24 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
jfrom IDaitous (Points. 
At its recent session at Sigourney, the Southeastern 
Iowa Horticultural Society elected officers for the ensuing 
year as follows : C. L. Watrous, Des Moines, pres.; F. 
O. Harrington, York Center, vice-pres.; Wesley Green, 
Davenport, treas.; C. W. Burton, Cedar Rapids, sec’y. 
At the meeting of the Horticultural Society of South¬ 
ern Illinois, at Anna, the following officers were elected : 
R. T. Fry, Olney, president; J. W. Stanton, Rich View; 
L. N. Beal, Mount Vernon, and D. W. Prindle, Villa 
Ridge, vice-presidents; E. G. Mendenhall, Kinmundy, 
secretary and treasurer. Cairo was selected for the next 
place of meeting. 
The forests of Germany extend over a fourth of the 
area of the whole country, and are all under skillful 
management. Baron Herman states that there is scarcely 
one tree in the whole of the fatherland which is not 
known personally to a forest officer, and which has not 
been sown or planted with more or less great care and 
labor. The whole area of wooded land is almost equally 
divided between state, community and private persons. 
The Colusa, Cal., Sun says: “Messrs. Alexander & 
Ha-mmon, owners of the Rio Bonito nursery at Biggs, 
Butte county, have four hundred acres in orchard and one 
thousand acres in nursery. There are peaches, apricots, 
olives, figs, pears, prunes, nectarines and early plums, all 
wonderfully thrifty, thirty thousand trees all in full bear¬ 
ing, from which an immense crop was yielded during the 
season just past.” 
The Gardeners' Chronicle , London, says : “ The lands 
committee of the governors of Gordon’s College, Aber¬ 
deen, a college possessed of many acres of land, have 
accepted the offer of Messrs. William Smith & Sons, 
nurserymen, Aberdeen, for planting the lands of Pit- 
doulzie, Auchterless, with trees, their estimate being at 
the rate of £\ 16s. per imperial acre, and 8s. per acre for 
renewal for two years. Mr. Thomas Milne, Glenburnie, 
was the successful offerer for furnishing the plantations 
at Logierieve and East Craig, his estimate being at the 
rate of £.2 per imperial acre. He also stipulates to renew 
at least i.ooo trees within two years if required.” 
The cut flower trade for Christmas, 1895, was the largest 
ever known in New York. Wholesale prices were gen¬ 
erally lower than they have been on previous holidays, 
and stock was sold out. The following figures are given 
by American Gardenmg: Roses, 225,000; carnations, 
260,000; violets, 280,000; Harrisi lilies, 40,000; Roman 
hyacinths, 150,000 : lily of the valley, 60,000; cypripediums, 
100,000; cattleya blooms and other orchids, about 10,000; 
maidenhair fern, similax, narcissus, tulips, stevia, helio¬ 
trope, mignonette, were all sold in immense quantities, 
but it was impossible to form any opinion as to the num¬ 
ber. Violets, roses, cattleyas, and carnations were the 
most popular flowers, in the order named. 
SPINELESS GOOSEBERRIES. 
The Spineless gooseberries raised by M. Edouard 
Lefort, secretary of the Meaux Horticultural Society, are 
of much interest, as representing a quite new and valu¬ 
able type of these useful fruits, says the Gardeners 
Magazine. The first of the varieties of the gooseberry 
without spines made its appearance as a chance seedling 
in a plantation of gooseberries raised from seed in the 
nurseries of the late M. Billard, of Fontenay-aux-Roses, 
in i860. The variety did not appear to attract any special 
attention until 1884, when M. Lefort, recognizing the 
value of a race of gooseberries destitute of spines, com¬ 
menced in a systematic manner the work of improvement 
and, as the result of his well-directed efforts, he has 
obtained several meritorious varieties, which have passed 
into the hands of MM. Letellier et Fils, Caen, Calvados, 
France. Four varieties have been selected for distribu¬ 
tion, and these are Souvenir de Billard, a vigorous grow¬ 
ing variety, with spreading branches, productive, and 
bearing large red fruit ; Edouard Lefort, remarkable for 
its productiveness and the high quality of its vinous red 
fruit ; Madame Edouard Lefort, dwarf in growth, and 
bearing medium-sized red fruit, which remain in condition 
upon the tree for some time after attaining maturity, and 
Belle de Meaux, vigorous in growth and productive, the 
fruits bright red. 
PROOF OF THE MILLENNIUM. 
R. M. Kellogg has set them all to thinking. The Gar¬ 
deners Magazine of London, says: “Now we have a 
Michigan fruit grower asserting that fruit trees have so 
much of intelligence as to be enabled to recognize friends 
from enemies in certain responsive ways. If this Ameri¬ 
can pomologist had said fruit trees are always intelligently 
responsive to good treatment and culture, he would have 
but reiterated a recognized truth. In this country we, 
however, find trees to be all too willing to shelter enemies, 
at least in the shape of insect pests, and it is feared the 
American trees are no wiser. When, however, fruit trees 
so far recognize friends from enemies as to bring down 
their topmost branches to enable the former to pluck the 
finest fruits, and refuse to do so to the latter, then shall 
we realize that the millennium of fruit is at hand.” 
THE BANNER COUNTY. 
There has been much rivalry among counties in various 
states over the claim of superior fertility and productive¬ 
ness. The largest agricultural county in each state con¬ 
cerned makes claim to supremacy in this regard, a claim 
sustained in the case of many Western counties by much 
valuable oratory. Recently an authentic statement of 
the agricultural products of the several states made its 
appearance, and it shows that the banner county of the 
United States, so far as agricultural products are con¬ 
cerned, is Lancaster Gounty, Pennsylvania. 
