28 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
12,000, 15,000, 13,400, 15,000, 15,600, 15,300, 16,500, 
16,200, 14,000, 13,100, 14,200, 13,900, 14,800, 12,900, 
12,700, 16,400, 17,000, 15,400, 14,500, 20,700. 
Tlie total weight of same is 361,500 pounds which 
makes an average of 14,460 ])ounds ])er car. We 
wei-e assessed on basis of 16,000 pounds ])er car, so 
you can see at a glance that if the nurserymen could 
secure a 14,000 ])ound minimum for refrigerator cars 
it would be about the correct basis. It might be pos¬ 
sible to secure a 14,000 pound minimum but consid¬ 
ering the nature of the stock and the time of year it 
is moved, it is very doubtful whether a minimum 
lower than 14,000 pounds would be considered. 
As a matter of information, desire to state that 
the Western Classification Committee, which hereto¬ 
fore has held a summer and winter meeting during 
each year at different points in the country, at which 
time about sixty members of the committee would be 
])resent and five or six hundred shippers with as 
many or more petitions to be heard which generally 
occupied from a week to ten days, with a rush all the 
time and which plan was not very satisfactory but 
very expensive. Following the suggestion of the In¬ 
terstate Commerce Commission and protest of some 
shi])pers, they have now established permanent head- 
rpiarters in Chicago in charge of three expert rail¬ 
road men, who are in session daily except Sunday 
thus a ])etition can be presented to them at any time, 
discussed and whatever may be decided upon, is 
then submitted to the various railroads, forming the 
committee, for their action. The new plan is on a 
business line and heartily supported by every ship¬ 
per in the country and believe it will prove much 
more satisfactory than the old plan. 
The Transportation Committee will take pleasure 
in furnishing information regarding Transportation 
matters or suggestions about how to overcome, as 
far as possible, annoying delays of nursery ship¬ 
ments as far as their other duties will permit. 
DOES CLIMATE AFFECT HARDINESS? 
The fact that the Douglas Slpruce, (P.^eudotsuga 
T)ougla,v), the Blue Spruce of Colorado, and other 
evergreens of that State are quite hardy in the East, 
while practically the same trees growing on the Pa¬ 
cific Coast are not, is a practical illustration of what 
changes in the hardiness of trees can be brought 
about by climate. It may take ages to produce such 
changes or so long a time that for practical purposes 
we may say the degree of hardiness a plant may pos¬ 
sess cannot be made to vary one way or the other. 
Still, it has been proven that there are plants from 
warm climates which, brought into colder ones, are 
not able at first to endure the cold, but which year by 
year do become capable of it. This has been demon¬ 
strated many times with trees both North and South. 
The various Hickories, Oaks, Ashes, Sweet Gum, 
Elms and similar trees are native to both North and 
South, yet if brought North from far South, they are 
not proof against the cold, though set alongside of 
the identical species wild in the North. There will be 
some injury the first winter, less the next, and even¬ 
tually the Southern one will appear to be as hardy as 
the native of the North. 
QA those who have watched such trees, the explan¬ 
ation of the difference in hardiness appears to be 
this; the Southern tree, knowing little of cold, con¬ 
tinues growing later in the season than its compan¬ 
ion of the North, so that the cold catches its unripen¬ 
ed wood, injuring or killing it. In a few years, heed¬ 
ing its lessons, the growth ripens earlier, as in the 
Northern representative and then it becomes as 
hardy as the latter. Of this we have had practical 
experience and know it to be a fact. We may suppose 
that these trees, say a certain Oak or a Hickory, all 
started from a common center, spreading North and 
Suth increasing their distance apart as time passed 
and their degree of hardiness with it. 
If we consider the Douglas Spruce already referred 
to, there is today very little difference apparent be¬ 
tween the Colorado one and that of the Pacific Coast. 
Both are fast growers, the Pacific one the faster, but 
in color the Colorado one is not as bright a green. 
The chief difference is the hardier character of the 
latter. The Menzies Spruce of the Pacific, and the 
Pungens of Colorado at one time passed for the same 
thing, so much alike are they. The common Red Ce¬ 
dar, Jumperu^^ Virginiano, brought from the far 
South and planted in the colder portions of the North 
dies from cold, though apparently differing in no 
other respect save hardiness. 
The chief lesson to be learned from these examples 
is that by protecting Southern plants when brought 
North, they will change their habit of growth suf¬ 
ficiently to be able to endure more cold in the end, 
their tenderness in the first place arising from the 
character of the seasons where they had been grow¬ 
ing, and not from inherent tenderness .—Joseph Mee¬ 
han in the Florists’ Exchange. 
IMPORTANCE OF HUMUS AND HOW TO 
OBTAIN IT. 
Humus is the decaying vegetable matter in the 
soil. The soil is composed of rock and vegetable 
material. The growing of crops for many years has 
taken out the original humus made by the decay of 
]Drimitive vegetation on the earth. This process of 
mining the soil of its natural supply of humus has 
reduced its normal content and it is less productive. 
A large part of the farmers’ problem in building up 
soils is to restore humus to it. Humus makes soil 
more friable or loose, so it is easily aerated. Humus 
is favorable for the life of bacteria in the soil, and 
bacteria is necessary to plant growth. Humus also 
