THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
451 
Primula pulverulenta (flowers rich crimson on scapes 3 to 
4 ft. high), Artemisia lactiflora (3 to 4 ft. tall, flowers milk 
white), Aconitum Wilsonii 6 to 7 ft. tall, flowers deep blue, 
opening in September), Paeonia Veitchii (2^ to 4 ft., flowers 
deep red). Here are my six herbaceous plants, every one 
of them perfectly hardy here in Boston, strong growing, 
free-flowering and vigorous in habit.” 
Among other introductions mentioned by Mr. Wilson, are 
certain conifers from western China, of which he expects a 
great deal. These are: 
Abies recurvata, Abies Fargesii, Picea complanata, Picea 
purpurea, Pinus Wilsonii and Pinus Armandii. 
Of rhododendrons, Mr. Wilson states that more than 150 
species are known in China, and nearly a hundred are in 
cultivation. These vary from low shrubs to trees fifty feet 
or more in height. Among other plants imported, are lilies, 
flowering shrubs, climbers, broad-leaved evergreens, hardy 
orchids, and greenhouse plants. It is understood that 
arrangements are being made whereby this large collection 
will be available to the trade. It is hoped that something in 
the way of a definite descriptive catalogue will be issued 
before very long, so that plantsmen may be accurately in¬ 
formed in regard to these apparently valuable importa¬ 
tions. 
The business of the nurserymen of today 
THE demands a fine combination of scientific 
TRAINED attainments and practical knowledge, 
NURSERY- coupled with keen business ability. This 
MAN is the ideal qualification. It goes without 
saying that it does not occur very often in 
one individual. Frequently the scientifically equipped man 
makes a melancholy failure of the nursery business on the 
practical side. Not infrequently, on the other hand, the 
man who is trained solely in the school of practical experience 
falls into grievous error through lack of the fundaments of 
the natural sciences. We have in our mind’s eye, however, 
examples of signal successes made by teachers and investiga¬ 
tors who have forsaken their chosen calling and taken up 
the lines of the nurseryman. One of these is the case of a 
man who made a success as a teacher of horticulture and 
botany for a number of years, now an equally successful 
manager of a large nursery; another, a successful experiment 
station investigator taking the managership of one of the most 
important fruit exchanges in the country; another, the case 
of a successful college chemist becoming an equally successful 
nurseryman. And so on. Many such examples might be 
cited. Of course it goes without saying that the man who 
makes a notable success of his department in a college is much 
more likely to achieve success in the field of practical affairs 
than the man of mediocre college attainments. 
However much scientific training a man may have, he is 
not likely to achieve striking success if he has not had a rea¬ 
sonable amount of practical experience. In this respect, the 
farm boy has much better natural equipment for the general 
activities of life than the city boy. The practical and the 
theoretical, meaning by the latter the understanding of 
principles, are essential to success in the business and pro¬ 
fessional life of the plantsman. 
We are glad to note the tendency among nurserymen to 
patronize state colleges of agriculture. The fact that the 
professors in these schools might not be able, if put to the 
test, to set as many grafts or buds in a day as the nursery¬ 
men’s sons themselves does not affect the issue materially. 
The nurseryman needs a liberal education in the natural 
sciences. Such an education will tend to make him indepen¬ 
dent and resourceful. He should be acquainted with the 
fundamentals of botany, of entomology, of organic chemistry, 
economic geology, and physics. These are all germane and 
important to his life work, and these are all additional to a 
general knowledge of horticultural and agricultural subjects 
and studies. '' 
It has been our privilege for the past twenty years to note 
the progress of the trained worker, as against the untrained, 
and it has been an increasing source of satisfaction to observe 
that, as a rule, the race is won by the owner of the trained 
mind and hand. In the rising generation of nurserymen, 
there are many who have had the advantages of present day 
advances in agricultural education. The careers of these 
men will be watched with deep interest. They are to a con¬ 
siderable extent marked men. It is hoped that they will 
make good. We are confident in the majority of cases that 
they will justify their training; for if the nurseryman is to 
occupy in the future the important place he has held in the 
past, it can only be done through a study of the science as 
well as the art of horticulture. 
The growth of interest in the culture of 
INTEREST native and introduced nuts shown by 
IN NUT nurserymen and fruit growers in recent 
CULTURE years has been very remarkable. The 
National Nut Growers’ Association, an 
organization national in name, but somewhat provincial 
in scope and operation, was organized a few years ago, and 
has done excellent work in promoting the development of 
pecan culture in the Gulf States and the Southwest. It is 
not generally known that a similar organization, whose pur¬ 
pose is to foster the propagation and improvement of hardy 
varieties of native nuts, was formed in the Northeast last 
fall. This association is termed the Northern Nut Growers’ 
Association, and was brought into existence largely by the 
efforts of amateurs interested in nut culture. These men 
saw in the native hickories, walnuts, butternuts, and chest¬ 
nuts, the foundation of valuable food products. They 
realized that these forms, having been developed in the some¬ 
what rigorous climate of the North, were likely to possess, 
therefore, the innate and important fundamental qualities. 
Chief among the promoters of this soeiety are two eminent 
medical men of New York City. Dr. Robert T. Alorris, 
noted surgeon, has for a number of years been recognized as 
an authority on native nuts. He has experimented very 
extensively on his Connecticut farm. These experiments 
have' covered the testing of all the improved varieties of 
native and introduced nuts that could be grown in that 
locality. He has spent much time in experiments on meth¬ 
ods of propagation, and his labors on the crossing of 
different forms, with a view of producing something better 
than we already possess, have been in progress for several 
