THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
2 9 
Prof. L. H. Bailey of Cornell ; Dr. J. Fletcher and F. T. Shutt 
of the Dominion Experimental Farm. A few changes were 
made in the directorate, but J. W. Bigelow of Wolfville was 
re-elected president, and S. C. Parker of Berkwick was re¬ 
elected secretary. 
SELECTING BUDS. 
In the course of a paper on the improvement of plants* 
G. Harold Powell, Washington, D. C., says in American 
Gardening: 
When the fruit grower has learned the meaning of the difference in 
the buds of a tree he will no longer select the buds of the Crawford 
peach from the nursery row, the bearing tree, the young tree, or any 
tree that is a Crawford. He will search among the variations that 
occur in his orchard and, watching the trees for a few years, will finally 
select his buds from those who have shown particularly good qualities 
year after year. The plant breeder will no longer sow a bushel of seed 
and cast away fifty or a hundred thousand seedlings before he discovers 
one that is better than the Northern Spy, but if he wants a better 
Northern Spy he will look among the variable branches of his Spy 
trees until he find a variation that approaches his ideal, and when he 
has satisfied himself that the variation is not an erratic one that will not 
appear again he will propagate from it, and, repeating the operation 
through several generations, he will at last realize his expectation and 
will know that the individual bud has been the key to the improve 
ment of the variety. 
Hit flursetT IRovps. 
Grafting Wax— A good grafting wax is made by melting together 
four pounds of rosin, one pound of beeswax, and one pound of tallow. 
Another good recipe is six pounds of rosin, two pounds of beeswax, 
and one pint of linseed oil. The materials must be broken up finely 
and melted together, and after melting, poured into a tub of cold 
water. When sufficiently cooled, work by hand until the wax becomes 
a light color. In handling the wax for grafting, the hands must be 
greased or oiled. 
Cooking Thread—J. C. Welch, of Welch Brothers Nursery, She¬ 
nandoah, la.—“ For the benefit of our many patrons, we are glad to 
publish, through the National Nurseryman, our method of cooking 
thread for apple grafts. We get No. 38 thread from Dexter Yarn Co., 
Pawtucket, R. I. Take 20 pounds rosin, 2| pounds beeswax. Melt 
together ; then add 10 pints of pure boiled linseed oil. Let your 
thread cook about thirty minutes. Don’t let wax get too hot, as 
thread is very easily burned. Let the thread drain well before putting 
away. We have used this receipt for the past eighteen or twenty 
seasons with good success. The above receipt will cook about ninety 
balls of thread.” 
Bordeaux Mixture —Probably the most important of all fungicides 
is Bordeaux Mixture prepared by the action of lime suspended in 
water on a solution of copper sulphate (blue vitriol), says a U. S. Dept, 
of Agriculture bulletin. It has been pointed out in Farmers’ Bulletin 
38 of this Department that the way of mixing these two constituents 
has a very appreciable effect on the chemical and physical properties 
of the mixture. It was further pointed out that if both solutions are 
dilute when mixed, a product will be formed which will stay in suspen¬ 
sion and adhere to the foliage much better than if both solutions were 
concentrated. There are now several firms putting up an article called 
“Dry Bordeaux Mixture.” This article represents an attempt to 
supply the ready mixed Bordeaux Mixture to the consumer, but such 
an attempt can hardly be successful. In the first place, drying the 
mixture is a step farther than using concentrated fluids, so that the dry 
product obtained in such a way would have very different chemical 
characteristics from the mixture properly prepared. Again, when we 
dry the mixture the suspended particles become much coarser, so that 
when completely dry we would have a substance the principal part of 
which, i. e., the oxide of copper, would hardly stay in suspension at 
all, but would immediately sink to the bottom. 
FEDERAL BILL REPORTED. 
Now Before House of Representatives In Washington for Action 
—Arguments In Its Favor Reviewed by Hr. Haugen from 
the Committee on Agriculture—Says Committee 
Is Not Advised of any Opposition from 
Any Quarter. 
The federal bill to regulate the importation and inspection 
of nursery stock throughout the United States has been 
reported to the House of Representatives in Washington 
favorably by the committee on agriculture. Congressman 
Gilbert N. Haugen, Northwood, la., of that committee, in his 
report on the bill, said that the necessity for such legislation 
has been recommended by scientific men and nurserymen for 
years and that the demand for it on the part of the people has 
become so strong that it should be deferred no longer. lie 
continued : 
The pending bill has been endorsed by representatives of entomol¬ 
ogists and vegetable pathologists, as well as by nurserymen and fruit 
growers. The committee is not advised of any opposition to this bill 
from any quarter. 
The success of the state quarantine at the port of San Francisco indi¬ 
cates what may be done and what should be done at other ports of 
entry of the country by national legislation. It should be said, how¬ 
ever, that while the quarantine at San Francisco protects California, it 
does not protect the rest of the country because the state officers have 
jurisdiction over shipments intended for California. 
It is safe to say that had such a quarantine service been in operation 
at all the principal ports of the United States during the past thirty 
years, the cost of its operation would have compared with the actual 
saving to the agricultural and horticultural interests of this country as 
one to one hundred ; and it is equally safe to say that such a service 
in the future would result with equal and probably, on account of the 
increased foreign trade, with greater relative benefit to this country. 
The danger from this insect is greater in this country than in any 
other country on account of the custom among nurserymen and 
orchardists of very extended interstate commerce. Nursery stock is 
bought in small and large quantities in different states, and is shipped 
by freight, express, or by mail to other states, thus spreading the 
infestation. 
The chief danger to the nursery interests of the country is that the 
different states have passed diverse laws, many of them very drastic in 
character, practically prohibitory, so that an honest nurseryman is 
unable to send clean nursery stock into many of the states; while a 
dishonest man, or a careless one, may freely send infested stock to 
other states which have not yet protected themselves by state laws. 
These difficulties can only be reached by a law governing interstate 
commerce, such as is now proposed. 
From what has just been said, the necessity for a uniform national 
law becomes apparent. The different requirements of state laws and 
the entire lack of any law in certain states, has produced a condition 
intolerable to the nurserymen and of great danger to the orchardist. 
In the opinion of the committee this bill is a step in the right direction, 
and is worthy of early and favorable consideration. 
THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. 
The Fruit Growers’ Association of the Pacific Northwest at 
its recently-held annual meeting elected the following officers: 
Dr. N. G. Blalock president, Walla Walla; H. Bolster secre¬ 
tary, Spokane; W. S. Offner treasurer, Walla Walla; Professor 
Anderson vice-president for British Columbia, B. Burgunder, 
Colfax, vice-president for Washington; E. L. Smith, Hood 
River, vice-president for Oregon ; S. M. Emery, Bozeman, 
vice-president for Montana; E. Wilson, Boise, vice-president 
for Idaho. 
