32 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
Regarding the proposition to secure better transportation facilities 
between Rochester and Philadelphia, William C. Barry, of the firm of 
Ellwanger & Barry, said: “I don’t understand the reason why the 
manufacturers of Rochester do not have a larger trade with Philadel¬ 
phia. As far as our business is concerned, we have always had our 
share, but I do think if the conveniences for getting to Philadelphia 
were better, trade would show a great improvement. We are anxious 
to do business with Philadelphia, although we do considerable now 
with the nurserymen of the Quaker City. There is a scheme on foot to 
give us direct communication with the City of Brotherly Love, and if 
this is done it would be a good thing for both cities.” 
T. H. Hoskins says of the Loganberry : “ There seems to be a strong 
effort on the part of some nurserymen, to introduce this western shrub, 
or small tree, into eastern gardens. This is right enough, if in descrip¬ 
tion the truth is adhered to. I find in a usually very reliable Eastern 
publication, a statement that it is “a shrub of a compact, symmetrical 
habit.” I have had it in my grounds some 20 years, not simply a single 
tree, but upwards of a dozen, and find it very straggling in growth, 
with thin foliage, and growing 20 feet high in rather poor, dry soil. 
The foliage is described as silvery white. 1 find it a grayish green. It 
is stated to be productive. Barberries near by it are, at least, four 
times as productive. No note is taken of the fact that this shrub is 
dioecious, bearing no fruit on male plants.” 
©bituau?. 
Benjamin M. Watson, Plymouth, Mass., well-known as a raiser of 
seeds and grower of nursery stock, died February 20th. He was the 
father of Professor B. M. Watson of the Bussey Institution. 
Adolf Ladenburg, of the Oasis Nursery Co.,Westbury Station, L. I., 
was lost at sea February 20th, during a voyage from Nassau, New 
Providence, Bahama Islands, to New York city on the steamship 
Nicaragua. Mr. Ladenburg was the son of Emil Ladenburg, a wealthy 
retired banker, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany. He began life as 
an officer in the German Army. He came to America in 1876, and four 
years later became a partner in the great banking firm of Ladenburg, 
Thalman & Co., of Wall street. The deceased was an enthusiastic 
lover of trees and flowers, and in December, 1891, formed the Oasis 
Nursery Co., of which he was chosen president. Through his efforts 
Westbury, L I., and its surroundings were greatly improved, much of 
his extensive property in that locality, some two hundred acres, being 
laid out in the form of a park. 
• - 
William Brown Smith, the senior member of Smiths A Powell Co., 
Syracuse, N. Y., died March 10th aged 81 years. Mr. Smith was born 
at Brighton, Monroe county, N. Y., March 2, 1815. He learned the 
cabinet trade and engaged in this and mercantile business in Walworth, 
N. Y., and then removed to Syracuse where he bought a half interest 
in a nursery with Alanson Thorp, under the firm name of Thorp & 
Smith, the nursery comprising four or five acres, situated on West 
Genesee st., near the present Smith family residence, for which he paid 
$2,000. This nursery was increased from time to time, until it occupied 
several hundred acres. The firm name was changed at various times 
by the retirement or addition of other partners, until Mr. Smith became 
the sole proprietor of the business. In 1868 Edward A. Powell married 
the only daughter of Mr. Smith, Lucy C., and became a partner in the 
business, which was soon after extended by the addition of the live 
stock interests, from which has been developed the celebrated “ Lake¬ 
side Stock Farm.” 
In 1879, the firm was again changed by the admission to partnership 
of his sons, Wing It. and W. Judson Smith, under the firm name of 
Smiths & Powell. The firm was afterwards changed to that of Smiths 
& Powell Co., which is still retained. 
Mr. Smith was largely identified with the development of Syracuse, 
having been prominently connected with its leading public and 
business enterprises, and at the time of his death held several positions 
of trust and honor, among which were president of Oakwood cemetery, 
vice-president of the Syracuse Savings bank, director of the Salt Springs 
National bank, director of the old Syracuse Water Co., counselor of the 
Old Ladies’ Home, president of Smiths & Powell Co., treasurer of the 
Holstein-Friesian association, trustee of St. Joseph’s hospital, and 
genior member of the firm of P. R. Quinlan & Co, 
jfcom IDacious points. 
And now it is the California orange crop that has suffered from frost. 
But the danger has not been nearly as great as was that in Florida. 
Trustworthy reports indicate that the Riverside crop of 3,400 car loads, 
out of a total of 10,000 car loads for the entire state, is ruined. The 
estimates of the loss have been placed at from 50 to 90 per cent. 
A Denver nursery firm which sold trees that did not grow sued the 
purchaser for the amount of the bill and, strange to say, secured judg¬ 
ment against, him says the Field and Farm. The court held that in 
trying to make trees grow the planter must assume more responsibility 
than the dealer who sold them and in one way of looking at it, this is 
correct. We cannot expect to grow trees if we neglect them. 
Apropos of the reference to botany in schools, made by James 
MacPherson in another column, attention is called to the following 
observation by the Gardener’s Chronicle of London: “It is scarcely 
necessary to say now that there is no study in the whole curriculum 
equal to that of botany, and the Japanese authorities have issued an 
extended ‘minute’ full of wise provisions or suggestions for the guid¬ 
ance of heads of schools, all bearing directly on planting, growing, 
and bringing to maturity, of flowering shrubs and plants, and of forest 
trees—oaks, pines, etc.” 
During the Connecticut Pomological Society’s meeting the discussion 
turned on the advantages of roots and root-pruning, the general 
opinion being that the small fibrous roots are of small value to a newly 
transplanted tree, and along with all broken and bruised roots can 
be profitably cut off. The tree needs good strong side roots to hold it 
firmly in the soil. One nurseryman predicted that in the near future 
trees would be sent out from the nursery with the roots already pruned. 
Several cases were cited where trees, almost destitute of roots, properly 
planted, lived and thrived. 
Free plant distribution, a new departure in horticultural work, was 
introduced by the Wisconsin Horticultural Society five years since: 
The society agrees to furnish any pupil in the public schools of that 
state six strawberry or three raspberry plants, or two spruce trees, 
upon the receipt of five cents and the promise to report on the condition 
of the plants the following autumn. Over 4,000 children took advan¬ 
tage of the offer last year. This strikes the R. N. Y. as an excellent 
thing. Who is the public-spirited citizen right in your school district, 
who will start just such a local distribution .—Rural New Yorker. 
The secretary of agriculture, in accordance with the mandates ’of 
congress, has prepared a circular letter to be sent to all known reputable 
growers of and dealers in seed throughout the United States asking 
them to furnish at reasonable prices to the United States department 
of agriculture 10,000,000 packets of garden, field and flower seeds, 
beginning with asparagus and ending with wheat. This number of 
packets will give to each member and delegate in the house of represen¬ 
tatives and to each United States senator 15,000 packets for distribution 
among his constitutents, after deducting one-third of the whole amount, 
in accordance with law, for distribution by the secretary of agriculture. 
All of these must be delivered on or before thirty days from the 17th 
day of March, 1896. 
One of the largest planting enterprises ever undertaken in the West is 
that of the El Capitan Orchard Company at Roswell, New Mexico, a 
concern headed by Joseph Sampson, Sioux City, Iowa. Seven break¬ 
ing plows have been ripping up the land for sometime, and a large 
force of men and teams are busy on buildings and fences, says the 
Denver Field and Farm. Ten square miles in a solid body are now 
enclosed by a substantial barbed wire fence, with some interior cross¬ 
fencing for pasture that will be put into alfalfa. Fifty miles of main 
and lateral ditches have been constructed. Four first-class wells, tested 
to yield 100 to 150 gallons of water a minute, have been bored, and 
shortly several more are to be sunk. Quite an area of early plowed 
mellow ground will be put into small fruit, vines, grain, vegetables, 
etc. Between 60,000 and 75,000 young apple trees of best varieties will 
also be set out as soon as sufficient plowing is finished. It is the inten¬ 
tion to plant a large acreage in pears and plums the coming winter 
after the ground has been prepared during the summer. Parker Earle 
has lately gone to this company as superintendent of planting, 
