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THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
INDIANA HORTICULTURISTS. 
The forty-first annual meeting of the Indiana Horticultural 
Society was held in Indianapolis December 5 - 6 . Four hun¬ 
dred plates of fruit were on exhibition. President C. M. Hobbs 
of Bridgeport spoke of the promising outlook for commercial 
apple growing in the state, the large amount of land well suited 
for apple growing, which is being used for purposes to which 
it is not suited, and the fact that the great possibilities of these 
lands are not appreciated by the present owners. He strongly 
emphasized the necessity for continual warfare against insect 
pests and recommended that the state appropriation for this 
purpose be increased to $ 2 , 000 . 
“ Some of the Duties Which Nurserymen Owe to the General 
Public,” was the subject of an address by W. H. Freeman of 
Indianapolis. He urged the necessity for establishing a better 
sentiment of general honesty and thus gain the confidence of 
the public, which, he said, has, in a measure, been lost through 
misrepresentations by unscrupulous parties. He objected in 
strong language to the extensive advertising and planting of 
Carolina poplars. He argued for the planting of windbreaks 
for orchards and closer planting for better protection from 
storms and sun. He also stated that forest planting had 
become imperative and urged nurserymen to prepare to meet 
the demand, already manifest, for native forest trees. 
Prof. S. A. Beach, Geneva, N. Y., speaking on “The Func¬ 
tion of the Experiment Station Horticulturist,” said: “Horti¬ 
culturists are more ready than any other class of citizens to 
support a liberal management of these institutions. The fruits 
of their work are seen in the changes adopted by fruit growers, 
in methods of fighting insect pests and plant diseases, better 
tillage and management of orchards.” 
These officers were elected: President, W. W. Stevens, 
Salem; vice-presidents, E. B. Davis, Cartersburg, E. M. C. 
Hobbs, Salem, E. C. Reed, Vincennes, J. C. Grossman, Wal- 
cotville; secretary, W. B. Flick, Lawrence; treasurer, Sylvester 
Johnson, Irvington; executive committee, James Troop, La¬ 
fayette; Joe A. Burton, Orleans; H. H. Swain, South Bend. 
GREAT BRITAIN’S ORCHARD AREA. 
The orchard area of Great Britain continues to extend at a 
comparatively rapid rate, says the Gaidener’s Magazine, Lon¬ 
don, notwithstanding the pessimistic utterances of those who 
regard fruit growing for profit as much overdone and believe 
that it cannot, under the most favorable circumstances, be 
made to pay. Last year the orchard area of Great Britain 
was 232,129 acres ; this year it is 234,660 acres, an addition of 
2,531 acres. In 1892 the area was 208,950 acres, consequently 
there has been an addition of 25,710 acres, or an increase of 
about one-eigthth. The area in the years subsequent to 1892 
has continuously increased. 
The largest acreages are in Kent, Devon, Hereford, Somer¬ 
set, Worcester, Gloucester, Cornwall, Middlesex, Salop, Dorset, 
Monmouth, and Wilts, and these twelve counties, all of which 
are in the south or southwest, contain 174,716 acres, or prac¬ 
tically three-fourths of the orchard area of Great Britain. 
The most remarkable extension in the orchard area has been 
in Kent. Last year this favored county occupied the third 
place with 26,340 acres, but this year it is at the top with 
2 7 > 1 75 acres, and, considering its splendid climate soil and 
climate, it is reasonable to assume that it will maintain the 
position it now occupies. The counties of Devon, Somerset^ 
Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford contain in the aggregate 
120,297 acres, or fully one-half of the entire orchard acreage 
of Great Britain. The principal fruit-growing county in Scot¬ 
land is Lanark, which contains 771 acres; and the largest 
orchard area in Wales is in Brecon, this comprising 1,185 
acres. In Jersey there are 1,027 acres of orchards. 
SAN JOSE SCALE DAYS NUMBERED. 
Prof. H. E. Van Deman says that the days of the San Jose 
scale are probably numbered. Regarding the discovery in 
China, by C. L. Marlatt, of a ladybug that destroys the scale, 
reference to which has been made by the National Nursery¬ 
man, Professor Van Deman says in Rural New Yorker: 
About 25 years ago there appeared on the premises of James Lick, at 
San Jose, Cal., a new species of sale insect, ravaging his fruit trees. 
Having been a very wealthy man, and enterprising as well, he im¬ 
ported fruits, flowers, and other things of a horticultural nature from 
many parts of the world, and it was finally and very correctly sup¬ 
posed that he had unwittingly imported this new pest on some of those 
foreign plants. Tahiti was at one time thought to have been the source 
from which it came, and latterly Japan. The spread of this new scale 
was very rapid, and the Californians were greatly alarmed and tried 
various ways to destroy it. In that dry climate they found that a prep¬ 
aration called “ resin wash ” would hold it in check, and that is why it 
was not considered so serious a trouble as in the Eastern States, where 
it was eventually brought on fruit trees, and where this remedy is not 
effective because of the moister- climate. As is generally known, the 
spread of the San Jose scale in the Eastern States, from a bundle of 
trees sent from California to New Jersey, about 1886, has been so rapid 
and steady that now the whole country is in dread of the destruction 
of or very serious injury to their orchards. Legislation, official inspec¬ 
tion, and other means of fighting the terrible evil are familiar to all pro¬ 
gressive horticulturists. 
In the course of our warfare against the San Jose scale the United 
States Department of Agricultnre sent out one of its most skillful ento¬ 
mologists, C. L. Marlatt, to hunt out, if possible, the home and the 
natural enemy of this insect. It was supposed that where the evil 
originated there might also be its antidote. Japan was visited by Mr. 
Marlatt last summer in his quest, because it has long been known that 
the scale existed there. But he found that in every case where it ex- 
existed there it could be traced back to importations of trees or plants 
from America. From Japan he went to Chefoo and other places in China 
where he also found it in destructive numbers. He then hunted north¬ 
westward, and between Tientsin and Pekin he found it diminishing, 
that is, present, but in small numbers, and, happy to know, along with 
a species of ladybug, called by scientist Chilocorus similis, that was 
holding it in check. This is the treasure for which the trip was made. 
Mr. Marlatt made the most careful study of the whole matter, and 
when he was sure (and he is one of the most accurate and conservative 
of scientists) he wrote a long letter, giving all the facts to Dr. L. O. 
Howard, Chief of the Division of Entomology at Washington, D. C., 
and sent a number of the parasites of the scale to the Department of 
Agriculture as a trial shipment. Others will follow in due time. We 
have, therefore, every reason to believe that the days of the San Jose 
scale are numbered, or soon will be, and that we will in due time ex¬ 
perience similar relief from the ravages of this dire enemy that the 
orange and lemon growers of California did from those of the Fluted 
scale by the introduction from Australia of the Vedalia cardinalis, 
which is another of the ladybug friends of fruits and humanity. While 
it would be wise to continue every present effort to suppress the San 
Jose scale, it would seem to me unwise to cut down valuable orchards 
until the new means of fighting it had been given a thorough test. It 
was not more than three years from the introduction of the Australian 
ladybug until the Citrus orchards of California were safe, aud it may 
be that the Chinese species will prove equally effective in our apple 
and other orchards. 
