THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
623 
PRACTICAL POINTERS 
The Growing of Apple Stocks 
There is a decided difference of opinion among nursery¬ 
men in this country as to the value of American grown and 
European grown apple stocks. Some have good success 
with native produced stock while the faith of others rests 
almost solely on the European product. The following 
statement by Orlando Harrison of J. G. Harrison & Sons, 
is strongly in favor of the European product. We are quite 
sure that many will differ with him on this question and we 
shall be glad to hear the experience and opinions of others. 
We see no good reason why American growers cannot pro¬ 
duce with a proper system of cultivation in a suitable 
locality just as good a stock for budding or grafting as can 
be produced in the Valley of the Loire or elsewhere in 
France. 
“This is one subject that I have worked on for two or 
three years. Some years ago we bought American grown 
apple seedlings; now we are buying imported, French grown 
apple seedlings. A friend of mine said, “you will find that 
French grown seedlings are the best, try a few.” I did so. 
The next year we bought one million seedlings. We cabled 
and bought our entire planting from France and budded 
them, and they have been very satisfactory. Some seasons 
we can’t buy all we need and are obliged to buy where we 
can get the best. Last season I said that I would investi¬ 
gate to see whether it is profitable for us to continue to 
import French seedlings and pay $2 per thousand duty, an 
enormous price for freight and seedlings. So I made a trip 
to Europe to investigate, and I think I visited every fruit 
tree grower that could be found in England, France, Hol¬ 
land, Switzerland and Germany. I wrote to all of the 
entomologists of the United States before sailing and asked 
for questions to put to the foreign growers. All of the 
entomologists aided me in this very much. I asked those 
people what seed they grew their seedlings from. French 
crab is the reply, because they are grown here in France. 
Where do you get them, was asked. Cider mills. I stayed 
there six weeks to ascertain if possible why their seedlings 
OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN IN HORTICULTURE 
Horticultural work is making a strong appeal today to 
women, and there are phases of the work for which they are 
particularly fitted. The subject of “Horticulture as a Pro¬ 
fession for Women” was presented before the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society by Miss Laura Dawson of Jamaica 
Plain on March 5th to a large and interested audience. 
To succeed in the growing of flowers for the retail trade, 
one of the most important of horticultural pursuits, Miss 
Dawson pointed out the necessity of possessing executive 
ability, and in addition to high scientific knowledge requisite 
for growing flowers for the wholesale trade, good health and 
tremendous nerve force are essential. Women can success¬ 
fully grow orchard fruits, especially when they have in con¬ 
nection a plant for putting up fruit in cans, and they have 
were better, that is seemed freer from crown-gall and aphis 
and better matured root, and the wood was better matured. 
The wood was harder. 
I learned that the secret of the apple seedling business in 
France is that they grow these seedlings and let them remain 
in the nursery until they are thoroughly matured. They 
are allowed to stand until the leaves drop of their own 
accord. There are few extremes in heat or cold in central 
France and this is one of the essential features. These 
seedlings grow very slowly and mature well. In France, 
they have cheap, expert labor. Seedlings are taken up in 
December if ripened well, shipped in January; then you get 
a well matured seedling. I followed this up at length and I 
think, gentlemen, the secret of the superiority of the French 
seedling over the American is, first, the soil they are grown 
in, second, the climate, and third, the cheap skilled labor; 
but more than anything else the climate and labor. I am 
convinced that the Frenchmen are growing better seedlings 
than we are growing here, because we have not the patience 
to grow them as they do. They let them stand until the 
leaves have ripened on them, which is very important. 
Results have been when French seedlings are transplanted 
in our soil; they take bud well, have a good branched root. 
In this country most of our growers try to get them out of 
the ground too early. This should be remedied and seed¬ 
lings grown here to save expense of duty; in many cases the 
vitality of the seedling is injured, and this is the same with 
the nurserymen. We, nurserymen, want money just as 
badly as you fruit growers. This is true with the apple 
seedling people; they get them out so early that the seed¬ 
lings are not matured, the wood is soft and they do not make 
as strong growth of trees as they should. With the pear the 
condition is much the same. They said that to obtain the 
best results from growing apple seedlings in France, never to 
use the same soil a second time in ten years. Most of the 
land is prepared by growing potatoes the year previous to 
growing the seedlings.” 
successfully grown fancy vegetables for market. Miss Daw¬ 
son believes no woman should attempt landscape gardening 
without possessing more than the average strength, nor the 
raising of plants for landscape gardening, though the grow¬ 
ing of herbaceous plants should afford them an opportunity. 
There should also be opportunities for women as consulting 
gardeners, and as writers on horticultural topics. 
Germany has five horticultural schools conducted by 
women. In England there are two good horticultural 
schools exclusively for women. In the United States there 
are opportunities for women to learn horticulture in private 
horticultural schools and in the state agricultural colleges. 
A school of horticulture for women is soon to be opened near 
Philadelphia and the students at Wellesley and Smith col¬ 
leges may take horticultural courses. 
F. H. R. 
