THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
"7 
AN APPLE THA T WITHSTANDS DROUGHT. 
Dr. A. M. Ragland, of Pilot Point, Texas, writes to Rural 
New Yorker : I am experimenting with various fruits, espe¬ 
cially apples, to determine their value for our southern 
climate.. I have long held the opinion that a race of apples 
can be found or produced from southern seedlings that will 
resist the heat and drought of such climates as that of Texas. 
I have one which is probably a new seedling originating in 
Georgia. It came to me about ten years ago from the nur¬ 
sery of P. J. Berckmans, Augusta, Ga, billed as Wallace- 
Howard. When it reached bearing age I was convinced that 
it was not. I sent samples of fruit and a description of the 
tree to Mr. Berckmans. He said th^t it was not Wallace- 
Howard, but he was unable to identify it. The tree is a vig¬ 
orous, upright grower, and retains foliage till very late in the 
fall. Heat and drought—one drought of sixty days’ duration 
just ended—had no perceptible deleterious effect upon this 
variety. The fruit is very large, oblate, green with faint red 
stripe ; ripens here during September. 
NEBRASKA FRUIT CULTURE. 
There is no species of fruit raised north of the Mason and 
Dixon line and south of the Canadian possessions that 
Nebraska is not to-day producing in the greatest variety, says 
a correspondent of the Country Gentleman. Apples, peaches, 
pears, apricots, plums, quinces, grapes and other fruits, all of 
the finest quality imaginable. Of course, these species are all 
of the hardier varieties, but the climate and rigorous winters 
do not seem to have affected the flavor and appearance of 
these luscious fruits. Experts have pronounced the Nebraska 
fruit equal in every respect to the stock produced on the 
famed sand hills of Kentucky. It is estimated that twenty 
million dollars were realized by the farmers of the state on 
the orchard productions last year, and last year was not a 
favorable season for fruit in the state. 
Commercial orcharding is being entered into briskly by the 
Nebraska farmer to-day. As a rule in the state, the soil is 
rich, the subsoil deep and fertile, the fruit is comparatively 
free from the more troublesome insects of other sections, and 
the fruit is brighter in color and more luscious than that 
yielded by any other sections of the country. 
The largest orchards in Nebraska are owned by the follow¬ 
ing gentlemen, stockmen, farmers and bankers, who see in the 
fruit industry a source of income in the very near future : 
Isaac Pollard, Cass county, 150 acres ; J. H. Master, Otoe, 
planted in 1856, 80 acres ; Hon. J. Sterling Morton, 80 acres ; 
E. T. Hartley, Lancaster county, 200 acres ; Carpenter & 
Gage, Jefferson county, 60 acres ; O. D. Howe, Pawnee 
county, 80 acres ; W. J. Hesser, Cass county, 70 acres ; Elias 
Beaver, Richardson county, 60 acres ; W. F. Jenkins, Valley 
county, 40 acres ; William McCormick, 30 acres in apples at 
Blair; J. M. Russell, Gage county, 1,000 acres of apples, 
peaches and cherries. Their peach crop of 1896 was 60,000 
baskets. E. E. Sanborn, Sarpy, 25 acres of apples, from 
which he sold 2,000 bushels last year. E. F. Stephens, Crete, 
grew 13,000 bushels of apples last year. Most of these 
orchards are very young, however, and not bearing commer¬ 
cially yet. In five years Nebraska will have reached unusual 
proportions as a producer of fruit. 
Hmono (Browers anb IDealers. 
- .-— , -- - ■ - t 
W. H. Bruning, Cedar Bluffs, Neb., grows red cedar cheaply from 
seed. 
J. E. Killen, representing C. H. Joosten, importer of bulbs, plants 
and seeds, New York City, called upon the nurserymen of the Genesee 
valley last month. 
M. E. Hinkley, Mt. Vernon, la., has rented his nursery at Marcus, 
la., to A. S. Black. 
Harlan P. Kelsey, Boston, Mass., is interested in the culture and 
sale of Ginseng plants. 
J. C. Ferris, Hampton, la., secured nine first and three second pre¬ 
miums at the Iowa state fair. 
W. B. Cole, of the Mentor Avenue Nursery, Painesville, O., is con¬ 
structing a root cellar at his place. 
At the Michigan state fair Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N. Y., 
had a display of 52 plates of pears. 
Gardner & Son, Osage, la., have established a steam watering plant 
to furnish water for their nursery in dry weather. 
L. Mohler, of the firm of L. Mohler & Bro., Warrensburg, Mo., 
visited the nurseries at Ottaw'a, Ivans., last month. 
Stark Brothers, Louisiana, Mo., have leased 350 acres of land near 
Huntsville, Ala., and will establish a nursery there. 
W. R. and J. B. Laughlin, College Springs, la., have sold their nur¬ 
sery, established in 1856, to J. F. Johnson for $5,400. 
The Iowa Agricultural College has received a collection of pa;onies 
amounting to fifty-eight named varieties from P. S. Peterson & Son, 
Chicago. 
P. J. Berckmans, Augusta, Ga., was in New York City early last 
month ; Mr. Mills of the State Nursery Co., Butte, Mont., visited St. 
Paul and Chicago. 
L. H. Cobb of Lynn, Ivan., has removed to Perry, Oklahoma, and 
will conduct a general florist, nursery and seed business under the 
name of L. H. Cobb <fc Co. 
Roland Morrill, Benton Harbor. Mich., who has told horticulturists 
often how to grow peaches, this year sold peaches to the value of 
$35,000 from a 50-acre orchard. 
A government official, on the ground of forest preservation, stopped 
the agent of David Hill, Dundee, Ill., who was collecting evergreen 
cones in the Black Hills, but afterward allowed the collection. 
S. M. Emery. Bozeman, Mont., has been elected vice-president of 
the National Irrigation Congress which met at Missoula, Mont., Sep¬ 
tember 25-27, with 200 delegates, and which will meet in Chicago next 
year. 
T. V. Munson, Denison, Tex., proposes for a uniform nomenclature ; 
that the secretary of agriculture publish an authoritative list of fruit 
names to which catalogues must conform under penalty of exclusion 
from the mails. 
T. E. Steele has resigned his position as bookkeeper with Parry’s 
Pomona Nurseries, Parry, N. Y., to accept a position with D. Land- 
reth & Sons, Philadelphia. Mr. Steele understands horticulture, hav¬ 
ing held the former position for over ten years. 
G. H. Van Ilouten, Des Moines ; C. G. Patten, Charles City ; M. E. 
Hinkley, Mount Vernon; J. W. Murphy, Glenwood, and M. J. Wragg, 
Waukee, constitute a committee appointed by the Iowa Horticultural 
Society to procure fruit for exhibit at the Paris Exposition. 
Heibert S. Chase, of the Alabama Nursery Co., Huntsville, Ala., on 
October 4, married Miss Fanny Morey, daughter of John B. Morey, 
Dansville, N. Y. The ushers were Sidney S. Morey and John B. 
Morey, Jr., Maxwell Sweet, of Dansville, and Robert S. Whitehead, of 
Syracuse. The best man was Charles Chase, of New York City, 
brother of the groom. Miss Laura Morey, sister of the bride, was 
maid of honor. Mr. and Mrs. Chase will reside in Huntsville, Ala. 
Chase and Morey are familiar names in the annals of the nursery 
trade, 
