THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
116 
©bituary. 
John Wragg, founder of the Central Nurseries, Waukee 
Iowa, and president of the J. Wragg & Sons Company, died 
September 4th. The funeral took place Sunday, September 
6th, from his late residence, two miles south of Waukee, where 
he had resided since 1865, and the seat of his horticultural 
work. For several years he was an invalid and through it all 
bore up with remarkable fortitude and patience. His mind 
was clear to the last, and during intervals of his illness he con¬ 
tributed frequently to the press. He has left the heritage of 
an honored name, an upright citizen and a true horticulturist. 
He budded on the rock of integrity and the business he so 
grandly founded will be carried on as heretofore by his sons, 
who have been its managers for several years, and will be per¬ 
petuated to his honor. 
We shall miss his cheery and always inspiring voice, says 
the Iowa State Register , during his frequent calls at this office 
to talk of the development and prospects of the fruit and flower 
interests of the state. He will be missed at the State Fair, 
where he has regularly taken a deep interest in the horticul¬ 
tural department, and labored so zealously to make the exhibit 
attractive and instructive. He will be missed at the State 
Horticultural meetings, where for over a third of a century his 
voice has been regularly heard ; and on the pages of the annual 
reports of that society he has left the most complete printed 
history of his life investigations. He will be missed on all the 
farms and lawns of Iowa, where his labors will speak for them¬ 
selves through the fruits, shrubs and flowers. Thus others will 
reap where he has sown, and the harvest will go on forever. 
“ Uncle John ” first located in Iowa in 1854, in the northern 
part of the state, but he removed to his home near Waukee in 
1865, and resided there until his death. He was one of the 
most devoted fruit growers we have ever met, and he frequently 
expressed to the editor of the Register his opinion that Iowa 
is as good and certain a general fruit state as any other portion 
of the earth. “All that we need,” said he, “is to continue 
investigating and planting. Trees are killed and die naturally, 
but so do people and all other things earthly. When even the 
granite rocks crumble to earth, the people cannot expect to 
plant an orchard that will produce fruits every year and for¬ 
ever. Plant every year is my plan, and that plan will produce 
abundant crops. We plant all other crops every year, yet peo¬ 
ple seem to think that an orchard once planted will live and 
produce forever. It won’t do it. Everything we see dies or 
decays. Even the forests disappear in accordance with nature’s 
plan.” How often have we heard those Or similar good and 
always useful words of counsel from the lips now sealed for¬ 
ever. They are still good counsel, and always will be, and 
“ Uncle John” desired to leave as his last and best counsel : 
“ Plant every year.” 
SCIENTIFIC HORTICULTURE. 
The third expedition of the American Society for the Pro¬ 
motion of Scientific Horticulture is on the southern slope of 
the Himalaya mountains, to which position it has worked its 
way from the Island of Formosa, during a year and a half. 
The search for orchids is the principal object of the expedi¬ 
tion. Besides orchids, however, a number of fruit, ornamental 
trees, vegetable, flower, and other seeds have been collected 
which the society proposes to distribute free to any one inter¬ 
ested in the subject of horticulture. 
The general object of the expedition is to obtain some seeds 
of the remarkable vegetation of Asia, and then to acclimatize 
them to the climate of America. Some of the most enthusias¬ 
tic members of the society expect by grafting to produce a 
variety of new fruits 'rom the combination of our domestic and 
the foreign specimens The party is in charge of Prof. James 
A. Craddock, M. A., Ph. D , the pomologist of the society. 
He has four young men with him The expedition has been 
exposed to the usual dangers of trans-Asiatic travel ; it has 
had encounters with the natives of the countries through which 
it has passed, and has braved the fever that lurks in the night 
air, not to speak of the insect pests. 
George C. Asper, the secretary of the society and organizer 
of the expedition, lives at 440 West Forty-seventh street, New 
York city. He is a member of the firm of George C. Asper & 
Co., the proprietors of the Mohawk Valley Nurseries, at 
Schenectady, N. Y., and a similar establishment in California. 
He is considered an authority on horticulture, being a botan¬ 
ist, pomologist, and entomologist. He is delighted with the 
evident success of the expedition, which he declares is the 
most successful of any the society has sent out. 
The expedition now in Asia left New York in March, 1894. 
It proceeded to Yokohama, Japan, from San Francisco. The 
work of research was begun in Formosa and continued there 
for several months. Specimens received from there are of 
great beauty. 
The Ameiican Society for the Promotion of Scientific Hor¬ 
ticulture was organized fourteen years ago. The officers are: 
Maximilian Durand, president ; George C. Asper, secretary ; 
James Craddock, pomologist ; D. Montgomery Liddell, M. A., 
Ph. D., entomologist. 
SEPTEMBER FRUIT REPORT. 
Peaches.—The average condition declined to 42 8. In the 
commercial states the best crops are found in Delaware, 
Maryland, Ohio, and Michigan. The quality of the crop has 
not been up to the average, excepting some fruit from the 
mountain orchards. Late varieties are now coming into 
market, but these, too, are small and much damaged by insects. 
The curculio has proved particularly numerous this season. 
The condition of the California crop is lower than for many 
years. 
Grapes.—The condition of the grape crop is generally good. 
In important districts in the East the figures are about what 
they were last year. New York has the lowest figure in that 
region (75). Spring frosts are said to have caused the decline 
there. In the Pacific Coast region the crop is very much 
below the average, and nearly 20 points under the September 
condition of last year. 
Apples.—The average condition was 67. In Maine, New 
Hampshire and Vermont the condition was 103 ; in Michigan, 
109 ; Wisconsin, 102 ; Massachusetts, 101 ; Nevada, xoo ; New 
York, 97 ; Pennsylvania, 94 ; Indiana, 60 ; Illinois, 72 ; Minne¬ 
sota, 94 ; Iowa, 91 ; Missouri, 56 ; Kansas, 49 ; Nebraska, 69 ; 
South Dakota, 93 ; Ohio, 68 ; Colorado, 70 ; Washington, 75 ; 
Oregon, 45 ; California, 52 ; Rhode Island, 67 ; Connecticut, 
98 ; Delaware, 23 ; Maryland, 25 ; Georgia, 33 ; Florida, 72. 
