) 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
“it is a question if the common law does not provide ample 
redress for such grievances.'’ 
“ There are instances,’’says Professor Bailey, “ in which it 
may be wise to make a general effort to stamp out a pest when 
it first obtains a foothold in America, but this is a very differ¬ 
ent matter from the endeavor to control the spread of insects 
and fungi between the different parts of the country. The fact 
is that most insects and diseases are beyond the reach of legis¬ 
lative fiats, and it is time the facts were fully learned.’’ 
SCALE INSPECTOR’S REPORT. 
Professor Hedrick, of the Agricultural College, has returned 
from a trip through the southern and southwestern parts of 
the state, says the Michigan Farmer, where he has, during the 
last week, been inspecting nurseries under the San Jose scale 
law. Nurseries were visited at Monroe, Niles, Benton Harbor 
and Kalamazoo but all were free from the scale. He expects 
to be engaged for about two months yet in the inspection of 
nurseries alone, when work on orchards will begin. He has 
been investigating all the probable sources of introduction of 
the San Jose scale in the orchards of the state, and now has a 
list of about 200 persons who have bought nursery stock from 
nurseries having infected stock. From his experience with this 
orchard pest, the inspector believes that the only expedient 
and safe way of dealing with an infested orchard is to destroy 
by burning. During the coming season. Professor Hedrick 
expects to begin a rigid inspection for peach yellows, and will 
also have a number of other minor orchard pests to deal with 
PITCHER & MANDA SOLD OUT. 
The stock of the United States Nurseries, Short Hills, N. 
J., Pitcher & Manda, proprietors, was sold at auction October 
4-7, as the result of lack of demand for the extraordinary 
supply of specialties carried. The enterprise had absorbed 
$500,000 of the capital of James R. Pitcher before it was 
placed in the hands of a receiver in September, 1896. 
Considering the large amount of orchids, and rare plants 
thus thrown upon the market at one time, good prices were 
realized at the sale. Thomas Meehan & Sons, Germantown, 
Pa., secured for $290 the firm’s mailing list of 62,000 names, 
wholesale and retail. 
The stock of plants sold included over 100,000 palms, the 
finest stock of Adiantum Farleyense in this country, and a 
general assortment of other ferns ; also a large lot of orna¬ 
mental foliage plants. There were included 80,000 feet of 
glass, acres of herbaceous nursery, and 62 acres adapted 
for nursery purposes. 
A NEW HYBRID. 
Wizard Burbank has produced a new berry known as the 
“Primus Hybrid,’’ a cross between the blackcap raspberry 
and a blackberry. The fruit is said to be large, some being 
an inch and a half in diameter, and it possesses the color and 
flavor of the raspberry, It ripens late and the vines are pro¬ 
lific in bearing and thrifty in growth. The right to this pro¬ 
duction has been sold to a New York man.— Rural Californian. 
H3 
hydrocyanic ACID GAS IN ORCHARD. 
A special despatch to the Baltimore Sun is as follows : 
Chestertown, Md., Oct. 15.—Professor W. G. Johnson, 
state entomologist, held what he calls a field meeting this 
afternoon, in the extensive orchards of Capt. R. S. Emory. 
The meeting was for the purpose of illustrating an extensive 
series of experiments with hydrocyanic acid gas for the de¬ 
struction of San Jose scale. The results will be watched with 
great interest by the owners of the vast fruit interest of the 
East. The treatment in California has been made exclusively 
upon citrous trees, and has proved partially successful, whereas 
the experiments to-day were upon deciduous trees. 
The trial was witnessed by Dr. John B. Smith, state ento¬ 
mologist of New Jersey; Prof. G. Herald Powell, entomolo¬ 
gist of the state experiment station, Newark, Del.; Dr. A. F. 
Woods, assistant chief division vegetable pathology, Washing¬ 
ton, D. C.; Wesley Webb, department of nursery and orchard 
inspection, Dover, Del.; Dr. John J. Black, of New Castle, one 
of the most extensive agriculturists of the peninsula ; Dr. 
Arthur T. Neal, director of Delaware College Agricultural 
Experiment Station ; Franklin Sherman, Jr., of the Maryland 
Agricultural College, a special student in entomology ; Dr. W. 
Frank Hines, Dr. C. P. Gilpin, W. S. Walker, Senator C. T. 
Westcott, Wilbur Eliason, Charles S. Hill, C. C. Hopper, Ed¬ 
ward W. Emory and others of Kent. 
The scale was discovered in Captain Emory’s orchard of 
over twenty thousand trees about three years ago. Captain 
Emory’s long series of experiments with whale oil soap have 
been partially successful, serving at least to keep the trouble 
in check. The failure of the spraying treatment has been due 
largely to the impossibility of reaching every insect and the 
prolific nature of the pest. One female scale is capable of 
producing in a single season three billions of young. 
It is claimed for the new treatment that no scale can escape, 
so searching is the gas. From an economic standpoint the 
gas treatment possesses a decided advantage. The full results 
of the test cannot be positively known until next year. Prof. 
Johnson is prosecuting his experiments upon a scale and with 
a thoroughness which should render his results to a great ex¬ 
tent conclusive. Captain Emory entertained his guests hos¬ 
pitably. 
DYING BIRCHES. 
A correspondent recently asked what was the cause of the 
dying of European birches in various parts of the country. 
Supt. C. C. Laney, of the Rochester, N. Y., park system, has 
received replies to his inquiry from the following, the causes 
assigned being briefly appended : 
C. S. Sargent, Arnold Arboretum, and F. L. & J. C. 01 m- 
sed, Brookline, Mass., landscape gardeners, think the cause is 
borers. Thomas B. Meehan, Germantown, Pa., and Dr. 
William Trelease, Missouri Botanical garden, think drought is 
the cause. Superintendent J. H. Pettigrew, of the Boston 
park system, thinks a disease of a fungoid character is the 
cause. 
Trees for immediate shipment are offered by J. G. Patterson 
& Sons, Stewartstown, Pa. They make a specialty of peaches 
and plums, and in another column name the varieties. 
