THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
5 
William Langham, Cedar Rapids ; M. J. Graham, Adel ; C. H. 
'1'rue, Edgewood ; P. F. Kinne, Storm Lake ; Eugene Secor, 
Forest City. Holdover directors, C. G. Blodgett, Mount 
Pleasant ; Silas Wilson, Atlantic ; W. O. Willard, Grinnell ; 
Ben Shontz, Correctionville ; B. F. Ferris, Hampton ; W. A. 
Burnap, Clear Lake. 
At the meeting of the Northwestern Iowa Society at Rock¬ 
well City, December 3 - 5 , a plea was made for a state appro¬ 
priation for plant breeding. The planting of evergreens for 
windbreaks was strongly recommended. Evergreens grown in 
the moist regions are not apt to succeed well in Iowa. They 
should be grown here and transplanted at least twice; should 
not be more than 15 or 20 inches high when set out, and the 
less they are pruned the better. Pines are better than spruces 
for windbreaks. The Austrian, Ponderosa and white pines are 
the best Scotch pine begins to die before the Austrian. Red 
cedar is not hardy, but it does better on high ground than on 
low. 
“ Why We Should Grow Our Own Trees in the Northwest,” 
was the subject of a paper by J. Sexton of Ames. Mr. Sexton 
says there are many reasons why this should be done, not the 
least of which is the fact that the relative hardiness of root and 
top is tested before the plant receives them. He does not 
wish to be understood as saying that a tree grown in the East 
or South, and brought here, is less hardy than those grown 
here; but as the Eastern or Southern trees are almost invari¬ 
ably budded on tender stock they are not so likely to do well. 
In this connection he refers to the large number of cherry and 
plum trees grown in the South and East, which have been im¬ 
ported into Iowa in late years. The high budded trees of the 
East and South, Mr. Sexton says, should be avoided. Trees 
grown in the Northwest are the only ones which should be 
purchased by the Iowa horticulturist, according to Mr. Sexton. 
Prairie grown trees, he says, should be the motto of the ama¬ 
teur fruit grower. 
ELBERTA PEACH TOO LARGELY PLANTED. 
Elberta peach is being too largely planted, and in Elberta 
season in future years you are going to see flooded markets, 
and no mistake, says J. H. Hale in Rural New Yorker, Con¬ 
sumers are going to be all right, while growers who like to 
work for fun will have their hands full, and most likely empty 
pockets. Georgia will plant from 2 , 000,000 to 3 , 000,000 
Elberta trees this winter, and probably 1 , 000,000 or 2 , 000,000 
more would be planted if the trees were to be had. For 
months now my nursery has had daily calls for Elberta in lots 
of from 5,000 to 50 , 000 , while there is only a moderate call 
for more profitable earlier and later varieties. We nurserymen 
expect a picnic in the sale of Elberta trees for a year or two 
more, when a “ busted ” market will teach the orchardists that 
it is even possible to have too much of a good thing. 
PENINSULA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Orlando Harrison, president of the Peninsula Horticultural 
society, is a member of the firm of J. G. Harrison & Sons, of 
Berlin, Md. The fifteenth annual session of the society will 
be held at Berlin, Md., January 8 , 9 and ro, r 902 . It will be 
of great value to fruit growers. J. H. Hale, of Connecticut ; 
Professor W. G. Johnson, of American Agriculturist ; R. W. 
• Sylvester, of the Maryland Agriculture college and his entire 
staff ; and the president of the Delaware experimental station 
and staff will be present. 'The meeting promises to be the 
ORLANDO HARRISON. 
largest ever held on the peninsula. The society covers part of 
Maryland and Virginia and all of Delaware. All who are 
interested in horticulture are invited. 
MARKETING FRUIT. 
A speaker at the meeting of the Wayne county, New York, 
Fruit Growers association, last month said : 
I was in New York recently and at the dock of the Hamburg line I 
saw a carload of apples from Oregon going to Hamburg. They were 
packed in boxes, graded as to size, and wrapped in tissue paper. It 
had cost the grower about $1 a box to put them in New York. If you 
would put up your fruit in as good shape, you would get as good a 
price in Hamburg or Liverpool as they do, and make nearly all of that 
dollar more than they do. But you haven’t learned to pack your fruit. 
You use a short or pony barrel, and put all grades of fruit in the same 
barrel, after stuffing in some cider apples iu the center. It is well 
known that the belt of counties along the south shore of Lake Ontario 
raise the finest flavored apples in the world, and if you would put 
them up honestly and in good shape, you would get the highest price 
in foreign markets. It would pay this association to put up a shipment 
of apples on the California plan and send it to Liverpool, even if they 
had to send a man with it. I hope this organizaton will take up this 
matter another season. 
EXPERIMENTAL HORTICULTURE. 
George H. Van Houten, secretary of the Iowa Board of 
Agriculture, said before the Kansas State Horticultural 
Society : 
I think that Iowa and Nebraska far surpass Kansas and Missouri in 
cherry culture, both in quality, quantity and commercial value, pro¬ 
longing the season of the English Morello. Speaking more fully of 
the apple, it has been the ambition of the Iowa growers to-get an apple 
with quality of Jonathan and keeping properties of Ben Davis. An 
absolute cross has been made ; it is not a chance cross. We have 
tens of thousands of this cross. You can take the pollen of a tender 
variety and apply it to the pistil of a hardy variety and produce a cross 
of as decided hardiness as desired. We are beyond the time of theory, 
and are at last near to the time of absolute success. We have also 
experimented with plums. People across the Missouri river are work- 
just as energetically to that end as we. We find people who are rais¬ 
ing thousands of varieties. • I do not mean thousands of plums, but 
thousands of varieties. 
Prof. C. C. Georgeson, in charge of the Alaskan experiment stations, 
has reported to the Department of Agriculture that he has found good 
gardens all along the Yukon Valley in the cold interior region of 
Alaska. 
