THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
143 
ill-digested opinions? Go to the home of the Pontic 
rhododendron, go to the seed-gathering of the so-called 
“ Catawbiense,” go to the home of the Arboreums— 
study their ways and be wise—and above all don’t be too 
confident and precipitate. J. McP. 
Trenton, N. J. 
RUSSIAN HUMBUGS NOT WANTED. 
J. W. Poole & Co., Swanington, Ind., write: “The 
packing and shipment of trees began with us on August 
20th and continued until November ist. Sales have 
increased on plum, peach and our late-blooming apple 
trees. The people on the prairies have begun to think 
and they have also begun to act. One tree is not as good 
as another with our customers. A tree is a tree, to be 
sure, but a late-blooming tree to produce fruit is wanted 
in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. 
Russian humbugs, seedlings and tropical Japan plums are 
not needed nor wanted here. Tender vines or trees 
should not be sold any more where they are liable to be 
winter-killed. And when people can grow fruit, even if it 
is not as large and fine in quality as California-grown fruit, 
there will be a constantly increasing demand for it.” 
HARDY PLANTS. 
For many years too much stress has been laid on the 
cultivation of tender plants. Growers of nursery stock 
have encouraged the planting of many things without 
due regard to its hardiness or adaptability. The failures 
and disappointments with such stuff have discouraged 
many from planting and led them to declare they could 
buy their fruits and flowers cheaper ; that there was no 
real pleasure in gardening. That a reaction is in progress 
in many ways there can be no doubt. Florists are now 
urging the superior claims of the most hardy ones. Nur¬ 
serymen are beginning to see that this lack of confidence 
has induced many planters to order very cautiously of 
anything they are unacquainted with, and only a few each 
of those they are, when with a proper understanding they 
might have ordered quite liberally of a large number of 
varieties. The list of hardy plants not being so limited 
as they imagined, others have ordered a few of nearly 
everything on the list, not having confi Jence enough to 
order very liberally of any one. In too many cases com¬ 
mercial interests have blinded the sight to the interests 
of the planters and the thing has been pushed that there 
was the most money in, without much regard to its real 
value to the planter. Again, it often occurs that the 
descriptions in the catalogues are such that no one can 
tell which is the best or most desirable variety. One is a 
world-beater; the next is the very best, and the third is 
as good as any. 
These ambiguous statements which don’t describe leave 
the planter in such doubt he is loath to order any, and 
the first man who comes along claiming to be able to 
unravel these descriptions which don’t describe and tell 
which is the best gets the order, and possibly stuff even 
more worthless is sent. I believe the more progressive 
propagators are in favor of cutting off the long list of 
worthless, tender, unprofitable varieties and growing only 
such as are reasonably hardy, profitable and satisfactory 
under fair treatment, and describing each in a fair, hon¬ 
orable, plain way, so there will be no doubt as to which is 
considered the best. 
We believe this the most profitable plan for the propa¬ 
gator and gratifying to all lovers of fruit and floriculture. 
Such a course generally adopted would awaken and 
develop a love for gardening that will never be satisfied 
without an abundance of fruits, flowers and ornamentals 
for every home. Such a result is earnestly to be desired 
by every true horticulturist. To encourage the plant¬ 
ing of hardy productive trees and plants is to encourage 
the interests of popular gardening and add to the natural 
adornment of our fair land. F. E. Pease. 
Des Moines, la. 
ORCHARDS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
The acreage of orchards in Great Britain continues to 
extend, as shown by the official returns for the current 
year. In 1892 the area under orchards was 208,950 acres, 
in 1893, 211,664 acres, in 1894, 214,187 acres, in this year 
it has increased to 218,428 acres. It will be seen from 
these figures that there has been a steady annual increase 
since 1892 ; and it will be interesting to mention that the 
area under orchards in England is now 212,963 acres, or 
practically 1,300 acres in excess of the entire orchard area 
of Great Britain two years since. Comparatively little 
change has been made in the acreage of orchards in Scot¬ 
land and Wales ; but this is not surprising when the fact 
is taken into consideration that the soil and climate of 
these two countries are not particularly favorable to the 
cultivation of orchard fruits. The twelve English counties 
which have the largest areas of orchards are all in the 
south or west, and all are south of an oblique line extend¬ 
ing from Shropshire to Kent. These are: Devon, 
26,955 acres; Hereford, 26,538 acres; Somerset, 24,520 
acres; Kent, 23,260 acres; Worcester, 19,665 acres; 
Gloucester, 18,515 acres; Cornwall, 5,138; Middlesex, 
:^.,763 acres ; Salop, 4,570 acres ; Dorset, 4,381 acres ; Mon¬ 
mouth, 3,998 acres ; Wilts, 3,512 acres. The three western 
counties of Devon, Somerset, and Hereford alone contain 
more than one-third of the orchard area of Great Britain. 
The increase in the area is distributed generally over 
England, and is not confined to any particular district. 
The largest orchard area in any county of Wales is 1,237 
acres in Brecon, followed by 699 acres in Radnor ; these 
two counties adjoin Hereford and Monmouth, which are 
both amongst the first twelve English counties in their 
orchard areas. Lanark has the largest area of the Scottish 
counties, this being 715 acres. P'ive Scottish counties 
return no orchards, and ten others have figured in the list 
for less than ten acres each .—Gardeners Magazine. 
