THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
IRecent [Publications. Hn Common Council. 
The Department of Agriculture has issued a bulletin on bitter rot 
of apples, a disease that caused damage to the apple crop of 1900 to 
the amount of $10,000,000. 
Country Life ia America for O-tober is a superbly illustrated, double 
Country Home number, and takes up the various problems that cluster 
about the building of a country house, from how the cellar can be kept 
dry, to the question of interior decorations, it is, in fact, a complete 
house building manual. 
The World’s Work for October has a portrait of and reference to the 
1 ite Frederick Law Olmsted. Timely and significant is the usual finan¬ 
cial article indicating the growing 'influence of New Orleans as the 
export outlet for the we3t and northwest accompanied by a map of the 
southern railway systems as changed by recent Wall street manipu¬ 
lations. 
The Department of Horticulture at the St. Louis World’s Fair has 
just issued a circular of forty pages which gives very complete infor¬ 
mation with regard to every possible question which may arise with 
relation to that department. A part of the pamphlet is devoted to a 
statement as to the importance of placing a large amount of fruit in 
cold storage this fall in order that the space to be assigned any state 
may be covered at the opening of the Exposition and kept covered 
during its entire period. A copy of the circular may be obtained of 
Frederic W. Taylor, chief of the department, St. Louis, Mo. 
One of the finest catalogues of the season and indeed one of the 
finest that has ever come to our desk is that of the Andorra Nurseries, 
Wm. Warner Harper proprietor, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. It is 
prepared along the most modern lines and is a model of what, in our 
opinion, a nursery catalogue should be. Printed in excellent taste, 
profusely illustrated, with half-tone engravings of a very high grade, 
alphabetically arranged and indexed, this catalogue will be preserved 
for reference wherever a list of high-grade ornamental and choice fruit 
stock is needed. Mr. Harper is to be congratulated upon his very 
successful endeavor to produce a catalogue that shall fittingly repre* 
sent his well-known nursery. 
Part II of the American Horticultural Manual, treating of systematic 
pomology, has been issued. It contains descriptions of the leading 
virietiesof orchard fruits, grapes, small fruits and the nuts of the United 
Scate3 and Canada. It is illustrated with hundreds of outlines of the 
leading commercial fruits and nuts. The two volumes of this manual 
are by Prof. J. L. Budd, of Iowa, and Prof. N. E. Hansen, of South 
D ikota, whose research in horticultural lines especially fitted them for 
the work. The plan of the work is to include only the varieties recom¬ 
mended at this time by societies and growers. The names of fruits, it 
is stated, will be made to conform mainly to the code of the American 
H >rticultural Society. Probably the American Pomological Society is 
miant. The book, as well as the first volume, will prove a valuable 
siurceof information so classified as to be readily available. It shows 
the result of much labor. Prof. Hansen is the author of the two hun¬ 
dred or more pages devoted to the Apple. Clbth, pp. 491 ; $1.50. New 
York : John Wiley & Sons. London : Chapman & Hall, Ltd. 
The popular interest in horticulture is recognized by the publishers of 
the Delineator which each’month contains some attractive article on this 
subject. That in the October Delineator is devoted to hardy shrubs. It 
i3 by Ward McLeod who tells of the ease with which shrubs may be 
grown. The greatest error, he says, in planting shrubbery is the absence 
of a well formulated plan as to its disposal. A temporary symmetry is 
the sole aim at planting time, yet nothing gets beyond control sooner 
than shrubbery so planted. Massing the smaller shrubs increases their 
value in landscape effects, and gi ve3 least trouble in thinning out. Again, 
those of a kind, or of a similar habit, are not so likely to suffer from 
the encroachment of greedy neighbors, such as the rampant lilacs and 
strong-growing Philidelphus, with other spreading sorts that sap all the 
moisture and nourishment from the soil. Choice sorts of a low, and 
preferably of a weeping habit are especially adapted to planting near 
the house and in positions to break up the angularity of its foundation. 
Medium growers include the beautiful Deutzias in choice variety. 
Hydrangea paniculate grandiflora, rightly named, is considered the 
finest shrub grown and very hardy. 
Editor National Nurseryman: 
As you well know, the supply of peach seeds is very scarce this year. 
At this time I am very much interested in finding out the best method 
of handling seeds and know from correspondence with some others that 
this information would be of much value to many. Can you not through 
your journal, take up this matter, and in so doing be of much good to 
many of your readers? 
Especially might information as to methods of handling seed3 in sand 
or sawdust causing them to open in 89 or 99 days be of value owing to 
the late arrival of western seeds. 
York Springs, Pa. W. E, Geove. 
J. C. Hale, Winchester, Tenn.:—“In regard to the best method of 
handling peach pits so they will germinate quickly, will say that in the 
South we always try to plant our seed early in the Fall in the nursery 
rows. September, October and November are the best months; but 
sometimes we are not able to clear our land of a crop in time to plant 
our seed In the Fall. Then we stratify our seed by putting them out in 
the open, spread on the ground 2 or 8 inches thick, then cover them 
up three inches in sand. This should be done in September and 
October. Seed bedded in this way will germinate if planted in the 
Spring in February and March. 
“ This method is the only practical course to pursue in the South; 
but in the North, where the winters are very much colder, there might 
be some better way of handling pits, where they can be planted in the 
Fall.” 
J. G. Harrison & Sons, Berlin, Md.“ We have usually practiced 
the method of preparing our land as we would for wheat, putting it in 
perfect condition, marking out the rows, dropping the seed in October 
and November ; but last season, being short of labor, we were compelled 
to bed the seed during these months in layers about six inches deep, 
outside, covering them with sand from 2 to 3 inches deep and left them 
until February and March when we purchased a piece of land, prepared 
the soil and dropped the seed in the same manner as in the Fall. We 
have a most excellent stand of seedlings; in fact, we have never had 
better. 
“I think our budded list of peach will be more than 1,500,000 this 
season, and at this writing we are not yet through budding, although 
they should have been completed during the month of August for best 
success.” 
M. B. Guthrie, Ortiz Fruit Farm, Mexico, Mo.:—“It is our custom 
here to plant peach pits in nursery rows during the Fall and early 
Winter, and have always secured splendid results. We are not familiar 
with any other method of treating peach pits.” 
Edwin Hoyt, New Canaan, Conn.Peach pits should be buried 
on the south side of a fence or building, with the earth well mi xed in 
with the pits. Put them from 4 to 6 inches below the surface. In 
April dig them out when the larger proportion of the pits will crack 
open, and the meat of the pit will drop out of the shell. Keep the pits 
from drying and plant, covering about one to one and one-half inches 
deep. In this way almost every pit will come up unless worms eat the 
sprout off before it gets through the ground.” 
H. S. Wiley, Cayuga, N. Y.:—“ We usually get our peach seed in 
toward the end of November and cover 3 to 4 inches deep, placing the 
pits 2 to 3 inches apart. This is what we call ‘bedding out’ the seed. 
In the Spring we usually find a fair percentage of the seed cracked and 
sprouting; what does not crack we crack with hammer, using care not 
to bruise the kernel. The seeds are then planted in rows where they 
are to grow and are budded in August following the planting.” 
D. S. Collins, Manager Delaware Nurseries, Milford, Del.— “We 
herewith hand you check to renew our subscription to the National 
Nurseryman. We think it the best trade publication and do not wish 
to be without it.” 
