22 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
TREES AS MEMORIALS 
The suggestion to plant trees as ineinorials appeals to 
the good taste of all. It is so eininently fitting and proper. 
Some may object to them as being too transient in coni- 
])arison with tlie stone monument but one has only to 
visit the cliurch yards and otlier resting places of past 
generations to i)rove the falacy of this objection. The 
stone monument falls into decay and loses its connection 
with the living as soon as the generation placing it has 
])assed away leaving nothing hut a useless misi)laced 
stone. 
The beauty of the more modern cemeteries ow^^es noth¬ 
ing to the monuments and mausoleums and everything to 
the trees, shrubs, flowers and roadways. Even Gettys¬ 
burg w ith its millions of dollars spent in monuments will 
not be remembered any longer on account of them and 
they do not add to the beauty or sacredness of the ground. 
It is perhaps not seemly to disparage anything that has 
been done in an attempt to express the debt w^e owe to 
those who sacrificed all, yet we ow^e it to them to put to 
the best use those things for wiiich they died and that is 
the hapj)iness of the living. 
Would not avenues of noble trees, sacred groves and 
gardens, making fitting enclosures for the temples of 
fame in which to inscribe the honor rolls of the country, 
be better than useless stones dotted over the landscape? 
Would it not better keep alive the memory of future 
generations? 
If we judge by what is past it undoubtedly w ould and 
also bring those memories into the everyday life of the 
people. 
THE FAMILY TREE 
The old English family tree did not grow in the earth. 
It had to do with human genealogy, the lineage of man¬ 
kind. 
Not every family, by any means, boasts of a coat of 
arms, nor of blue blood ancestry. All of us caiinot have 
a family tree, according to the English idea, hut we can 
and should all have what is of vastly more practical im¬ 
portance, namely, at least one pet shade or fruit tree of 
our very owui. One w ho has never experienced it can 
realize the ])leasure and interest to be derived in })lanting 
^a tree oneself and w^atching it grow" from year to year. 
Every leaf, shoot and branch it puts out is noted by the 
tree’s owner, and as it^ grow"th continues, and it begins 
to bear fruit, if it is a fruit tree, its value in the eyes of 
the planter enhances. 
We all remember the old poem “Woodman Spare That 
Tree.” The story was not overdraw"!!. The average man 
or w"oman would almost as soon part with a favorite dog 
or horse as to see a nice tree on the homestead destroyed. 
And then, too, a good fruit tree has an actual money 
value. For instance, a little cherry tree, space for w"hich 
can be found in almost any back or front yard, w ill pro¬ 
duce as much fruit of that variety as the average small 
family w ill need for their w"inter’s supply. To buy the 
cherries in market would cost several dollars. 
The horticultural exj)ej'ts advise i)lanting a tree in a 
hole large enough in which to bury a horse. Digging 
such a hole is hard work—unnecessary w"ork, too. They 
simply mean plant in soil that has been w"ell broken up to 
give the roots a chance to expand and that w"ill properly 
conserve sufficient moisture to sustain the tree. 
During the past seven or eight years that object has 
been attained, w"ithout the hard digging, by using a quar¬ 
ter pound of low-grade dynamite to make each hole. A 
bore hole is driven down about 24 to 30 inches w"ith a 
pointed steel bar or soil auger. The little piece of dy¬ 
namite is pushed to the bottom and tamped in well. The 
shot is fired w"ith capi and fuse. This breaks up the soil 
nicely throughout a radius of five or six feet. Proper 
drainage and aeration conditions are established and the 
tree has every chance to live and thrive. Thousands of 
shade and fruit trees have been planted in this way in 
recent years. 
RED TAPE 
If we run the gamut of human government we find the 
red flag at one end and red tape at the other, the twe 
extremes, somew here in betw"een we have the happy me¬ 
dium of liherty w hich fosters progress and happiness. 
The government of the hortciultural world in fact the 
business world of this country is fast approaching the 
red tape end. 
The well intended rules, regulations, restrictions, em¬ 
bargoes, quarantines, permits, inspections, licenses and 
endless other curbs and restraints are so binding and en¬ 
tangling action that they impose a serious drag on move¬ 
ment of any kind. 
No doubt each provision was considered a necessaiy 
safeguard for somebody or something when applied, but 
now have become a letter of the law with the spirit 
flown aw"ay and forgotten. 
The nursery business reminds one very much of the 
man who alwawys hampers himself w"ith an umbrella so 
he w"on’t get w"et, a lantern so he w"on’t get caught in the 
dark, a compass so he w"on’t gef lost, provisions for fear 
he w"ill be caught where he cannot get anything to eat, 
besides soap, a medicine chest and clothing to suit all 
conditions, he may be considered w ise but he carries a 
load that considerably hampers his movements. 
The difference being in favor of the man because w"ith 
the nursery business (the wise provisions?) are not self 
imposed, and there is no appeal even though they are 
futile to accomplish the object intended. 
What is really needed is a legislative body Jhat is as 
active in unmaking ill-considered laws as our present one 
is in making them. 
RESUMPTION OF FOREIGN SHIPMENTS 
F. J. Grootendorst & Sons, 10 Broadway, New" York 
have been informed by the Holland American Line 
Freight Department that the S. S. New Amsterdam w"ill 
sail from Rotterdam in the very near future and w"ill 
bring various shipments of nursery stock from Holland. 
It is inconceivable how" any nurseryman w"ith red 
blood in his veins could manage to get along without the 
National Nurseryman. W. F. Webb. 
