THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
2 7 
as it will not be possible to draw any conclusions before 
another season has passed. We do not believe that our ex¬ 
periment has been unsuccessful. We have had all sorts of 
weather conditions to deal with, and a week or ten days of 
cloudy or rainy weather was not an infrequent occurrence 
during the period we were operating. Many important difficul¬ 
ties were overcome, and many obstacles as large as mountains 
were reduced to ant-hills. In my opinion, the hydrocyanic 
gas treatment is the only positive remedy we have to rely 
upon at present to completely exterminate the scale upon trees 
in limited areas. The fact that gas will penetrate every 
possible crack and crevice about a tree where soaps and 
washes will not reach, makes this remedy the only feasible 
one. Professor W. D. Coquillett, of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, who first discovered the use of this gas as an 
insecticide, informs me that he succeeded in destroying all the 
scales where he used it. 
“I am informed that Professor Johnson is at present at 
work upon his report, in which he will give a detailed 
and accurate account of the distribution of the San Jose 
scale in our state. This report will also contain a complete 
account of his experimental work with soaps, kerosene emul¬ 
sion, pure kerosene, gas, etc. 
PRESIDENT ROUSE ON SCALE. 
President Irving Rouse of the American Association of 
Nurserymen in a communication to the Florists' Exchange 
regarding Peter Henderson’s criticism of the New Jersey scale 
bill, says: 
“Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, 
and other states, have already laws on this subject, many of 
them harshly drawn, and exceedingly ill-conceived. New 
York and Ohio have acts now before their legislatures. 
Canada also is considering the advisability of absolutely 
prohibiting the importation of American nursery stock. So 
that nurserymen and florists as well, are face to face with a 
condition, not a theory. 
“ The bill, ‘ H. R. 6894’ now before congress has been most 
carefully drawn by a committee of the best posted entomolo¬ 
gists in the country. Under the bill as prepared by these 
gentlemen, an inspection is made by a qualified government 
officer, at government expense, and the resulting certificate, if 
stock is found free from disease, takes the goods anywhere in 
the United States, without farther question. 
“ We have assurances from Canada that the proposed bill, 
if passed, will probably do away with the hostile legislation 
threatened. So much for the purely commercial side of the 
bill. The purpose of the act is to check and destroy the San 
Jose scale. The danger from this pest can scarcely be over¬ 
rated, and New Jersey, especially, should put no obstacle in 
the way of eradicating it, as to New Jersey sources have been 
traced nine-tenths of the infected premises. It will attack 
roses and presumably many kinds of plants commonly grown 
by florists. A careful consideration of this whole subject, I 
am sure, will lead Messrs. Henderson & Co. and others who 
think with them, to the conclusion that a state law based on 
the lines of the proposed act of congress, is about the only 
practical solution of a very perplexing subject. The gas treat¬ 
ment does not secure absolute protection, and stock that 
needed it would find slow sale in this section.” 
Hn 1Rurser\> IRovvs. 
Selecting Grafts —Much stress is laid upon the import¬ 
ance of selecting the individual tree from which the grafts 
are taken. Professor H. E. Van Deman repeatedly urges that 
this care be taken with all varieties of fruit for nursery propa¬ 
gation. 
Aphis-proof Apples.— “ As a hint to nurserymen, I would 
say that several very promising varieties of apples have been 
introduced by a New Zealand firm, which are really aphis- 
proof,’ says Leonard Coates, Napa, Cal. “ I not do refer to 
the use of Northern Spy roots, but to actual seedlings. Some 
of these I have now in my orchard.” 
Developing a Peach Orchard. —“ To set trees, plow, har¬ 
row and mark off will cost probably $6 to $8 per acre,” says N. 
H. Albaugh. To keep the land cultivated, about $8. To 
gather, about 10 cents per bushel, including hauling to packing 
house, and about 5 cents per bushel to grade and pack. Of 
course the above is only an estimate. I have 600,000 peach 
trees in orchard in Georgia and Kentucky.” 
Mice and Rabbits. —To prevent injury to trees by rabbits 
and mice, S. D. Willard, Geneva, N. Y., suggests banking with 
earth the outside rows of young orchard trees. Slices of 
sweet apples sprinkled with strichnine and hung upon the 
lower branches have been found effective. Edwin Hoyt, New 
Canaan, Conn., suggests the use of wire cloth with 10 to 12 
wires to the inch and cut into strips 6 to 12 inches square. 
Retarding Growth —At the state experiment station 
Columbia, Mo , Prof. J. C. Whitten has been making experi¬ 
ments in the direction of retarding growth of peach buds with 
a view to preventing their development too early in the spring 
when there is danger of freezing. As the result of a white¬ 
washing with lime mixed with water and skim-milk, in propor¬ 
tion of four-fifths of water and one-fifth of skim-milk, flowering 
was retarded four days. 
Plum Stock. —Prof. H. E. Van Deman, Parksley, Va., 
writing to the Rural New Yorker says : “ The best stock for 
the Japan and American plums is the Marianna. This is a 
variety of the foreign species, Prunus cerasifolia, and does not 
sprout from the roots. The plants for nursery purposes are 
propagated from rooted cuttings and not from seeds, as a 
general thing. Our native plums, especially the Americana, 
make thrifty stocks, but they sprout so badly as to be a great 
nuisance in the orchard, and are, therefore, unsuitable. The 
Marianna stocks are bought very cheaply from the southern 
nurseries, as they root much more easily in the South than in 
the North.” 
Chestnut Culture. —Grafting chestnut trees in their places 
in the woods, begun by the late H. M. Engle, Marietta, Pa., 
has not proved entirely successful. The original chestnut 
trees were cut down for firewood or timber, and the sprouts - 
were permitted to grow from the stump ; the following year, 
after cutting all but three or more sprouts from each stump^ 
they were grafted in much the same way that fruit trees are 
grafted. The chestnut weevil has caused a loss of half or two- 
thirds of the nuts grown, and the cost of cleaning away under¬ 
brush each year has been large. It is believed that the plant¬ 
ing of grafted trees or seedling trees to be grafted afterward, in 
ground that could be cultivated would prove more successful 
