The National Nurseryman. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK. 
Copyrighted 1902 by The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated. 
“Nurserymen now know that a trade journal is a necessity. Prof. L. H. Bailey 
Vol. X. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y., AUGUST. 1902. 
No. 8. 
FEDERAL BILL PROSPECT. 
Chairman I Vatrous of Committee on Legislation says that 
Explanations by the Committee Changed the Views of Con. 
gressman Wanger who had Opposed the Measure—Outlook 
is Favorable for Bill’s Passage, says Mr, Watrous. 
In view of the adjournment of Congress without action on 
the federal inspection bill, and of Congressman Wanger’s 
opposition as announced in the July issue of the National 
Nurseryman, the opinion of Chairman Watrous of the com¬ 
mittee on legislation was sought and obtained as follows : 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
I have your favor of the 14 th asking me to advise you in 
regard to the status of our federal quarantine bill and its 
prospects. In response I have to say that while at Milwaukee 
we had good reason to hope for very prompt action on the 
part of the house of representatives, yet we were disappointed 
by the unexpected haste in which Congress adjourned. 
Speaker Henderson had been approached by men of the Iowa 
delegation, and had said that he was ready to recognize the 
proper man at the proper time to move the consideration of 
our bill. If Congress had remained in session a few days 
longer, we do not doubt that the coveted opportunity would 
have been given and the bill passed through the house. Its 
fate in the Senate we think is assured, already. 
The only expression of extreme disapproval which has come 
to me as chairman of the committee is from Hon. Irving 
P. Wanger, M. C. I note his letter on page 91 of the July 
National Nurseryman. Before I saw his letter here, his 
correspondent had favored me with a copy of it, and I had 
answered Mr. Wanger in person. While he supposed it was 
entirely unnecessary and therefore highly improper to propose 
a bill like ours, I am satisfied that his objections arose from 
his lack of knowledge of the extreme gravity of the situation. 
When I informed him that no shipment of nursery stock from 
any state could be considered as absolutely safe from carry¬ 
ing the San Jose scale unless that stock had been examined by 
a competent expert, he modified his views relative to the 
dangerous and oppressive character of our bill. I informed 
him that practically all the nursery stock now shipped in inter 
state commerce is examined in precisely the manner proposed 
by our bill excepting that the examiners are chosen by the 
different state authorities and work under different laws 
instead of being authorized by the Federal Department of 
Agriculture and working under uniform regulations. 
I have good reason to hope that when our bill comes up 
next winter Mr. Wanger will be our good friend. The com¬ 
mittee will feel bound, under the Milwaukee instructions, to 
lay all plans for action at the opening of the short session of 
Congress and ask for a vote upon the bill, which is now before 
the House with the unanimous report of the large committee 
on agriculture. 1 hose with best information relative to its 
chances are hopeful of its prompt passage through the House. 
If that can be secured, it will be our next effort to see it 
through the Senate, and from the experience of the committee 
with senators it seems almost certain that there will be no 
serious difficulty there. 
. C. L. Watrous. 
Des Moines, Iowa, July 16 , 1902 . 
THE SEEDLESS ORANGE. 
The New York Times, in an article on the growing of the 
navel orange by Luther C. Tibbets in California, says : 
It is funny to read nowadays of the arguments then advanced by 
California horticulturists against a general growing of the navel orange. 
Mr. Tibbets, however, had full faith in the new variety. He budded 
all his seedling orange grove to the new navel variety, and he sent 
samples of the new fruit to horticulturists and fruit growers through¬ 
out California. In 1880 the “Lucky” Baldwin orange grove of sev¬ 
enty-five acres was planted to navel oranges exclusive at Sierra Madre. 
It was the first important recognition of the commercial superiority of 
the new fruit. Six months later a syndicate of Englishmen planted a 
larger tract in Riverside to trees budded from the two original Tibbets 
trees. Orange groves were few and far between in those days, but by 
1883 the majority of trees set out had been budded from the Tibbets 
trees. In 1885, when the Baldwin and other groves began to bear the 
new navel fruit, the era of planting seedling groves came to an end 
Orange growing boomed all over Southern California. In 1886 over 
5,000 acres of new land that had been sheep and cattle ranges were 
converted into navel orange groves. In 1887 over 6,000 more acres 
were made orange groves, and in 1888 some 800,000 navel orange trees 
were planted in 8,000 acres of comparatively virgin soil. The money 
there was in growing navel oranges was on every one’s lips in Southern 
California. Some men who had gone earliest into producing the new 
variety made almost incredibly big profits on their investments. The 
most spontaneous and remarkable real estate boom ever known any¬ 
where occurred in Southern California in 1886 and lasted until 1888. 
Towns like Pomona, Ontario, Redlands, Tustin, Monrovia, Sierra 
Madre, Corona, Highlands, Azusa in the orange-growing localities were 
unknown before 1885, and grew to several thousand population in a 
few years. Land that had gone begging at $30 an acre sold readily at 
$800 and $1,000 an acre, when its adaptability to navel orange produc¬ 
tion was shown. The railroads brought 12,000 people to Southern 
California every month during 1887. Everybody talked navel oranges 
and the great profit there was in the business, and people who had 
nurseries of orange trees grown from navel buds made fortunes in one 
or two years. In 1888 and 1889 tiny budded trees suitable for planting 
in groves sold for $1.60 and $2 each All the seedless orange trees in 
the world have been propagated from beds from the two parent trees on 
the Tibbets place at Riverside. The trees stand there still, and with a 
little sence about them. While many a man has become a millionaire 
and an army of people have made independent fortunes in the orange 
industry in California, and as many more people have become very 
wealthy in the rising tide of real estate values by reason of the cultiva¬ 
tion of the navel orange, Luther Tibbets has grown steadily pooler in 
purse. He sees all about the scene of his first experiments with the 
seedless orange trees, beautiful home, and rich orange groves worth teDs 
of thousands of dollars, all made by reason of the navel orange. It is 
the old story of the poor inventor and the business man who buys the 
inventor’s product for a song and makes a fortune. 
