THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
93 
Hn IRuvsei^ IRovvs. 
Waxed Tape for Budding. —'The Bulletin of the Botanical De¬ 
partment, Jamaica for June, contains the following recipe for prepar¬ 
ing budding-wax: To every pound of beeswax add a lump of resin 
the size of an egg. and U tablespoonfuls of raw liuseed oil. Boil, and 
then dip the tape in. 
A New Plum. —Mercer Brown, Spiceland, Ind , sent us last month 
samples of a new purple plum, of medium size, firm yet juicy, flesh of 
fine flavor and especially small pit. lie says it is a good bearer and is 
hardy as is evidenced by its bearing this year after the severe cold 
weather of last February. 
The Major Butts Peach. —We received on August 26th from 
John Watson, Brenham, Tex., samples of the “Major Botts” peach. 
This is a chance seedling growing in the yard of Major T. B. Botts in 
Brenham. It was a very late peach for the extreme South. The sam¬ 
ples sent were large, although Mr. Watson says that the dry, hot 
weather has ail'ected the size. It is of rich yellow color; flesh firm 
yet juicy and of good flavor. It ripens at a season when there is no 
peach to compete with it. This is the seventh year of the tree with 
regular crops There seems to be a large field for just such a peach. 
Rubus Morifolius —We have received from Suzuki & Iida, New 
York city,- a hand painting from nature of a new variety of rubus 
which was recently found by a representative of that firm in Northern 
Japan. They are of the opinion that the variety would do well in this 
country. The painting shows the plant to be luxurious and the fruit 
of a brilliant color. Of the variety the firm says: “The fruit of this 
variety ripens in the month of July, about a month later than Rubus 
nicisus, and it is a far superior variety than any other, the fruit having 
a splendid appearance. The color of the fruit is a light red and every 
single stem produces from four to six strawberry-like fruits. The 
plants attain a height of five to six feet.” Further details may be ob¬ 
tained of the firm at 11 Broadway, New York. 
Japanese Maples. —The beauties of the Japanese maples are 
clearly set forth in Lucius D. Davis’ “Ornamental Shrubs” just pub 
lislied by the Putnams of New York. Regarding the Blood-leaved 
variety Meehan’s Monthly says that in 1858 the Meehan Nurseries re¬ 
ceived from a Belgian correspondent five plants of this variety, each 
three or four inches in height, paying what was deemed a reasonable 
price, $20, They were potted in four inch pots for a season. One 
.was subsequently stolen, one was reserved for a specimen and is still 
growing in the nursery grounds. The other three were grown for 
propagating purposes. All of the earlier distributions in this country, 
and until trade with Japan was opened, came from these three plants, 
the first 100 plants, about twelve inches in height, being sold to a 
Boston dealer for $100. The variety still holds its popularity. 
Strawberries and Peaches at Harrisons’.— “ In spite of the 
early wet spring followed by seven weeks of drought,” write J. G 
Harrison & Sous, Berlin, Md., “we have a very good stock of peach 
seedlings to bud and the work is being done now. Since about the 
first of July it has been quite seasonable and our stock of peach, apple 
and plum trees, asparagus roots and strawberry plants has made a re¬ 
markable growth. After our peach are budded we cultivate and sow 
crimson clover between the rows. We have found from last season’s 
experience it was quite beneficial as a fertilizer for the following 
season’s growth of trees. Our one year trees thus treated with a little 
potash are as fine as we have ever seen grow and invite personal inspec¬ 
tion of our budded list of last season of over one million trees and you 
can count this season’s budding yourselves.” 
Dormant Rose Grafting.— At the florists’ convention the follow¬ 
ing question was asked: “ Can roses be grafted on roots of Manet ti 
with dormant wood as is done in apple grafting?” E. G. Hill said that 
the method of procedure in his boyhood days was to take a piece of 
root, say two inches in length, and either splice or tongue graft, both 
root and scion being in the dormant state. After this operation was 
performed the grafts were placed, generally two in a two and a half inch 
pot, put in a greenhouse with a cool temperature overhead and with 
bottom heat; with such treatment from 75 to 80 per cent, united and 
made splendid bushes the first year. In later years, since black spot 
put in an appearance, the same method had been tried by Mr. Hill with 
repeated failure. Whether that was due to the black spot which 
infests and attacks the hybrid roses in the open ground, thus prevent¬ 
ing the wood from properly ripening, the speaker was unable to say. 
Robert George, of Painesville, Ohio, stated that grow ers in Alabama 
had had good success by the method in question with Marechal Niel 
and that type of rose and with hybrids such as Paul Neyron and 
Magna Cbarta; with dark colored roses like Jacqueminot, Camille de 
Rohan, not so good; with the latter the wood seemed to canker at the 
graft and these grafted roses placed in nursery rows made a growth of 
two to three feet in one season. 
Chestnut Culture. —G. Harold Powell says in American Garden¬ 
ing: The trunks of the chestnut in the nursery frequently blight 
upon the south and west sides. The bark splits, sinks in, turns dark 
in color and the tree finally dies. Sometimes a similar difficulty is 
noticed on large Japanese trees, but I do not recall seeing it on the 
larger Europeans. Imported European seedlings seem to be more sus¬ 
ceptible than others. The writer had occasion to examine a thousand 
imported seedlings a short time since, 950 of which had died of the 
body blight. The nature of the body blight is not definitely under¬ 
stood, but as the south and west sides of the tree are generally affected 
is seems likely that the trouble is not unlike the sun scald of the cherry 
and other fruit trees. Sun scald is a climatic malady. It occurs 
during the late winter or early spring months, when there may be 
alternate freezing and thawing of the tissues on the side of the tree 
exposed to the rays of the sun. Trees that enter the winter in a suc¬ 
culent, unripened condition, or those taken to a poorly adapted climate, 
are most susceptible to sun scald. The fundamental treatment for sun 
scald is of a cultural nature. Less stimulating fertilizers, an early 
cessation of tillage in the fall, a better adapted soil—these and other 
conditions which help to mature the wood early in the fall, lessen the 
danger from sun scald. Cultural conditions, however, will not over¬ 
come the susceptibility of a tree not climatically adapted to its region. 
It is evident therefore that it is an unwise policy to import chestnut 
seedlings from Europe for use in American nurseries. 
AMERICAN ROSE SOCIETY. 
President William C. Barry presided at the meeting of the 
American Rose Society in Detroit last month. The premium 
list for the exhibition in New York in March, 1900, will be is¬ 
sued October 1. The following were enrolled as life members: 
Joseph Heacock, Wyncote, Pa.; Alexander Montgomery, Nat¬ 
ick, Mass.; E. Hippard, Youngstown, O.; Robert F. Tesson, 
St. Louis; Frank R. Pierson, Tarrytown, N. Y.; Philip Breit- 
meyer, Detroit; Peter Reinberg, Chicago; Harry Dale, Bramp¬ 
ton, Ont.; Frederick Mathison, Boston; J. M. Gasser, Cleve¬ 
land; J. L. Dillon, Bloomsburg, Pa.; Emil Buettner and J. C. 
Vaughan, Chicago. 
NURSERYMEN’S OPINIONS OF PLUMS. 
The Fruitman. Marcus, la., has obtained the following 
views of nurserymen on plums: C. L. Watrous—“The DeSota 
is the most profitable variety;” M. J. Wragg—“ Of narrow leaf 
plums that seedling of Wild Goose, Pool’s Pride, is most pop¬ 
ular in South Iowa;” Silas Wilson—“ I expect to market in 
the near future as many bushels of fruit from my Domestica 
plum trees as my friends who plant ’ the Americana, and get 
twice the money for them;” C. G. Patten—“ It is only within 
a few years that the possibilities of this fruit have been realized. 
We are now on the eve of its rapid development;” J. C. 
Doughty—“Minnesota has twenty-five brand new plums. 
Among these are some very good, some just good, and some 
no good.” 
