THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
tulion is at times unavoidable, but little objection will be 
raised by the average planter, if the plants he receives prove 
hardy and valuable. He is better pleased if he has something 
alive when the agent calls again, than when only the dead 
stumps are left to show his misplaced confidence. It is just 
as easy to send something that will live as it is to send 
something that will not endure the first winter. 
But all the burdens must not be laid on the nurseryman. 
To offer to replace stock that fails to live is ruinous to the 
nurseryman, as it is demoralizing to the planter. It puts a 
premium on carelessness, and our seasons are at times too 
dry. The nurseryman’s responsibility should end when he 
delivers the stock in first-class condition. 
The progressive Northwestern nurseryman cannot afford 
from a financial standpoint, let alone from other and greater 
considerations, to continue to propagate tender trees and 
shrubs. Such chickens will come home to roost in such in¬ 
creasing numbers as to crowd out all the more desirable 
poultry. Nurserymen should be, and are, the real moulders of 
public opinion along lines horticultural. The nurseryman 
must do the thinking for the great mass of planters who never 
saw a nursery or attended a horticultural convention, but who 
plant and plant and plant, and get no results. Remember the 
fable about the “golden egg,” although planters are by no 
means to be compared to that species of bird. 
To maintain their high position as the leaders of horti¬ 
culture, nurserymen must neither be too progressive nor too 
conservative. 
VARIATIONS IN JAPANESE PLUMS. 
Professor Bailey has found that trees of Burbank and Abun¬ 
dance plums, which usually ripen their fruit two weeks apart, 
have, in some seasons, ripened it simultaneously. The Chase, 
which was formerly supposed to be same as Chabot, ripened 
with Abundance last year, and it is now considered identical 
with it. He thinks the wide difference of opinion respecting 
the merits of individual varieties of Japanese plums and the 
wide discrepancies in the description of them can largely be 
accounted for in the variable behavior in these plums from 
year to year. 
IRecent [publications. 
Ellwanger & Barry Nursery Co.’s catalogue of Holland bulbs, roses 
and specialties for fall planting has been issued for the retail trade. 
C. C. Andrews, chief fire warden of Minnesota, has issued his fifth 
annual report on forestry in that state where forestry is a feature of 
state government. 
State Entomologist E. P. Felt, of New York, has issued as a New 
York State Museum Bulletin the fifteenth report of the State entom¬ 
ologist on injurious and other insects in the Empire State. 
The U. S. Department of Agriculture has issued a bulletin on soil 
surveys which in the opinion of Secretary Wilson is the most important 
work of the kind ever undertaken. It describes field operations of 
great value to all who grow crops. A series of specially prepared 
maps is bound in a separate volume. The Department has also issued 
No. 11 of Vol. XI. and Nos. 1 and 2 of Vol. XII. of the Experiment 
Station Record. 
EVERY NUMBER OF INTEREST. 
Alabama Nursery Co., H. B. Chase, Secretary, Huntsville, Ala., 
Sept. 10, 1900: “We enclose $1, to renew our subscription to the 
National Nurseryman —every number of which we find of interest. 
May your subscription list increase ever.” 
I I I 
Xong anb Short. 
The Paxton Nursery, Paxton, Ill., has a surplus list in another 
column. 
Black Locust and apple seedlings may be had of the German Nur¬ 
series, Beatrice, Neb. 
George Gould & Co., of Villa Ridge, Ill., are making a specialty of 
Kiefifer pears and Peach pits. 
Rhododendrons, Japanese maples and evergreens are specialties with 
Parsons & Co., Flushing, N. Y. 
Apple seedlings and Snyder blackberry plants are specialties with 
H. M. Simpson & Sons, Vincennes, Ind. 
Genuine mountain natural peach pits, this year’s crop, may be ob¬ 
tained of the J. Van Lindley Nursery Co , Pomona, N. C. 
Mazzard and Mahaleb cherry seed, fruit stocks and seeds, maple, 
ash, catalpa and other seedlings are offered by Thomas Meehan & Sons, 
Germantown, Pa. 
J. G Harrison & Sons, Berlin, Md., offer Kiefifer pear, peach, apple 
trees, asparagus, grape vines, Silver maples and strawberry plants. 
Their new wholesale list is now ready. 
Barbier & Co., Orleans, France, offer fruit stocks of all sizes; also 
three new Wichuriana hybrids of their own raising. They are repre¬ 
sented in this country by Knauth, Nachod & Kueline, New Yoik City. 
THE LARGEST TREE. 
The largest tree in the world is to be seen at Mascall, near 
the foot of Mount Etna, and is called “ The Chestnut Tree of 
a Hundred Horses.” Its name rose from the report that 
Queen Jane of Aragon, with her principal nobility, took refuge 
from a violent storm under its branches. The trunk is 200 
feet in circumference.—American Gardening. 
PREMIUM FOR AGENCY WORK. 
The weekly publication Brains, the Retailer and Advertiser, 
devoted to the interests of advertisers, says: 
E. P. Blackford & Co. Nurserymen, Toronto, Can., have for some 
time past been trying to devise a plan by which they could influence 
agents, out in the farming districts, to hand in their reports weekly. 
They have finally adopted a plan by which agents may receive a bi¬ 
cycle free, if they will only hand in their reports of sales regularly 
each week. A circular is sent out to each agent explaining the plan. 
It is this: Messrs. Blackford & Company will allow the use of a new 
wheel to an agent when he has sold $375 worth of stock and they will 
give the wheel outright to the agent when he has sold another $250 
worth of goods. Certificates are issued to the agents which show the 
date and amount of the order sent in. To every agent who can produce 
15 of these certificates showing weekly'sales amounting to not less than 
$25 for each week, or a total of $375 within fifteen weeks, in good orders 
for assorted stock, they will send one of the bicycles. On receiving 
notice that the wheel is ready for shipment, the agent is to send in a 
signed blank by which he agrees to take good orders for stock to the 
value of $250 within the next ten weeks and to allow Messrs. Blackford 
& Co. to retain $10 in commission as evidence of good faith. Should 
the agent fail to reach a specified amount within ten weeks, he agrees 
to return the wheel and to forfeit the $10 deposited. The $10 pays for 
the rental of the wheel in case it must be returned. 
appreciates its good qualities. 
L. B. Rice, Port Huron, Mich., August 27, 1900: “I am glad to 
offer my tribute to the good qualities of your journal. It seems to 
have found an unoccupied place and to fill it well. I am only a 
nurseryman in a small way, but I can appreciate its good qualities.” 
