THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
225 
took up one of the professions as their life work, and not only- 
study books but with the spade in their hands. For such 
men there is fame and fortune when they can make them¬ 
selves successful propagators and growers of the choicer and 
rarer plants, such as Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Japanese 
Maples, Box, choice Conifcras, Gordonias, Red Flowering 
Dogwood, White Judas, Ilex crenaia, Andromedas, Heaths, 
choice varieties of Beech, etc., etc. The demand now is 
unlimited and is increasing yearly with little supply except 
imported stock. 
Specialists are needed in all lines to guide the commercial¬ 
ism of the present into the right channels, so that it will pro¬ 
duce profitable quality and prevent it from entirely eliminat¬ 
ing the finer lines of nursery stock. 
The Landscape Gardener cannot work out his designs 
unless he has the proper material, or the wealthy connoisseur 
in plants be encouraged to part with his money, if there is 
nothing to tempt him. The American purchaser seldom 
counts the cost, if he sees something he likes. It is just as 
easy to sell a Colorado Blue Spruce at Si0.00 as a Carolina 
Poplar at 50 cents. 
Let us hope and work for the elevation of our business, and 
bring it on a plane where it belongs. 
The need of skilled and trained help is 
THE NEED OF one of the most vital in the nursery 
SKILLED AND business. It is perhaps not sp pressing 
TRAINED HELP among the fruit tree growers as among 
those nurseries which cany a mixed line. 
The Colleges, Experimental Stations and Horticultural 
Schools are doing what they can but they do not turn out 
trained craftsmen, such as is produced by an apprenticeship 
to the business. 
The process of education is wrong. The book learning and 
science is all right, but when it is dominant it unfits a man for 
practical commercial work. 
Could the process of education be reversed and the young 
man after leaving the high school be apprenticed to a nursery 
for three or four years and then take a course of Horticulture, 
including chemistry, physics and botany at one of the colleges 
we should have more proficient nurserymen. 
The need of skilled labor is even more pressing and the 
nurseryman is at a disadvantage in training it. Few nur¬ 
series can afford to carry sufficient men all the year round to 
really take care of the work during the busy season, in the 
way they would like to see it handled. 
In the vicinity of large cities where a man can get $2.00 or 
$3.00 per day at unskilled labor, such as conductor on a street 
car, it is difficult to hold men even with assurance of steady 
employment. 
There should be more inducements to boys to take up 
nursery work; more consideration should be given them in 
regard to hours, Saturday afternoons and those small things 
that loom so large in the eyes of youth. 
Many a good nurseryman has been lost because a factory 
or some other employment allowed of Saturday afternoon to 
play ball. 
Conditions on the nurseries have been very much like those 
on the farm, unattractive to youth. If boys can be induced to 
work on the nursery a good proportion will stick to the busi¬ 
ness, especially if encouragement be given them as they begin 
to look to the future. 
All progressive businesses are recognizing the fact that 
they must cater to the advancement and comfort of their 
employees, because it pays. 
^ j nUtlSERl HEN 
Bvsinesa Movements. 
The Forest Nursery & Seed Co., at Irving College, has 
been incorporated, with a capital stock of $5,000.00. The 
incorporators are Messrs. J. H. H. Boyd, F. C. Boyd, J. R. 
Boyd, A. P. Hill, P. N. Moffitt, I. H. Hillis, E. R. Martin and 
Geo. Wagner. 
Northfield Seed & Nursery Company announces that it 
has secured the services of Frederick Barnes, formerly with 
J. Beaudry & Son, leading nursery men of Chicago. Mr. 
Barnes will superintend the growing of nursery stock at the 
Company’s nursery. With the services of a horticulturist of 
extensive experience in this country and in England we are 
prepared as never before to help beautify Northfield. Besides 
being a practical plant propagator Mr. Barnes is a landscape 
architect who has designed and set out many beautiful parks 
and grounds. 
PAULOWNIA IMPERIALIS 
A tree that attracts a great deal of attention in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia, is the Paulownia imperialis, which at 
this writing is in full bloom. The flowers come before the 
leaves, which make it very conspicuous, especially when seen 
against a background of green. The color of the flower is pale 
blue, so that unless it has a background when seen against the 
sky, as it usually is, the trees being very large, the color is 
scarcely discernible. It is of wonderful rapid growth. For 
the first year or two the trunks of the trees get killed back to 
the ground every winter, but the succeeding growth in the 
spring is always much stronger, and a three or four year old 
roots will throw up stems 14 to 16 ft. high and 2 to 2^^ caliper 
in one. summer, with leaves as large as 18 inches across. If 
these trunks are wrapped with newspaper they will stand the 
winter’s sun and frost, and after they have once come through 
one winter, the tissues seem to harden sufficiently to enable 
them to stand succeeding winters without protection. It is a 
native of China and I believe was named after the Empress 
Pauline. It suggests the Catalpa in general appearance, 
shape of leaves and size of flowers, and while perhaps through 
its rapid growth the tree is somewhat coarse in appearance it 
is extremely showy when in flower, owing to the immense 
quantity of bloom it produces about the first of May. The 
flowers really eome out before the leaves have obtained very 
much size, in the same manner as the Chinese Magnolia. 
The flower buds are formed the fall previous and are quite 
eonspicuous on the tree during the winter, in addition to the 
cluster of round seed pods that also remain on the tree from 
one year’s end to another. It seems to thrive best on well 
drained situations. 
