THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
111 
jfrom IDarious points. 
J. E. Ackerman, Passaic, N. J., invites proposals for supplying about 
4,000 shade trees for street planting by the city and mails specifications 
upon request. 
At the second annual meeting of New England Park Superintendents 
last month at Providence, R. I., J. H. Pettigrew, Boston, was elected 
president; G. A. Parker, Hartford, secretary; J. A. Hemingway, 
Worcester, treasurer. 
At the Paris Exposition will be exhibited views of propagating 
houses and beds, fields of growing nursery stock, methods of propagat¬ 
ing, planting, pruning, spraying, cultivating, digging, grading, pack¬ 
ing, shipping and storage of nursery stock. 
A new cherry maggot, unlike the grub of the plum curculio has been 
discovered in Massachusetts and New York. Prof. Slingerland of 
Ithaca is unable, at present, to identify it positively. It is found in 
the fairest of the fruit, and no point of entry is indicated. It will prove 
a difficult pest to fight. 
The dutiable imports of plants, shrubs and vines amounted to $31,- 
969 in May, 1899, and $751,247 during the eleven months’ period of 
1899. The free imports of seeds amounted in May to $41,071 against 
$40,434 during May, 1898. The total for eleven months amounted to 
$722,655 during 1899, as compared with $659,618 during 1898. 
Seventy-five members, from 18 states, attended the thirteenth annual 
convention of the Association of Cemetery Superintendents at New 
Haven September 6-7. The association has 147 members. The new 
officers are: President, William Stone, ‘Salem, Mass.; vice-president, 
George M. Painter, Philadelphia; secretary and treasurer, H. Wilson 
Ross, Newton Center, Mass. 
Walter N. Allen, Topeka, Kan., is enthusiastic over the Farmers’ 
Federation of the Mississippi Valley. He says that Kansas will pro¬ 
duce this year nearly 409,000,000 bushels of corn, and other states of 
the Mississippi Valley will have large crops. Left to themselves, the 
farmers would put this vast crop upon the market within a few months. 
He proposes a farmers’ trust with 2,000,000 shares at $10 each. He says 
the cost of commissions for marketing farm products is over $21,000,000 
and that the Farmers’ Federation can do it for $1,000,000. 
A despatch from San Francisco, September 9, says: The largest sin' 
gle raisin deal in the history of the California Raisin Association was 
carried out at Fresno last week, when 125 carloads of three-crown 
standard loose Muscats were sold for over $100,000. Later other sales 
were made, with result that 145 carloads were sold for $115,000, practi¬ 
cally cleaning up the crop of 1898. Another large sale was of prunes, 
at Visalia—410 tons on the Encina ranch to one buyer, at 2-Jc. per lb., 
less 5 per cent, commission. Up to September 1 the shipments of fresh 
deciduous fruits from this state were 4,261 carloads. 
jfoteion IRotes. 
Thomas Lunt, a successful grape grower, of Scotland, won the gold 
medal and first prize in the great grape class at the Shrewsbury show 
in England recently. He is also a noted grower of chrysanthemums. 
J. R. Pearson & Sons, the well-known nurserymen, at Chilwell, 
England, have established new nurseries, 100 acres in extent, at Lowd- 
ham. In round numbers the firm has 300,000 fruit trees for sale each 
season, but as the demand.for the more popular apples is on the increase 
these figures are being increased to meet it. At Lowdham are 23,000 
apples on the Paradise stock; 20,000 standard apples; 100,000 
standard plums ; 5,000 dwarf plums and 22,000 espalier trained trees. 
Of the fruit crop in England the Gardeners’ Chronicle says : The 
failure in apples is extraordinary. Pears are worse still, but these have 
not the same commercial significance as either apples or plums. No 
fewer than one hundred and ninety-nine correspondents in England 
(out of two hundred and thirty-eight) note the plum crop as below 
average, and only two record it as over. Cherries are a little better. 
Small fruits including currants, gooseberries, and raspberries, better 
s till. 
©bituatr. 
Philip H. Alburger, proprietor of the South Laurel Hill Nurseries, 
Philadelphia, died on September 9. 
Alfred Henderson, eldest son of the late Peter Henderson, and presi¬ 
dent of the corporation known as Peter Henderson & Co., 35 Cortlandt 
street, New York, died September 5 at Spring Lake, N. J., aged 47. 
T. Francis Rivers, the well-known introducer of many choice fruits, 
died at Sawbridgeworth, England, August 17, aged 68. Among his 
introductions were, in peaches, Early Louise, Early Rivers, Early Bea¬ 
trice, Alexander, Waterloo, and Gladstone; in nectarines. Lord Napier, 
Early Rivers and Cardinal; in plums. Grand Duke, Monarch, The 
Czar, Early Rivers; in pears, Conference, Magnate, Princess, and Fer. 
tility; in apples, Rivers, Codlin, St. Martin’s and Prince Edward. The 
Early Rivers cherry is considered one of the most valhable early sorts. 
Mr. Rivers was the second Victoria medalist and chairman of the Brit¬ 
ish Fruit Growers’ Association. 
Henri Leveque de Vilmorin, whose death we announced in our last 
issue, was 57 years of age. With Edward Andre and Edward Pynaert 
he first became known to British colleagues at the great horticultural 
exhibition and congress of 1866. He was from that time a prominent 
figure at the principal continental horticultural gatherings and regu¬ 
larly visited the trial grounds and seed farms in Italy and in France. 
He was highly regarded by a host of friends. He was a prolific writer 
on horticultural subjects. He was the head of the largest and most 
historic seed firm in France. He was honored abroad as well as at 
home. He was first vice-president of the National Horticultural Society 
of France, at one time president of the Botanical Society, an officer of 
of the Legion of Honor and of the Merite Agricole, a member of the 
Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the Veitch medal in 
1896. The family of Vilmorins from the time of Philippe Victor Le¬ 
veque de Vilmorin, grandfather of Henri, has been noted in horticultural 
work. Philippe died in 1804. To him succeeded Pierre Louis Francois 
de Vilmorin, the father of Henri, a correspondent of the Institute of 
France. He died in 1862, aged 86 years. The remarkable arboretum 
created by him at Barres, is now the property of France. Madame 
Elisa Vilmorin, wife of Louis and mother of Henri, enjoyed a high rep¬ 
utation as an experimentalist. Her observations on the strawberry are 
classical and were summarized by Decaisne in his ” Jardin Fruitier du 
Museum.” They were accompanied by beautiful illustrations from her 
pencil. She died at Vervieres in 1868. 
THE STERILITY OF FRUITS.' 
“ So many of our fruit trees fail to produce blossoms that 
set fruit that it is becoming quite essential to find out the cause 
and remedy if possible,” says S. W. Chambers in Michigan 
Farmer. “We have heretofore attributed the cause chiefly 
to the climate. Bad weather at the time the blossoms open 
has been blamed for a host of troubles that the weather prob¬ 
ably had little to do with. We are just beginning to realize 
that it is the lack of proper pollenization of the flowers that 
causes much of this lack of proper fruit setting. So many of 
our fruit blossoms have defective pistils that it is impossible 
for them to produce fruit, and on some varieties the pollen is 
held in such small quantities that it is impossible to scatter it 
over the pistils that need it. 
“Our plums and pears have fewer well developed pistils than 
most other fruits. As a rule there are plenty of these trees 
that yield flowers with an abundance of pollen, but compara¬ 
tively few with perfectly developed pistils. What we need to¬ 
day is for the nurseryman to sell us varieties which are noted 
for perfect pistils. Such varieties could be obtained with a 
little care of selection and breeding. Some nurserymen have 
made fair experiments in this direction, and we may hope for 
better things in the near future.” 
