90 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
mends especially Pyrus baccata cerasiformis aurea and Pyrus 
baccata cerasiformis rubra. 
USE PURE P. BACCATA FOR STOCKS. 
In my judgment, it will be much better to use the pure P. 
baccata for stocks for the cultivated apple. I am making 
special effort to obtain Pyrus baccata seed in quantity direct 
from Siberia and hope to make it possible to import it in 
quantity in due time if the experiments under way with it as 
a stock at Brookings prove successful. 
In the meantime, every tree of the P. baccata type that 
may be found in old orchards in the West or East, now 
neglected because of the very small size of fruit, should be 
hunted up and the fruit saved for seed this fall. 
Experience has already shown that the cultivated apple 
makes a poor union in top-grafting upon the Siberian crab. 
Nor will root-grafting on pieces of . crab-root be enough. No 
roots from the scion should be permitted. The stocks for a 
fair test should be handled much like the Mahaleb or Mazzard 
stocks for the cherry in the eastern nurseries, setting the 
stocks in nursery first, and afterwards, when established, bud¬ 
ding or grafting the cultivated apples on them. It may 
largely do away with root-grafting in the winter, and hence 
make trees more expensive, but the method is worth trying. 
Perhaps both hybrids and pure seedlings will be too much 
subject to blight for the method to be successful in all locali¬ 
ties. But certain it is, that the present method of growing 
apple trees on French crab or Vermont cider apple seedlings 
will not do for a considerable area of the Northwest in test 
winters. 
It will take many experiments fully to settle the question. 
Let all who can try a few and report results. 
TEXAS HORTICULTURISTS. 
The Texas Horticultural Society met at College Station 
July 25-28. It was the thirteenth annual meeting. The sea¬ 
son was just right for a lot of Professor Munson’s new grapes 
and he had a magnificent display of about a hundred plates. 
I agree with the many who believe that some of his hybrids 
and crosses will soon be leading standards. A number of 
other nurserymen exhibited promising new varieties of differ¬ 
ent kinds of fruits. 
Professor Mally, our recently appointed state entomologist, 
read a paper favoring a lenient and fair, yet effective, law for 
the suppression or exclusion of injurious insects and diseases! 
and it elicited some enthusiastic addresses for and against the 
measure. A resolution was passed favoring the enactment of 
such a law. 
Following is a list of the officers elected: F. T. Ramsey, 
Austin, president (nurseryman); P. I. Burch, Rockport, first 
vice-president; S. D. Thompson, Bowie, second vice-president 
(nurseryman); S. H. Dixon, Porter, secretary; D. O. Lively, 
Fort Worth, treasurer. 
A feeling of higher prices seemed to pervade the ranks of 
the nurserymen. Wholesale prices ran one to two cents higher 
on fruit trees and two to four cents on ornamentals to the ex¬ 
tensive planters. One man said he this year sold $25 worth 
of peaches from one Elberta tree. Many new seedling peaches 
and plums of Texas origin are being praised, and justly too. 
PACIFIC COAST FREIGHT RATES. 
Freight rates on nursery stock from California to eastern 
points were advanced on August 18. The Trans-Continental 
Freight Bureau in Supplement No. 42 provides as follows: 
From Pacific coast terminals only, nursery stock, plants not 
otherwise specified in bales, to Missouri river, Mississippi river, 
Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Pittsburg, Buffalo, New York, 
Boston and other common points, $6 per 100 pounds (old rate, 
$480); plants not otherwise specified in boxes, to the same 
points, $3 per 100 pounds (old rate, $2.40); trees and shrub¬ 
bery, including pineapple suckers and stumps, boxed, when 
same can be loaded in box or stock cars, to the points before 
mentioned, $2.20 per 100 pounds (old rate, $2). To the same 
eastern points other provisions are: Boxed, when too large to 
be loaded in box or stock cars, $3; in bundles, bottoms boxed, 
tops wrapped in straw, each weighing 100 pounds or over, 
loaded in box or stock cars, $2.20; in bales completely 
wrapped, each 100 pounds or over, $3; in bales or in bundles, 
with bottoms boxed, each weighing less than 100 pounds, $6; 
in bales, roots wrapped, each bale 100 pounds or over, $4.50.. 
Trees and shrubbery packed in straw, loaded on flat cars, 
will not be accepted unless the portion covered with straw is 
boxed or canvased. 
CUSTOM HOUSE ORDER. 
Following is the text of the order by Assistant Secretary of 
the Treasury Spaulding to the collector of customs in New 
York, the substance of which was given in the August issue of 
this journal: 
The department has informed the appraiser that merchandise of the 
kind in question should be promptly appraised at the actual market 
value as defined by section 19 of the Customs Administrative act; that 
but one package out of each invoice should be required to be sent to 
the public store for examination and appraisement, unless it should be 
found necessary in any particular case to call for additional packages 
to form a proper basis to determine the character, quantity and value 
of the entire importation and that the packages containing shrubs, 
trees and similar nursery stock, which may be properly examined on 
tbe docks, should not be sent to the public store for examination. 
You will, therefore, hereafter order one package only out of each in¬ 
voice for examination, and in cases where it may be practicable, order 
wharf examination of shrubs, trees and similar nursery stock. 
The following letter is self-explanatory: 
TREASURY DEPARTMENT. 
DIVISION OF CUSTOMS. OFFICE OF TIIE SECRETARY. 
Washington, D. C., August 8, 1899. 
Mr. Frederick W. Kelsey , 150 Broadway , New York, N. Y. 
Sir —Replying to your -letter of the 2d instant, in relation to the 
appraisement of nursery stock at the port of New York, I have to in¬ 
form you that the Collector of Customs and Appraiser at the port 
named were advised on the 26tli ultimo that merchandise of the kind 
in question should be promptly appraised at the actual market value 
as defined by section 19 of the Customs Administrative Act; that but 
one package out of each invoice should be sent to the public store for 
examination and appraisement unless it should be found necessary in 
any particular case to call for additional packages to form a proper 
basis for determining the character, quantity and value of the entire 
importation, and that packages containing shrubs, trees and similar 
nursery stock which may be properly examined on the dock should not 
be sent to the public store for examination. 
Respectfully yours, 
(Signed) A. L. Spaulding, Assistant Secretary. 
