THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
195 
of years. These experiment stations are broadening their 
scope, and will undoubtedly become teaching institutions in 
the future. The British government has been making strenu¬ 
ous efforts to introduce agricultural instruction of some kind 
into the Transvaal educational system. In the West Indies 
.schools are conducted under the Imperial Department of 
Agriculture, in which practical training in field work, fruit 
culture, and the like, is given to boys over fifteen years of age. 
In Europe the same advances are noted. The Rhine Prov¬ 
ince has now thirty-two winter schools, directed by the pro¬ 
vincial Camber of Agriculture, of which four are twenty or 
more years old. In the course of the life of these schools in¬ 
struction has been given to over 11,000 pupils. This type of 
school is the most specialized form that is to be found in the 
country. Special courses are given in vine culture, bee culture 
the utilization of fruit, domestic science, and the like. 
We observe also that even Algeria and Turkey are organiz¬ 
ing schools for the teaching of agriculture. Algeria opened a 
.q school on October 9, where practical instruction in farm and 
orchard management will be given. At Silonica, Turkey, there 
has been recently organized a farm school incorporated under 
the laws of the state of New York. Connected with it, is a 
tract of fifty-two acres, containing buildings and other equip¬ 
ments. This school expects to do the kind of work that the 
Hampton and Tuskegee institutes are carrying on in this 
country. Such is the brief record of the progress of the pedago- 
ical side of agriculture. The influence of the state colleges of 
agriculture of the United States is becoming each year more 
wide spread. Every season this country is visited by a num¬ 
ber of interested foreigners who come here for the purpose of 
(Studying our methods, and examining systems with a view 
, of adapting the best features to the particular conditions in 
;j which they are interested. This year, Cornell University num- 
. bers among her students, five young men from the province of 
Bengal, India, who have come for the purpose of qualifying as 
.-teachers of agriculture to work in their own country. All this 
is of interest to the nurseryman because it means more interest 
. jin the aesthetic side of agriculture where his activities are 
.largely centered. 
This is a subject upon which much has been written in re¬ 
cent years, and it is safe to say that a great deal has been for¬ 
gotten. A principle is formulated and announced, but it is 
soon overlooked. This is remarkable when 
adaptations OF one takes into consideration the fact that 
VARIETIES OF perhaps the most dominant feature in 
FRUITS. the fruit growing of this country is the 
fact that the majority of our fruits now 
cultivated on a commercial scale have had their origin at, or 
near the place where they are most successfully cultivated. 
Thus it is that groups and families of fruits have developed 
more or less geographically, and have become peculiar to 
certain regions. This tendency will be more and more 
marked as time goes on, but even at the present stage it is 
well indicated by the varieties grown in the prominent fruit 
regions of the United States. 
Let us consider the older parts of the country, New England 
for example. Here we find certain well marked groups of 
fruits peculiar to the region. The same is true of the Atlantic 
section. The Carolinas have apples peculiar and characteristic 
to that region; the Ozarks are noted for the big red apples of 
the Ben Davis type; Georgia is developing a strain of 
peaches peculiarly adapted to its own conditions; Texas, 
strains of grapes and plums suited to its tremendous variety 
of soil and climate. Though the northwestern states have 
made notable progress in this important line of originating 
varieties adapted to trying conditions, the large share 
of the work, however, still lies in the future. Enough has 
been accomplished in these various regions to thoroughly sub¬ 
stantiate the truth and importance of these statements. 
This sectional development then emphasizes the importance 
of the geographic variety. When each district has produced 
in its own midst and under the influence of its own conditions 
groups of varieties, then and only then, are we likely to ap¬ 
proximate the possibilities of the region as a fruit growing sec¬ 
tion, and when we do this we shall realize the great importance 
of selection based upon climatic adaptation. 
We have at the present time quite a number of well marked 
groups, which can be characterized as the products of certain 
regions, in other words, geographical groups. In the upper 
St. Lawrence River section of Canada, is found in abundance 
and in a great variety, members of the Fameuse apple group. 
Away down at the sea in Nova Scotia, the pippins and russets 
prevail, and here and there is a tendency exhibited for certain 
varieties which seem naturally adapted to the maritime con¬ 
ditions, to sport in a remarkable degree. In the Northwest, 
the crab hybrids, as typified by Wealthy, Gideon, Martha, 
Quaker and other more distinctly crab like forms, represent 
the beginnings of a race destined to meet the requirements of 
that severe region. In the middle West, the Ben Davis group 
is predominant, while farther South, still other types prevail. 
The question now is whether growers of trees should not 
observe with some degree of care the natural home of each 
variety in encouraging its distribution. Is it not as much a 
mistake to attempt growing Ben Davis in Massachusetts as 
Baldwin in Arkansas; Jonathan in Vermont, as Fameuse in 
Indiana? In the distribution of varieties could not the busi¬ 
ness of the nurseryman ultimately be served better by more 
careful attention to this phase of an important subject? Should 
he not, in other words, study with more diligence the matter 
of adaptation of varieties to certain geographic regions? 
While the year about to clpse has not given us a record of 
extraordinary events, it has nevertheless witnessed several 
horticultural features of more than passing interest. 
It has been an exposition year. “Noth- 
HORTICULTURAL ing remarkable about this,” you say. True 
FEATURES enough, but the exposition of this year 
OF 1905 . was a financial success! Herein lies the 
unusual. The Lewis and Clark Exposi¬ 
tion more than cleared expenses. The horticultural display 
was good. 
The annual meeting of the American Association of Nursery¬ 
men was the best yet held. The program was excellent, the 
exhibits numerous and instructive. 
On the whole, the year has been fairly satisfactory to the 
grower of trees. Prices have not been maintained as firmly as 
desirable in all lines, but collections have been easy. As a 
growing season, the nurseryman has no serious kicks to regis¬ 
ter. although rain did not fall at the right time and in the right 
quantities in all parts of the country. The seedling -apple 
