AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN. 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING, CHICAGO, JUNE, 1889. 



President Geo. A. Sweet of Dansville, N. Y., called to order. After the 

 preliminaries and reports concerning the condition of nursery stock in 

 various parts of the country, Mr. S. M. Emery of Lake City, Minn., read a 

 paper upon 



SUGGESTIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE NURSERY BUSINESS. 



At a memorable wedding feast, that occurred forty centuries after the adoption of the 

 apple as the original nurseryman's specialty, the rule was propounded, that good wine 

 was put on tap at the close of the festivities. This is the only needed explanation for 

 this article appearing as an early selection. 



In suggesting improvements to mcrease production, the maxim of the senior Weller, 

 who, when asked for his advice as to marrying a widow, invariably summed it up in one 

 word, "don't," might not be amiss, in the apparent overdone state of stock. 



Note a blmd man in strange quarters, dependent wholly upon his staff and sense of 

 hearing, feeling his way step at a time: such is not an incorrect simile of the history- of 

 each nurseryman or firm, considered from the beginning, many without the least idea 

 of the future of their business. 



Experience, the inexorable tutor, alone has won success. Is it any wonder that many 

 mistakes and errors of management have crept in, in working to such misfit patterns? 



Some years ago, roller coasters were popular in certain localities. Large structures 

 were provided with slides, irregular in their course; the start was a steep descent, and 

 from the momentum thus obtained, the vehicle was swiftly borne down and up other 

 descents and ascents. The variation in prices of staple nursery stock in the past eight 

 years reminds one of roller coasting. In that time, first-class double X, inch-and-a- 

 quarter, dyed-in-the-wool pears have wholesaled at 42 cents, likewise at 11 cents. 



Prime, gilt-edge, number one sweet or sour cherry have gone like hot cakes at 35 

 cents, the supply nowhere equal to the demand; and the identical grade of cherries 

 named have gone to the brush pile inside of 60 days past because they were not in 

 demand at 4 cents. 



Apples, strong two-year stock, Kansas grown, none better, budded or grafted, six to 

 seven feet, straight as candles, thrifty and vigorous, have been sought eagerly at 15 

 cents, and as good trees have been freely offered this spring at 2 cents. 



My friends, this was the experience of the western wheat-grower who was ruined by 

 receiving S2.50 per bushel for wheat, as was the case in 1868; ruined, because, like the 

 nurseryman getting 42 cents for pear and 35 cents for cherry, he imagined he had a 

 cinch on all creation, and that he had the world by the nape of the neck and the slack 

 of the trousers. Habits of extravagance were contracted; the old southern idea 

 obtained, to raise more cotton, to buy more negroes, to open up more land, etc. When 

 the yield of wheat was cut in two, and the monotony of half crops was broken by total 

 failures, and the price, controlled by the production of wheat by the ryot of India, 

 dropped to 60 cents, the bottom fell out, the bubble was pricked, and the deluded 

 granger was left to the study and practice of new schemes or starvation. 



That these things are true, every nurseryman knows to be a fact.. What are the 

 causes? How can they be overcome? The blind man needs light. Is it over-produc- 



