THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
9 
IRecent fl>ublu \tiom . 
“ The Hardy Catalpa in Commercial Plantations ” fs the subject of a 
bulletin issued by the United States Department of Agriculture. 
The Alabama Nursery Co., Huntsville, Ala., extends the compli 
ments of the holiday season in connection with a neat publication from 
the Mount Pleasant press at Harrisburg Pa., regarding the much- 
involved sale of a mule and the shrewdness of a darkey named “Lige”. 
Ginseng. Its cultivation, harvesting, marketing and market value, 
with a short account of its history and botany. Revised, greatly 
enlarged and brought down to date. IHiss Crated, 144 pages, 5x7 
inches. Cloth. Postpaid, 50 cents. Nev.. York; Orange Judd 
Company. _ 
“ Where Good Trees Are Grown” is the subject of an attractive 
illustrated booklet of fifteen pages published by Thomas Meehan & 
Sons, Inc., Germantown, Pa. It gives general information about this 
large nursery with some account of the manner in which the work is 
systematized in departments. Systematized work among nurserymen is 
coming to be the rule. Where it is not yet done to much extent great 
profit would result from an examination of the methods adopted by 
such a successful firm as Thomas Meehan & Sonsi 
The first World’s Work of the New Year contains a widd variety of 
subjects written about in the concise, optimistic manner which is char¬ 
acteristic of this magazine. Perhaps the most important article is Mr. 
Robert H. Montgomery’s story of the American invasion of Canada, il¬ 
lustrated with many striking pictures and portraits. There is an im¬ 
portant series of statistics about American ^nufactur' - ;. a sketch of 
the late Herr Krupp, and an editorial article Individual 
Responsibility for Panics, besides the usual Ma l h or 'EventJ Among 
the World’s Workers, and some letters from well-kn -vn authors. 
Among the articles in Country Life in America for January is one re¬ 
lating to the apple by Prof. Bailey : “The latest estimate places the 
total number of apple trees of bearing age in the United States at 
something over two hundred millions. This is nearly three trees to 
every person. These trees yield more than one hundred and seventy-five 
million bushels. Not all the apples are consumed at home, for in years 
of full crop more than three million bushels go abroad. Yet, the 
apples kept at home are more than two bushels for every adult and 
child. We are a nation of apple-eaters This fact may not be to our 
credit, however, when we remember that a good part of all these apples 
are Ben Davis and other kinds that a refined and cultivated taste would 
not choose for its desert. Yet probably half our people never raise an 
apple ; and of the half who do raise them, but a small percentage 
grows for market; and of those who grow for market, only a part 
made a profit from the business. Yet there is money in apple grow¬ 
ing.” 
“ Nature and the Camera” is the title of one of the most entertain¬ 
ing of the many recent books on the subject of nature study. The 
author, A. R. Dugmore, has here given in its most practical form 
detailed information regarding the photographing of animal, vegetable 
and insect life. His range covers live birds and their nests ; animals, 
wild and tame ; reptiles ; insects ; fish and other aquatic forms ; flowers, 
trees and fungi. The illustrations are from photographs by the 
author. The first chapter is devoted to the apparatus and conven¬ 
iences for the taking of pictures of such objects as above enumerated, 
necessarily requiring special arrangements. The succeeding six 
chapters teem with interest for the lover of nature ; they present the 
subject in the most fascinating form. “ Few of the vast army of 
photographers”, says Mr. Dugmore, “ realize what it is to hunt wild 
animals with their cameras ; still fewer of the sportsmen appreciate the 
amount of sport which may be had wIk" Ihb camera takes the piace of 
the rifle. They don’t consider that for the camera there is no close 
season. If we consider the skill required for car v era hunting, we must 
realize that more is needed than when the gun is used ; for it is neces¬ 
sary not only to approach nearer to the animal, but, even when near, 
hours ay be spent in trying to secure either a favorable place or a 
suitable attitude, and during all this time every precaution known to 
the hunter is called into practice. Stalk a deer with a camera and you 
will realize how small a thing will mar the chances of success. A twig 
incautiously broken, the grazing of the camera against a dry branch, 
or any of the hundred and one accidents that may at times happen to 
the still hunter, and where is your photograph ? Gone 1 Whereas 
had you been using the rifle you might easily have bagged the game.” 
The author observes that insect photography is in its infancy, and that 
until quite recently fish photography was almost untrodden ground. 
Fish are photographed through the glass side of a specially constructed 
aquarium ; the results are very realistic. The last chapter of the book, 
that on photographing trees, shrubs and flowers, is of special interest 
to our readers. Seldom, except in the early morning or late evening, 
does one find a day so quiet that the flowers stand motionless. The 
photographing of cut flowers, leaves, fruits and fungi is also discussed. 
Pp. 126. Cloth, $1.35. New York : Doubleday, Page «fc Co. 
Rochester, N. Y. : Scrantom, Wetmore & Co. 
A PLEA POR THE LARGE NURSERY. 
A writer in Indiana says in the Rural New Yorker: 
A great deal has been said about fruit tree agents. I wish to state 
here that more farmers have been swindled by dealing with little one- 
horse nurseries than by agents representing nurseries of character. 
The cry has been so long “patronize your home nursery,” till the 
rogues have leased a patch of land and gone to raising a few trees, 
often not a tenth of what they sell. They send their agents out all 
over their county and adjoining county with the plea that this is a 
home nursery. They make all kinds of claims. A few years finds 
them changed in location, with another piece of land leased, and tell¬ 
ing the people to patronize their home nursery, raising a few trees for 
a blind and buying trees of inferior quality for their customers. I 
think it safe in buying trees, unless you have known you home nur¬ 
seryman, to patronize some large firm; one that has a reputation at 
stake. Our large nurseries cannot afford to do anything but an 
honest business. This section of country here has some little one-horse 
affairs—tree jobbers who change locations ; at least they do not stop 
long at one place. 
WILL SPEND TWO MONTHS IN CALIFORNIA. 
Charles H. Perkins and George C. Perkins, of Newark, N. 
Y., will start early in January for California, to be absent until 
about the last of February. A portion of the time will be 
spent at Orange, Cal., where Jackson & Perkins Company 
have extensive branch nurseries. The Orange place comprises 
about sixty acres, and is devoted partly to orange and walnut 
orchards and partly to rose growing. Three car loads of rose 
bushes have been shipped from there to Newark this season. 
Two large propagating houses have been built the past sum¬ 
mer, and the output of rose bushes will be greatly increased by 
another year. Charles H. Perkins will visit the leading busi¬ 
ness centers of the state of California in the interest of his ex¬ 
tensive commission business in California products. 
SHORT COURSE IN HORTICULTURE. 
The Missouri Agricultural College, Columbia, Mo., was the 
first institution in America to establish a special school of hor¬ 
ticulture. This school has attracted wide attention. The 
course consists of more than 200 lectures on the following sub¬ 
jects : Nursery Work, Orchards and Small Fruits, Market 
Gardening and Hot-bed Forcing, Floriculture, Landscape 
Gardening, Forestry, Fungous Diseases, etc. 
The Painesville Nurseries, Painesville, Oftio, stand at the head in 
acres of land and greenhouses ; in storage cellars and packing houses ; 
in amount of stock handled and in variety of stock grown. 
