4 6 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
A GENERAL CLEAN-UP. 
Stimulating Demand for all kinds of h/ursery Stock In the West 
—Little Mill Be Left for the Brush.pile—The Outlook Is for 
Advanced Prices—Collections Promise well—A Healthy 
Demand for Future Stock Is Prophesied. 
Geneva, Neb., April 14 .—Youngers & Co.: “ Business 
with us this spring has been very good. Shipments opened 
up earlier than ordinary and have continued steadily until the 
present time and we are having about all we can do now. We 
shall handle the usual amount of stock, while the advanced 
prices will make the summing up in dollars and cents consider¬ 
ably better than for several years past. Everything in the 
line of merchantable goods is going to be cleaned up. There 
will probably be a little third-class stock that will go to the 
brush-pile, but nothing that is really desirable.” 
Waukee, Iowa, April 13 .—M. J. Wragg : “Our business 
has been much better in some ways than last year. There is 
a stimulating demand for all kinds of nursery stock. The 
outlook is for advanced prices, with a healthy demand for 
stock in the future.” 
Ottawa, Kan., April 14 .—A. Willis: “For the last few 
weeks we have been very busy. Our trade both retail and 
wholesale has been larger than ever before. It is too early 
yet to say anything about collections, but so far they seem to 
promise as good as usual. The plant we made in the spring 
of ’99 did very poorly, and our outlook for stock is not good. 
We suppose this will make us a target for all the folks that 
have stock to sell in the country. The outlook for trade for 
the year to come is as good as usual. We think the present 
condition of the business at large is rather encouraging. The 
season with us is about a week later than usual.” 
Salt Lake City, Utah, April 17 .—M. E. Callahan, 
Treasurer and Manager, Pioneer Nurseries Company: “Our 
sales have been very good ; better than for several years. 
About all our salable stock sold. Collections above the aver¬ 
age of the past six years. Have a good prospect for fruit 
crop which will make business better.” 
Vincennes, Ind., April 21 .—H. M. Simpson & Sons: “ Our 
spring sales were much better than we expected and the out¬ 
look for fall trade is flattering. Prospect for all kinds of fruit 
was never better.” 
Topeka, Kansas, April 18 .—F. W. Watson & Co.: “For 
good demand, fair prices and prompt pay, this past season takes 
the lead. Although the price of stock for this spring was quite 
a little in advance of last, the demand for trees was none the 
less. The end of the season found us well cleaned up, with 
very little to burn. With our graft planting machine we were 
able to get our spring planting done much earlier. Work is 
well under headway and we are about ready to go fishing.” 
HEELING IN TREES OVER WINTER. 
A Uriah, Pa., correspondent of the Rural New Yorker 
answering a Michigan man, who remarks : “ If the nursery¬ 
man does not get trees to you early enough for successful 
planting, get them of a nurseryman who does,” says : 
Every nurseryman of any reputation at all is busy from the 
time the season opens until it is too late to plant, and letters 
ordering trees “ Now or never ’* are not of infrequent occur¬ 
rence. Suppose we take the advice given, and all order early. 
What then ? The trees would come late as ever. The remedy 
is not here, and it is useless to condemn an operation because 
we or some others have not succeeded with it. I know of no 
better method, considering all things, than to get trees in the 
fall and heel them over winter. The early spring awakens 
the trees even before the nursery is sufficiently dry to take 
them up, and this awakening continues until they are in full 
leaf. Not any of the spring weather, as a rule, is congenial to 
the welfare of the tree after it has been removed from tbe, nur¬ 
sery row, yet it is held from one to ten (and sometimes thirty) 
days before it is permanently located in the orchard. If trees 
are in the trench at home they are undisturbed until the day 
planted, and they are benefited by everything that the spring 
days can give, while the process of planting under these cir¬ 
cumstances is scarcely an interruption. 
Get the trees in the fall, as soon as the leaves drop readily ; 
plant all except the stone fruits, trench peach and all trees you 
wish to prune to a low top at planting, covering them to the 
height you wish to prune. Place cherry and trees you do not 
care to prune so hard in beds, covering them top and all about 
10 inches deep. In Michigan and other cold climates all may 
be bedded, but peach can be trenched without loss. If wish¬ 
ing to plant early the bedded trees may remain until planted ; 
but if you wish to plant later the tops would better be raised 
to the air and light, and the ground loosened about the trunks 
by raising the tops should be firmly trodden. If any in¬ 
trenched trees show signs of starting before ready to plant, 
they may be retarded by taking them out and retrenching them 
after they have laid an hour or so. The trench for a lot of 
trees should not be placed on top of the ground, as some do 
it, but it should be plowed or dug to a depth of 18 inches or 
more, and the trees laid in m ith tops at an angle of 40 degrees ; 
all bunches should be opened and the roots carefully spread 
apart so that the soil can get between them and exclude the 
air. In this region last year 98 per cent, of the intrenched 
trees grew, and especially where they were covered with snow, 
while in a great many cases 40 per cent, of the nursery-row 
trees died, and thousands that did grow will die this year 
because the vitality was frozen out of them in the nursery row. 
The only danger I see is that arising from the probability of 
mice eating them in the trench, but they won’t do it if straw 
and litter be kept away, and the snow is firmly trodd.n about 
them after each deep snow. 
DOUGLAS NURSERIES NOT SOLD. 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
There is a squib going around the papers, in the West 
especially, that the R. Douglas’ Sons Waukegan Nursery has 
been sold. This is not true. A little sheet published here 
put in their columns that we had sold all of our white pines 
While in reality we had sold our 2 to 3 ft. size only ; we still 
have in the neighborhood of one-half million seedlings and 
transplanted white pines. The article in the Waukegan paper 
has now got in the Chicago papers, that the nursery has been 
sold. This will not be done as long as the present proprietors 
live, as we look upon it as a monument to our late revered 
father. 
Waukegan, Ill., April 16 , 1900 . R. Douglas’ Sons, 
per T. H, Douglas. 
