THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
4i 
(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. 
What are some of the means employed to make trees in nursery rows 
stocky ? L. McT., Missouri. 
Any treatment, says Professor Bailey, which makes trees grow vig. 
orously may be expected to contribute to their stockiness, if the 
grower does not circumvent it by some subsequent operation. The 
trees should be given plenty of room. The rows in the nursery should 
stand 3| feet apart, for ordinary fruit trees, and the plants should 
stand ten inches or a foot apart in the row. During the first year the 
leaves should not be rubbed off the bodies of the trees, else the trees 
will grow too much at the top and become too slender. If, however, 
strong forking or side branches appear low down, as often happens in 
sour cherries, they should be removed. Budded stock should reach a 
height of four feet or more the first year. The following spring, the 
stock is headed in uniformly, reducing it to the height of three or four 
feet, according to the kind and the uses for which the stock is grown. 
In New York nurseries, the average apple stock is headed back to a 
height of about 3 feet 3 inches to 3 feet 5 inches. Sweet cherries are 
headed 2 to 3 inches taller. Sour cherries are generally not headed in, 
because they make a shorter growth ; but if they go much above 3 
feet, they are headed back. Soon after the trees are headed back the 
second spring, they are “sprouted.” This operation consists in hoe. 
ing the dirt away from the base of the tree and cutting off all sprouts 
which start from the root or crown. After heading in, the tree “feath¬ 
ers out ” from the top to the bottom. It is a common practice to rub 
off these new shoots which appear upon the body, allowing only those 
shoots to remain which spring from near the top of the trunk, and 
which are presumed to form the top of the future tree. This rubbing 
off of the side shoots early in the second season is generally con¬ 
demned. It tends to make the tree grow top-heavy, while the 
body remains spindling and weak. A better plan is to allow the 
shoots to remain until July or early August, when they may be cut 
off close to the trunk. The wounds will then heal over, or nearly so, 
by fall, and the tree will have grown strong and stocky. 
What information have you in regard to what is being done to secure 
the premium of $1,000 that has been offered by the Minnesota Horti¬ 
cultural Society for a hardy apple ? 
J. M. Underwood, of the Jewell Nursery Co., Lake City, Minn., 
makes the following observations in the Minnesota Horticulturist: 
Peter M. Gideon put into practice what he preached by planting 
trees with a view to crossing one variety with another, from the seed 
of which should come a hardy and desirable apple. He has produced 
many new seedlings, and some of them are very valuable, the prin¬ 
cipal one being the Wealthy. The importance of this variety may be 
estimated in one way by saying that, at Lake City, the Jewell Nur¬ 
sery Company, have since 1882, grafted and set 727,959 Wealthys. 
The proceeds of these grafts have been sent out all over the country 
and many other firms in every state where apples are raised are graft¬ 
ing them extensively. The Wealthy only lacks two particulars; it is 
not q.uite hardy enough, but nearly so ; its skin is so thin that it does 
not keep quite long enough. It has a close rival in the Okabena, 
which is more hardy, not quite so good in quality and of about the 
same season. This tree was grown from the seed that Mr. Gideon pro¬ 
cured by cross-fertilization. 
May we not take courage and have a reasonable hope that from 
some chance seedling or, what is more likely to be the case, from in¬ 
telligent crossing of varieties, some one will yet raise an apple that 
will win the $1,000 prize ? 
How to do it ? Let every one that has a seedling tree that seems to 
possess the necessary requirements, report it to the secretary of this 
society, and get from him the necessary information how to proceed. 
Next, let every one that has a chance, save seeds from hardy and long 
keeping varieties and plant them. As soon as scions can be cut from 
them, have grafts set into some healthy orchard tree, and in two or 
three years they will be likely to fruit and show whether they are 
valuable or not. 
The most practical thing to do, however, is to set trees with a view 
to securing cross-fertilization of the blossoms. As a suggestion, plant 
a Wealthy and surround it with Duchess or some other hardy variety. 
The seed from the Wealthy apples should produce something hardier 
than the Wealthy, and as the Wealthy and Duchess are both very 
prolific, the offspring should be an abundant bearer. Then to secure 
a late keeper, plant this new seedling and surround it with Ben Davis 
or Malinda. The fruit of the seedling should produce seed that would 
grow a tree with the combined qualities we are seeking, viz : hardiness, 
productiveness and good quality, to which has been added the late 
keeping propensity. 
Is not this an exceedingly interesting field for experiment ? It 
seems particularly adapted to men and women past the meridian of 
life, those who have learned to be patient and having labored enough 
to entitle them to some leisure they can take time for following the 
pleasant paths of experimental horticulture and with this one thousand 
dollar prize in view. 
What is the origin of the Kieffer pear ? 
In his address before the American Pomological Society, as reported 
in the proceedings just issued by the secretary, William A. Taylor, 
Professor Thomas Meehan said upon this subject: “ Peter Kieffer, a 
modest Frenchman, a remarkably good gardener and fond of plants, 
had a relative, the famous Baumann, who continually sent him new 
and rare plants. The Sand pear of Japan was one. Its branches grew 
intertwined with a Bartlett pear. From seed of this Sand pear Mr. 
Kieffer grew a seedling tree and when it produced fruit he found he 
had something very good, but that was all. He used to give the fruit 
to his neighbors, and for years those pears were sent around in that 
way without anyone doing much more than smacking his lips over 
them. After a while the Centennial Exhibition came and some of 
those pears were exhibited. William Parry, of New Jersey, was one 
of the exhibition judges. He saw he had a good thing. He gave 
Mr. Kieffer a trifle for a few grafts; and to-day, as you know, the 
Kieffer pear has put thousands of dollars into the pockets of others. 
But for Mr. Parry’s knowledge of the value of the fruit in money and 
his energy in making it known, it might be yet but a curiosity found 
only in some Germantown gardens. 
Roseau Apple— Prof. F. A. Waugh, Burlington, Vt., identifies the 
apple grown by several orchardmen in Grand Isle county, Vt., and 
called by them French Spitzenburg, or Winesap, as the Roseau, de¬ 
scribed briefly by Downing and Thomas. “The variety really has 
some merit,” says Prof. Waugh. The correct name Roseau ought to 
be restored. The fruit looks something like Winesap on the outside 
(it is quite different inside), and might possibly be sold for that variety 
it would require a very ignorant buyer, though, to take it for Spitzen¬ 
burg. ” 
Testing Pear and Apple Stocks —Prof. S. B. Green of the Central 
Trial Station, St. Anthony Park, Minn,, has been testing a variety of 
Pyrus baccata for apple stock. He says: “Our interest in this as a 
stock, it seems to me, centers around the fact of its being very hardy, 
of fair vigorous growth, and in the important additional fact that it 
produces a large amount of seed, which grows with great certainty. 
I think these latter are the most promising of anything that we have 
for stocks. We have sent out about 1,500 of these seedlings for trial to 
nurserymen and orchardists the past year. The plum stocks that have 
been tried here consist of P. americanus and P. myrobolan, and the 
stocks commonly known as ‘ Mariana,’ which are grown from cut¬ 
tings. Of these different stocks the Americanus have proved by far 
the most satisfactory, as on them our trees make a vigorous growth, 
are not disposed to sucker very freely, and the stocks are perfectly 
hardy. The myrobolan stock is rather too tender for us here, and I 
think does not make as good a union with our native plums as native 
species, although some trees have done fairly well on it.” 
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