THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
401 
THE MIDDLE WEST 
The season of 1911 opened up with much wet weather, 
same continued until about May loth, when very hot weather 
followed with almost no rain. All spring-planted stock 
suffered from drought for almost three months. All two-year 
stock came through this torrid heat in pretty fair shape. 
Apple grafts and all cuttings, however, made no headway, and 
most of this stock died. All nursery stock is in good demand, 
apple and cherry leading. 
Would say that general trade conditions are fair. Could 
not say that there is any variety of new tree fruit that 
promises to succeed our most popular old varieties. Old and 
worn out varieties will, however, have to give way to new 
varieties. This work of rooting out old sorts is slow. I still 
have calls for Little Romanite and Rawls Jennette apple 
trees, while the Early Richmond and Montmorency cherry 
still stand at the head of the list of sour cherries, as they did 
twenty-five years ago. 
Belleville, Ill. L. F. Dintelmann. 
Abnormal Conditions in Illinois 
The season just closing has been an unusual one. Spring 
opened up early and warm, followed by weeks of cool,cloudy 
weather with some rain. During the last weeks in April 
weather became warm and dry, and this condition continued 
through May with abnormally hot weather. June was a 
record breaker for heat, being the hottest June ever known in 
this section. From this it will be seen that during the 
heaviest planting season we suffered from moderate drouth 
and extreme heat, followed by abnormal heat and drouth, 
making cuttings, seedlings, and small plants lined out almost 
a complete failure. Out of over 300,000 root grafts, cuttings, 
and small stock lined out, we have little over 100,000 grow¬ 
ing. Had we not given these plants the very best of atten¬ 
tion, the failure would have been almost complete. The tree 
seed came to a good stand, but burned off repeatedly. Where 
we should have had at least 100,000 Silver Maple seedlings, 
we had about 5,000. One bed in which we sowed 4 lbs. 
excellent Catalpa speciosa seed is yielding less than 1,000 
seedlings. So far as we are able to learn, all nurserymen in 
this section suffered as much, or even more than we did. 
Our two year apple blocks, which we usually succeed in grow¬ 
ing 25% and up, 40 to 50%^ to 20 to 2 5%>^_to^" 
and the rest in small stock, is so largely small grades this year 
that we will let the block stand another year, digging the best 
stock by hand. Our peach, while making good growth, are 
not as heavy stock as last season. The established ornamen¬ 
tals seem to have suffered less than the fruit blocks. On the 
whole, with the exception of the small stock, grafts, cuttings, 
etc., and the seed, the development of our stock has been 
satisfactory, although not up to normal years. In the last 
five weeks, we have had a little over 20" rain fall. We have 
some stock that was almost ready to die, but the rain made 
much improvement in our blocks. It will make digging 
much lighter than usual. 
Trade conditions are satisfactory, and indications are that 
our fall deliveries both in fruits and ornamentals will be far 
above the average. The demand for apple and peach in all 
grades has increased by bounds within the last two years. 
Well grown stocky shrubs and large ornamental trees are in 
great demand, owing to the increase of landscape architecture. 
Within the past season we have added five acres to our 
nurseries actually devoted to growing stock. We have 
erected a new concrete storage cellar with a double wall, 
double paper lined packing and storage shed over it, which 
enables us to handle our stock much more safely, and eco¬ 
nomically. The concrete cellar is frost-proof, while the shed 
over it is very warm, but not frost-proof. We have added to 
our office force and equipage for doing business, which 
enables us to handle our business with more dispatch and 
satisfaction both to ourselves and customers. 
We find in this vicinity the only safe way to grow apple 
stock is by manuring a block as soon as it is cleared, growing 
a crop of corn the first year, and a crop of oats seeded to 
clover the next year. We cut the first crop of clover for hay, 
the second crop usually makes us a profitable crop of seed. 
As soon as the seed crop is removed, we put on another coat 
of manure, 500 lbs. of Tennessee rock phosphate to the acre, 
and turn it under in the fall. Handled in this way, we usually 
get the percentage of the heavy grades indicated above. Of 
course, the extreme heat and moderately dry season we have 
just suffered was an exception. We think if every Illinois 
nurseryman who has made much complaint lately of failure 
to grow profitable crops of apples were to try this plan, his 
success would be marked. 
Owing to the heavy demand from the West for these sorts, 
we are now growing winter Banana and Stayman Winesap, 
but will have none to offer to the trade for a year or two. 
Our stock is from the Grand Junction district of Colorado. 
Several new pears have attracted our attention lately. One 
of them originated from the root sprout of a Kieffer that had 
been killed by blight. It certainly is the heaviest fruiter we 
have ever seen. The foliage of this new pear is even more 
thick and glossy and somewhat more round than the Kieffer. 
In growth it is more spreading and less branched than the 
Kieffer. The young fruit setting on this sprout, which is but 
six or seven years old, resembles very much the set of cherries 
on a cherry tree during a season when that fruit bears a full 
crop. The fruit is about the size and somewhat of the shape 
of Garber, only more flat and Quince-shaped. It has a 
flavor peculiar to itself. In some respects it is better than 
the Kieffer, yet it is more insipid. Its general “ear marks’’ 
indicate that it is a hybrid from the Chinese Sand Pear, and 
is, therefore, one-half sister to the Kieffer and Garber. As it 
has only fruited for three seasons, including this season, we 
are unable, from our short observance, to make definite state¬ 
ments, but on the whole consider it a promising sort. The 
parent tree or sprout is near our nursery. Another new 
seedling pear that has been brought to our attention is 
situated in Bloomington, Ill., some 25 miles distant. We 
have tasted the fruit and it is excellent. The peculiarities 
that belong to this tree are, first, regular and heavy bearer; 
second, length of season. Some fruits begin to ripen in July 
and fruits continue to ripen until frost, with only partly 
matured specimens still on the tree at time of winter setting 
in. For family use we would consider this quality of the tree 
as very valuable. We doubt its value as a commercial sort. 
Last but not least, is its thrift and freedom from disease. We 
will watch this sort and report on it. 
Of the standard sorts of apples now grown in this vicinity, 
we would advise the discarding of Missoirri Pippin. While it 
is thrifty and produces well, the quality of the fruit is so poor 
that we cannot recommend it. 
Hopedale, Ill. J. W. Griesemer. 
The season was a very hot and dry one with us. We had 
very little, if any, rain from about the first of May until the 
latter part of July. Consequently, stock did not make the 
usual growth and the dry season was extremely hard on 
transplanted stock, such as imported and ornamental seed¬ 
lings. Stock that was already growing in the nursery has 
made up very well, and we have had plenty of rain the 
latter part of the season. 
At present it appears that we will have a good trade this 
fall. There seems to be a good demand for everything except 
cherries. 
We have not made any changes or improvements in our 
storage equipment. We have two large frost proof storage 
cellars connected with our packing house. 
We are not at this time propagating any new varieties. 
We have had an overabundance of rain here the past three 
weeks, but the weather has now turned clear and cool and 
