88 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
Henry Minnick of Wabash county, and which was established by his 
father in 1853. Mr. Minnick has never attempted to branch out to 
anv great extent, simply supplying the local trade in connection with 
his general farming. In 1856 Jesse G. Mill house of Jennings county, 
started in the nursery business on one acre of land, and for forty-nine 
years has been doing a good business. 
Space forbids the mention in detail of all those who are now actively 
engaged in the business but who have started more recently. Some 
of these older firms are: John Bird & Son of Henry county, starting 
forty years ago on two acres, now having twenty acres. J. K. Henby 
& Son, started thirty-three years ago in Hancock county, on a small 
garden spot and now have sixty acres of stock. Holland & Co., of 
Marshall county, started thirty-four years ago on one acre and now 
have twenty. Meredith & Son of Greene county, started on one-quarter 
acre, seventeen years ago, and now have forty acres. Thomas T. Ward 
began the nursery business in Vigo county thirty-seven years ago and 
is still doing a good business. G. N. Moyer, of the Laketon Nurseries, 
Wabash county, has increased his business from four acres to fifty acres 
in twenty-two years. Amos Ragle, at Elnora, Greene county, started 
twenty years ago on one-half acre and now has thirty-five. 
One of the younger men in the nursery business is W T . C. Reed of 
Vincennes, who began business on his own account, in 1891, with thirty 
acres of nursery stock, now has one hundred twenty-five acres, and 
employs forty men during packing season. 
Greene county contains more nurseries to-day than any other county 
in the state. One of the representative men in this line is W. C. Ben¬ 
nett, who began on one-half acre twenty-seven years ago, and now has 
sixty acres in stock, and employs about thirty men during the packing 
season. Altogether the number of nurserymen and dealers, at present 
doing business in the state is about one hundred sixty, or an increase 
of one hundred fifty-nine in sixty years; and the acreage of nursery 
stock has increased from two or three acres to about two thousand 
acres at the present time; giving employment to five hundred men a 
good portion of the year. The sales have increased on an average 
about in proportion to the increase in acres planted. This would 
indicate that the nursery business in Indiana, as elsewhere, is recog¬ 
nized as one of the great industries of this rapidly growing common¬ 
wealth. Many of the facts concerning the pioneer nurserymen should 
be credited to the pen of our old Hoosier friend, W. H. Ragan, for¬ 
merly of Greencastle, now of Washington. 
Hmong the Growers. 
HARD ON STRAWBERRY GROWERS. 
Advices from New York and Boston the first week of May re¬ 
ported a most deplorable condition of the strawberry market. It 
appears that the refrigerator car trust, which absolutely controls the 
transportation of perishable fruit from the South and Southwest, 
failed to deliver the strawberries in good condition. In one case the 
Pennsylvania Railroad Company delivered eleven carloads of straw¬ 
berries in one day at Jersey City in such a demoralized condition that 
they could not be put upon the market, and were simply thrown upon 
the dump heap. This is only a sample of what happened to hundreds 
of carloads and the loss up to the fifteenth of May was estimated at 
$3,000,000. This loss falls largely upon the growers. 
The inadequate facilities offered by the cold storage lines to ship¬ 
pers of strawberries has resulted in the institution of a considerable 
number of suits by the dissapointed shippers. Suits for breaches of 
contract have been instituted in several places. 
The New York Packer cites a number of cases where shippers and 
growers have lost heavily by inability to secure cars to forward the 
fruit to market. 
The Piedmont Orchard Company has been incorporated at Linden, 
Va., for the purpose of growing fruits and farm products. Capital 
stock, $25,000. Officers, W. J. Phillips, Jr., Pres., Urbana, Ill.; J. L. 
Phillips, Sec., Blacksburg, Va.; A. B. Bishop, Linden, Va., manager. 
Georgia peach growers estimate that two or three thousand cars of 
peaches will be handled this year, in excess of that which was 
shipped last year. This is rather remarkable in the face of the 
reports that were made the latter part of the winter to the effect that 
the cold snap-had cut off the fruit in the central and northern part of 
the state. 
Reports from Oregon indicate favorable conditions for a large crop 
of fruit. The blossoming period which occurred during the first week 
of April was all that could be desired as to conditions of weather and 
amount of blossom, so that Oregonians are optimistically disposed in 
regard to the season’s outlook. 
Tasmanian apples began to arrive in British markets about the first 
of April. It is estimated that the output for this year will amount to 
something less than 300,000 boxes. It is to be remembered that 
Tasmania ships all her apples in boxes. 
Brown Brothers Nursery of Rochester, N. Y., has offered to supply 
Penfield, N. Y., with sufficient shade trees to plant eleven miles along 
the dugway road. They will do this on condition that those interested 
in the road will find means to set them out properly. 
Chase Brothers Company, Rochester, N. Y., are making extensive 
additions to their lands and buildings. Nine acres of land have been 
purchased in Brighton, upon which two extensive frost proof packing 
houses and storage buildings will be erected. The improvements will 
approximate an expenditure of $50,000. 
The Illinois Central Railway Company is operating over 1800 re¬ 
frigerator cars, and about the same number of fruit cars. All these 
fruit trains are scheduled to arrive at Chicago about daybreak. The 
fruits and vegetables arrive in approximately the following order from 
March until August: strawberries, radishes and lettuce, peas and 
onions, turnips, beets, carrots potatoes, beans, squashes, tomatoes, 
melons, peaches. 
This is the busy month with the small fruit growers in Texas, Tennes¬ 
see, and South Carolina. Strawberries are moving out, vegetables 
approaching marketable stage, and late crops being put in. The fruit 
grower and trucker must step lively. 
A. B. Barnes, Waupaca, Wis., writes that he is convinced from 
actual experience that the piece-root graft using long scions and short 
roots grown from selected crab seed produces the best trees for the 
Northwest. He is also in favor of topgrafting on hardy crab stocks 
of the tpye of Virginia or Martha. 
At a recent exhibition of the Royal Horticultural Society, a new 
variety of orchid was sold for 500 pounds. This species, odonto- 
glossum crispum, was discovered not long ago in Colombia, South 
America. There are more orchid specialists in England than there 
are in America. 
Mr. Jones, of the firm of Conard & Jones Co., of West Grove, Pa., 
visited Rochester nurserymen about the middle of the month. 
J. Wragg & Sons Co., Waukee, la., write that “Our season just 
closed has been a reasonably successful one. The outlook in the West 
at the present time is very flattering, as the stock went through the 
winter in excellent condition, and the indications are that the season 
from an agricultural standpoint will be favorable.” 
William Satter, representing Erbinge and VanGroos, nurserymen 
of Boskoop, Holland, has been visiting the nurserymen of Western 
New York in the interests of the firm he represents. He reports brisk 
business conditions, and a cheerful reception at the hands of his friends 
on this side of the water. 
Fredonia Nurserymen: The nurserymen of Fredonia were visited 
about the middle of the month by the business manager of the Na¬ 
tional Nurseryman, who reports that sales have been excellent in 
that part of the state, and that the outlook is cheering for a successful 
season for growth of nursery stock. This is one of the parts of the 
state which it is a special pleasure to visit. Geniality is the character¬ 
istic of nurserymen generally, but is especially marked in the make-up 
of the well known Mr. Josselyn, the members of the Hubbard Co., and 
other representative men of the section. 
GOOD WORK OF F. W. KELSEY. 
The New York papers tell us that Mr. Frederick W. Kelsey has been 
lending his good services to the public schools of the Oranges in New 
Jersey. At the arbor day exercises in the Orange High School recently, 
Mr. Kelsey spoke on the Essex County park system, the planting of 
trees on highways, and on forestry matters generally. The muni¬ 
cipal improvement committee participated in the arbor day celebration, 
which Mr. Kelsey was assisting at by precept and example. 
