THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
Hn IRursertj) IRows. 
Tree Values —In a recent law suit in Niagara county, N. Y., 
where a row of shade trees in front of a country home was involved 
because of the encroachments of a trolley line, experts in the values 
testified that thirteen trees, mostly maples, were worth $100 each, and 
nine trees were worth $65 each, while a few others were appraised at 
$125 each. These values were not successfully assailed by the opposi¬ 
tion. The trees have been twenty-six years planted. 
McPike Grape. —At the August meeting of the Alton, Ill., Horti¬ 
cultural Society Mr. McPike reported : “ The McPike vines are now 
full of beautiful grapes, being the fifth annual fruiting, and have 
been carefully examined by many members of the Alton Horticnl- 
tural Society, several of whom are here present. The bunches very 
large, berries a blue-black, three and three-eighths inches in circum¬ 
ference, as you see on the table. For four years the McPike took all 
the premiums at Springfield, Chicago, St. Louis and Omaha ; at Col¬ 
umbus, Ohio, captured the Marshall P. Wilder silver medal, and is 
expected to do the same this fall. I am thus particular because no 
one else has the facts so thoroughly before them.” 
Seedling Grapes. —Professor Munson, several years ago, gave the 
following directions for growing seedling grapes : “In November or 
December take a box four or five inches deep, and wide and long 
enough to hold the seeds when planted in rows three inches apart and 
one and a half inches apart in the rows. Fill to within one inch of the 
top with rich sandy loam. Drop the seed in drills made with the 
finger or pencil, to the depth of a half an inch or more. Cover with 
the same fine, rich soil ; then sprinkle till saturated with water ; nail 
the cover on lightly and place the box in some nook on the north side 
of the house, or in a fence corner where the direct rays of the sun will 
not strike it, and bring the soil up around the sides even with the top 
of the box to keep moist.” 
Industry Gooseberry. —William Fell & Co., Hexham, England, 
is an ardent supporter of Whinham’s Industry gooseberry. His eye 
has caught a comparison made by an American nurseryman between 
the Industry and the Red Jacket. “ The berries of the Red Jacket,” 
says Mr. Fell, “ are not nearly as large as those of the Industry, and 
the crop of fruit is not one-fifth of that of the Industry, even on 
bushes that have been planted two years longer. The growth and 
vigor of the Red Jacket are not so strong, clean and vigorous as that 
of the Industry. We have tested the two sorts now for several years, 
and the plants are growing side by side and under the same condi¬ 
tions. We have seen the Whinham’s Industry gooseberry growing 
and fruiting as far south as Bloomington, Ill., quite as well as we can 
grow and fruit it with us in England.” 
CnARLTON Grape. —John Charlton & Sons, Rochester, N. Y., on 
September 18 th sent to the Gardeners’ Chronicle, London, England, 
samples of the Charlton grape. In the issue of the Chronicle for 
October 7 th, the editor says : “ The grapes came over to this side in 
an ordinary cross handled trug or basket made of thin wood and fitted 
with a cover, quite uninjured, excepting that about one-sixth of the 
berries had dropped from the bunches. The bloom was perfect, al¬ 
though the bunches had been simply wrapped in soft paper, and there 
was no other packing material used. The color is purple with a red¬ 
dish tinge ; the pulp far less viscid than that of some other American 
varieties we have tasted, and the flavor very pleasant and sugary, 
reminiscent of the strawberry and black currant. The skin is tough, 
and the variety should keep a long time after ripening. Not a berry 
had decayed upon arrival.” 
Mahaleb Seedlings. —Mahaleb cherry seedlings are the favorite 
for cherry propagation with American nurserymen says Director S. M. 
Emery, Montana Experiment Station. They are a small, wild tree 
found on sand knolls and dry rocks, over Western Europe, with white 
bark, hard, close-grained, dark-colored wood, small black bitter fruit 
and flowering in short racemes. The wood, leaves, flowers and fruit 
are so powerfully perfumed that it is known as “ the perfumed 
cherry.” The Mazzard seedling is from the pits of the wild cherry of 
Europe ; it is nearly allied to and supposed to be the original form of 
many of our cultivated varieties. The choke cherry is neither the 
one or the other, being an American seedling known as the Prunus 
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Yirginiana. The Myrobolan plum from seedling is an imported plum 
from Europe used extensively by American nurserymen as stocks upon 
which to graft and bud plums, prunes and apricots. 
Why Nursery Lands “Run Out.” —In nursery lands, the soil is 
injured in its mechanical texture by the methods of cutlivation and 
treatment, says Prof. L. II. Bailey. The best nursery lands are the 
“strong” lands, or those which contain a basis of clay, and these are 
the ones which soonest suffer under unwise treatments. The nursery 
land is kept under clean culture and it is therefore deeply pulverized. 
There is practically no herbage on the soil to protect it during the 
winter. When the crop is removed, even the roots are taken out of 
the soil. For four or five years the land receives practically no herb¬ 
age which can rot and pass into humus. And then the trees are dug 
in the fall, often when the soil is in unfit condition, and this fall dig¬ 
ging amounts to a fall plowing. The soil, deeply broken and robbed 
of its humus, runs together and cements itself before the following 
summer; and it then requires three or four years of “rest” in clover 
or other herbage crop to bring it back into its rightful condition. 
Improving tiie Rose. —With the exception of the long list of 
generally unsatisfactory and short-lived budded varieties of so-called 
hybrid perpetuals of foreign’origin, the hardy rose has scarcely been 
introduced to American flower lovers, says American Florist. The 
Crimson Rambler is indeed a grand acquisition, but this, as well as 
the pretty and interesting progeny of the Wichuraiana and multiflora 
crossing, as far as seen, is but as the stepping stone to something bet¬ 
ter in the evolution of our garden favorite to its highest type. The 
rose will never take its proper p'ace until it has been developed so 
that we shall have good varieties—climbing as well as bush—bloom¬ 
ing continuously from June until November and as vigorous and 
hardy at least as far north as is Jacqueminot. Who can say that a 
Crimson Rambler that will do this is an impossibility ? Now that 
our hybridizers are fairly well started we shall see. And the Rose 
Society, lifted out of its former restricted field and standing on a 
broader and better basis, will be no small factor in the great evolution. 
New Ornamental Tobacco.— Nicotiana afflnis and N. colossea 
have been cultivated in this country for the last few years says Rural 
New Yorker, and are gaining in favor. Affinis grows two or three 
feet high, and bears an abundance of pure white, very sweet-scented 
flowers, nearly three inches across. It is particularly fragrant in the 
evening. It is easily grown from seed, and cuttings rooted in Sep 
tember bloom freely in the winter. Colossea grows about six feet 
high. It has immense leaves, rose or violet when young, but chang¬ 
ing when mature to green, with red nerves. Colossea variegata has 
leaves deeply edged with white. The seeds of Colossea are scarce 
and high-priced, and in our experience have very low germinating 
qualities. Nicotiana sylvestris is a new form. It growls about five 
feet high, with very symmetrical foliage. The blooms are produced 
with the greatest freedom. They are pure white, star-shaped, and 
have tubes about six inches long. They are fairly fragrant in the 
evening. Abed or hedge of sylvestris in good form would make a 
splendid background for dwarf, bright-colored plants. Sylvestris will 
probably be offered next spring. 
Catalpas as Lawn Trees.— Why is it, I wonder, says a writer in 
Gardeners’ Magazine, London, that people go on planting common¬ 
place trees and neglect those that are not only more beautiful but 
always attract attention, particularly at flowering time ? I lately saw 
a grove of catalpas in full flower in a low-lying part of a Dorsetshire 
park, and thought that not even an avenue of horse chestnuts in full 
flower, or an apple or cherry orchard in bloom, impressed one so much 
as this beautiful sight. The delicate tone of green that catalpas 
always have serves as a foil for the great loose clusters of white, 
purple spotted flowers produced in July at a time when there are no 
flowering trees in bloom. As quick-growing, shade-giving lawn trees 
I should always plant them if the soil w T ere at all suitable, and it is 
not particular in this respect, though decidedly preferring a deep and 
most soil. As isolated trees they have somewhat of a lumpy appear- 
ance, but in groups of three or more this is obviated, especia y 1 
some conical trees are quite near the group. The old C. bignonoides 
is the common kind in nurseries, but probably the best is C. cordifolia 
(called also C. speciosa), because hardier and flowers in a smaller stale, 
