THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
107 
HYBRIDIZATION IN AMERICA. 
In his paper on “ Hybridization in America,” Professor L. H. 
Bailey of Cornell University said at the hybridization confer¬ 
ence in London: 
In relation to area, extensive gardening is rarer in America than in 
Europe; there are relatively fewer glass houses, less interest in indi¬ 
vidual plants, and less of the amateur’s instinct. On the other hand, 
larger tracts of land are devoted to horticulture. Fruit growing is 
more developed than anywhere else in the world, and greater interest 
is taken in cosmopolitan varieties. 
Again, there is much less interest in hybrids, simply as hybrids. 
Those hybrids mostly valued in America are those which fulfill some 
particular conditions of withstanding sun, or rain, or drought; and it 
must be remembered that there is as great a diversity of climate in the 
United States as in the whole of Europe. Hybrid ornamental plants, 
such as cannas, lilies, etc., are quite common over the water, but they 
are purchased from Europe. 
The hybridizing of fruit trees, vines, apples, plums, etc., with native 
species has been undertaken from an economic standpoint, with a 
view to obtaining plants suitable to spec¬ 
ial cases. An apple is wanted to stand 
the climate of the cold north—Russian 
races, and Siberian crab are stocks that 
have been imported to aid in the pursuit. 
An idea of the magnitude and scope of 
the work is, that Craig alone made 5,000 
crosses in Iowa in 1899, and a messenger 
went 500 miles into Arkansas to obtain 
pollen to be used at the experimental 
station at the former place. 
The European pear does not thrive in 
the southern states and the introduction 
of a new specially raised variety has made 
profitable pear growing possible there. 
Attention was also drawn to ihe 
orange experiments brought before 
the conference by Mr. Webber. The 
paper concluded with a list of the 
chief experimenters, the names of 
plants dealt with under the heading 
of particular states, and including 
Canada. 
In his final sentences, Professor 
Bailey pointed out that by produc¬ 
ing a single hybrid which could be 
named and sold, more immediate 
results, so far as glory and so on, 
might be obtained; but when species 
are blended so that the resulting plants cannot be distinguish¬ 
ed from ordinary varieties, then a more useful end is attained. 
CLARK E. GARDNER. 
Mr. Gardner is the junior member of the firm of Gardner 
& Son, nurserymen and evergreen specialists, of Osage, Iowa. 
Their nurseries were established in 1869 by the senior member 
of the firm, Charles F. Gardner, who is now president of the 
Iowa State Horticultural Society and also of the Northeastern 
Iowa Horticultural Society. 
The business of the firm has grown from a small planting of 
evergreen seed covering a few, feet square, to the planting 
of seed enough each year to raise millions of young trees, be¬ 
sides a large and general line of fruits and ornamentals. 
Mr. Gardner is but 26 years of age, but he has devoted his 
whole time since 8 years of age, when not in school, to the 
nursery business, first in field work, budding, grafting, cross 
fertilizing, etc., and later in the office work of which he now 
has full charge. With a corps of efficient helpers he handles 
the large correspondence and general office work of the busi¬ 
ness. They have about 500 local agencies and gangs of sala¬ 
ried men, and during the past year have shipped stock into 
over thirty different states and territories. 
OLD ENGLISH OAKS. 
The life of an oak tree is of prodigious length. Some nine 
hundred years is its little span, but there is one in Notting¬ 
hamshire, says the Globe of London, credited with nearly 
fifteen hundred years of age. The giants of the woods which 
witnessed the hideous Druidical sacrifices in their youths 
looked down in their old age upon Robin Hood and his merry 
men, and the archery and morris dancing started in his mem¬ 
ory on May Day. Were there but 
“tongues in trees” what valuable 
assistance to the modern history 
might not some of our English oak 
trees give. There is Owen Glen- 
dower’s Oak near Shrewsbury, with a 
girth of forty feet, and room for eight 
persons to stand in the hollow of 
its trunk, and from whose lofty 
branches the Welshman in 1403 wit 
nessed the great battle between 
Henry IV. and Hotspur. There is 
the Queen’s Oak at Huntingfield, in 
Suffolk, whence Queen Elizabeth 
once shot a buck. There is the 
Querslie Oak, near Glasgow, which 
sheltered Wallace and three hundred 
of his men. There is the Abbots’ 
Oak in the park of Woburn Abbey 
on which Henry VIII. caused the 
recalcitrant Abbot to be hung in 
1 537. There is Sir Philip Sydney’s 
Oak at Penshurst, planted at his 
birth in 1554, and memorialised by 
Ben. Jonson and Waller. Of monsters 
of venerable age, but no historical 
interest, we have the Cowthorpe Oak, 
near Wetherby, in Yorkshire, which will hold seventy persons 
in its hollow, and whose age is computed at sixteen hundred 
years ; the Bull Oak in Wedgenoak Park, which was growing 
at the Conquest ; the Winfarthing Oak, which was seven 
hunnred years old at that time ; Shakesperre s Oak in Legh 
Park, near Warwick, which was part of the forest at Arded ; 
William the Conqueror’s Oak in Windsor Great Park, which 
is thirty-eight ee in girth ; the Swilcar Oak, in Needwood 
Forest, Staffordshire, which is between six and seven hundred 
years old ; and the King’s Oak in the New Forest, suppos¬ 
ed to have witnessed Rufus’ death. 
LOOK FOR AND ENJOY IT. 
T. J. Dwyer & Son, Cornwall, N. Y.—“ Please find enclosed here¬ 
with $1 in payment for our subscription in the National Nursery¬ 
man. Pardon our neglect in not sending you this before now. We 
look for and enjoy your paper very much.” 
Clark E. Gardner. 
