98 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
direction and equally as noteworthy, i. c., blooming in 
midsummer when trees in flower are scarce. In fact, it 
stands alone in this respect for its nearest competitor, the 
varnish tree {Koelreuteria imniculata) —has spent itself 
in early July. 
At a distance the dark green outline of the Sophora 
w ould suggest a willow but upon close inspection the 
leaves are found to be compound and resemble the yellow 
locust (Robinia). The foliage remains green mitil late in 
autumn and the large panicles of cream white flowers 
are borne in August—plenteously as our photograph will 
attest. Incidentally, the tree illustrated might well have 
been a candidate in the recent competition of the Genetic 
Society to locate the largest tree of a species, for the 
trunk is three feet in diameter, and the spread of branches 
Flowering Branch of Sophora Japonica 
seventy feet across. It is the largest in the vicinity of 
Philadelphia, where several fine specimens are to be 
found. This particular tree may hn ve been planted by 
Kobert Buist, the well known horticulturist, who died in 
1880 and whose place is not far from that of John Bar- 
tiam, the botanist to whom we are indebted for the dis¬ 
covery of the rare Franklin tree— Gorclonia pubescens. 
Tlie writer “found” this Sophora recently on the old 
Buist estate where it narrowly escaped being cut down to 
make room for the housing of Uncle Sam’s ship builders 
at Ilog Island on the Delaware River. Uncle Samuel’s 
representatives, however, were appreciative of the value 
of trees to a community and so the layout was adjusted 
and a certain area set aside for the worthy twofold pur¬ 
pose of providing a small park and the preseiwation there¬ 
on of the existing fine old trees. 
On seeing a large Sophora flourishing so well as a | 
lawn tree the thought occurs of its adaptability for side- 
walk planting. That they would be handsome and pro- 
vide a treatment out of the ordinary there is no doubt. Ij 
The main objection to this, however, is the habit of low S 
branches or the formation of a “basket” head. Young || 
trees in the nursery invariably show this characteristic S 
and as they are not rapid growers do not take kindly to l| 
trimming up to make stieet trees. A better way of bring- || 
ing about higher branched trees might be to allow them I 
to remain crowded longer in the seed beds or if trans- fl 
planted to plant them close to induce an upright rather 
than a spreading growth. Plants may be easily grown 
from seed which catalogs quote at 75c to $1.00 per pound. 
Samuel Newman Baxter^ 
AboriculiurisL for the CUy of Philadelphia, Pa. 
FKOM THE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
CAN THE UNITED STATES GROW ITS OWN FRUIT 
STOCKS? 
The soils of France and America, as well as the souls 
of those two countries, have been blended—literally. 
The most notable instance of the incorporation of 
American soil into the soil of France was the taking to 
France of several barrels of American earth in which to 
bury the body of Lafayette, but Frencli soil has been in¬ 
corporated into American soil in literally millions of 
l)laces. Probably every county in the United States has 
its admixture of French dirt, and it is scarcely too much 
to say that some particles of it have found their way to 
practically every farm throughout the length and breadlh 
of the country. 
How did it come ? On fruit stocks. The above-ground 
portion of your fruit trees may be pure American, but 
the underground portion is very likely to be foreign. 
With the exception of the ai)ple and peach, most of the 
seedling })lants on which gralting or budding is done are 
imported, and even with the apple considerable progress 
has been made in producing American-grown seedlings. 
From imported French seed many nurserymen have 
thus far preferred to import api)le seedlings from France 
and to pay more for them. Just now, however, rather 
determined attention is turned toward a solution of the 
problem of fruit-stock production in this country. All 
of the peach stocks are now “home” grown from seeds 
produced in this country. 
“We are beginning to appreciate more and more,” 
says one of the plant pathologists of the United States 
Department of Agriculture, “that our future successful 
fruit culture is intimately associated with the problem of 
stocks. With the exception of the grape, no far reaching 
studies have been made on stocks in this or any oilier 
country. We have followed certain emjiirical })ractices 
in the past, but as competition becomes greater and the 
demand for the highest grades of fruit and plant pro¬ 
ducts increases, we must know more of the actual rela¬ 
tion of stocks to quality of iiroduct, to the length of life 
of the tree or plant, to adaptability to soil and climate, to 
resistance to disease and insect attacks.” 
One of the questions to be solved, according to the De- 
I 
