94 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
THE USE OF ORNAMENTALS. 
Prof. John Craig made the following address at the At¬ 
lanta Convention on the use of ornamentals : 
The nurserymen, the manufacturers of nursery stock, 
like the manufacturers of boots and shoes and clothing, 
shape the fashions of the day. In this regard they carry a 
heavy responsibility. Do they realize this. Newspapers 
are said to reflect public opinion. More often they mould it. 
Nurserymen, perhaps not to the same extent, are influential, 
and shape public demand to a large extent. 
How much have the shapeliness, the general salability 
quite 'apart from utility, beauty and durability to do with 
the rapidity of multiplication? 
Take the Carolina poplar. Thousands, perhaps millions, 
of this quick-growing, short-lived, borer-infested trees are 
sold for street trees, boulevards and parks. Does the sale 
of this tree permanently advance tree planting enterprises? 
It is ti’ue that the tree has its place; it may be used for quick 
effects, for a filler between slower growing permanent trees; 
but too often it is set out as a finality, as a finished product. 
Then there is the box elder. It has its virtues: Rapid 
growth, ruggedness, generalability to withstand neglect 
and a self-efficiency wanting in many forms vastly more 
valuable. This tree has had its day in the cities, but it is 
still being planted in country places in preference to its 
vastly superior related soft maple and its beautiful and long- 
lived cousin, sugar maple. Again, in selling the box elder 
in the North the relative hardiness of geographical vari¬ 
eties is overlooked. Box Elder of Ohio and the South will 
often freeze down north of the 42d parallel, while the northern 
form is perfectly hardy. 
Native trees, as a rule, are superior to imported types of 
the same genus. For example, the European elm does not 
compare in stately beauty with the American elm. Neither 
is the Scotch elm which I see planted in Atlanta streets, 
equal to our own citizen. European linden is much inferior 
to Tilia Americana in durability, size and general luxurious¬ 
ness. Norway spruce has many excellent points to com¬ 
mend it, but we have only to examine the old specimens of 
the plains to note that it has passed its meridian and is on 
the wane, while the native white is but approaching the 
fullness of its stature. 
These are a few of the striking cases where the nurseryman 
can do much to mould public opinion along right lines, bear¬ 
ing upon public utility and public beauty. 
Along the line of aesthetics in planting, how many lawns 
have been rendered unsightly by the planting of vegetable 
monstrosities in the form of cheap and distinctly ugly weeping- 
trees. Perhaps the weeping willow is the most obtrusively 
objectionable. It is omnipresent in the smaller towns. The 
mountain ash is an improvement, but has many years of ugli¬ 
ness before its base stem and contorted outlines are obscured. 
The weeping form of the white birch is pleasing, but its life 
is short and borers often make it full of trouble. Amomr 
the more permanent and desirab'e forms are the drooping 
beeches and elms; but even these can be overdone. 
Cannot the nurseryman do more than he is doing at the 
present time towards educating the public toward an appre¬ 
ciation of the really beautiful and the relatively permanent 
among trees set along streets and in parks. 
The tendency is to yield to the public demand for quick 
results and propagate for sale cheap, short-lived shade trees. 
Finally, let us use our influence in moulding public taste, 
in the matter of lawn planting, so that trees shall be set more 
for their intrinsic qualities of beauty and endurance rather 
than from the standpoint of the incongruous and curious. 
NURSERY STOCK IMPORTATIONS. 
Hiram T. Jones, Elizabeth, N. J., addressed the Atlanta 
Convention as follows : 
For many years it was a pet theory of mine that somewhere 
where in this broad land of ours would be found the combin- 
tion of soil and climate that would permit the propagation 
especially of seedlings and of cutting plants, both deciduous 
and evergreens, which in quality and price would compare 
favorably with the supplies we now receive from Europe. 
It is true that apple seedlings are produced in the United 
States in such quantities and at such prices that in average 
years with our present duty, prevents the importation of 
them in large quantities. 
With this single exception I do not think that in seedlings 
of fruit stocks the European grower finds the competition 
of the American grower difficult to meet, and this I believe 
is equally true in the ornamental department, furthermore 
I do not expect to see these conditions changed for a long 
time to come. 
If, then, Europe is to be the chief source of our supply of 
what I may call our raw material, how may we best safeguard 
our own interests in our importations.? 
As we have become the chief customer for the immense 
quantities of seedlings, etc., grown by the European nursery¬ 
men, the natural effect of the laws of trade will in time regu¬ 
late this question. The matter of packing for the trying 
ocean trip and equally trying land transportation under the 
trying conditions of our fitful American weather has been 
well met by the prominent European growers. 
The matter of fungous and insect infestation is a more 
important question and has not received the attention the 
gravity of the matter deserves. I can remember one impor¬ 
tant importation of pear seedlings to Western New York 
nearly a quarter of a century ago that brought a pest with it 
that has cost much more to fight than the first cost of the 
large purchase. 
We have been unduly disturbed by the San Jose scale 
which has come from nowhere and is now nearly everywhere— 
and yet within three years I have known of three importa¬ 
tions from three different sources of the European Pear scale 
which is nearly as bad and in at least one case during the last 
winter upon Apple seedlings with the roots fairly destroyed 
with crown gall our American custom house department col¬ 
lected $1.00 per 1000 and 15 per cent, and kept it I have no 
doubt. 
I do not believe in impracticable legislation and we nursery¬ 
men are unfortunate in our efforts to secure any federal 
legislation in our fight against noxious insects. I do believe, 
however, that our government should take possession of and 
destroy nursery stock imported which our State Entomol¬ 
ogists pronounce to be infested with dangerous fungous or 
noxious insects and should refund to the importer within a 
reasonable time any duties that have been paid upon such 
nursery stock. 
