THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
January 18, 1908. 
Mr. S. J. Verhalen, 
Marshall, Texas. 
Dear Mr. Verhalen: 
I have your letter returning correspondence of Dawson and 
Berckmans. Referring to your slip attached to Dawson’s letter 
asking if “apples pear, cherry, plum, etc., would not also be as 
tender as privet for the first few years,” etc. Certainly they would. 
I believe a block of Alabama ice is as cold as a block of state o’ 
Maine ice of the same size, and that the Alabama ice would require 
as much sunshine to melt it as the other. My idea is that the whole 
thing is a notion. I do not believe that a Baldwin apple, a Hydran¬ 
gea or a privet plant grown in Canada, Texas, Florida or anywhere 
else, is hardier or less hardy than the same variety grown in any 
part of the world. I think it is wholly a question of variety and 
allowing the plants to properly mature; in other words, the hardi¬ 
nesses all in the hands of the Lord; of course the Lord with the help 
of the other folks, now and then creates a variety entirely distinct, 
which is more or less hardy than another. Take for instance the 
Magnolia G. F., I do not believe there is any way known to mere 
folks on this earth by which the Magnolia G. F. can be made to 
stand more frost than it will stand, I believe that a Magnolia G. F. 
grown in Boston, or in Canada (if it can be grown there) is no more 
hardy than a Magnolia G. F. grown in the Gulf states. I do not be¬ 
lieve there is any way to make a Baldwin apple tree take to a hot 
country, I don’t care where you grow it or how you grow it, and I 
believe a Baldwin apple tree well grown in Alabama (if it can be 
done) is as hardy and as suitable for planting in a cold country as a 
Baldwin apple tree grown in that country, provided always these 
plants are allowed to mature in nature’s way, and are not taken out 
of the ground until everything in nature is right and then that the 
plants are handled intelligently. 
A dozen years ago we had an order for the Shady Hill Nursery 
Co., of Boston, for several thousand roses. The order was booked 
with the understanding that the roses would be delivered in spring, 
but along the first of October we received a telegram from them 
asking us to forward by express several hundred. We ought to 
have refused to ship and told the Shady Hill folks they were not on to 
their job, but fool like we worried around, and worked hard, dug 
the poor half green plants and shipped them. Of course these 
roses couldn’t have been worth a cuss, they were not mature, some 
varieties were in full growth and it ought to have been “agin” the 
law to take them out of the ground. 
I cannot back up my opinion with any authority, I may be 
wrong, but I don’t believe it. It is a matter I have never heard 
discussed by people who know, and I would like to hear it thrashed 
out. 
I will here set down a few of the things I do know: apple, pear 
and plum seedlings planted by the American nurserymen are 
largely grown in France. The Minnesota nurserymen, the Canada 
nurserymen, the nurserymen in Texas and southern California all 
use seedlings from the same bed, and that bed is located near 
Angers, France, where they rarely have frost; within 10 feet of the 
fruit tree seedling bed you will find growing the seedlings of Magnolia 
G. F., Cedrus Deodora and other tender plants. I am a native of 
the state of Maine. When we commenced the nursery business in 
Alabama I thought of course our southern grown plants would not 
do for New England, simply because I didn’t know, and thought 
with the crowd. ’Tis a pretty safe bet to make that ninety nine 
and ten tenths per cent of the folks who are not nurserymen know 
almost nothing about plants; it is an absolutely safe bet to make 
that more than 50% of the nurserymen know nothing about them. 
After coming here I soon learned that Mr. Heikes was selling 
trees to the Rochester nurserymen, and I knew that the Rochester 
nurserymen delivered Mr. Heikes’ trees up in Maine, and as a mat¬ 
ter of curiosity we sent some of our stuff to an aunt in Livermore, 
Maine. We sent apple trees, plum trees, rose bushes and Hydran¬ 
gea, all of our own growing. Every plant grew, they had never had 
trees and plants that gave as good results. I have not seen these 
trees for several years, but heard from them regularly for four or 
five years after they were planted, and I never heard of one dying, 
131 
always the reports were of the best. I had a friend in Parsons, 
Kansas who wanted a couple of hundred apple trees; we sent him 
Alabama grown trees and he will never get through talking about 
his success with them. It is all a question of varieties and intelli¬ 
gent handling. 
- Yours very truly, 
Alabama Nursery Co. 
THE APRIL AMERICAN BOY. 
The smiling, satisfied face which looks out from the front cover 
of the April American Boy is an index to the interesting, instructive, 
and pleasing matter this number contains. Jimmy Jones, Pirate; 
Four Boys on the Mississippi; and That Dillingham Boy, continue 
to delight their readers. Mr. Weir’s fine serial, Canal and Jungle, is 
regretfully concluded. Among the shorter stories are: The 
Poetry of Steeples, which tells of how one man’s heart was in his 
art; How Karl Got Even, is a humorous April 1st story, showing 
that the biters do get bitten sometimes, and Fooling Father, the 
moral of which is that fathers are not as often fooled as their sons 
think. Interesting articles are: A Poor Boy’s Country; The 
Origin of Easter; The Devil’s Bible; A Few Hints on Golf; The 
Boy on His Muscle; A Wonderful Educational Scheme; April in 
the Garden, and The Boy’s Poultry Yard. The boys who desire to 
have clean, healthy bodies will find Talks with the Doctor; Some 
Secrets of Cleverness, and Destroyers of Boys, unusually interesting. 
Forty Stunts in Magic for Amateurs and Trapping Hints for Boys 
contain many things for boys who enjoy mystifying their friends 
and those who delight in capturing animals. Every one of the 
regular departments will well repay the reading of them. 82 
illustrations. $1.00 a year. The Sprague Publishing Co., Detroit, 
Mich. - 
THE WISDOM OF EXPERIENCE. 
There was no doubt in the minds of the Hobart family that 
young James had a remarkable gift. It remained for an obscure 
uncle from the Cape to drop a word of caution and of worldly wis¬ 
dom. 
“You say he’s wonderful far-seeing, and can tell folks just how 
things are going to turn out ?” he inquired. 
“Yes, it seems so,” said James’s adoring mother. 
“Well, now, if you want him to be the most onpop’lar man any¬ 
where round, you just let him foretell and prophesy and forecast,” 
remarked the old uncle, grimly. 
“If you want him to keep a few friends you must shunt him off 
onto some other track. Let him work out sums in his head. That’s 
a harmless practice.” 
“But why?” faltered the mother. 
“Just this,” answered the authority from down on the Cape. 
“When he prophesies tilings’ll go wrong and they do go wrong) the 
heft of the blame’ll be laid straight on his shoulders. When he says 
they’ll go right, and they do, folks’ll be too busy enjoying them¬ 
selves to remember your James. And when he says they’ll go 
wrong and they go right, they’ll call him a fool. Now I’m above 
seventy, and you mind what I tell ye !”—The Youth’s Companion. 
HARDINESS OF SOUTHERN GROWN TREES 
Nearly every newspaper in horticultural lines and cer¬ 
tainly every teacher and experimenter in the agricultural 
institutions of the country, is asked over and over whether 
trees of given varieties grown in the South are as hardy as 
these same varieties grown in the North. To some persons 
this is a very important question, but to the experienced 
grower it has little weight because, he realizes that a variety 
does not readily change its constitution and make-up under 
the influence of environment, and if hardy it remains hardy, 
and if tender it retains this characteristic. He also realizes 
that it is more a question of condition of wood, in other 
words stage of maturity and ripeness, than anything else. 
