The morning call., 1895-01-18

tons of this great representative association
of fruit-raisers and students OF pomology
in all its departments are attracting special
attention in this city of conventions and
legislatures. Men of national reputation
are here and will spend several weeks in
wandering over California and studying its
resources present and potential Several
of these men have already expressed their
desire to purchase land and plant orchards
in California, as all in all the best State in
the Union for fruit-growing, nurseries and
all departments of skilled horticulture.
Many of the leading pomologists have
brought their wives and daughters, and
the ladies seem no less skilled in the art
and practice of horticulture than their
masculine relatives. William Parry of
New Jersey is here, for instance, with his
bright and interesting wife, who has helped
him to build up one of the most reliable
businesses in America.
DR.. F. M. Hexamer of New York and his
wife represent the editorial side of horti-
culture Succeeding, after long and hon.
orable career as horticultural writer, to
the editorial management of the American
Agriculturist, a unique publication known
in every land, DR.. Hexamer has for some
thing like ten years maintained and de-
veloped that publication according to the
best traditions of its busy past. There are
few really great horticultural editors in
| America and among them all only five or
six men ofespecial fitness, and widely diff
ferent from each other, are known to liter
airy circles. Mr.. Stiles, who conducts
| Garden and Fruit of New York, under the
! leadership of Professor G. s. Sargent, is
easily in the front rank by reason of his
| scientific training. Ebert Carman, the
veteran editor and proprietor of the Rural
New Yorker, is also among the notable
leaders, and especially SO by virtue of his
| lifelong denunciation of horticultural
frauds, on the one hand, and his most
! painstaking and elaborate experiments by
which River-edge Farm has been made
| famous.
l TDr. Hexamer Justly belongs in this group
of prominent horticultural editors, and
| Californians can feel that the name of
! E. J. Wickson, so long connected with the
horticultural journalism of the Pacific
Coast, can well be added to the four or five
of national prominence who maintain the
best traditions of the days of Downing,
Barry and the classic American pomologi-
| cal writers.
The president of the society, Prosper
]. Berckmans of Georgia, represents in a
high degree the elder group of American
scientists and botanists and nature
students-the elder Grays, LIE Comics and
hundred others familiar to educated men
the world over. Mr.. Berckmans is espe-
cially noted in the department of descrip-
ton and classification of new fruits and
he has probably done more than any other
person to naturalize the Japanese per-
simmon and the race of Japanese plums in
| the South, to produce new varieties and to
classify those already obtained, and i'm
portant steps toward producing new
race of peaches adapted to semi-tropic dis
| tricts have also been taken by Mr.. Berck-
mans.
| President Berckmans addresses have
always been characterized by good sense,
and he seldom fails to make suggestions
which are of unique service to horticul-
ture. In his last biennial address (1893l
he laid great stress on the absolute neces-
| sity of keeping horticulture out of politics.
Especially, he said, must the American
Pathological Society refuse to allow itself
10 DC useu ny any PERSON VI pelsouS iof
political ends. Again, in his address yes
terday he emphasized this point, saying
that horticulture should be kept free from
| political influences,
President Berckmans' address, as a
whole, was characterized by high ideals
and the spirit of advanced genealogical
science in America and Europe. 1t was
one of those scientific reviews that may