THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
263 
they more than ma(h; up in sturdiness, hushiness and 
quality. 
The propagating^ frames are an (‘Hicient looking lot, 
and are well tilled with a ])romising looking lot of cut¬ 
tings. The shade (|U(‘stion is solved l)y the erection of 
lattice work, about s(wen feet high, resting on one and 
one-quarter inch pipe uprights l)eddcd in concrete, cover¬ 
ing the whole s(‘ries of frames. 
The nudhod of handlitig the cuttings from the time 
they are put in the sand until they are in the nursery 
rows, explains the uniformity and hushiness in the nur¬ 
sery rows. When j)lanted out from small pots or from 
the frames where they have been bedded, they are all 
cut to the ground, insuring even, bushy plants from the 
ground up. 
Another wrinkle I noticed when a large planting of 
things like Berheris Thunbergi was made, that would 
entail a lot of hand labor and extra care in cultivation 
while they were small, after they were planted in the 
nursery rows, the. ground was sown with barley or one 
of the grains. This acted as a nurse plant, kept the 
ground free from weeds, and when the frost kills the 
immature grain in the fall it acts as a mulch for the 
young plants during their first winter. 
While the Princeton Nurseries are catering to the 
wants of the trade in the common or popular well known 
plants, they have evidently an eye on the future demand 
for good things that are not so easily grown. 
Promising lots of such plants are Cotoneaster horizon- 
talis, Euonymus vegetus, Lonicera pileata, the dwarf 
prostrate Junipers, Oxydendron arhoreum, Berberis illici- 
folia, Taxiis canadensis^ varieties of Box, and such like. 
Among the trees was noticed a pyramidal form of the 
cut-leaf Silver Maple, but on a new nursery, one hardly 
expects to find many new or rare trees and plants^ 
rather stock for which the management thinks there will 
be a market. The items that stand out in my recollection 
were an exceptionally fine block of peach buds and one 
year trees. 
Viburnums, including Seiholdi, of which I did not 
think there were so many on the market, Catalpa Bungei, 
with stems as straight as one could wish, 2 and 3 year 
Lombardy Poplars, as pretty as a picture, promising 
blocks of young Oaks, and a block of Oriental Planes 
that would satisfy the most exacting buyer. 
Yes, it was a profitable and enjoyable day, perhaps not 
from a pecuniary point of view, but rather in renewed 
hope of the future. 
“HAPPY” JIM 
James W. Fraser of the Fraser Nursery Co., Hunts¬ 
ville, Alabama, is one of the happiest men in all the 
United States. He has been recently presented with a 
little girl baby. 
“Jim” always was fond of the ladies and now he has 
one of his very own. Talk about “Peach Buds” and all 
that kind of thing, there is no stock that can come within 
a hurulred miles of what is now growing down in Ala¬ 
bama. If you don’t believe it, ask Jim. 
ONCF UPON A TIMF 
Once uj)oo a time there was a v(‘ry large and wealthy 
coimtiy. The people on tln^ whole \\(M’e happy and enn- 
tented because tiny did veuy much as tiny pleasc'd. 
TIku’c was, howcv('r, on<i s(‘ction of tlnun, that soiue- 
how did not sc(Mti to lit in with tin; g(Mieral prosptnil;. 
and progn'ss of the coiudry. Tiny were* undci' (‘xactly 
the same laws and had the saim* pi’ivileges as tlu', otheis, 
and what was most surprising their business or profes¬ 
sion had to do with the very foundation or well being of 
the country. Next to agriculture it was the most impor¬ 
tant to the health and happiiH'ss of the inhabitants. This 
peculiar group of men used to (hwote theii- whole liv(‘s to 
the [)ro])ogation and growing of fruit-trees and huslu's, 
but they seldom kept the tree.s and husln^s long (uiough 
to gather the fruit from them themsidves, pnderring to 
grow them two or three years and then sell them for a 
few cents each. 
They also propagal(Ml and grevv h(‘auliful ornameidnl 
trees and plants that had Ixam hi'ought from dilferent 
parts of the world. These were plantiMl along th(‘ high¬ 
ways, around the dwellings and in the [)aiks and gardens, 
in fact the beauty of the country surrounding cili(‘S, 
towns, villages and dwellings d(q)ended on these nui- 
serymen, and the peculiar thing about it, these' ornamem- 
tal plants, which sometimes took from live', tee ten ye^ars 
to raise, so that a man after he hael learnt his preelessieen, 
and become skilled, could only raise lour or live cro[)S in 
his life time would be sold foi- one ejr twe) elollars. 
Other manufacturing industries woulel ge't several 
cents for an article that only took a few se'conels to 
make and rapidly accumulated fortunes anel lived ve'iy 
prosperously and were enabled to j)ay their workmen 
good wages. 
The professional men such as physicians, lawyers, 
would charge several dollars for a few monu'nts of llu'ir 
time. 
These nurserymen were a strarigc; lot when you met 
them on the street you could not distinguish them fiom 
other prosperous business men, in fact some had w(!alth 
which they acquired in other lines of business and 
finance, but when it came to getting just returns for their 
skill, labor and investment in the nursery business they 
could never agree on what it should he and so agreed to 
disagree and prevent any raise of price. 
Occasionally through an accident tlu'rc^ would he a 
shortage of some particular kind of fruit or oi-namental 
tree and the price would go up to a {)oint where it would 
repay the nurseryman for his labor and investment, be¬ 
cause the public were always willing to pay what was 
right, but immediately all tiu' nurserytm'n would gi’ow 
all they possibly could so as to bring Hk; prices down, in 
fact there w^ould be so many they would have to hui'n 
them up. 
For many years the pliilosojrhei's trir'd to show" them 
the error of their ways, Ix'cause they wei'r' very un¬ 
happy. They did not want tlu'ir noble calling to h(' so dis¬ 
organized and discredited,,they i(*alized that under such 
conditions no progress could hr^ made in tin' inqrroNc- 
ment of varieties, methods of cultivation atrd pi-oduclion 
and while wonderful piogivss w^•ls Ix'ing madr; in all tin' 
other arts, the noble one of horticulture was deterioiat- 
