THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
299 
damage to other goods in their neighborhood, the plants re¬ 
ceive no more water until the purchaser takes them home 
and plants them. What is the result ? The plant drys out, it 
would be impossible for it to grow, and the purchaser after 
nursing the thing along until well into the summer becomes 
disgusted and roots the plant out of his garden. He is both 
disgusted and discouraged but he fails to take into consid¬ 
eration the fact that he purchased the poorest stock he oculd 
get in the worst possible condition. Next year the chances 
are he will plant geraniums or some other tender pot grown 
flowers, if he plants anything at all. 
There is still another phase to the question which works 
injury to the nursery business and that is the fact that the 
purchaser in most instances does not know what he is pur¬ 
chasing and the sales girls are never able to tell him. He 
knows he is buying a rose because the bush is sold as a rose, 
looks like a rose bush and has thorns upon it but whether it 
is a red one, a white one, or what variety, he does not know, 
so that he is entirely ignorant on many points the knowledge 
of all of which goes so far to lend charm and create pleasure 
in plant growing. I have said nothing about the direct harm 
these sales do the regular trade. By that I mean the harm 
done by their being deprived of the business these stores are 
doing. I really believe, from what I have seen and heard, 
that the discouragement the purchasers of this stock meet 
with is probably more costly in the long run to the regular 
nurserymen than the business of which he is deprived. 
As a further illustration of this I would cite an instance 
which occurred here in Pittsburg this spring. One of our 
department stores in their mad rush to gain notoriety and 
advertising, published in their advertising that they would 
on a certain date. Arbor Day, I believe, give to the school 
children of our city 200,000 Catalpa trees and then they had 
the papers publish articles upon the wonderful Catalpa tree 
(Catalpa Speciosa) which this firm would so generously pre¬ 
sent to any child calling for one at the store in company with 
a parent. For a few weeks thereafter Catalpas ranging from 
two to three feet in height, nothing more nor less than whips, 
could be found planted between the curb and the sidewalks 
over our city. Today there are none to be found anywhere. 
The garbage man has them, but are not the children who 
planted them a little discouraged? 
But to come to the point. It seems to me that the sale of 
these Holland grown goods by the stores could be stopped 
either by circulating a petition of protest among the nursery¬ 
men and giving the Holland grower to understand that the 
American nurserymen desired it stopped or by inducing the 
American nurserymen to boycott any Holland firm selling to 
a department store. In my dealings with a number of Hol¬ 
land traveling men this spring I would ask them if their house 
sold this or that department store and invariably they would 
proceed to advise me that their firm never sold to any such 
store, showing thereby that they recognize the damage such 
stores are doing and the injustice such nurserymen are doing 
the regular trade by dealing with the stores. In fact, the 
manner of these Dutchmen when spoken to on the subject 
is the only thing I have encountered which leads me to 
believe that this very subject may have been threshed out 
in your columns heretofore. 
Probably the mere publication of a few letters such as this 
might have the effect of making the fellows on the other side 
“sit up and take notice.’’ If you think so, publish it, and I 
sincerely hope other persons in the trade will supply you 
with more data later, as I am a new man in the business and 
there may be a lot more adverse points about the practice 
with whieh I am not yet familiar. 
R. H. Smith, 
Care Pittsburg Nursery Company. 
MAKE IT 1,000 AT BOSTON MEETING. 
Editor National Nurseryman: 
Now that the nurserymen were unanimous in going to 
Boston for June, 1912, it is the duty of every nurseryman of 
the east Mississippi River to go to that convention and 
show to the nurserymen of the West, we are in earnest when 
we ask them to come East. With the cooperation of our 
secretary, John Hall, let’s set the pace for 1,000 at our next 
meeting at Boston. We can get them if we start after them 
today. Mr. Hall will do his best, will you do yours? 
There are few men in the nurserymen’s fraternity who 
have a warmer interest in the success of the Boston meeting 
than W. H. Wyman. He will start work at once and will 
move things and show you that Boston is substantially alive. 
Our congenial friend, J. H. Hale, will be heard from. Mr. 
Robinson of the New England Nurseries and hundreds of 
other new men we have not met will be on the spot. 
Every nurseryman should take his family with him. 
Boston business men are live wires when you touch them 
on anything pertaining to growing fruit or beautifying the 
home or the country and you will be met with welcoming 
hands by the hustling business men in all of the East. 
Orlando Harrison. 
TOP WORKING KIEFFER. 
t 
Editor National Nurseryman: 
I have read with mueh interest your editorial in the June 
issue on top working the Kieffer pear. About twenty-five 
years ago my father set 100 Kieffers on his farm at Ghent, 
Columbia Co., N. Y. The particular location was not at all 
suitable for this variety, producing small fruit that never 
seemed to ripen. After a few years, two-thirds of the trees 
were top worked to Anjou and the balanee to Bose. 
The results were very satisfactory in everyway. A good 
union between stock and scion was secured with both varie¬ 
ties. The trees made a good growth and have not been sub¬ 
ject to blight or other diseases any more than trees propa¬ 
gated in the usual way. They have given abundant crops, 
and now after nearly twenty years there are only a few of the 
Bose trees that have failed and practically none of the 
Anjous. Very truly yours, 
Edwin C. Powell. 
The National Nurserymen Publishing Company; 
Enclosed find check for $1.00 for National Nurserymen. We were 
unable to attend the convention this year, but enjoyed the report 
through the N. Nurserymen. 
Yours respectfully, 
W. T. Gough, Kans. 
