THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
285 
made to have an exhibit of the fruit grown in Colorado, if it 
is possible to do so. This matter will be taken up at once 
with someone interested along that line that lives in 
Colorado, that we may be able to get the best of results. 
Moreover, I shall try to get someone from the coast to 
co-operate with us on the fruit exhibit, and try to make this 
a special feature of the display. I fear that the high freight 
rates and long haul may make it too expensive for the 
implement men to exhibit there, yet it would be an ideal 
place for all the spray machine men and insect killers of all 
kinds to exhibit since they would be exhibiting in a country 
in which such things are used each and every year. 
Those who know of the grand climate of Colorado are 
probably wishing that the convention was held there this 
month that they might have a good excuse to be free from 
the excessive heat that is prevailing over the whole country. 
E. P. Bernardin 
FORESTRY 
The Committee on Forestry provided for by the Ameri¬ 
can Nurserymen’s Association is of recent origin. I can 
find no record of anything done by such a committee in the 
past, neither any definition of the duties of the committee. 
I take it that the purpose of the Association in arranging for 
this committee was that it might co-operate as an associa¬ 
tion with all organizations, local, state and national, for the 
conservation of our forests and the promotion of forest 
planting. 
Having been appointed chairman of the Forestry Com¬ 
mittee by President Stannard, I have selected four repre¬ 
sentative men from different sections of the country, who 
will, I think, willingly and efficiently represent the Associa¬ 
tion in their respective localities in all local,state and national 
movements for the promotion of up-to-date forestry ideas 
as well as the conservation of our natural resources. These 
men are C. M. Hobbs, chairman; Allen L. Wood, Rochester, 
N. Y., J. AY. Hill, DesMoines, la., Peter Youngers, Geneva, 
Neb., J. H. Skinner, No. Topeka, Kans. I think we may 
accomplish quite a good deal by this co-operation with local 
and national organizations in their work along these lines; 
also by the use of the papers and magazines for informing 
the public on these subjects and keeping the matter before 
the people. 
I am convinced that this is a very important subject, 
and one that the masses know but little about, and that 
they will have to be educated to see its importance and 
enthused to action. The rapid depletion of our forests, the 
increasing high prices of lumber, the drying up of the sources 
of many of our streams and the climatic conditions all urge 
the importance of a united effort throughout the country 
for the conservation of our present forest areas and the 
planting of new ones. 
C. M. Hobbs 
TARIFF 
The Tariff Act as finally passed is exactly as it has been 
printed in the National Nurserymen and agrees with the 
report which I made to the Nurserymen’s Convention with 
the exception of one change due to the United States 
Forestry Department. This change calls for “Evergreen 
Seedlings” in the free list. Just what the ruling of the 
Treasury Department will be in this matter is not yet known 
but it will probably admit free all sorts of evergreens, grown 
from seeds, whether they are seedlings from the nursery¬ 
man’s point of view or are older trees, the decision of the 
Court having ruled that all evergreens grown from seed 
are seedlings regardless of size or age. 
It is needless for me to say that our committee had a 
very hard fight on this point and had we been backed up 
as loyally as we should have been by the Congressmen from 
the central west we might have won out! However with 
that single exception we got just what we asked for and 
all we asked for, including forty cents duty on rose plants. 
Irving Rouse 
THE WONDERBERRY 
The controversy in relation to the value of the Wonder- 
berry has occupied much space in current issues of the fore¬ 
most agricultural journals. The ins and outs of the discus¬ 
sion are too many and complex to be followed here. It is 
enough to say that the editors of the Rural Yorker have 
challenged Mr. Burbank’s statement that the plant is a new 
production. They claim it to be an established plant under 
a new name and hence not a discovery. 
The first nurseryman to express an opinion on the mat¬ 
ter, as far as we can learn, is Mr. Geo. C. Roeding, of the 
Fancher Creek Nurseries, Fresno, Cal. In the Rural Cali¬ 
fornian he says: 
“You will probably be interested to learn that the 
Wonderberry about which there has been so much discussion 
in agricultural as well as daily papers of late, has more merit 
than has been credited to it. The plant is undoubtedly an 
improved Solanum nigrum. The practical difference 
between the two, however, is that the common night shade 
produces berries which are really nauseating to the palate, 
so much so that even if they are not very poisonous, but few 
would attempt to partake of many of them, while the 
Wonderberry, although it does not possess the flavor of some 
of our raspberries, blackberries, etc., nevertheless has 
sufficient flavor so that I could not resist the temptation of 
eating a couple of handfuls. Mr. Burbank assured me in 
his simple and unostentatious way, that they were good, 
and I must say that I had to agree with him. In the vicinity 
of the patch of Wonderberries, he had some of the ordinary 
Night Shade growing, and a bite into one of these berries 
was sufficient. It still remains to be seen whether the 
Wonderberry has any commercial value, but there is no 
denying the fact that it is not the fake which some publica¬ 
tions have represented it to be, provided the seeds reproduce 
plants like the parent stock I saw at Mr. Burbank’s. The 
experience which Mr. Burbank has had with this berry is 
only another illustration of the extreme care necessary on 
the part of the originator of a new fruit to be sure of its 
merits before offering it for sale to the public.” 
