prove its high quality, and Professor Munson did like¬ 
wise with some grapes. F. T. Ramsey. 
THE KOONCE PEAR. 
The Koonce was originated in Southern Illinois, and is 
being introduced by George Gould & Son, of Villa Ridge, 
Ills. It is a remarkably early pear, ripening with 
Doyenne d’Eta or about with the first Ale.xander peaches 
It is a very heavy bearer, limbs of the tree often break 
with the load of fruit. “No other pear that we know of 
will bear any more pears to the tree, except possibly the 
Kieffer,” says Mr. Gould. The frontispiece of this issue 
shows a section of a branch from a photograph ; branch 
feet long and containing ten pears. The size is 
medium to large, very handsome; surface yellow, one side 
covered with a bright carmine containing brown dots ; 
stem meaty and short; quality very good, declared to be 
ahead of any other early pear ; two to three weeks earlier 
than Harvest Bell, Jefferson, or Lawson, and superior in 
quality to either; does not rot at the core ; is a splendid 
shipper and keeper ; tree a very vigorous grower; abso- 
