THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
3°i 
THE CHATTANOOGA CONVENTION. 
The seventh annual convention of the National Nut 
Growers’ Association will be held in Chattanooga, October 
27-28-29, 1908. This gathering promises to be of particular 
importance to the industry. All members are urged to 
attend. All interested in nut culture are cordially invited. 
Those looking toward this fascinating work from purely 
commercial considerations will learn much by attendance at 
the sessions, which are open to all. 
The time has been carefully chosen and, while it is not 
possible to select dates suiting all interests, holding the 
meeting late in October makes it possible to have a large 
and varied exhibit of nuts selected from this season’s crop. 
This feature of the convention is to have particular atten¬ 
tion and will doubtless prove of surpassing interest to the 
large numbers from the central and western states, who will 
for the first time be in attendance. 
The official program is being carefully arranged and will 
embrace subjects of vital importance, while the speakers 
will represent the greatest skill and ripest experience which 
the country affords. 
Many important business matters will come up from the 
various special and standing committees for consideration 
and action. New plans for perpetuating and extending the 
work will be discussed. 
Another feature of the program will be the reports from 
state vice-presidents and from auxiliary organizations, 
showing progress and achievements in the various sections 
of country. 
The place of meeting has attractions and historic associa¬ 
tions which will warrant the allotment of considerable time 
for sightseeing excursions and social gatherings. 
A WORD ABOUT SWISS ROADS. 
If it is true that the Swiss and Italians can give us pointers 
on intensive cultivation, it is emphatically so in regard to 
road and bridge building. The way the roads wind around 
the hills on easy grades, the skill shown in construction, the 
permanent character of the work and withal the artistic 
features of the bridges, culverts and retaining walls give the 
Westener—the man who lives in a hurry—a proper idea of 
how work destined to endure the wear and tear of time 
should be performed. 
The roadbeds are much narrower than ours, to be sure, 
but they are finished from curb to curb. Not only are they 
finished but they are maintained. During the month of 
April, when snow and frost were leaving, the roads about 
Lake Geneva, were in most cases, pleasant for walking and 
driving. I am led to remark that many of the state roads in 
the Last and West of the United States will be in a poor con¬ 
dition in a few years if not properly maintained from funds 
set aside for that purpose. 
One of the famous highways in Italy runs from Genoa 
1o Cannes, France, a distance of 150 miles along the Medi¬ 
terranean. It is called the Cornice road because in many 
places it is hewn out of the bold jutting rock promontories of 
the Riviera. The road is kept in excellent repair and is one 
of the most picturesque in Europe—a great favorite with 
touring parties. John Craig. 
ORCHARDS PUT UNDER IRRIGATION. 
Four thousand acres of land near Hooper, Whitman County, 
Wash., south of Spokane, to be known as Palouse Orchards, owned 
by the Palouse Irrigation & Power Company, headed by H. C. 
Peters, president, and L. H. Marsh, secretary, will be put under 
irrigation within the next twelve months, and it is expected that 
500 acres of this will be ready for this year’s crop. 
Water for the new district will be taken from the Palouse River, 
which will be tapped by a canal four miles above Hooper, and 
brought down one mile below the to.vn, whence a wooden flume, 24 
by 30 inches, will carry the water one mile further down the river to 
the tract of 500 acres that is to be watered at once. Later a large 
flume will tap the canal at the same place as the small one and will 
be led across to the north bank of the river to carry water down to 
the other tracts that are to be put under the ditch. 
Palouse Orchards are unlike any other irrigation project in the 
Northwest. Instead of one large and continuous tract on one or 
both sides of the river it is a series of tracts lying between the river 
and the high hills on either side, no one tract containing more than 
500 acres. The land extends down the river ten miles, and is close 
to the base of steep hills and almost surrounded in patches by the 
ragged arms of the cliffs that jut out into the valley. The land is 
volcanic ash and the climate is similar to that of Wenatchee, the 
home of the big red apple. 
MOVEMENT TO ADVANCE RATES PROGRESSES SLOWLY. 
Late Chicago advices say: The movement inaugurated some 
time ago to increase freight rates 10 per cent in western territory is 
not progressing very rapidly. The lines in Western classification 
practically have abandoned trying to bring about a general advance 
in rates, while the transcontinental lines practically have agreed 
upon a much smaller increase than was at first contemplated. 
It is likely that all transcontinental rates, both class and com¬ 
modity, will be advanced 5 cents per 100 pounds in carloads and 
10 cents per 100 pounds on less than carloads, from New York, 
Chicago and the Missouri river to the Pacific Coast. The first-class 
rate is 75 cents per 100 pounds, and it is held that all transcontinen¬ 
tal rates are exceedingly low. 
It was found impracticable to make a greater increase, for sev¬ 
eral reasons, one of which is water competition from New York to 
San Francisco, which operates to keep rates down.* The revenue, 
which the increases now talked of will produce, will, it is said, not 
be very great .—California Fruit Grower. 
A GOOD CUSTOM. 
Every year about the first of July the Peterson Nursery, Chicago, 
sends out a man in an automobile to inspect all the planting done 
by their customers during the spring season. The inspector makes 
a record of the facts in every case and, where conditions are not 
right, not only calls attention personally to the care that is needed 
but later writes a letter to the customer explaining what is necessary 
to make the stock thrive. In this way many complaints from 
neglectful people are forestalled and new business secured. This is a 
custom that nurserymen may well consider. It would be an easy 
matter for some of the wholesale nurseries to keep track of the 
orchards planted with their stock. 
PARCELS POST LIMIT RAISED. 
In order to increase our commercial relations with Great Britain 
and Ireland by facilitating the sending of parcels post packages of 
merchandise to those countries, Postmaster General Meyer has in¬ 
creased the weight limit to eleven pounds, effective July 1, 1908. 
This means that eleven pounds may be sent to the United Kingdom. 
Advertise vigorously and continuously so your name will 
ever be before the nurserymen, lest they should forget you. 
