The National Nurseryman. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK. 
Copyrighted 1902 by The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated. 
“ Plant breeding is in its earliest infancy .”—Luther Burbank. 
Vol. X. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y., NOVEMBER, 1902. 
No. 11. 
PIONEER STORAGE HOUSE. 
First In the Country was Built by the Late Robert Douglass 
Thirty-Five Years Ago—Experience In the Use 
of Storage Houses at Waukegan, III. 
Editor National Nurseryman : 
I have been very much interested in your article on storage 
houses. We have used them for over thirty-five years, thus 
being the pioneer in this line. The first one was dug into the 
banks of a ravine and was washed out by a flood. The sec¬ 
ond one was then built on a piece of well drained gravelly 
soil.. When my father, the late Robert Douglas, bought the 
land in 1844, the Indians used this spot to store their corn and 
other crops. This shed or storage house was about 35x75 feet 
in the clear, excavated about four feet, side walls of concrete 
two feet thick, rafters 2x10 inches sheathed on the inside, 
double boarded and shingled on the outside. The 10 inch 
space was filled with leaves and prairie hay. This cellar was 
torn down in 1898, as we had sold the land. I cannot remem¬ 
ber the year it was built, but know it was before 1873. 
In 1875 we put up another nearly as large, excavated as was 
the other one, but with dirt walls, posts supporting the roof. 
Heavy snow storms so injured the roof that it was taken down 
about five years afterwards. We had a few thousand ash seed¬ 
lings left over one spring. They had been taken up the 
October before and, in June, sent Ellwanger & Barry some of 
them, Mr. Barry being here at the time. One year later a 
package was sent them from this lot and a package the year 
following. I believe about 40 per cent, of these grew. That 
year the doors were accidentally left open during a hot, 
murky spell, and some of them began growing in the pile where 
they had lain without soil on their roots for over 30 months. 
We received orders from India for catalpas by mail which 
reached them safely, and an enquiry for a large lot of them 
for China. As these latter were not to be sent for one year, 
and the enquiry asked for both freight and express rates, we 
concluded to see how long they would keep with ordinary 
packing. One thousand of the one year old catalpas were 
packed in a box and kept in a close room all summer. This 
room had one window facing the south and one the west 
without curtains, so you can judge how warm and stifling the 
room sometimes got; certainly as warm and close as the hold 
of a ship. In winter the box was moved to the cellar and late 
in spring opened and most of the plants were set out in nursery 
rows and nearly all grew. 
We built a new cellar storage building last year, 35x98 feet, 
covering the roof with three-ply felt tar building paper instead 
of shingles. We put in last autumn about 700,000 seedlings, 
nearly all deciduous seedlings, and they kept finely. We 
cleaned it out recently, getting ready for refilling and threw 
the leaves, hay and other rubbish on the refuse pile. I had 
the men fork this rubbish over to-day, and send you by express 
a bundle of catalpas they found in it, so you can judge of its 
keeping qualities. 
We have very few evergreen seedlings, as they are very apt to 
mould. We would rather have deciduous seedlings from a well 
kept cellar than those heeled in during the winter. We frequently 
extend our transplanting to the middle of June. One year we 
held back over 100,000 evergreen seedlings until the middle of 
July, and had good success with them owing to it being an ex¬ 
ceptionally wet season. We do not, however, advise late plant¬ 
ing of evergreens, especially in the Middle West, where we are 
subject to July and August droughts. 
Our counting and storage room is attached to the storage 
cellar, 12x14 feet; two-thirds of the south roof is glass and a 
window in the north wall making it a very light room. 
Thos. H. Douglass. 
Waukegan, Ill., Oct. 13, 1902. 
DES MOINES NURSERY COMPANY. 
Regarding the incorporation of the Des Moines, Iowa, 
Nursery Co., the Des Moines Register and Leader under date 
of October 17th says : 
This company was established more than thirty years ego, and in its 
earlier days was operated as a corporation, but for the past twelve or 
fifteen years has been owned and managed by our well known towns¬ 
man, J. W. Hill. The articles of incorporation, recently filed with the 
county recorder, show a capital stock of $50,000, and bear the names 
of several Des Moines financiers, who become identified with the newly 
organized company, and we bespeak for it the continued success which 
has characterized it for the past fifteen years under the management of 
Mr. Hill, who remains president und general manager. 
Mr. M. McFarlin, president of the Des Moines Elevator Company, 
and Hon. H. E. Teachout, president of the Des Moines jce company, 
became vice presidents, J. D. Whisenand, president of the Central 
State Bank, treasurer, and F. E Mabee, who has been assojiated with 
the company for several years, secretary. 
Our reporter is advised by Mr. Hill, that it is the intention of the 
company to increase the acreage of the plant, to build storage cellars 
and packing houses, and make other improvements for the extension 
and enlagement of their business. 
This company now employes from fifty to hundred salesmen, who 
operate in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota, 
and it is the aim of the company to push the work in these states with 
renewed energy. Mr. Hill, who remains in the active management, 
has been a resident of this city for many years and is well known 
among the business men of Des Moines, while Mr. Mabee, who assumes 
the position of secretary, was born and raised in the city, and has been 
associated with this and other companies in the nursery business for 
the past fifteen years. _ 
Thomas E. Burroughs, New London, Conn., Aug. 11, 1902 
“Enclosed find one dollar to renew subscription for one year from 
July, 1902. Cannot get along without your publication. It is the 
‘ real thing.’” 
