THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
365 
JAMES McHUTCHISON WRITES OF HIS VISIT TO 
EUROPEAN NURSERIES 
Perhaps the most interesting place for nurserymen Mr. 
Meehan and myself visited on our recent European tour was 
Boskoop, Holland, where in some of the older nurseries trees 
have been growing on the same land for the past 200 years. 
The land is constantly being removed with the shipments of 
balled plants and is renewed by the dredgings from the adjoin¬ 
ing sub-canals and fertilized partly from the acquatic plants 
which cover them. We were there four days, but were able 
to visit only a few of the 600 to 700 growers. 
There are no other industries in Boskoop, except those 
subsidiary to the nursery business. The whole country is 
below sea level, the water level of the sub-canals are regulated 
by pumping stations. The large canal which carries an 
enormous amount of commerce and runs between Rotterdam 
and Amsterdam runs right through the center of Boskoop and 
provides rapid and cheap transportation to these ports. All 
stock is looking in fine shajje, Roses, Tree Roses, Rhododen¬ 
drons and Koster Blue Spruce are in large supply and cheap, 
but Boxwood, Azalea Mollis, Hydrangea p. g., and Baby 
Rambler are scarce and cannot now be bought at less than 
about 20% over spring prices. 
Another very interesting nursery center is Oudenbosch in 
the south of Holland. They have no canals there. The land, 
unlike that of Boskoop, is sandy and seems peculiarly suitable 
to the growing of Maples, Tilias, Planes, Oaks and similar 
growing upright deciduous trees, requiring straight stems. 
They have a long growing season, from March to November, 
and no really hot weather in between, a regular and frequent 
rainfall. In one of the outlying sections we saw Norway 
Maples which had made 6 ft. of this year’s growth up to 
Aug. I St, the leaves measured 12 inches across (o. k.’d by 
Meehan). At Union Nurseries we saw a solid block of 
Norway Maples all running from 6 to 10 ft. The largest 
block of one variety we saw anywhere in Europe. 
In France we took an automobile ride from Angers down 
the valley of the river Loire, 20 miles, to inspect the fruit 
stocks. This section is called “The Garden of France’’ and 
is rightly named. The land is altogether in small holdings 
and owned by the same family for generations and money will 
hardly buy it. Most of the owners, though wealthy men as 
a rule, work themselves in the fields 12 or 14 hours a day 
and their wives and families work with them. It was these 
small farmers who paid in two years, the war indemnity of 
' two billions of francs which Bismark imposed on France with 
the object of crushing the nation and preventing another 
war. 
This land is mostly lower than high water level of the 
river. It was dammed back by one of the Louis’ about 200 
years ago. The extremely fertile soil, together with the 
underlying water, and the warm summer makes the condition 
ideal for growing seedlings of uniform caliper each season, 
conditions which I doubt can be found elsewhere. The 
seedlings are looking exceptionally line this season. We saw 
•blocks of one year transplanted apples and pears standing 
evenly in the rows without a blank, every stock of which 
could be shipped as seven to twelve mm. without any grading, 
the same could be said of Mahalebs, Myrobolans and Maz- 
zards five to nine mm. There are very few smaller gradns and 
practically everything in fruit stocks is soldjor this season 
excepting apj^les and mahalebs. 
We also visited Orleans, Ghent, Aal.smeer and many 
other places. Everywhere we found the nurseries quite 
clean of insect pests, especially in France and everywhere 
was a desire to comply with American Entomological laws, 
wherever practicable. 
JAPANESE MAPLES 
Japanese Maples arc among the real choice things in 
ornamental nursery stock. There are quite a number of 
different varieties but the one that stands out pre-eminently, 
the best seller is the Blood-leaved Japanese Maple, Acer 
polymorphum atropurpureum. 
Perhaps the most popular is the Red fem leaved one, 
and its companion the green fern leaved one, after the.se it is 
hard to say just which is best to grow in quantity. 
While the Japanese Maples are fairly well known to the 
public especially in the vicinity of large nurseries they have 
not been exploited nearly as much as they should be. They 
hold rather an unique position among plants, being very rich 
and choice looking and should be in very large demand if 
they were better known. 
They are just the plants needed for the small yard of a 
suburban residence, where there is only room for a few ])lants 
and these must be necessarily good. 
Considering the Japanese Maples are not indigenous to 
this country they are wonderfully adaptable, being hardy 
over a great range of territory, but are perhaps, most at home 
in the latitude of Philadelphia and New York. 
A good number are imported annually from Japan, these, 
however, do not seem to thrive so well as home grown 
stock. ’Propagation is perhaps a little slow as it has to be 
done by grafting, layering or inarching. 
If by graft or inarch the stock to use is the plain green 
Acer polymorphum, pencil thickness should be used, these 
are readily secured through the importers. 
If bottle grafting be the method used the stocks are 
planted out in nursery rows and the grafts worked on them 
in early summer. The process is sure and few failures need 
be apprehended. 
If the propagation is by inarching, of course it is necessary 
to have stool plants and the stocks should be estabhshed in 
pots, which may be plunged in the ground at the time of 
inarching and cut away and stored in the fall, as by that time 
a good union will be made. These will then be ready to 
plant out in the nursery rows by the following spring. 
It takes a little longer to get plants on their own roots by 
layering, but with good stool plants, with branches pegged 
down and properly layered a continuous supply can be kept 
up. 
The cut leaved sorts Acer polymorphum dissectum, green 
fern leaved and Acer polymorphum dissectum atropur])ureum 
red fem leaved, should be staked while they are young so as 
to get as much height to them as possible, as their growth has 
a downward tendency and the plants will be very squatty 
unless this is attended to. 
