the national nurseryman 
111 
We feel specially indebted to our Indiana friends for gen¬ 
erous hospitality and many thoughtful attentions. The 
weather might have been cooler and we were told usually is, 
but it was not quite up to the Georgia mark of last year. 
Our Hoosier friends have certainly set the pace. We have 
assurance that the Texans will be found in line next year. 
“Dallas for me” is now the cry. 
A number of the leading monthly periodicals have been 
exploiting the doings of some of the leaders in plant breeding 
work. Naturally Luther Burbank of California has received 
the larger share of attention. His 
plant breed- work has been described and re-described. 
ing furore. It is fair to say without minimising the 
great value of Burbank’s work that 
many of the articles that have appeared convey to the un¬ 
initiated unduly magnified and wrong impressions regarding 
the difficulties and purposes of plant breeding. Many of them 
seek to shroud the whole work in a veil of mystery, whereas so 
far as the operation is concerned there is nothing more dif¬ 
ficult about the combining of the sexes of plants than of com¬ 
bining two varieties by the well known asexual method of 
grafting or budding. Burbank has made notable advances, 
because he is possessed with the spirit of persistence, because 
he has been favored with a genial climate, and because he has 
worked in a wholesale way. But it is fair to say that there 
are other workers in the country, who have not been heard 
from, and who are working quietly and modestly, whose 
labors will give to the public creations as valuable as any that 
have appeared as a result of the efforts of Mr. Burbank. The 
plums of the Mississippi Valley have been vastly improved 
by the efforts of H. A. Terry of Iowa, of Theo. Williams of 
Nebraska, and others. The grapes of the East have been 
mellowed and increased in number and usefulness by Jacob 
Moore and interested individuals. And just now there is an 
exceedingly interesting piece of work going on under the direc¬ 
tion of the Canadian experimental farms, which is succeeding 
beyond expectation. This is the developing of a race of 
apples capable of withstanding the rigors of the climate of 
the Canadian Northwest. By combining the small berried- 
crab of Siberia with the hardiest types of the cultivated 
apples, new forms have been produced which bid fair to give 
the settlers in that great wheat growing section apples as well 
as flour. This note is not offered with any desire to detract 
from the magnificent work of Burbank, but for the purpose 
of bringing to public notice the fact that many men are work¬ 
ing in this field, and that credits should be distributed, not 
centralized. 
Nurserymen and fruit growers are wont to believe that the 
economic flora of the world has been completely explored, 
and that all the plants of value have found their way into the 
propagating houses of florists and nur¬ 
serymen. It is true that the great era 
of plant exploitation occurred in the 
days of Bartram, Marshall, Fortune, 
Humboldt, and others, but it is not true that the mine of 
plant wealth has been exhausted. The work of the Division 
of Seed and Plant Introduction of the Department of Agri¬ 
culture at Washington, is disproving this every day. It is 
not altogether a question of introducing new and rare things, 
AN 
AGRICULTURAL 
EXPLORER 
but of finding the exact adaptations of plants. This par¬ 
ticular line of work presents a practically unlimited field. 
The recent explorations in Thibet by Mr. E. H. Wilson, 
collector for the well known house of James Veitch & Sons, 
of Chelsea, London, England, have resulted in the introduction 
of a number of valuable additions to our lists of ornamentals. 
Mr. Wilson was remarkably well equipped bv training and 
inclination for an enterprise of this kind, and with indefatig¬ 
able energy and unflagging persistence, lie penetrated the 
most difficult fastnesses of the Thibetan wilderness, exploring: 
valleys and mountain ranges with as much thoroughness as 
circumstances would permit. The results of his explorations 
are beginning to be apparent, and Messrs. Veitch & Sons are 
now offering to the public such things as new forms of rhodo¬ 
dendrons, new and desirable members of the lily family, and 
valuable additions to our lists of hardy plants. Among these 
is a yellow flowering poppy, Meeonopsis integrifolia. Said to 
be an important acquisition. 
We are fortunate in this country in having a national 
explorer, and being provided with a division of our federal 
Department of Agriculture, established for the purpose of 
gathering together from the ends of the earth those 
things having promise of usefulness to the American 
plantsman. At the head of this department is Mr. 
David G. Fairchild, a man who by nature and 
training is splendidly qualified to further our investi¬ 
gations. Mr. Fairchild is of the opinion that the mountains of 
Western China, the Thibetan region, and the vast stretches 
of Mandchuria, are destined to yield fruits and economic 
plants of great value to various parts of the United States. 
Arrangements are making for the establishment of a trained 
explorer in China, whose duty it will be to search and forward 
all promising variations of useful and ornamental plants. 
These will be quarantined in a properly equipped station in 
this country till all fear of disease or dangerous insect being 
introduced by them is removed. The plants will then be 
propagated and placed in the region where they are expected 
to be best adapted. One of the principal difficulties Mr. 
Fairchild is encountering in prosecuting this work is the 
difficulty of securing suitable men. He is now canvassing 
the country for the purpose of finding a man who has the 
exact qualifications for work of this nature. No one who has 
given any thoughts to the benefits of this work can do other¬ 
wise than wish the department the fullest success in prose¬ 
cuting this valuable enterprise. 
At the last meeting of the Society of American Florists, 
Mr. E. G. Hill read a very suggestive paper under this title. 
His conviction was that the Northern part of the United 
States was as yet unsupplied with a rose 
which was hardy and bloomed satis- 
an American factorily during the latter part of sum- 
type of rose. mer. Wherever the Tea Rose succeeds 
then the problem of bloom in the latter 
months is practically solved. Mr. Hill says: 
THE 
DEVELOPMENT OF 
“That we need a new type of rose for the section north of 
Virginia and Tennessee, calls for no argument whatever. 
One of the first requirements of the type is a vigor of con¬ 
stitution that will withstand the ravages of black-spot, or 
fungus which is the first cause of a failure in our efforts to 
