THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
395 
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The planting of orchards East and 
ACTIVITY IN West is progressing with almost un- 
NURSERY paralleled rapidity. New England is 
LINES waking up. The Pacific Slope region 
is planting as fast as water can be 
secured and natural conditions warrant. Cities are 
studying civic improvement to the end that parks are being 
established, boulevards extended and cemeteries improved. 
The restoration of a feeling of financial stability has brought 
with it a desire to improve the private estate and make the 
country home more beautiful. All this means business for 
the nurseryman and landscape architect. The autupm 
has been favorable, although it followed a rather dry sum¬ 
mer in the East. The new tariff is not likely to work any 
noted revolution in trade. Probably the rose trade will be 
affected more than any other as the new tariff is practically 
prohibitive. Some importers decline to take orders. 
This will have the effect of stimulating home production. 
On the whole the feeling of the nurserymen at the close of 
the year 1909 is one of satisfaction in the past and con¬ 
fidence in the future. 
j! '* 
The last two years, especially the one 
PROGRESS just going out, have recorded a consider- 
IN SPRAYING able change in spraying practices. For 
several years Bordeaux mixture has been 
the standard and accepted fungicide. It 
is interesting to note that it is now being supplanted by one 
of the fungicides first introduced but later set aside for the 
copper salt and' other remedies. We refer to lime 
and sulphur compounds. Early in the history of 
spraying in this country, hypo-sulphite of soda 
was recommended and tried as a remedy for fungus para¬ 
sites. Sulphur in the dry form has been an accepted 
remedial agent against greenhouse plant parasites for 
many years. The past few years have seen the return of 
sulphur mixtures to an apparently established place in the 
program of warfare on plant and insect parasites. Lime 
sulphur mixtures were first recommended as dormant 
sprays. The experience of the summers of 1908 and 1909 
demonstrate that they are likely to take an important place 
as summer washes. 
The experiments of Scott in Florida and Virginia appear 
to demonstrate the efficacy of the self-boiled lime sulphur 
as a preventive of brown rot of the peach, scab of the 
peach, and scab of the apple, while the Cornell Experiment 
Station studies indicate that the Niagara brand of lime 
sulphur a proprietary mixture is also efficient in prevent¬ 
ing apple scab when used as a summer spray. Again the 
experiments of Virginia growers and those of George 1 . 
Powell of New York, speak strongly in favor of another 
proprietary mixture, sulfocide (the B. G. Pratt Company), 
as a remedy against apple scab when applied as a summer 
spray. These various experiences suggest that spraying 
formulas are not finally and definitely settled, but that each 
year is likely to bring forth such experiences as will call for 
more or less annual modification in formulas and methods 
of application. 
fruit and plant ]N ° tC9 
BOSC PEAR 
This comparatively old variety of pear has curiously 
enough not become widely known as a commercial sort. 
Why this should be so is difficult to explain, for there are few 
pears possessing a larger number of good qualities than Bose. 
A few days ago in visiting the exhibition of the Ontario 
Fruit Growers’ Association in Toronto we were struck by 
the remarkably fine specimens there exhibited. Later 
during the progress of the meeting Mr. J. R. Cornell of New¬ 
burgh, in giving an address on pears again exhibited fine 
specimens of Bose and emphasized its value as grown by 
him in Eastern New York. 
The fruit is large, elongated and acutely pyriform. 
The surface is somewhat uneven, being covered by slight 
indentations. The greenish color of the picked specimen 
is followed by a deep yellow nearly covered with cinnamon 
colored russet. The stem end is sometimes elongated into 
quite an acute point which however does not militate 
against easy packing to any considerable extent as the swell 
of the base fits into the convexity of the neck. The flesh is 
white, of fine texture and a rich, sweet flavor. In the 
Ontario Lake region the season is October to the middle of 
November. 
The Bose tree is a vigorous grower, a regular bearer, 
possessing the peculiarity of producing its fruit singly and 
not in clusters. This habit obviates to a very considerable 
degree the necessity of thinning the fruit. It is popular on 
the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Cornell and other pear special¬ 
ists of the State are a unit in recommending Bose as a 
commercial variety for domestic and export purposes. 
THE McPIKE GRAPE 
Some eight or nine years ago it was our pleasure to visit 
Alton, Illinois, for the purpose of examining the original 
McPike vine and a vineyard of that variety. We were 
speedily convinced that the originator in producing this 
variety had succeeded in adding a worthy grape to our 
cultivated lists. Of course at that time it had not been 
widely tested, and its adaptability to varying conditions 
was practically unknown. The right to propagate the 
variety was sold to an Iowa nurseryman, and in due time 
the McPike grape was catalogued by many nurserymen 
over the country. 
Before long the purchasers secured fruit and in the full¬ 
ness of time, opinions from the standpoint of the grower in 
regard to the value of the grape were forthcoming. As in 
most cases these opinions expressed widely divergent 
notions regarding the usefulness and worth of the grape, 
but in this instance there appears to have occurred some 
unfortunate mistake in the propagation of the variety, for 
many vines labeled McPike and planted in different parts of 
the country are now bearing nothing but Concord 01 \A orden 
grapes. It is more charitable to say that this was a 
mistake than to say that it is a case of wilful substitution. 
But unfortunately for the reputation of nurserymen and the 
