THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
•5 
Ibotticultural Societies. 
Nebraska —At the meeting in Lincoln, Jan. 13-15, Peter Youngers, 
of Geneva, was elected treasurer; G. S. Christy, president; L. M. Rus¬ 
sell, of Lincoln, secretary. 
Idaho— The annual meeting of the Idaho State Horticultural Society 
was held at Boise City, January 13-15. There was a good display 
of apples. Several legislators were present. Thomas C. Galloway, of 
Weise, was elected president; Robert Milliken, Nampa, secretary. 
Connecticut —The state society at Hartford last month decided to 
join the American League for Civic Improvement. These officers 
were elected : A. C. Sternberg, president; R. A. Griffing, D. A. Ly¬ 
man, Robert Yeitch, Robert Coit, Edwin Hoyt, T. S. Gold, A. N. 
Pierson, vice-presidents; L. H. Mead, Hartford, secretary; W. W. 
Hunt, treasurer. 
Kansas —Thirty sixth annual meeting of state society at Topeka, 
Dec. 29 31. Present indications are that fruit growers will have a 
bountiful harvest in 1903. Philip Lux, of Topeka, read an interesting 
paper on “Plant Breeding." He stated that one of the most detri¬ 
mental features in apple growing was the selection of trees from the 
nursery without any regard for the class of trees they belonged to, 
aside from the name, which was often incorrect. He thinks nursery¬ 
men should furnish a pedigree with all stocks sold. He said that the 
reason the Winesap and the Missouri Pippin had become small and so 
unfit for market was on account of careless propagation, and because 
nurserymen were careless in the breeding of their trees, and that the 
reason the Ben Davis, which is a poorer apple, is in demand in the 
market is because it has not been allowed to run down. These officers 
were re-elected : President Fred Wellhouse, of Topeka; vice-president, 
J. W. Robinson, of Eldorado; treasurer, Frank Holsinger, of Topeka, 
and secretary, William H. Barnes, of Topeka. 
Ohio. —The thirty-sixth annual meeting of the State Society was 
held at Clyde, December 16-18. Ad interim reports were to the effect 
that the strawberry crop outlook is not reassuring. Early Harvest, 
Erie and Eldorado blackberries and Kansas and Cumberland black 
raspberries were voted the best varieties for Ohio. Continued spray 
ing is necessary to secure plum and grape crops. Peaches along the 
lake shore were a heavy crop, but many thousands of bushels rotted 
on the trees because of the wet season. A discussion arose over the 
Kieffer pear and the Ben Davis apple. Both were roundly criticised, 
but both had friends. Some declared they preferred to grow Kieffers 
at 25 cents per bushel than Bartletts at $1. Grimes’ Golden is a favor¬ 
ite apple throughout Ohio ; Baldwin, Red Canada and Baltimore in the 
northern section and Rome Beauty and York Imperial in central and 
southern portions. The planting of apple trees on road sides, to be 
used as living fence posts, was advocated. Apple trees are better 
for this purpose than taller growing trees like the maple, it was 
argued, because the latter shade the roadwgy too much and retard the 
drying up of the m ud in the spring. 
New Jersey —At the annual meeting, at Trenton, President W. H 
Reed said : “ We are in the midst of an era of great prosperity. We 
know of farms devoted largely to horticulture that paid last year 20 
per cent, or more on the investment." It has been a banner year for 
apple orchards, 1,000 barrels to an ordinary sized orchard, and fifty 
bushels to a tree having been recorded, the fruit being large and with¬ 
out blemish. The report of the treasurer, Ira J. Blackwell, of Titus, 
ville, showed a balance on hand of $866.77. Charles J. Black, of 
Hightstown, read the report of the fruit committee, which showed 
that during the past season the quality and quantity of fruit had gen¬ 
erally been above the average. First-class fruit, when properly mar¬ 
keted, the report says, has been satisfactory to growers, except in the 
case of Keifer pears, the crop of which had been held until too late. 
Professor John B. Smith, state entomologist, read a paper on “Law 
and the Horticulturist.” He showed the conditions as regards legisla¬ 
tion and the nurserymen, saying there were some really serious griev. 
ances which should be righted. The result was the appointment of a 
legislative committee with these members : Former Assemblymen J 
Warren Fleming; J. B. Ward, of Lyons Farms; S. B. Ketcham, of 
Pennington; Joseph H. Black of Mercer, and D. D. Devise, of Mon¬ 
mouth. The state board of agriculture will be asked to co-operate in 
securing legislation. These offices were elected: President, WilliamH. 
Reid, Tennant; vice-president, William II Skillman, Rocky Hill; secre¬ 
tary, Henry I. Budd, Mount Holly; treasurer, Ira J. Blackwell, Titus¬ 
ville; executive committee, Dr. J. B. Ward, Lyons Farms; E. P. 
Beebe, Elizabeth; D. A. Yanderveer, Freehold; C. L. Jones, Newark; 
H. E. Hale, Princeton. 
California —The annual meeting of the California Fruit Growers’ 
Association was held in San Francisco, Dec. 2-4. President Cooper 
said the marketing of fruit the past year was not successful. Dangers 
from insect pests were considered and an appropriation of $10,000 was 
recommended to search for parasitic enemies of the orchardists’ foes. 
C. H. Rogers, discussing “ The Apple Industry of California,” said 
that last year’s crop reached a value of $2,000,000; but the railroads 
took still more for transporting the fruit to market. The yield was 
3,259,000 boxes, but other thousands of boxes rotted on the ground for 
lack of help to harvest them. He thought there was an overwhelming 
sentiment among growers in favor of allowing a limited number of 
Chinese to come to the state, so that farmers’ wives and daughters need 
not go into the orchards and labor like coolies to save fruit. A resolu¬ 
tion to that effect was adopted. E. F. Adams, of San Francisco, argued 
for co operative action. A. H. Naftzger, of Los Angeles, stated that 
the existence of private car lines controlling the cars and the means of 
refrigeration has been and is to-day one of the heaviest burdens upon the 
fruit industry of California. It has levied millions of tribute upon the 
fruit shipments, a very large proportion of which were excessive and 
iniquitous. A. H. Judd, of Watsonville, said they were congratulat¬ 
ing themselves on getting a reduction to Mississippi points from $1.05 
to 85c. a hundred, while Oregon has a rate of 60c. The California 
Water and Forest Association-(of 7,000 members) held its fourth an¬ 
nual convention at same time and place. A resolution was adopted 
asking for an appropriation of $75,000 for the government office of ir¬ 
rigation, to continue a careful study of irrigation problems in Califor¬ 
nia, and her representatives in Congress were asked to do all in their 
power to secure it. 
Peninsula —The sixteenth annual meeting was held at Newark, 
Del , January 6-8. President A. N. Brown called attention to the 
large increase of perishable shipments over the Delaware division of 
the Pennsylvania railroad, and cited the following interesting figuies 
furnished by Charles E. Kingston, division freight agent: 
Out of a total number of carloads of perishable products in 1901, 692 
were refrigerator cars, while in 1902, 1,138 refrigerator cars were used, 
an increase over 1901 of 446 cars, divided as follows: For 1901, 373 
cars of berries, 290 of peaches and 29 of apples and pears, while in 1902 
582 cars were berries, 447 peaches and 109 apples and pears ; the re¬ 
mainder of the perishable shipments were forwarded in ventilator cars. 
Out of the total of 4,660 carloads of berries and peaches the past season 
from the Delaware division, 51 berries and 808 peaches went to Jersey 
City, and 6 berries and 205 peaches to Philadelphia, the balance, 3,540 
cars, were shipped to 69 cities, with an aggregate population of over 
12,000,000, located in 14 states, with an aggregate population of over 
37,000,000. This represents practically the extent of the market for 
our horticultural products, reached in 48 hours or less by special fast 
trains. It is also interesting to know that last season 582 cars of ber¬ 
ries were forwarded in refrigerator cars and 50 in ventilator cars, while 
there were 447 refrigerator carloads of peaches against 1,344 ventila¬ 
tors. 
The strawberry industry upon the Peninsula has been of gradual 
growth, from 20 cars in 1868, to 2,045 cars in 1902. This growth, with 
but one exception, covering a period of a few years, has been constant, 
a marked increase each year, showing the crop to be a certain one, 
rarely affected by weather conditions, which either injured or entirely 
destroyed tree fruits. In contrast with this are the varying yields of 
the peach crop covering the same period, from 1868 to 1902. Many 
years the crop was either a total failure or very light, while in others 
it was abnormal. As for instance, the crop of 1875 was 9,000 car loads, 
of 1888, 5,000, of 1893, 7,000, of 1896, 5,000, while last year 2,954. 
These officers were elected : President W. G. Dawson, Cambridge, 
Md.; vice-president, Charles Wright, Seaford, Del.; secretary-treas, 
urer, Wesley Webb, Dover, Del. 
The tree of life, says the manager of the Central Michigan Nurseries, 
Kalamazoo, Mich., is one budded upon a branch root seedling, buds 
from bearing trees dug with this company’s root-protecting tree digger. 
