184 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
fruit and plant ]Votcs 
THE BEST LILACS 
The lilac is one of the old fashioned plants which is 
receiving renewed attention at the hands of planters. It 
is coming into fashion and this is just and right for there is 
no shrub with greater adaptability than the lilac, none 
which has more desirable qualities combined in its list of 
good points. W. N. Craig of Massachiisetts recommends 
the following collection which he says includes the best 
twelve varieties: 
“For anyone wanting a ‘boiled-down list,’ I submit the 
following dozen sorts, which will bloom over a period of 
six weeks: S. oblata, S. vulgaris; singles, Marie Legraye, 
Philemon, Ludwig Spath, Gloire des Moulins, Macrostachya, 
Charles X, S. vulgaris; doubles, Mme. Lemoine, Alphonse 
Lavalle, Belle de Nancy, S. Chinensis, S. villosa and S. 
Japonica.’’ 
ROME BEAUTY FOR COLORADO 
I cannot praise the Rome Beauty apple highly enough 
for Western planting, especially in our own mountainous 
sunny region, and on our Red Mesa soils it gets a color that 
is not surpassed by any apple, and even on our heavier 
bottom lands its color is always good in this locality. 
While in Utah inspecting fruit for the Grand Junction 
Fruit Growers Association last summer and fall I noticed 
this apple especially, as it is one of my favorite sorts, and 
found it there doing fully as well as for size, color, etc., as 
our Colorado grown, but it lacked the keeping qualities 
that make the Colorado apples of any sort so valuable. 
The Rome Beauty has many qualities that make it 
invaluable as a commercial sort. Among them are its 
coming into bearing while quite young, many fine speci¬ 
mens being picked from trees three years from planting; 
its excellent cooking and baking qualities, besides being a 
fine table apple. In these respects it is only equalled by 
Grimes’ Golden and surpassed by none, as so many good 
table apples will not cook or bake. As for keeping quali¬ 
ties, I have kept Colorado grown Rome Beauties until 
April in an ordinary cellar and they were fine when used. 
Its season, however, is along Christmas time when every¬ 
body wants good apples. 
It is also good from the grower’s point of view. First, 
it is a late bloomer, thereby escaping many early frosts. 
Last season I had a fair crop of Rome Beauty while all other 
sorts were killed by frost. The apples set singly and evenly 
all over the tree, there being no clusters or bunches. This 
is a very good feature here in the West where we have to 
spray so thoroughly and fight so hard to keep the apples 
from ravages of the codling moth, and as they have a 
tendency to thin themselves it insures a good even crop 
every year, with scarcely any thinning as is necessary with 
so many good apples to keep them from over bearing. 
This also insures a crop of good even marketable size, 
which is very important where we are so particular as to 
size and grading. There is very little danger of a crop of 
Rome Beauty being undersized if they receive any care at 
all, and so a very small per cent is cull. 
I would advise planting this variety in favored Rome 
Beauty regions by all means, as the apple is growing in 
favor each year here in the West and the price of it now is 
always equal to that of the Jonathan, Winesap, Grimes 
Golden, etc., so plant it extensively as there will be more 
call for it as its excellent qualities become known. As to 
planting it instead of the Missouri Pippin I would say, 
“Yes,’’ as it surpasses that variety in every respect, and 
always sells for more money and doesn’t have to be thinned 
so heavily to insure marketable fruit. 
I would not plant it instead of Ben Davis, as the old Col¬ 
orado Ben makes us as many dollars one year with another 
as the best of them. But I would say use the Rome Beauty 
as a kind of filler with any other sort as the main variety in 
the orchard; as the tree is of upright growth and doesn’t 
require quite as much room as some trees good results 
will be obtained. If set in a solid block they can be 
planted a little closer than some of the more vigorous 
growing sorts. 
Grand Jc., Colorado. Carl K. Rupp. 
PEACH DIFFICULTIES IN EAST TEXAS 
The horticulturist of the Texas Agricultural College, 
Professor E.-J. Kyle, is of the opinion that the way out of 
the difficulties which have been retarding peach growing in 
East Texas for a number of years is the breeding of stocks 
better adapted to climatic conditions than those which 
are now employed. The real trouble with Texas peach 
growing is that the trees are stimulated by unseasonable 
warm weather in mid-winter and then injured by succeeding 
cold waves. When the winter is uniformly cold, or normal 
in regard to cold, the peach crop escapes injury, but when 
abnormally warm trouble is sure to arise. 
Professor Kyle suggests that explorations of Mexico or 
some other peach growing country should be made with a 
view of securing seedling stock which has been so acclimated 
to warm temperatures as to remain dormant throughout the 
winter period irrespective of weather conditions. The sug¬ 
gestion is certainly worth careful consideration because of 
its reasonableness, and it points out a line of work which 
might very well be taken up by federal and state institutions 
interested in fruit growing. 
RECOMMEND APPLES AS CURE FOR DRUNKENNESS 
A writer for the California Fruit Grower makes the following 
striking statement worthy of careful consideration; 
“I am thoroughly convinced that any man who is a lover of 
whiskey and is in a condition when he thinks he must have a drink, 
if he will eat an apple before he takes the drink, he will find that 
his appetite for the drink has been very materially lessened, if not 
entirely abated for the time. 
“I would like to have you, gentlemen, make careful investiga¬ 
tion and extensive inquiry, and find, if you can, if any one ever saw 
in a grog shop or saloon, or in any other place where intoxicants 
were sold or consum,ed, that apples were placed in convenient place 
for use as a free lunch. I have never heard of such a thing. In- 1 
stead of apples as a free lunch in a saloon, you find all kinds of i 
richly spiced, salted and peppered foods—just such foods as would ' 
stimulate the appetite for intoxicants. If this use of apples can , 
become a settled fact with the masses the field of usefulness for the ! 
apple is just beginning to open. I am a firm believer in the fact 
that apples and intoxicants can never go together. 
