I'HE NATIONAL NUBSEBYMAN 
j(l2 
PROPAGATION AND GROWING EVERGREENS 
ON A LARGE SCALE IN THE MIDDLE-WEST. 
THE SHERMAN NURSERY CO. One of the Largest Producers. 
It lia.s been frequently stated by well informed lior- 
ticnltnralists that eventnally nurserymen would 
specialize in growing such nursery stock as their soil 
or location would best produce, and it seems that 
these ])redictions are being verified, as even to-day 
some nurserymen are looked upon as headquarters 
1888 the Company was incorporated with a capital of 
$100,000, and to-day it has nearly a. thousand acres of 
land devoted to its work and during the past year 
over eight hundred acres of it were covered with 
growing stock. 
While the company specializes in growing ever- 
for certain items or nursery stock which grows par¬ 
ticularly well in their soils, and of which they grow 
large quantities. 
IMany years ago, the late Robert Douglas, linding 
the need of a nursery where evergreens and decid¬ 
uous seedlings could be procured in quan¬ 
tities for forestry purposes and believing 
there was a great future in that par¬ 
ticular line, started such a nursery at 
W^aiikegan, Illinois, where he eventually grew many 
millions of these plants, which were used in setting 
forest ihantations in the middle west. 
Other nurserymen naturally followed his example, 
one of these being the Sherman Nursery Co., located 
at diaries City, Iowa. The business was started by 
E. i\r. Sherman in 1882, but it grew so rapidly that in 
Beds of Evergreen Seedlings, shaded with brush above, covering 
green seedlings, the}" are also large producers of Or¬ 
namental Trees, shrubs and great iiuantities of hardy 
fruits. 
The green-houses, some of Avhich are two hundred 
and fifty feet in length, are entirely devoted to the 
growing of roses for the wliolesale trade, and is, in 
fact, a distinct industry from the nursery work. At 
certain times of the year a portion of the green¬ 
houses are given over to the i)ro})agation of ever¬ 
greens mostly Junipers and Arbor-ATtaes. 
In the early days of his exiieriments, Robert Doug¬ 
las discovered that evergreen seeds would only ger¬ 
minate abundantly when they were sown under con 
ditions similar to those in the native forests. To 
make the work jiracticable, he conceived the idea of 
erecting brush shades or shelters, under which the 
