6o 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
IRecent [Publications. 
The annual report of the Columbus Horticultural Society for the 
year ended Dec. 31, 1899, has been issued by Secretary Homer C. 
Price. 
A bulletin on the common diseases and insects injurious to fruits 
has been issued by the Geneva, N. Y. Station ; also a bulletin on 
grapes as pollenizers. 
A bulletin on insecticides, fungicides and apparatus for their appli¬ 
cation has been prepared by W. G. Johnson, C. O. Townsend and H. 
P. Gould, and issued from the Maryland Experiment Station. 
State Entomologist E. P. Felt, of New York, has prepared a timely 
report on iusects injurious to forest trees, including the white marked 
tussock moth, the forest tent caterpillar, the leopard moth, the maple 
borer, pruner and scale. 
The yearbook of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1899 will 
soon be ready for distribution. It consists of three parts, devoted to 
the annual report of the secretary, 26 papers on the development of 
agriculture in a century, and the department directory. 
Recent publications of the U. S. Department of Agriculture include : 
Experiment Station Record, Yol. XI, No. 8 ; Some Insects Injurious to 
Garden Crops ; Farmers’ Institutes in the U. S. and Canada, by Prof. 
L. H. Bailey ; Experiments with Grass and Forage Plants; Germination 
of Seeds. 
“ Surely a foreword of explanation is called for from one who bus 
the temerity to offer a surfeited public still another book on wild 
flowers,” writes Neltje Blanchan in the preface to his excellent work 
entitled “ Nature’s Garden.” In view of the many books that have 
lately been issued on this subject, it is well, perhaps, for the author of 
this one to explain at the outset the nature of his work, but for the 
discerning reader this precaution was unnecessary. So well has the 
author accomplished his purpose, namely, to present in popular lan 
guage the relationship existing between the common wild flowers and 
the insect world, that the book is welcomed at once as one of the 
achievements of the season. The work is one of the first to come from 
the press of the new firm, Doubleday, Page & Co ; it has been in prep¬ 
aration nearly two years. “ The blossom ” says the author, “ has an 
inner meaning, hopes and fears that inspire its brief existence, a scheme 
of salvation for its species in the struggle for survival that it has been 
slowly perfecting with some insect’s help through the ages. It is not 
a passive thing to be admired by human eyes, nor does it waste its 
s weetness on the desert air. It is a sentient being, impelled to act 
intellige tly through the same strong desires that animate us, and en¬ 
dowed with certain powers differing only in degree, but not in kind, 
from those of the animal creation. Desire ever creates form. Do you 
doubt it ? Then study the mechanism of one of our common orchids 
or milkweeds that are adjusted with such marvelous delicacy to the 
length of a bee’s tongue or of a butterfly’s leg; learn why so many 
flowers have sticky calices or protective hairs; w hy the skunk cabbage, 
purple trillium and carrion flower emit a fetid odor, while other flowers, 
especially the white or pale yellow night bloomeiS, charm with their 
delicious breath ; see if you cannot discover why the immigrant daisy 
already whitens our fields with descendants as numerous as the sands 
of the seashore, whereas you may tramp a whole day w ithout finding 
a single native ladies’ slipper. What of the sundew that not only 
catches insects, but secretes gastric juice to digest them ? Why are 
gnats and flies seen about certain flowers; bees, butterflies, moths, or 
humming birds about others, each visitor chosing the restaurant most 
to his liking?” It is believed that “Nature’s Garden” is the first 
American work to explain the insect relationships of flowers in any 
considerable number of species. Over five hundred flowers have been 
classified in this book, according to color, for the benefit of the novice. 
Technicalities have been avoided. Nurserymen should find much 
pleasure and profit in studying this book, for it leads the reader straight 
to the heart of nature and suggests ideas that it is safe to say have not 
occurred to many of us. “Ages before men cultivated gardens,” says 
the author, “they had tiny helpers they knew not of. Gardeners win all 
the glory of producing a Lawson pink or a new chrysanthemum, but 
only for a few seasons do they select, hybridize, according to their own 
rules of taste. They take up the work where insects left it off after 
countless centuries of toil. Thus it is to the night-flying moth, long 
of tongue, keen of scent, that we are indebted for the deep white, 
fragrant Easter lily, for example, and not to the florist, albeit the moth 
is in his turn indebted to the lily for the length of his tongue and his 
keen nerves ; neither could have advanced without the other. What 
long vistas through the ages of creation does not this interdependence 
of flowers and insects open ?” Enough has been said, in a general way, 
to indicate the nature of this book. The descriptions of the flowers 
form fascinating reading. Each is treated with a freshness and 
originality that attracts at all times. A true lover of nature is the 
author of such a work. One cannot peruse the pages without gaining 
therefrom the valuable acquirement of closeness of observation. To 
the florist and the grower of nursery stock, such an acquirement is of 
manifest advantage. There are 80 full page illustrations of flowers; 
fifty-six familiar flowers have been photographed in col oEqli recti y from 
nature and the results are works of art. The immediate appreciation 
of the book made it at first impossible to fill the orders, a thousand 
copies of the book requiring insertion by hand of 80,000 plates. “ Bird 
Neighbors” and “Birds That Hunt and are Hunted” are by the 
same author. “Nature’s Garden” merits fully the high praise accorded 
it. Size 7f x 10|. Cloth, wide margins. Pp. 415. $3. New York : 
Doubleday, Page & Co. Rochester : Scrantom, Wetmore & Co. 
PROFESSOR GREEN IN EUROPE. 
Accompanied by his wife, Prof. S. B. Green, for ten years 
at the head of the horticultural department of the Minnesota 
Agricultural College and State Experiment Station, is in 
Europe for a trip to cover the entire summer. The primary 
object of this journey is to study the horticultural conditions 
of the old world and gather such things as he can find that 
will be of assistance to him in prosecuting his work in the 
Northwest. With a 'raining of six years in the horticultural 
schools of Massachusetts, of ten years in the field with some 
of the best nurserymen and experimenters in the East, and 
now twelve years as teacher and experimenter in Minnesota, 
the professor carries with him a training and experience admir¬ 
ably fitting him for the work he is about to undertake. 
SALES AT WESLEY, MD. 
Regarding spring sales, W. M. Peters’ Sons, Wesley, Md., 
write under date of May 3rd: “We are still busy. Season 
has been very backward. About through shipping, but not 
through spring planting which will be very heavy at both our 
places, Ironshire and Wesley. I think our sales will run 
heavier than last spring. Strawberry, grapes and asparagus 
roots more than treble last spring’s sales. Never cleaned up 
closer all round than this spring. 
“Taking into consideration the advance in prices over last 
spring and quantity sold, we have no reason to complain. 
“The prospects for the future we think are encouraging. 
We are planting between 300 and 350 acres of the following 
stock : Peach, apple, plum, grapes, asparagus and strawberries. 
Last spring’s planting over 75 acres in apple and peach show¬ 
ing up very good. Our peach seed planted last fall are coming 
up nicely, it looks now as though there would be a million and 
a half to bud. Prospect of a heavy crop of apples, peaches, 
pears and strawberries never better in this country.” 
J. Wragg & Sons, Waukee, Iowa, May 16, 1900. —“ We enclose you 
$1 in payment for your paper for the coming year. We cannot afford 
to be without the paper and trust that you will not let us miss a single 
copy.” 
