the national nurseryman 
tribute I think that has not been paid by any other State 
Horticultural Society to its presiding officers. He was the 
most cordial, genial, gracious presiding officer it has ever 
been my good fortune to meet. 
He was my friend Please pardon the personal allusion. 
For more than' fifty years no other man has been nearer to 
me nor rendered more valiant horticultural aid. As 
pioneer pomologists (with a coterie that has followed the 
guidon into the Great Beyond) we together saw the wilder¬ 
ness grow into a country of happy homes, growing cities, 
prosperous farms and orchards, all bound together by an 
intricate network of railroads. We knew Cincinnati as a 
hamlet, when the present aristocratic Walnut Hills were 
covered with the first cultivated vineyards in the state of 
Ohio. We saw the red men depart from their tribal lands 
in our respective states of Georgia and Iowa and the forests 
give place to farms and fruit trees. 
The problems of pomology west of the Mississippi were 
identical with those in the new and untilled lands of 
northern Georgia. We compared notes; we counselled to¬ 
gether. We brought the first fruits of our new orchards to 
the American Pomological Society. We discussed their 
relative merits and the possible advantage they would be 
to coming generations^of fruitgrowers. The prolific rich¬ 
ness of the present day horticultural press had not reached 
us then. President Berckmans was a sage counsellor, a 
trusty friend, a safe and sane horticulturist. Many of the 
pomological successes he then alone dared to predict we 
have lived to see safely come to fruition. 
He had the sanest judgment on promising new fruits of 
almost any man that I ever knew; and Messrs. Meehan, 
Saunders and other noted plant introducers and propaga¬ 
tors of that day looked to him for advice and counsel and 
made “Fruitlands” an experiment station. And out of 
Fruitlands have come some of the most successful “finds” in 
the whole arena of plant industry. I wish the gifted pen of 
the illustrious Berckmans might have put them all on 
record. 
He successfully passed his eightieth milestone a few 
weeks ago and wrote to me cheerfully concerning it. He 
was full of zealous enthusiasm for the forthcoming meeting 
of his beloved Georgia State Horticultural Society which is 
to take place in January next, and he asked me to contribute 
to the program of the 34th annual meeting over which he 
had presided—but alas!—A telegram at five o’clock on the 
morning of the eighth of November announced the passing 
of President Berckmans into the Great Beyond. I can 
say no more. Words fail me. Let us drop on his bier, 
with the palm and the laurel, that fadeless flower borget- 
me'not”! 
From Augusta, Ga., Chronicle 
It is only when Death summons one of the truly dis¬ 
tinguished, honored and beloved members of a community 
that even his neighbors can realize the fullness of the loss, 
for, however much we may have recognized his deeds in 
life or appreciated the force of his character and scope of 
his influence, it is only when we come to understand that 
he has been forever taken from us, that we fully comprehend 
825 
his true value. And it is dealing in no superficial praise to 
say that this was never more true than in the death of Dr. 
Berckmans; for, look where we will, there is no one to take 
his place amongst us. 
But, while it is true that Dr. Berckmans held a peculiar 
place in the esteem and affection of Augusta people, and 
has long played an important part in the life of this city and 
section, it cannot be said that he belonged to us alone, or 
that the sorrow and loss caused by his death will be confined 
to this community; for not only was he a distinguished 
citizen of Augusta, but an honored and esteemed spirit of the 
world—a man whose name and works have received the 
highest recognition and distinction, and to whom, almost 
every day brought some fresh evidence, some new expres¬ 
sion to emphasize how widely and how well his works and 
character were appreciated. 
JSote and Comment 
HALE’S IDEA OF PEACHES AS FILLERS IN APPLE 
ORCHARD 
■ t Hale, the Georgia peach king and Connecticut apple 
and peach grower, speaking of combining apples and 
peaches in one orchard says: 
, ^“It will take ten years for the apples to bear, but they 
will keep on bearing for a century, while the peach tree life 
is only ten or fifteen years, so I call the peach trees my 
common stock, but the apples are the gold bonds. When 
it comes time to clip bond coupons we’ll retire the common 
stock.” 
POTASSIUM CYANIDE FUMIGATION 
A very effective agent for the destruction of scale and the 
white fly in citrus orchards is hydrocyanic acid. It 
requires either twice the length of time to get satisfactory 
results with the scale that it does with the fly, or else the 
use of twice the amount of cyanide. For the white fly a 
satisfactory amount of potassium cyanide is three-fifths of 
an ounce for every 100 feet of space to be filled with the gas. 
Dilute an ounce of sulphuric acid in one and one-half ounces 
of water, and drop in the potassium cyanide while this 
mixture is developing great heat. By using this method, 
instead of allowing the solution to cool first, a much larger 
amount of gas is liberated, thus increasing the effectiveness 
of the cyanide and decreasing its cost proportionately. 
NEW YORK FLOWER MARKET 
The movement being promoted by the New York 
Florists’ Club, The Growers’ Cut Flower Company, Cut 
Flower Exchange, and other floral associations in New York 
City, for the establishment of a flower and plant market, is 
making progress. A committee of the New York Florists’ 
Club has had this matter in hand for some time, and has 
reached the point where plans are being considered. The 
prospects for the establishment of the new market are 
bright. The plan is to place this market at the foot of the 
Pennsylvania bridge. 
