THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
*35 
kinds of trees. And this must be considered a marked victory 
for Mr. Stringfellow in view of the fact that horticulturists had 
been taught all their lives the necessity for keeping the root 
system of a young tree as nearly intact as possible when mov¬ 
ing it from the nursery to the orchard. 
It has been thought that in the Middle and Northern states 
severe root pruning of nursery trees when planting in orchard 
would result in failure. Experiments in Rhode Island, Ne¬ 
braska, at Columbia, Mo , and at Ithaca, N. Y., the last named 
by Prof. L. H. Bailey, indicated that the trees with untrimmed 
roots gave best results. Professor Bailey says that in the case 
of plums the closely pruned roots gave good results; but that 
moderately pruned pear and apple trees were superior. We 
publish in this issue the result of experiments in Oregon which 
should cause reflection again. 
We do not argue for the endorsement at this time of Mr. 
Stringfellow’s method for all sections, but we suggest, that as 
this subject is of so great importance to the nurseryman, it is 
worthy of intelligent investigation and continued interest. 
In a communication to the National Nurseryman under 
' • 
date of November 19, 1899, Mr. Stringfellow says: “Short 
root pruning is being adopted everywhere and is saving a 
world of money and labor to fruit farmers, and to nurserymen 
especially. A root-pruned 5 or 6 year-old tree is better than 
a 1 year, as it will grow off as readily and bear at once. A 
long-rooted 5-year-old is absolutely worthless. 
“ For the life of me I can’t see how any nurseryman can 
fail at first glance to see the truth of the whole thing. If he 
ever grew a root graft, he has grown a stub root-pruned tree, 
for they are practically identical. Every one must know that 
the finest orchard trees are grown from root grafts with one or 
two inch root. Nurserymen have so much transplanting that 
the method is of immense importance to them. 
“The Delaware experiment station is out with a bulletin 
claiming that i-inch roots are no good but that 3-inch make 
the finest trees. This is absurd in view of the behavior of the 
root graft. Also, if three inches are good, why should not six 
or twelve be better ? ’’ 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
During December, January and February the horticultural 
societies will hold annual meetings. These are attended by 
many nurserymen and indeed in a majority of cases the 
societies are officered by nurserymen. These meetings afford 
an excellent opportunity for grower and purchaser of nursery 
stock to come together and exchange ideas of mutual benefit. 
In the lists of meeting dates for horticultural societies we 
have long noticed the names of organizations which pay little 
attention to fruits or even to ornamental trees. These are 
societies which hold exhibitions of and discuss flowers. Yet 
they are styled horticultural societies. 
Horticulture is a comprehensive term. According to Pro¬ 
fessor Bailey it may be classified as follows : I. Pomology, 
the art and science of growing fruit, including viticulture, 
orchard culture, small fruit culture and cranberry culture ; 
II. Olericulture, the art and science of growing kitchen 
garden vegetables ; III. Floriculture, the art and science of 
cultivating ornamental plants for their individual uses ; IV. 
Landscape horticulture, the art and science of growing orna¬ 
mental plants, especially trees and shrubs for their use in the 
landscape. Generally confounded with landscape gardening 
In England there are no florists ; all are nurserymen. 
To be proper and useful, says the editor of Meehan’s 
Monthly, horticultural societies should be not only founded 
on a broad basis, but should maintain a general interest in all 
subjects that come under that head. In an address before 
the Germantown, Pa., Horticultural Society, Albert YVolte- 
mate said : 
“ We, as a society, in the present management of our affairs, 
can advance but small claim to our title of horticultural 
society. We might more properly be termed a floricultural 
society. Our efforts in the way of discussions, exhibi¬ 
tions, etc., are almost all directed to the ways and means of 
cultivating flowers ; far more attention should be given to the 
cultivation of fruits and vegetables (and even broader subjects 
of general gardening) than at present. I would not have less 
flowers, by any means ; let us have more, if possible, but also 
have more of those other products of the earth which our title 
commits us specially to encourage.” 
NAMING PRICES IN ADVERTISEMENTS. 
When the National Nurseryman was established seven 
years ago, the publishers laid down, as one of the principles 
upon which it was to be conducted, that no prices were to be 
named in the advertisements. Equality for all is essential to 
a fair conduct of business. 
It is a source of gratification to us that the nurserymen have 
unanimously upheld the position we have taken in this matter. 
We have received numerous letters from prominent nursery¬ 
men commending the plan. 
In this connection we quote the following sound opinion of 
L. J. Farmer, Pulaski, N. Y., as expressed in Agricultural Ad¬ 
vertising : 
I am opposed to allowing prices to be quoted in advertisements. It 
may be all right for city dailies to allow big dry goods firms, etc., to 
take big space and quote prices, yet we believe the papers are worse 
off for it in the end. In the seed auJ nursery business we see special 
collections of seeds offered at prices too low to admit of any profit. 
Different houses offer different collections, and many people never buy 
anything else in the seed and plant line outside of these special collec¬ 
tions. Worst of all is allowing an advertiser to quote prices on a standard 
article. We notice in some of the agricultural papers strawberry plants 
offered at $1,$1 . 50 , and $2 per $ 1 , 000 . These advertisers never use 
over four to ten lines of space, and cannot profit the publisher. They 
offer the plants so low that there is nothing in it for them, and they 
kill the business of the nurserymen, who use a good-sized space, at the 
same time. The argument cannot be made that these cards are accepted 
because they encourage new advertisers, for, in fact, they do not. The 
writer never has known a catchpenny nursery advertiser to develop so 
that he used a good-sized space in the farm papers. We do know that it 
has driven away much of the business of the men who do not like to 
see ruinous prices quoted. The proper place to quote prices is in cata¬ 
logues, or by mail, and the sooner farm papers establish a rule forbid¬ 
ding the mentioning of prices in advertisements, the better for them 
and their business. 
It is the belief in California, where the subject of refrigera¬ 
tion in connection with fruit is of greatest importance, that 
1 quid air will replace ice as surely as gas and electricity have 
replaced the oil lamp. At Professor Tripler’s laboratory in 
New York city oranges were placed in liquid air and frozen 
solid ; then they were pulverized like a piece of marble. After 
thawing somewhat the juice was extracted by squeezing, then 
concentrated by cold produced by liquid air in the following 
