THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
279 
trees and shrubs for ornamental purposes. A 
Thoreau can classify trees and point out the beauties 
which should he observed and admired by the less 
discerning man. A Burbank can by selection pro¬ 
duce many beautiful forms of plant life and, as in 
the case of his development of the potato, produce 
changes which lessen the demands on the purse, but 
nurserymen commercialize these discoveries and in¬ 
troduce them to the homemaker. The nurseryman 
is not entirely commercial, however. He is in love 
with his business and he takes as much pride or¬ 
dinarily in the development of the trees which he 
sells as he receives benefit in the commercial trans¬ 
action. 
There is not much blare of trumpets at a nursery¬ 
men’s convention. The members meet quietly, dis¬ 
cuss questions of importance and separate until the 
convention the next year calls them together. Their 
convention is the nearest illustration of planting a 
seed and waiting for growth, and the unfolding of 
the plant is no more certain than the spread of the 
new ideas which are received by the members as 
they attend the sessions and confer with one another. 
Unconsciously the people get the benefit of these 
conventions and the world profits materially by them. 
“The National Nurseryman” 
WHAT ABOUT THE has often pointed out that one 
NURSERY EMPLOYEE of the crying needs of the bus¬ 
iness is for more skilled help, 
but skilled help was not mentioned officially at the 
convention, in fact completely ignored. 
We can hardly get away from the fact that a produc¬ 
tive plant such as a nursery requires for its operation, 
first, proprietor or managership, second, skilled labor and 
common labor. 
Some nurseries perhaps manage to get along with very 
little skilled labor but such a nursery must necessarily 
stay small and unprogressive. If we analyze most of 
the troubles voiced at the convention, such as poor pack¬ 
ing, poor grading, wrongly named stock, or if we com¬ 
pare American grown with foreign grown stock, it 
usually sifts down in its final analysis to lack of skilled 
labor, nurserymen who are not proprietors or owners, 
but men whose whole life is devoted to the plants they 
grow. 
What efforts are being made to train such men? Very 
little, if any, and we might even go further and say, some 
of nurserymen invariably learn their business at home, 
with perhaps a year or two at an agricultural college, 
which limits their experience and contact with the real 
grower and rarely develops traditions that develop a code 
or esprit de corps that is so essential. 
If nurserymen would send their sons to other nur¬ 
series for a few years before taking charge at home, the 
next generation would be of wider experience and skilled 
help would get better recognition and there would he 
more loyalty among employees to the firm they work for, 
and a striving to grow better stock. 
A man who works for wages alone without much in¬ 
terest in his work is merely common labor. What the 
business really needs is better defined A. P. I. C. and 
M. M. degrees. 
It is very doubtful if a nursery employee is eligible to 
membership in the National Association under the present 
policy, at least there is no effort to encourage him to be¬ 
come one. 
Manufacturing concerns in many lines with the aid of 
machinery, modern methods, etc., have eliminated their 
dependence on the skilled employee to a large extent, or 
at least have reduced it as much as possible, but in our 
business the human equation plays too large a part. 
More loyal, earnest, real plant growers would prove a 
paying investment and it is up to nurserymen to en¬ 
courage and train them. 
WILL THE ENTOMOLOGISTS LOSE THEIR JOBS? 
According to the Chicago Daily Journal a wonderful 
machine has been developed that kills both bugs and un¬ 
desirable plants. * 
A NEW BUG KILLER 
“A new piece of agricultural apparatus has been de¬ 
veloped for the purpose of combating the destructive bugs 
and undesirable vegetable growths by an application of 
steam to the soil penetrating some distance below the 
surface. The machine carries a steam generating plant 
and moves over the surface on a large drum, the peri¬ 
phery of which is staggered with protruding stream out¬ 
lets in the shape of blades or spines. As the apparatus 
is drawn over the ground the spines imbed themselves in 
the soil and while in this position the steam is released 
and penetrates the soil for some distance around the out¬ 
let, killing the worms, larvae and bugs and the undesir¬ 
able crop of weeds which seed themselves from one sea¬ 
son to another.” 
BULLETINS OF INTEREST TO NURSERYMEN 
Published by the U. S. D. of A. 
Dewberry Culture. By George M. Darrow, Scientific 
Assistant, Office of Horticultural and Pomological Investi¬ 
gations. Pp. 19, figs. 12. Contribution from the Bureau 
of Plant Industry. June 12, 1916. (Farmers’ Bulle¬ 
tin 728). 
The White-Pine Blister Rust. By Perley Spaulding, 
Pathologist, Office of Investigations in Forest Pathology. 
Pp. 16, pi. 1, fig. 4. Contribution from the Bureau of 
Plant Industry, June 9, 1916. (Farmers’ Bulletin 742). 
Suitable for general distribution. 
SIXTH ANNUAL APPLE SHOW OF THE INDIANA 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
The Sixth Annual Apple Show of the Indiana Horticul¬ 
tural Society this year will be held at the West Baden 
Hotel, West Baden, Indiana, a great vacation resort in the 
heart of the apple growing district, so that a very large 
attendance of actual producers is expected to be in at¬ 
tendance. A substantial increase in the value of pre¬ 
miums offered, and a strong program including both edu¬ 
cational and recreation features, ending in the Second 
Annual Fruit Growers Banquet, will be some of the fea¬ 
tures of the Show. 
This shows good lively management and it deserves 
success. 
