THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
45 
representation of William Saunders, John Jacobs Thomas, 
Luther Tucker, Grant Thoburn, John Aston Warder, James 
Vick, Dr. George Thurber and Marshall P. Wilder. Another 
especially valuable feature is the summary of the horticultural 
conditions and products of the states of the Union. These 
are but examples of the fund of information in the cyclopedia 
Professor Bailey is known personally to all the prominent 
nurserymen in the country; therefore, his remarks under the 
heading of “ retrospect” in connection with the preparation of 
this work will be of particular interest. He calls attention to 
the fact that the most difficult part of the making of a cyclo¬ 
pedia is to project it. The lay-out of the enterprise cannot be 
made in a day. The editor had resolved and reviewed the 
enterprise for more than ten years. There were several special 
works on American horticulture. Some subjects were well 
worked; others were untouched There was no means of deter¬ 
mining our wealth in cultivated plants; no surrey had been 
made. A scale by which to measure progress was needed. Some 
attempt along this line was made in the author’s “ Annals of 
Horticulture.” Five of these annual volumes were issued. 
From 1893 attention was given to the larger and comprehen¬ 
sive effort. A garden herbarium, now containing 12,000 
mounted specimens, was started in 1889; there had been none 
in the country. American horticultural books were to be col¬ 
lected, for the comprehensive work must contain American 
advice. It has been the misfortune, says Professor Bailey, that 
many American writings have been drawn too heavily from the 
experience of the Old World. Once this was necessary, but 
now is time to break away. Fifty'authors have written on viti¬ 
culture in America, yet scarcely one has caught the spirit of 
the American grape growing. Nearly twenty years of collect¬ 
ing by the editor has brought together the completest library 
of American horticultural books. 
The aim of the editor is thus defined : “ It was desired that 
the cyclopedia be new—brand new from start to finish. The 
illustrations were to be newly made; the cultural suggestions 
written directly for the occasion from American experience, 
and often presented from more than one point of view; few 
of the precedents of former cyclopedias to be foUowed; all 
matters to be worked up by experts and from sources as nearly 
as possible original. In judging the American work, the 
reader must bear in mind that there is really no critical horti¬ 
cultural-botanical writing in this country back of the present 
decade.” 
Many interesting office details regarding the preparation of 
the cyclopedia are cited, and a description of the manner in 
which a genus was written up is given. 
In discussing the prospect, the editor says he hopes that this 
cyclopedia will never be revised. If new issues are desired, 
mere errors should be corrected, but beyond this the plates 
should be left as they are, for it is the purpose of the 
book to make a record of North American horticulture as it 
exists at the opening of the twentieth century. It is hoped 
that subsequent progress will be recorded in annual supple¬ 
mental volumes. It is planned to issue each year a supple¬ 
ment of say 75 to 100 pages, in the same size of page as the 
present book, with cumulative index, in paper covers; every 
five years these supplements may be completed into a volume. 
The most important features of the general plan of the 
cyclopedia are thus indicated by the editor: I he book repre¬ 
sents a living horticulture; the species are compared and con¬ 
trasted, as well as described; the leading articles are signed with 
the name of the writer; the book is primarily a cyclopedia of 
horticulture, rather than of gardening; it has attempted to rep¬ 
resent plants as living and growing things that are still under¬ 
going evolution. 
The work comprises four quarto volumes of 2,016 pages, 
containing 4,357 articles, treating of 2,255 genera of plants, 
describing fully 8,793 species and 3,635 varieties, the total of 
Latin plant names, binomial and trinomial, mentioned being 
24,434. More than 300 specialists contributed to the work, 
their articles being in each case signed, and 165 persons ren¬ 
dered other assistance, such as reading proofs and making sug¬ 
gestions. It required more labor to secure the articles than it 
would have cost to write them, but the work comes fresher 
from the experience of many writers, represents more ade¬ 
quately a living horticulture, showing the plants as growing 
things always varying, and catching as far as possible the last 
variation. 
The progressive nurseryman who realizes what definite 
knowledge of his business really means will have this cyclo¬ 
pedia in his library; and all who have occasion to investigate 
matters horticultural will be glad to know of the existence of 
such a work. 
VALUE OF SELECTED SCIONS. 
At the recent annual meeting of the Eastern New York 
Horticultural Society keen interest was taken in a discussion 
between well-known nurserymen and fruit growers as to the 
possibility of breeding better fruit trees by using only scions 
and buds from superior bearing trees of each variety. The 
fruit growers claimed it was absolutely necessary if varieties 
are to be kept to standard, and as far as they had tried it 
resulted in early bearing and highly productive trees. 
The nurserymen said it was all right in theory but not pos¬ 
sible to carry out on a large commercial scale. It was admit¬ 
ted that both stock and scion exert an appreciable influence 
on the other, and in the interests of horticulture both should 
be carefully selected. Nurserymen are doing as much as 
practicable in this line. J. B. Rogers, of the New Jersey Hor¬ 
ticultural Society, said that some Kieffer pear trees appear to 
be immune to San Jose or Pernicious scale and should be used 
for propagation to the exclusion of susceptible individuals. 
ELONGATION OF TREE TRUNKS. 
It is a rather common error among people not very familiar 
with plants that the trunks or stems of all plants elongate, and 
that the branches starting from the main stem of a tree, five 
feet from the ground, say, will a year or two later be six or 
seven above the ground. This is not so. The first year, 
while the main stem or axis is growing, a small young branch 
may be carried with the growth, but usually only in the shape 
of a bud, even then. After that, the position of the branch 
is fixed._ 
FUMIGATION FOR CANADA. 
N. B. Colcock, Niagara Falls, Ont., writes that the fumiga¬ 
ting station at Niagara Falls opened on March 15th, and that 
it will close on May 15th. The regulations are the same as 
those of last year. 
