THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
230 
PEAR AISD APPLE . 
Superiority of the French Stocks for Northern Planting—Single 
Advantage of Japan Stocks Applies Only to Southern 
Planting—American Apple Stocks for Grafting, 
French for Budding — St. Julian Plum, Myro- 
holan and Mariana Compared. 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
I should be pleased to have your advice on the following in 
your valuable paper : 
1. I was informed lately that the union of other varieties 
of pears on Kieffer stocks was not liked by nurserymen in 
general. What seem to be the objections ? 
2. Do you think the Japan pear stock superior to all 
others ? Why ? 
3. Are native apple stocks as good as French stocks? If 
not, why ? If so, what variety is believed to produce the most 
satisfactory stocks ? 
4 Will the pits from Abundance and Red June plums pro¬ 
duce stocks suitable to bud other varieties on ? How would 
the stocks from the Lombard seeds do? Or would the Myro- 
bolan be better for all varieties ? 
W. S. N. 
Glen Rock, Pa., June 17, 1901. 
r. Kieffer have not been used long enough to determine 
definitely either their good or bad qualities. 
2. Japan pear stock are not now used to any extent in the 
North and their use in the South is being greatly curtailed. 
French stocks are superior in all respects for northern plant¬ 
ing. The single advantage possessed by the Japan stocks, i. e. 
thicker and stronger foliage less subject to leaf blight and 
hence easier and surer to take a bud, applies only to southern 
planting. Trees grown on these stocks are generally consid¬ 
ered less hardy, shorted lived, and subject to all the ills the 
pear is heir to. 
3. Western grown apple stocks are better for grafting pur¬ 
poses, as the nurserymen can get two or more grafts from a 
single seedling. The French are superior for budding, as they 
are branched roots. The American grown are nearly all from 
French seed. 
4. St. Julian plum stock makes the best orchard trees and 
is the stock generally used in European nurseries, but Myro- 
bolan makes the best nursery tree, and the latter is the stock 
almost exclusively used by growers of European sorts of plums 
in the United States. Mariana is largely used in the West and 
is undoubtedly a variation of the Myrobolan. Americana 
sorts do very well on this stock. 
BAGSHOT RHODODENDRONS. 
“Again this season the firm of John Waterer & Sons, Ltd., 
of the Bagshot Nurseries, Surrey, are making a rhododendron 
display in the gardens of the Royal Botanic Society, Regent’s 
Park,’’ says the Gardeners’ Chronicle, London, Eng. “ Those, 
therefore, who desire to see a representative collection of this 
most useful of all flowering shrubs may do so during a visit to 
London without having occasion to travel into any of the 
more or less remote districts of Surrey. We have many times 
remarked upon the ease with which rhododendrons may be 
transplanted, after it is seen which plants have the most flower 
buds upon them, and this annual show of Messrs. Waterer’s 
affords striking evidence of this fact, for some of the specimens 
are of considerable size.” 
DR. HERMANN SCHROEDER. 
A local history in Illinois, referring to one of the oldest 
nurseymen of the country, says: 
There are always a Tew men in every community who are recognized 
leaders in the growth of the localities with which they are connected, 
who are the promoters of its enterprises, the founders of its industries 
and the advocates of all the varied interests which will contribute to 
the prosperity and well being of their fellow-townsmen. Of this class 
Dr. Schroeder is a representative. He has been one of the most potent 
factors in the upbuilding of Bloomington, where for almost half a 
century he has made his home. 
Dr. Schroeder was born in the town of Altliaklensleben near the city 
of Magdeburg, in Prussia, May 22, 1821. His father was one of 
.Napoleon’s old soldiers who gave the signal to retreat from Moscow. 
On his deportation to Siberia he escaped from Russian slavery, and 
found after a long wandering a home and wife in the village of Alt- 
haldensleben. There the Doctor was born in a year of great famine, and 
taken in a basket to the Kloyster fields by his mother who worked 
therein. He was given the best educational advantages afforded in the 
schools of the town, and his parents, who were Catholics, .destined him 
Electric Illumination—Pan American. 
for the priesthood. Aristocratic people and even the bishop became 
interested in him, for he was an excellent scholar, and furnished him 
the means of study, but after his mother’s death he abandoned the idea 
of entering the priesthood and commenced the study of natural 
philosophy and medicine, but while thus engaged his benefactor, 
Herr Nathusius, died and he commenced the study and work of an 
architect, as it would sooner bring him financial returns, and he must 
depend upon his own exertions for livelihood. He met with excellent 
success in the new undertaking and soon became the contractor of 
government buildings. He prospered financially, but his love of 
republican principles led him to discuss the same from the public plat¬ 
form and through the press, and in the great historical year, 1848, he 
was to be found on the barricade and among the revolutionary speakers^ 
Soon, however, a contra-revolution took place and Doctor Schroeder, 
together with many other revolutionists, was persecuted and would 
have been shot, had he not made his escape at night and fled America, 
In order to effect his escape he was obliged to kill a soldier who was 
pursuing him, and taking his gun, the Doctor brought it with him to 
America, it being the first needle gun in this country. 
Hidden in one of the rotten, wooden ships Dr. Schroeder made his 
way to New York. He could not find employment there and so he 
went as an emigrant to Cleveland, Ohio, where he gained some kind 
friends and again took up the study of medicine, becoming, after two 
years of preparation, a physician of considerable note. He practiced 
in Mansfield and in Mount Gilead, Ohio, for a time and then by wagon 
started westward, reaching the little town of Bloomington, Illinois, in 
1851. Upon the prairie, near the present site of the Illinois Central 
depot, he constructed a shanty out of the first log house ever built in 
the town, and began the practice of medicine, eventually directing bis 
energies into other channels. He dealt quite extensively in real estate 
