THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
129 
The National Nurseryman 
Established 1893 by C. L. YATES. Incorporated 1902 
Published monthly by 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN PUBLISHING CO., Inc. 
Hatboro, Pa. 
Editor .ERNEST HEMMING, Easton, Md. 
The leading trade journal issued for Growers and Dealers in 
Nursery Stocks of all kinds. It circulates throughout the 
United States, Canada and Europe. 
AWARDED THE GRAND PRIZE AT PARIS EXPOSITION, 1900 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
One Year in Advance .$1.50 
Foreign Subscriptions, in advance .-.$2.00 
Six Months .$1.00 
Advertising rates will he sent upon application. Advertisements 
Bliould reach this office by the 20tli of the month previous to the 
date of issue. 
Payment in advance required for foreign advertisements. Drafts 
on New York or postal orders, instead of checks, are requested by 
the Business Manager, Hatboro, Pa. 
Correspondence from all points and articles of interest to nursery¬ 
men and horticulturists are cordially solicited. 
Photographs and news notes of interest to nurserymen should be 
addressed, Editor, Easton, Md., and should be mailed to arrive 
not later than the 25th of the month. 
Entered as second-class matter June 22, 1916, at the post office at 
Hatboro, Pennsylvania, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Hatboro, Pa., May 1923 
PLANTING It is very gratifying to note the interest 
PUBLICITY, and publicity given to planting during the 
past few weeks. When I he market devel¬ 
opment movement started, even the most sanguine didn't 
expect quite such results as we are obtaining by so little 
expenditure of capital. 
One can hardly pick up a paper without seeing some 
reference to planting, of interest displayed in connection 
with growing things that leads to consumption of the 
nurseryman’s products. The reference may be direct, 
such as the writings of F. F. Rockwell, of the market 
development committee or those of the “Aurora 
Borealis,” author of “Plan to Plant another Tree,” and 
other contributors to magazines and newspapers. 
Indirectly we see the “Growing” interest creeping into 
the popular stories and even into the comics of the daily 
press and magazines. 
Then there are a host of publications being distributed 
such as “house organ,” catalogues ami pamphlets, cir¬ 
culars and bulletins of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, and the various State Departments of Agri¬ 
culture, publications of horticultural societies and so on 
—ad infinitum. Anyone within the reach of the Post 
Office Department must be of little consequence if he does 
not receive at least some suggestion or inspiration In get 
busy and plant. 
At the end of the spring planting season we shall no 
doubt have reports from the various nurseries and grow¬ 
ers that business is good, in fact, there is already evidence 
that stock is short and publicity is just beginning. 
There is no doubt the nurseries of the country will be 
equal to any future demands placed upon them, bul ii is 
not so sure that Ihe public will be well served. 
Nursery stock is not easy to buy, although il may be 
plentiful and until i( is made as easy to buy as gasoline 
or a cooked dinner market development will not be a real 
success. 
The statement that nursery stock is not easy to bu\ 
will perhaps strike the average nurseryman and publipity 
man as strange but to verify it, let him talk with his 
salesman and get his opinion, or what is better do some 
house lo house retail selling himself, not order taking on 
Ihe nursery. You w ill find the problem of planting is a 
big one and influences the sale of stock very much 
Thousands of homes are potential buyers of trees, 
shrubs and plants, if Ihe purchasing were made easy for 
them. There are many who would gladly do something 
to their yards, but have not Ihe time or inclination to give 
it personal attention and do not know who to delegate 
Ihe work to. They receive a nurseryman’s catalog or 
perhaps I Ik 1 visit of a nursery salesman, bul there is still 
the problem of arranging the plants and the planting, 
which neither the catalog and very often the salesman 
cannot attend lo. 
The publicity campaign has been successfully launch¬ 
ed and bids fair to be cumulative in effect in such a way 
that ihe future will see wonderful development in Ihe 
use of tin* Nurseryman’s products. But it behooves those 
leaders, or executives, who guide the destinies of Ihe 
trade lo give thought to the development of an actual 
planting service, perhaps by the encouragement of job¬ 
bing gardeners, local retail florists and other mediums 
that can give I his service. 
BLUEBERRIES A press notice from the United State 
Department of Agriculture calls atten¬ 
tion to the work the Department has been carrying on in 
connection with the culture of the blueberry as a com¬ 
mercial industry. It has bred varieties with berries more 
than three-fourths of an inch in diameter. 
The department’s testing plantation for hybrids is at 
Whitesbog, near Browns Mills. New Jersey, where 20,000 
different hybrids have been fruited thus far. Some of 
these hybrids have been placed in the hands of several 
nurserymen but only one of them has carried the propa¬ 
gation to the point of offering plants for sale. 
On the other hand a few r unscrupulous nurserymen 
have taken advantage of the work that has been done in 
the domestication and improvement of the blueberry by 
Ihe department of agriculture, lo deceive the public by 
advertising blueberries in a misleading manner, using 
the illustrations and information about them as given by 
Ihe department, and then filling orders will) ordinary 
wild blueberries transplanted lo their nurseries. It is 
unfortunate that some nurserymen are so lacking in com¬ 
mon honesty. Apart from the dishonesty they are setting 
back perhaps what is a coming industry, by undermining 
the confidence of the buying public and those interested 
in the culture and improvement of tin 1 blueberry. 
With such remarkable improvement in a comparatively 
short space of time their improvement gives promise of 
greater things for the future. 
Tht' outstanding cultural characteristics of the blue¬ 
berry is its requirement of an acid soil and very few nur¬ 
series have this, as most of tin* plants they handle call 
for the reverse. The discovery by the workers in the 
department of agriculture, as published by Mr. Coville, 
that tin' addition of aluminum sulphate to the soil pro¬ 
duces the acid condition required by this group of plants, 
as proven by experiments with the rhododendrons, opens 
up a field of tremendous possibilities Its application to 
the culture of the blueberry may be very important. 
