24 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
Note and Comment 
WHY SO FEW PECANS 
The supply of pecans from Texas, Louisiana, and Okla¬ 
homa, instead of being larger than last year’s, as was pre¬ 
dicted some weeks ago, will be much smaller. Texas will 
probably ship 150 to 175 cars, while the amount forwarded 
from the other two states will not be sufficient to bring the 
total up to 200. The cause of this shortage is not apparent, 
but the result is an upward jump in prices after the low 
prices of the early part of the season. 
PLAN A BIG.ORCHARD 
Martinsburg, IV. Va., Dec. i. Indicative of the increas¬ 
ing interest in apple growing in the Virginias, is the constant 
organization of new companies to develop orchards. John 
W. Stewart, who has four orchards of 2,000 to 6,000 trees 
each, and his associates have purchased a farm which was 
part of the old Lord Fairfax estate in Berkeley county, 
paying $102 an acre. They propose to turn this into a great 
fruit orchard and will put out 10,000 apple trees. They 
now have twenty-five men at work on the ground. This 
property will be owned by a close corporation consisting of 
Mr. Stewart and one or two associates in Delaware and 
Maryland. 
S. A. Moore of Philippi reports the organization of the 
Barbour Orchard Co., to develop 262 acres of land in that 
county on which he proposes to spend $15,000 to $20,000 in 
putting out apple and peach trees. The progress which the 
apple growing region of the South has been making the last 
few years is indicative of the great possibilities in that 
respect .—New York Packer. 
THE FLOWERING GRAPE 
Joseph Meehan, in The Florists' Exchange for Novem¬ 
ber 19, 1910, calls attention to the flowering grape as a 
decorative feature of the landscape. The Vitis cordifolia, 
or Frost Grape, which does not bear fruit, was propagated 
many years ago on account of its flowers and its great 
fragrance. The only way to be sure of getting just what is 
understood by the term “flowering grape’’ is to take cuttings 
from a sweet-scented one that does not bear fruit. Any 
such wild vine which is found in spring to be satisfactory as 
regards fragrance, and is observed later not to bear fruit, 
can be propagated and sold as an ornamental. 
THE RAILROAD AND THE WESTERN APPLE GROWER 
Howard Elliott, president of the Northern Pacific Rail¬ 
way Company, in an address at the opening exercises of the 
Spokane apple show on November 14, urged his hearers, 
particularly those engaged in the business of fruit growing, 
to consider the importance of the railroad as a factor in the 
development of any section of country. Fie noted the fact 
that one of the direct causes of the present high cost of living 
is the greatly decreased percentage of the population 
engaged in agricultural pursuits, in other words, the enor¬ 
mous increase in the number of people who are consumers 
only, and not producers of food. Taking as an example the 
Yakima and Kittitas Valleys of Washington, he estimated 
that the 185,000 acres of land there located are worth thirty 
times as much as they were previous to the establishment of 
the railroad in that section, and stated that whereas the 
railroad receives forty-eight cents for transporting a box of 
apples across the continent, it would cost probably ten cents 
to have this box of fruit hauled five miles by wagon in the 
district in which it was raised. [The farmer and fruit 
grower are painfully aware in many cases of their absolute 
dependence upon the railway. Last year for instance, 
while potatoes were selling at seventy-five cents retail in 
New York City, there was absolutely no sale for them in the 
hands of the producer in Maine and New York. The chief 
factor was the transportation charge.— Ed.] 
FRUIT GROWERS’ ASSOCIATION OF ADAMS COUNTY, 
PENNSYLVANIA 
This organization does not believe in all work and no 
play; as at its three-days’ meeting held in Bendersville in 
December, a program of music and readings, with one lec¬ 
ture, was arranged for the evening sessions. And some of 
the older societies might follow the example of the Adams 
County Association in another line; for, though this was 
only its sixth annual convention, the program and announce¬ 
ment for the year is one of the most attractive which has 
come to this office. The “display of farm and fruit pro¬ 
ducts” was not confined to collections of high quality fruit, 
but included such things as infested twigs or fruit which 
might prove instructive. The addresses, aside from that of 
the President, Mr. Robert M. Eldon, Aspers, Pa., were all by 
■men from outside of the state, fruit growers of nearby 
states, and officials of the Department of Agriculture at 
Washington. 
ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL INSTITUTE 
Of especial interest and profit to Illinois horticulturists 
will be the institute held at the University of Illinois, 
Urbana, January 31 to February 10, 1911. On this occa¬ 
sion, the Illinois State Horticultural Society will have the 
co-operation of the Illinois Florists’ Association, the Cook 
County Truck Growers’ Association, the Illinois Outdoor 
Improvement Association, the Lake Forest Horticultural 
Society, and the Horticultural Department of the Univer¬ 
sity of Illinois; and the annual meetings of several of these 
societies will take place on the last three days of the insti¬ 
tute. There will be exhibits of fruit, vegetables, and 
flowers, and the varied subjects of horticultural interest 
which make up the program, while being presented by 
teachers and orchardists of wide experience, will still be 
practical and comprehensible to the beginner in fruit¬ 
growing work. Programs may be procured from W. B. 
Lloyd, Kinmundy, Illinois; J. F. Ammann, Edwardsville; 
August Geweke, Des Plaines, and E. Bollinger, Lake Forest. 
The Western New York Horticultural Society holds its 
annual meeting in Rochester, January 26-27, 1911. A 
good program has been prepared. 
