THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
3°3 
Correspondence. 
The election of W. P. Stark as President of the Missouri 
State Board of Horticulture has been a source of pleasure to 
all who are acquainted with that nurseryman and his work. 
We are taking the liberty of quoting sections of a letter of 
congratulation to Mr. Stark from his friend, Mr. Frank 
Femmons, Ahwahnee, Cal. 
“Here in my desk is a partly written letter to our friend, 
M. J. Crow, in answer to one from him of June 6th, inform¬ 
ing me that you had been elected President of the Board of 
Horticulture, and also requesting some observations upon 
blooming time of Delicious and King David. 
“I hardly need tell you that I was greatly pleased to 
learn that you had been elected President of your State 
Board of Horticulture. Here’s a hand from your old Cali¬ 
fornia friend across the long miles between. I felt like 
throwing my hat clear over the house when I learned of that. 
It begins to look like a new start in life for the better 
development of Missouri fruit interests. The great influence 
and far-sighted judgment of the father, William Stark, is 
again bearing fruit on the Banks of the old Mississippi. 
May it ever bloom the brighter with the years, now that the 
clouds have passed by! 
“Of course, many will say that the new President will use 
his position to extend his personal interests. That’s only 
natural, or a too frequent manifestation of some kinds of 
human nature that always seems ready to bob up and get in 
the way of every effort toward public advancement. It can 
have no real weight where a higher influence is at work for 
the true interests of all. 
“Success to you, the Society and all true lovers of Missouri 
Fruit Growers and their highest interests. Both you and 
they have my hearty hope and best wishes. 
“I sometimes wish that I had saved more definite data at 
the time I was watching with some care the blooming times 
of apples, as observed here. It is an interesting subject and 
I am still giving it more or less attention, but the lesson I 
learned was that while early or late blooming in a variety had 
its value in a general way—the later blooming escapes frosts 
that injured the earlier—yet I found that the observations 
and conclusions from the facts of one year were but poor 
guides for the next, or others. Their relative time of bloom¬ 
ing is not constant, and is often greatly influenced by local 
or general climatic changes and soil conditions. Some sea¬ 
sons nearly all varieties will bloom at nearly the same time, 
or so near it the orchard presents the appearance of a mass 
of bloom. Some varieties that have a tendency to early 
blooming will be a day or two earlier and the later ones a 
little later, but the real difference in time has but little 
practical value. Other years, and perhaps in other loca¬ 
tions, their relative times may extend over a longer period. 
“My observations have convinced me that for the past 
few years this fact of early and late blooming of varieties has 
been given an importance out of all proportion with its true 
value, and many people seem to think it the key to the 
entire situation in orchard production, and almost the first 
question asked of some variety, “does it bloom late?” From 
many years’ observation along this line I am confident that 
the vigor and hardiness of bloom in any one variety is a 
constant factor and of far more importance in any apple 
growing section than its relative time of bloom. Some 
varieties will resist, or are immune from, injury with five or 
six degrees more of frost than others. With us the W. W. 
Pearmain is one of our earliest to bloom and yet we have no 
variety that we can better depend upon for an annual crop. 
Maiden Blush is another among the old apples that Spring 
frosts seldom injure and yet it is among the earliest to show 
bloom. 
“Of the newer varieties Delicious, King David, Paragon, 
Stayman’s Winesap, and the Magoon have a fine vigorous frost 
resisting bloom. They had all escaped when many others 
were injured or entirely killed. I had thought them about 
equally immune but this year, one of the severest I have 
ever known, Delicious has proven its superiority; a fair crop 
is on all the trees with temperature 26 degrees at blooming 
time; King David, Stayman and Magoon a few, and Para¬ 
gon the first failure in more than a dozen years. I’m not 
sure that there is a Ben Davis of any kind (except Shackel¬ 
ford), or a York Imperial, in the orchard. 
“I know that all apple growing regions are liable to severe 
frosts or freezes both early and late, at times that kill or 
greatly injure all bloom and the crop is a failure. Later 
blooming varieties like the Jeniton family and some others 
may, and sometimes do, escape . Such years are the excep¬ 
tions and are not the general rule. Our Spring frosts are 
usually within but a few degrees of freezing, and the fact that 
some of our apples, and other fruits also, have a potential 
vigor or hardiness of bloom to resist the effects of tnree, five 
or six degrees of frost is of far more importance than is the 
relative time of blooming. 
‘ ‘ I wish the facts along this line could be gathered up from 
over the entire country. I am confident they would prove 
of great value. 
“Afterthought: In looking over the foregoing, I see 
that it does not in a direct way answer the questions asked. 
Both Delicious and King David are what may be called 
medium late bloomers—usually, a little later than any of 
the Ben Davis family, and before the Jenitons, which are 
our latest.” 
In somewhat similar strain is the letter of Mr. Parker 
Earle of the Parker Earle Fruit Company, Roswell, N. Y. 
“I congratulate you, and also the horticulture interests 
of Missouri, upon your election to the presidency of the 
State Board of Horticulture. The fact had escaped my 
attention until a few days ago. There must have been some 
changes working in the old state in recent years. Well, I 
always did like to see the best men come to the front. 
“I am very sorry to learn of the death of Mr. Alexander 
Crow. I learned a good deal about his death in California. 
He was one of the most useful men who ever worked in Cali¬ 
fornia Horticulture. 
“Mr. Femmon’s suggestions about the time of apple bloom¬ 
ing making less difference than the hardiness of the blossoms 
of the variety is probably true of apples. But with pears, 
plums, apricots, cherries, etc., the principle won’t work. 
For instance, the Kieffer pear will bloom two weeks earlier 
every year (in New Mexico at least), than Bartlett, and will 
surely get killed when Bartlett makes a crop more than half 
the time. The Tragedy prune would be very valuable here 
but for the fact that it blooms three weeks ahead of German 
and Hungarian and Giant and always get killed, a few speci¬ 
men only now and then escaping, and the whole Japan 
family is absolutely worthless here because it is always about 
three weeks too early. 
“The people of California never seem to regard the season 
by bloom in any of the fruits. It is especially unfortunate 
that the Burbank has never produced anything—so far as I 
recollect—that blooms late enough to escape the fragrant 
frosts of this high altitude intercontinental country. As 
things stand we must always remember that early blooming 
trees won’t do at all for a very large district which escapes 
most of the orchard pests which lower altitudes are subject 
to.” 
Even the best goods need a salesman, and there is no 
salesman like a good advertisement. 
