112 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
the Nurseries but also to large, well matured trees on pri¬ 
vate places, trees that have evidently stood quite a num¬ 
ber of winters without injury. 
The lesson to be learned from the effects of the past 
winter show very conclusively the value of wind-breaks 
or screens for those plants that are at all liable to suffer. 
It is not uncommon to see where the snow 
drifted around the lower parts of the plants or 
where they were sheltered by some other means 
they are uninjured, but that portion which was 
above the snow or exposed has turned quite brown. 
Winter injury to evergreens is usually attributed to the 
sun shining on the plants where they were in a frozen 
condition; this may cause the damage in many instances 
but from observations taken of the injuries of last win¬ 
ter, it seems to have been caused rather by the winds, 
while the roots or lower parts of the plants were incased 
in ice. 
WILL NOT MODIFY ORCHID IMPORTATION 
QUARANTINE 
The Federal Horticultural Board has decided that no 
modification of Quarantine No. 37, with regard to or¬ 
chid importation, is warranted at this time. As a result 
of a general discussion of the orchid situation in con¬ 
nection with the Detroit meeting of the Society of Amer¬ 
ican Florists and Ornamental Horticulturists in August, 
1919, it was suggested by the chairman of the Federal 
Horticultural Board that if those interested in orchids 
in the United States, both as to the importers and as to 
orchid growers or propagators, would endeavor to har¬ 
monize their interests, which seemed to be more or less 
conflicting, and present the board with a program which 
these interests had agreed upon as most desirable and 
necessary for the development of orchid production in 
this country, the board would be very glad to consider 
their recommendations, and if such recommendatoins 
seemed to be reasonable and well founded to put them 
into operation so far as might be practicable. An effort 
was made on the part of these interests to meet this re¬ 
quirement, but without much success. It seemed, never¬ 
theless, desirable to give an opportunity for a full dis¬ 
cussion of the subject, and therefore a conference was 
held at the Department of Agriculture February 10, 
1920. 
This conference brought together the principal orchid 
importers and orchid growers of the United States and 
the needs of this industry from the production and other 
standpoints were fully discussed.— Weekly News Letter. 
Arthur A. Kirchhoff, Gladioli specialist of Pembroke, 
N. Y., has purchased his father’s entire stock of the 
three following Gladioli: General Pershing, Professor 
A. C. Beal and Gloxina. Mr. Kirchhoff has spent consid¬ 
erable time in the growing of standard varieties while 
his father, W. E. Kirchhoff, Sr., has devoted his time to 
producing newer kinds and has now a wonderful col¬ 
lection of new varieties which have not yet been named. 
WHY I THINK WE ARE GOING TO HAVE BETTER 
NURSERY STOCK 
By F. F. Rockwell 
The following article by F. F. Rockwell appeared in 
the March issue of Farm and Fireside. 
It puls the case of the nurserymen to the buying pub- 
lic so ably and yet in such a simple and foreful man¬ 
ner that we are constrained to reprint it to enable nur¬ 
serymen to see what is being done for them through the 
medium of the press. 
A few months ago I explained to the readers of Farm and 
Fireside what the men in the fertilizer industry are doing, and 
plan to do in the near future, to give us better fertilizer and 
better fertilizer service for our money. 
A somewhat similar “internal revolution” has been going on 
in the nursery industry. 
Many a farmer has had experiences in buying nursery stock 
which did not leave him fully satisfied with the results. I re¬ 
member very vividly how, when I first began farming, a nursery 
agent hunted me up, thrilled me with a two-hour talk on the 
possibilities of fruit-growing and the wonderful specimens he 
had illustrated in his hectically colored “plate book,” and got my 
order for a lot of stuff. 
Most of the items were received in the fall after the ground 
was frozen, and could not be planted until the following spring. 
Some of the varieties, as I discovered three years later, were not 
at all suited to that section of the country. A number of the 
fruit trees, when they finally did bear, were not the varieties I 
had ordered. 
One of my neighbors had done exceptionally well with McIn¬ 
tosh apples, but when my “Mclntoslies” finally began to bear and 
I called in our local authority on apples to see what was wrong, 
he informed me that they were Ben Davis! 
Then I read in a farm paper somewhere that the agent was 
not to be trusted anyway, and in the advertising section I no¬ 
ticed the “ad” of a concern which read something like this: 
“Why pay agents prices when you can buy direct from the 
grower at wholesale? We save you one half to two thirds. Send 
for our catalogue.” 
Well, I sent and sure enough the prices were low—so low that 
I could not understand how trees could possibly be grown for 
such prices, although at that time I lnd never visited a nursery 
and had no idea of the amount of work and care and “overhead” 
which are required to produce firstclass, carefully graded, true to 
variety trees. 
Well, to cut a long story short, I tried again—and the result 
was less satisfactory than before. Among the trees when they 
arrived were some very large ones with which I was immensely 
pleased, until my friend the fruit grower informed me that they 
were so old and overgrown that he would not care for them at 
any price. 
And yet this neighbor of mine was a successful fruit grower 
who added to his plantings almost every year. I asked him how 
he did it, and from our conversation I gathered that he had been 
through the same sort of troubles 1 had been having, until he 
adopted the plan of actually visiting several nurseries, and in¬ 
specting the stock and the methods that were used, on the 
grounds. 
“But before buying,” he concluded, “you should realize that 
you cannot expect to get A No. 1 stock for the prices you have 
been paying. You told me once you considered any but the best 
seed you could buy expensive at any price; that ‘the best seed 
was the cheapest, regardless of what it cost.’ The same is true 
of nursery stock. The first consideration must be quality. Only 
when that is absolutely assured can you afford to give any con¬ 
sideration to a difference in prices.” 
Now, of course, it is out of the question for everyone who 
wants to buy nursery stock to go and visit a nursery. And, of 
course, that is not necessary if yon know of reliable concerns 
from which to get stock. 
But there is the rub. The fact that the inexperienced buyer 
h s had no way of telling where to go except to learn through 
cosily and discouraging experience such as mine has been proves 
in itself that something’s been “rotten in Denmark.” My case 
was by no means an isolated one. I doubt if there is a reader of 
this article who has not had, or kno.vn personally someone who 
has had similar experiences. 
Now, whenever a condition of this kind exists there is always 
a reason for it. It is not only futile, but also foolish, for the in¬ 
dividual consumer to get up on his hind legs and howl that 
