278 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
ness in different parts of the country. Federal Horticul¬ 
tural Hoard Quarantine No. 37 had just gone into effect. 
The Horticultural Board which represents the regulatory 
branch of the Department was severely criticized by 
many nurserymen. We in the office of Horticultural 
and Pomological Investigations of the Bureau of Plant 
Industry, which in a general way, represents the horti¬ 
cultural production interests of the country were also 
criticized because we could not give very definite infor¬ 
mation regarding methods of raising stocks. 
We at least had a good alibi. While we had long felt 
that the nursery business of this country was not on a 
sound economic basis, with one part of the tree often 
raised in Europe and the finishing process accomplished 
in this country, and while we had advocated the need 
of systematic studies of nursery practices in this coun¬ 
try, no money had been appropriated for this purpose. 
With the passage of the Federal Horticultural Board 
Quarantine Order No. 37, a few leading nurserymen in 
the country began to see that in addition to an agency 
which was serving as the regulatory arm of the Depart¬ 
ment in preventing nurserymen from introducing dan¬ 
gerous diseases and insect pests, there should be another 
agency working in close cooperation with the nursery¬ 
men in attempting to develop methods of raising even a 
better grade or better quality of stock than we had been 
in the habit of importing. And, so largely as a result 
of this feeling a special item of $20,000 was secured last 
year for Nursery Stock Investigations. The same sum 
is carried in the Agricultural hill for the present year. 
The item reads as follows: 
“For investigating, in cooperation with States or 
privately owned nurseries, methods of propagating 
fruit trees, ornamental and other plants, the study 
of stocks used in propagating such plants and meth¬ 
ods of growing stocks, for the purpose of providing 
American sources of stocks, cuttings, or other prop¬ 
agating materials, $20,000.” 
A large order to be covered with a small appropriation. 
Nevertheless it represents a beginning. With such a lim¬ 
ited appropriation we of course will not begin to cover 
the entire field of nursery stock investigations. 
A survey of European nursery conditions was made 
by Dr. L. G. Corbett who is in charge of the Office of Hor¬ 
ticultural and Pomological Investigations during the 
summer and fall of 1920, and during the last spring the 
speaker made a rather extensive survey of nursery prac¬ 
tices in this country. As a result of these trips, we de¬ 
cided that our best plan would be to concentrate on a 
few sub-projects, concerning which we already had 
some preliminary information. 
All of our nursery investigations, this year, are con¬ 
ducted at Bell, Maryland, adjoining the tract where Dr. 
W. W. Van Fleet conducts his rose-breeding work. In 
fact, Dr. Van Fleet’s salary is carried for a part of the 
year on our Nursery Stock payroll and we feel we are 
especially fortunate in being able to utilize Dr. Van 
Fleet’s great fund of information regarding rose species 
and varieties. It is very doubtful whether we could 
have attempted our rose stock sub-project if it had not 
been for the hearty cooperation we have received from 
Dr. Van Fleet, and the assistance, both in the form of co¬ 
operation which he has given us and permission to util¬ 
ize many of his specimen plants and hybrids in our 
work. 
Associated with me in a full-time capacity, is Mr. G. 
E. Yerkes, a graduate of the Kansas Agricultural College, 
the Yale Forestry School, and who has had considerable 
experience both as a nurseryman and florist. In addi¬ 
tion we have one clerk and one unskilled laborer who de¬ 
vote their entire time to work in connection with the 
nursery stock project as well as a propagator who gives 
part time to this work. We hope before the year is over 
to add a scientific assistant to our staff. 
One thing that may be said to be possibly a favorable 
condition in having a small appropriation is that we 
are forced to work with limited equipment and, to a cer¬ 
tain extent, we can get the viewpoint of the small nur¬ 
seryman. It is true that we hope for increased appro¬ 
priation so that we can add greenhouse facilities to our 
present equipment, and also carry on some physiological 
and histological investigations which should go hand in 
hand with our propagation studies. 
Our important sub-projects may be grouped under 
the following headings: 
(1) Comparison of growth of apple seedlings from 
different sources; 
(2) Propagation of apples, pears and other fruits by 
root cuttings, and 
(3) Comparison of a number of Tea and Perpetual 
roses on some promising new stocks. 
Under the comparison of growth of apple seedlings 
from different sources we have purchased seedlings 
from a number of commercial sources, seedlings import¬ 
ed from abroad, seedlings purchased in Kansas, raised 
from imported seed, seedlings raised in this country from 
Minnesota and Vermont seed. While selections will be 
made from these two-year-old seedlings late this year, 
up to date we find the seedlings which have made the 
best growth are those which have come from northern 
seed, either Minnesota or Vermont. There is, of course, 
individual variation within these groups as would nat¬ 
urally be expected as the term “Minnesota Crab Seeds” 
may include seeds of Wealthy, Northwestern Greening, 
Okabeena, and in fact any apple grown in Minnesota. 
Next year we hope to include seedlings grown in the 
Yakima va’ley of Washington 
If it were possible to find some one variety that pro¬ 
duced uniform seedlings, this might solve our stock 
problem with apples. Unfortunately, even though such 
a variety were found whose seedlings had outstanding 
characteristics which made them desirable for use as 
stocks, with present methods of seed extraction, it is 
exceedingly doubtful if nurserymen would be able to 
secure seeds in sufficient quantity for many years. 
Nevertheless, the variation which we find in individual 
root stocks must be responsible for many of the stunted 
orchard trees we have. Investigations which our Office 
of Horticultural and Pomological Investigations has con¬ 
ducted has shown that many variations which we find 
in established orchards of citrus fruits such as trees 
bearing poor quality or off-type fruit has been due to a 
lack of selection or faulty selection of bud wood on the 
part of the nurserymen propagating the trees. We be¬ 
lieve that this factory method of using stocks from mis¬ 
cellaneous sources cannot help also but have a marked 
