THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
33 
<Sluer\> Column, 
Questions pertaining to the trade are cordially solicited. It is hoped 
that all our readers will take an active interest in this column and will 
feel free to ask any question that may result in information not only to 
them but to the many who will undoubtedly profit by it. 
Please favor me with the names of the various states in the United 
States where health certificates or San Jose scale certificates are 
required for importations from foreign countries or from states in the 
United States. Please also let me know whether this regulation 
applies to Canadian shipments and to which states and oblige. 
August Rhotert. 
26 Barclay street, New York city. 
Scale certificates, according to the synopsis of laws pudished in 
the National Nurseryman from time to time, are required in Iowa, 
Kentucky, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, 
Indiana, Montana and Idaho. Scale bills have been pending in other 
states and as some of these may have been passed and may require 
certificates, it is probable that the only safe plan is to attach a certificate 
to all stock shipped. In some states certificates have been required 
only for stock shipped within the state, but when stock is shipped into 
the state it is a question whether it is not subject to the state require¬ 
ments. The Canadian exclusion act is still in force. The inspection 
bill before congress provides for retaliation. 
G. H. Timmerman, St. Louis Co., Mo., asked this question of R. 
Douglas’ Sons, Waukegan, Ill.: “ Why don’t I find the poplar or tulip 
tree in your catalogue ? It is one of the finest and next to White pine the 
most useful of trees, and it is a fast growing one too. Why are not 
some American trees better than so many foreign trees that are almost 
useless here ?” 
You have asked us a hard question. The common poplar is undoubt¬ 
edly a better tree than some we handle, but it is an American tree, and 
Americans, you know, want something foreign and turn their noses up 
at the mention of poplar and willows, two of our most beautiful and 
rapid growing trees. Landscape gardeners are now using a great 
many Carolina poplars (a cottonwood), Golden poplars, and a large 
number of willows. We are now testing three kinds of poplars and 
four kinds of willows from Siberia. They passed through last winter 
safely, so we are not afraid of their hardiness. It would not pay us to 
grow the common poplar yet. We have had inquiries for only one this 
winter. If we laid in a stock of poplars, they would soon be too large 
to handle. As we paid $50,000 for 100 acres about six years ago, we 
have to raise trees that are in good demand. 
R. Douglas’ Sons. 
Can anything be done to fit land for successive nursery crops ? 
R. B. 
Nursery lands are exhausted because all humus is removed. The 
lands are under high cultivation and are deeply pulverized. The best 
nursery lands have a basis of clay and are therefore soonest injured. 
There is practically no herbage and even the roots of the trees are 
removed. The soil runs together and cements and a clover or other 
herbage crop is necessary to supply the fibre and openness required for 
growth of plants. For plum trees, says Professor Bailey, coarse 
manure plowed in between the rows in fall or spring for two or three 
years has been found advantageous. It is suggested that some of the 
mechanical injury to nursery lands might be prevented by the growing 
of some cover crop between the rows late in the season, to be plowed 
under the following spring. Pear trees demand heavy clay and that 
is most injured by nursery practices. Any method that will pi event 
the loss of humus or quickly restore it will be found an effective 
remedy. The nature of the soil must in large measure detei mine the 
treatment. 
What is the process for the fumigation o( nursery stock ? 
The process was described in detail in the May issue of the National 
Nurseryman last year. As practiced by J. G. Harrison A Sons, Beilin, 
Md., the stock is placed in double boarded airtight fumigating room 
which may contain 10,000 peach trees, for instance. In a large jar 
containing water is poured a quantity of sulphuric acid and of cyanide- 
The door is quickly shut and the gas thus generated is allowed to 
permeate the room and contents for half an hour. Then the door is 
opened and the room is aired for fifteen minutes before anyone ven¬ 
tures to enter. It is essential, in order to have the gas effective and 
yet not to injure the nursery stock, to use exactly the right proportion 
of ingredients. One-fourth of a gramme of cyanide of potash is used 
for each cubic foot of air space, Fifty per cent, greater weight of 
acid than of cyanide and fifty per cent, greater weight of water than 
of acid are used. State Entomologist Johnson, of Maryland, super¬ 
intended the building of every fumigating room in that state and the 
measurements are preserved in his office ; the exact amounts of 
cyanide and acid are sent by him to the nurserymen in each case. 
Great care is need in conducting the process. 
LOCAL NURSERIES. 
Joseph Meehan, Germantown, Pa., endorsing the statement, 
in Country Gentleman, that success may attend the purchase 
of nursery stock from distant as well as from local nurseries, 
says : 
“The Alabama man uses French pear stocks, northern- 
grown apple and plum stocks, very likely northern peach 
stones, plum stones and cherry stones for raising his seedlings 
on which to work his trees ; and why should not his trees be 
as good in the North as those raised in the North ? Asa 
matter of fact, nearly all the seeds and seedlings of fruits used 
in this country are obtained from a few centers, and it cannot 
be that a year or two’s growth in the South or in the North 
would unfit a tree to be grown afterward in a different place 
from where it was raised. 
“ Nurserymen of large practice tell us that a well-fed tree is 
in a better condition to thrive than one not so well con¬ 
ditioned. Trees grown in poor soil do not transplant as well 
as those from better ground. This may be worth considering 
when one is about to place an order, but not the temperature 
of the state in which grown.” 
©bituary. 
John G. Glen, of the firm of Glen Bros., Rochester, N. Y., died at 
Atlantic City, N. J., February 27. He had been in business in Roches¬ 
ter since his fifteenth year. Three brothers survive him—Frank W. 
Glen, of Brooklyn ; Alonzo P. Glen of Medina, Ohio, and Gerrit S. 
Glen, of New York. 
Isaac Hicks, the head of the firm of Isaac Hicks & Son, Westbury, 
L. I., died March 13th, aged 85 years. He was a preacher among the 
Society of Friends. The firm is one of the oldest in the country ; it 
has been very successful in the transplanting of large trees, for which 
work it has patented a tree-mover. 
William H. Nash died at his residence, 207 Larkin street, San Fran¬ 
cisco, on March 12th, aged 78 years. He arrived in California in the 
fall of 1846, settling at the head of the Napa Valley as an orchardist 
and farmer. He imported the first fruit trees into the state and pro¬ 
duced the first peaches in California, many of which in those early 
days sold at nearly one dollar each. 
Elbert S. Carman, formerly editor-in chief of the Rural New Yorker, 
died at his home in New York city on February 28th, aged 62 years. 
He graduated from Brown University and wrote on horticultural sub¬ 
jects, becoming associate editor and in 1876 owner of the Rural New 
Yorker. He established the trial gardens which that paper has con¬ 
ducted so successfully. He had a charming garden at his home at 
River Edge, N. J. As a hybridist Mr. Carman was eminently success¬ 
ful in the raising of the first set of American seedling roses from the 
Japanese R. rugosa, two of which, named respectively after his wife, 
Agnes Emily, and his daughter, Cerise, have been favorably known in 
cultivation. 
