30 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
only in quality, but also in kinds, to meet the demand for 
better trees. 
The report is of especial interest to nurserymen in that it 
outlines subjects to be observed or avoided. It is suggested 
that trees for city streets should possess endurance as to fol¬ 
iage, toughness to withstand high winds, slender, upright habit 
of growth, elasticity, cleanliness, longevity, a medium leafing 
period, a natural form suited to certain requirements, mod¬ 
erate shade, recuperative power, small leaves. 
Aside from the immense advantage of the work of such a 
society to a community, it is of direct benefit to the nursery 
trade. Its high plane creates a demand for the best the nur¬ 
seryman can produce. The Brooklyn Tree Planting Society, 
organized in 1882 has attained a national reputation. Its influ¬ 
ence has been shown in the organization of similar societies 
elsewhere. 
CANADA FREE FROM SCALE. 
Replying to queries as to whether there is San Jose scale in 
Canada, L. Woolverton, editor of the Canadian Horticulturist, 
says : 
On investigation it was found that a few lots of the nursery stock 
imported during the last live years were infested with scale, and some 
of it had been handled by Canadian nurserymen. Careful searching 
enabled the inspector, George E. Fisher, of Burlington, to trace this 
stock to the orchards in which it was planted, and his work is being 
continued on into the year 1899 , for the purpose of utterly destroying 
such trees. Our nurserymen are all wide awake to the danger, and 
have had their nurseries carefully inspected ; and so far as we know 
every Canadian nursery at the time is free from this scale. 
NEW FAST MAIL ON THE WABASH. 
One of the most complete and handsome trains west-bound out of 
Buffalo was put in operation by the Wabash Railroad Company for 
the first time Sunday, March 19 th, It will be known as the St. Louis, 
Kansas City Fast Mail, and, as General-Agent Robert F. Kelley de¬ 
scribes it, is “a corker.” Up to date there has never been a mail 
line west, out of Buffalo, and this forms the link in the new through 
service from the East. 
This train will be made up of mail cars, baggage, chair coaches and 
sleepers, through to Kansas City, by way of St. Louis. It will be 
made up in Buffalo, leaving at 8:30 in the evening, arriving in Chicago 
10:55 a. m. and St. Louis at 2 o’clock p. m, the following day. A 
twenty minute stop will be made in St. Louis, and then this handsome 
train will speed away to Kansas City, where it will arrive at 9:45 in 
the evening. The distance from Buffalo to Kansas City is a trifle over 
1,100 miles, and the run will be made in twenty-fivehoursand fifteen min¬ 
utes, or an average of nearly forty-four miles an hour, not counting 
necessary stops. 
In Buffalo the through mail from the East will be taken on, and 
landed in Kansas City in time to make connections with the far West 
and South. 
Returning, the new mail train will leave Kansas City at 6:15 p. m. 
and will take the Hannibal and Decatur route of the Wabash, reaching 
Buffalo at 8 p. m. the following day, and New York City early the 
next morning. 
This new mail route, the initial step in the Wabash scheme to more 
closely connect the Queen City of the Lakes with the great cities of the 
West which are the termini of this prosperous system, is but another 
indication of the enterprise which marks its management. The infant 
of two years is rapidly demonstrating its power to its more staid and 
older neighbors and rivals, and those who sneered at its pretensions 
when first it entered the field in Buffalo as a bidder for the western traffic, 
both passenger and freight, now are willling to concede its streDgth, 
wonder at its phenomenal growth and admire its energy. 
I 1 11 IRurseiY IRows._ 
Apples for Cold Climates. —F. A. Waugh, of Vermont, recom¬ 
mends the following varieties of apples where hardiness is the prin¬ 
ciple consideration : Yellow Transparent, Red Astrakan, Longfield,Old¬ 
enburg, Fameuse, McIntosh,Walthey, Scott,Winter, Pewaukee, Arctic. 
Small Fruits,—F. H. Hall in a report on tests of berries at the 
Geneva, N. Y., experiment station says that iu the stiff clay loam of 
the station plats, Stalielin, Anlo, Omega and Sample strawberries gave 
good results. Palmer and Pioneer blackcaps led in amount of early 
yield. Of the red raspberries, Cline, Pomona and Marlboro produced 
most early fruit. London, Royal Church and Kenyon were among the 
best mid-season berries ; Talbot the best late berry. Of blackberries, 
Minnewaski, New Rochelle and Dorchester gave the best results. 
Strawberry-Raspberry. —“It seems to me that the Strawberry- 
Raspberry is of greater value as an ornamental than as a pomological 
introduction,” says W. E. Britton in American Gardening. “Apparently 
if posesses all the hardiness and vigor of our native brambles, some of 
which are now used in landscape work ; it is quite different from any 
of them and fully as attractive. Though it has not yet been tested 
sufficiently to warrant extensive planting, it survives a temperature 
of several degrees below zero, and I should expect, from observations, 
that it would thrive on dry and rather poor soils. On account of its 
numerous suckers and dense foliage it may be of value for covering 
banks, and waste places. The beauty, hardiness, and vigor of this 
plant will probably ensure it a place in ornamental gardening.” 
Chestnut Culture— Chestnut culture is one of the newer horticul. 
tural industries of the United States, saysG. Harold Powell in American 
Gardening. But if an indication of the future importance can be 
judged from the present interest in it, commercial chestnut growing is 
destined to take a prominent part in American fruit culture as soon as 
its merits are more thoroughly appreciated. The Japanese chestnuts 
have been sent out under such names as Japan Giant, Japan Mammoth, 
and Japan Sweet, but these names have no varietal significance. They 
mean Japanese seedlings, as used by most nurserymen. But chestnut 
are as variable as apple seedlings, and a single variety can be perpetu¬ 
ated only by grafting and budding. It is time that these general 
names for the cultivated chestnuts be discarded, and that seedling trees 
be sold as seedlings, and distinct varieties under varietal names. No 
systematic attempt has been made to improve the American chestnut. 
The nuts are smaller than either the European or the Japanese varieties, 
but none of the foreign chestnuts can compare with the native nuts in 
sweetness or in delicate texture. No two of the American chestnut 
trees bear fruit exactly alike. They differ in size, in flavor, and in 
bearing tendencies. So large are some of the nuts that a few have been 
selected and propagated as distinct varieties. There are great possi¬ 
bilities in the American chestnut. It awaits the skillful manipulation 
of a careful plant breeder. 
Increasing Fruitfulness— “ Let us assume,” says E. Stiles, Aus¬ 
tin Tex., “that forty years is the life of the peach. The old Red 
Cheeked Melocoton must be at least 100 years old. It has lived once 
and a half as long as it should have lived. What has kept it alive so 
long ? Whence has it obtained its vigor ? Every time it has been 
budded upon the young tree in the nursery row new strength from the 
young life of the stock has been imparted to it, and although the scion 
may have been taken from the oldest tree in the orchard, which was 
making a growth of one or two inches per annum, the newly imparted 
life causes it to start out and grow lustily. If the stock can impart the 
vigor of its young life to the twig from the aged tree, is it unreasona¬ 
ble to expect that the twig should impart part of its senility to the 
young stock ? If it cannot and does not, then this grafted tree should 
reach, under favorable circumstances, the assumed life limit of forty 
years. But it does not. In forty years or less the tree is dead. A ratio 
has been drawn by nature between the new life of the stock and the old 
life of the scion. Is there any way of modifying this effect ? If we 
take a bud from the vigorous shoot which comes from the first year’s 
growth of the bud of the Melocoton on the young seedling stock of last 
year and insert it in the young stock of this year’s growth, and repeat 
the process, we may in time get back some of the pristine vigor of the 
Melocoton. We believe if this principle were applied to all nursery 
propagation, the vigor and fruitfulness of apples, peaches, pears, 
plums, grapes, etc., would be much better maintained.” 
