THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
137 
Our horticulture everywhere emphasizes the probability cf a 
secondary and more important outcome.” 
Among those who reasoned that a cross between a Russian 
and an American variety might result in an apple that would 
possess the desired hardiness and quality, was Charles G. 
Patten, the well-known nurseryman of Charles City, la. In 
commenting upon Mr. Patten’s work with Patten’s Greening, 
A. T. Erwin, of the Iowa Agricultural College, at Ames, la., 
where Professor Budd labored long, says in the Rural New 
Yorker : 
“Without doubt the most striking example of this secondary 
outcome (refering to Professor Bailey’s remark) is to be found 
in the Patten’s Greening, a variety originated by Charles G. 
Patten, of Charles City, Iowa. To-day it stands out as the 
only apple of American origin which finds a place in the 
Minnesota Horticultural Society list, of the first degree of 
hardness for planting in Minnesota. It is equally prized in 
the Dakotas and farther north. The present moist season has 
been an exceptionally bad one for twig blight in Iowa. The 
latter part of June the writer had the pleasure of visiting the 
parent tree of this variety. It is situated in a seeding orch¬ 
ard, and surrounding it are a number of varieties, all of which 
were more or less blighted, yet this old tree showed scarcely 
a trace of it. Patten’s Greening is a cross between the 
Duchess (a Russian) and the Rhode Island Greening. The 
fruit is oblate to roundish, medium to large ; color light green, 
sometimes slightly blushed with red on one side ; flesh yellow¬ 
ish white and subacid ; season late fall and early winter ; fair 
for eating and an excellent cooker. The tree is well shoul¬ 
dered and apparently as hardy as the Duchess. A number of 
other seedings of Russian-American origin are attracting atten¬ 
tion, and no doubt in the skilled hands of some Patten or 
Gideon greater things are yet to come.” 
RECORD OF ALL HYBRID PLANTS. 
At the international conference on plant-breeding and hy¬ 
bridization, held in New York city, it was suggested that some 
central office should be established where records of all hybrid 
plants might be recorded and tabulated in order to remove 
the necessity of later workers traveling over the same ground 
as their predecessors. In the short discussion on the feasibility 
of this proposition and on an understanding that the work was 
to a certain extent already covered by the experts in the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, a resolution was offered by C. L. 
Watrous, president of the American Pomological Society, that 
a committee be named to take into consideration the sugges¬ 
tion of Professor Bailey, with a view to offering a recommenda¬ 
tion to the Secretary of Agriculture for a systematic record of 
such information as a part of the work of the national depart¬ 
ment. The chair appointed as such committee C. L. Watrous, 
L. H Bailey, W. M. Hays, N. L. Britton and H. H. Groff. 
WELL, WELL, ILLINOIS ! 
An Illinois paper publishes the following : 
Cy Howard, an eccentric farmer of Henderson County, committed 
suicide last week by hanging himself to a harness peg in the barn. The 
only known reason for his rash act was that he had recently been 
swindled by a couple of fruit tree peddlers to the tune of about $1,500. 
In order to meet this obligation he had to mortgage his farm. This so 
preyed on his mind that he was probably mentally unbalanced when 
he committed the rash act. 
NURSERY INSURANCE COMPANY. 
The suggestion recently made by A. Willis, Ottawa, Kan., 
that there should be uniformity of insurance rates on nursery 
storage houses and inviting a discussion of the subject has 
caused considerable interest. 
Brown Brothers’ Company, of Rochester, N. Y., suggest that 
a Nursery Insurance Company might be found advisable as a 
means of decreasing the cost of such insurance. We would 
be glad to receive the views of others on this subject. 
Jackson & Perkins Company, Newark, N. Y., have suggested 
through the National Nurseryman that the matter be re¬ 
ported upon by a committee of the American Association of 
Nurserymen. 
Following is the suggestion of Brown Brothers’ Company : 
Editor National Nurseyman : 
In reply to Mr. A. Willis, Ottawa, Kan., would say we use 
one storage house in winter. It contains 360,000 cubit feet, 
built of stone, in use for seven years, tank in cellar, water pipes 
throughout, equipped with water pails and fire extinguishers. 
Keep insured, rates on building $10.00 a thousand per 
year, on stock $6.25 a thousand per five months. Would 
be glad to have the insurance question on both cellars and con¬ 
tents threshed out. Possibly a Nursery Insurance Company 
organized among the nurserymen themselves could be made 
very materially to decrease cost of insurance. Certainly the 
risk is small in the average cellar. 
Rochester, N. Y., Oct. 1, 1902. Brown Brothers’ Company. 
POINTER FOR NURSERYMEN. 
In another column we present a statement by a Missouri 
man, who has evidently had opportunity for general obser¬ 
vation, regarding the status of the Ben Davis apple. Like the 
Kieffer pear this apple has been found a profitable one from a 
commercial standpoint, and this has led to a heavy run an the 
nurserymen for such trees. There have been many expressions 
of adverse criticism regarding the quality of the Ben Davis 
apple, but so long as the orchardist’s heavy demand for'trees 
is justified by lively markets for this variety, there is nothing 
left for the nurseryman to do but to endeaver to supply the 
demand. If, however, there are unmistakable indications of 
a break in this demand and a run to other varieties, it behooves 
the nurseryman to be equally well prepared. 
Professor Bailey in the Cyclopedia of American Horticulture 
gives a list of twenty-seven varieties of apples as the leading 
commercial varieties in North America, in alphabetical order, 
and says: “Baldwin and Ben Davis, the former of inferior 
quality and the latter of worse, hold the supremacy in Ameri¬ 
can market apples.” _ 
MICHIGAN NURSERIES. 
Nursery stock valued at $338,544 was reported by 159 far¬ 
mers and nurserymen in Michigan in 1899. I he 54 com¬ 
mercial nurserymen reported $319,804 derived from the sale 
of nursery products, and $19,744 from the sale of other 
products. The area of land used was $6,029 acres 
and the gross income per acre $56.32. The total investment 
was $528,530; $378,355 in land, $100,800 in buildings, $28,795 
in implements, and $20,580 in live stock. Fertilizers cost 
$ 7 , 637 , and farm labor $71,435. or 210 P er cent of the value 
of the gross product. 
