THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
HORTICULTUR¬ 
AL FADS AND 
FANCIES. 
There has been a good deal of talk in newspapers and n 
horticultural circles about various new schemes—at any rate, 
called new schemes—for growing orchards. Prominent 
among these is the so-called mulch method. 
The men who have grown apples success¬ 
fully for a few years by this method have 
become quite enthusiastic. Let us admit 
that two or three real successes have appeared; but is it not a 
fact that for each mulched orchard which may be looked upon 
as a proved success, we can show a hundred successfully 
cultivated orchards? It should be noted that the mulch 
method is a system of cultivation, and if consistently carried 
out, should without question, bring a measure of success. 
Another example of what on the surface has the expression 
of a more definite fancy of the times, is Mr. Str'ng"eUow's “new 
horticulture. ” This was first exploited eight or ten years ago. 
The new horticulture of that time consisted in a system of 
pruning trees at planting time. This pruning was so heroic 
and severe, that it reduced the tree to a mere stick, the top and 
roots having been entirely removed. Quite a large number of 
experiment stations subsequently tried this method of pruning 
trees at planting time, and very few, if any, are warranted by 
their experience in recommending it. 
Mr. Stringfellow is a progressive man, however. His ideas 
since the exploitation of this first notion have been developing. 
He now goes back to original principles and says that after the 
trees have received this first heroic pruning, and have been set 
in the orchard, they should be left severely alone. No pruning 
knife should touch the top, nor cultivator disturb the soil 
about the roots. Mr. Stringfellow, in a word, goes back to 
Nature’s method, and would allow the tree to grow at will 
after he has so vigorously mutilated it in his planting operation. 
One of the arguments he uses—and an argument which is 
being exploited by at least one of our horticultural contem¬ 
poraries—is that trees grown in sod produce firmer fruit with 
greater carrying capacity than trees grown in cultivated 
ground. Mr. Stringfellow proves his contention most summar¬ 
ily, by shipping a basket of sod-grown peaches from Texas to 
New York and return, and finding that they made the round trip 
in good condition. We do not learn that a basket of peaches 
of the same variety, picked from trees that were cultivated, 
grown on the same soil, and handled in the same way 
were forwarded at the same time; but he reasons on general 
principles that because failures had resulted in the shipment of 
fruit by cold storage at the same time, that all this fruit was 
grown on trees under cultivation, and that cultivation itself 
was the cause of any failure in the keeping of the fruit. It 
might be well for Mr. Stringfellow and others interested in this 
to look up carefully the cold storage experiments which have 
been carried on by the Division of Pomology at Washington 
for the past four years—experiments which have been con¬ 
ducted with the greatest possible care, and which are expected 
to throw light on this very point. Yet no such revolutionary 
results have been secured as those published recently by those 
who have been interested in following Mr. Stringfellow’s 
efforts. 
We would not for a moment attempt to detract one iota of 
credit from the enthusiastic efforts of Mr. Stringfellow on be¬ 
half of horticulture in general, but we do deplore the hasty 
161 
judgment based upon entirely insufficient premises and badly 
conducted experiments. Thousands of orchardists have been 
practicing this so-called new horticulture to their financial 
loss, and to the degradation of the fruit-growing interests of 
the country ever since orcharding assumed commercial pro¬ 
portions in America. This is the fundamental difficulty. 
We have been trying to grow trees for the special purpose of 
producing fruit crops, by Nature’s method. Nature is not 
concerned that the tree shall produce a fruit with a maximum 
amount of pulp. Nature produces apples for the purpose of 
developing seeds so that the variety may be perpetuated. 
Man’s object is different. He is after pulp—something to 
eat. For this purpose he forces his tree. We do not sup¬ 
pose that any'great amount of harm will be done by such 
teachings as we have referred to above, but we cannot refrain 
from drawing attention to what might be regarded as the 
common sense view of whole subject. 
NOTES FROM THE PACIFIC COAST. 
Collections from deliveries have just about closed, and we 
believe that generally they have been fully as good this spring 
as during the last two years, throughout the entire Pacific 
Coast country. 
Prospects for business for the coming year are fairly good. 
While the fruit crop throughout the whole Pacific Coast 
country is probably a little under the average this year, there 
are no entire failures reported unless it might be in some sec¬ 
tions of California, where the unusually rainy weather during 
the months of April and May caused heavy shortages in the 
fruit crop. While the conditions for the setting of fruit were 
not ideal, the weather for nursery purposes could not be 
better, and as a consequence, nursery stock is looking excep¬ 
tionally fine this year. California received a greater rainfall 
than for many years, while in the north the rainfall was some¬ 
what under the average, allowing outside work to be carried on 
early and successfully. 
Pacific Coast nurserymen are very much interested in the 
great and gootl work that Mr. E. Albertson, and the Trans¬ 
portation Committee have been doing before the Western Class¬ 
ification Committee of the Railways; and we think this work 
will be increasingly successful if the proper support and 
attention is given the committee during the year. 
The Pacific Coast nurserymen believe that some time and 
attention should be given to horticultural laws, as they bear 
upon nurserymen generally, more particularly to the laws of 
the various states on the Pacific Coast. They would specially 
like to see some action taken in regard to the California law, 
which was amended two years ago, so as to give inspectors 
authority to quarantine trees on the mere presumption that 
they might be infected with some injurious disease, although 
they were unable to discover any actual disease or insect 
pest on the trees. This is dangerous power to place in the 
hands of any man, and there is no doubt such a law would be 
declared unconstitutional if carried to the higher courts. 
THE STARKS’ EXHIBIT AT POMOLOGICAL CONVEN¬ 
TION. 
The exhibit of apples by the Stark Bros, at the American 
Bornological Society was one of the most attractive on the 
tables. The fruit was largely grown in the Pacific Coast 
States, although it was scattered all the way from Arkansas 
to Washington. Particularly fine samples of the Delicious 
apple were shown. The committee on awards recognized 
the exhibit by giving it a Wilder bronze medal. 
