o42 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. WiGGLESWORTH : The man who buys. [Laughter.] 



Mr. LaFleuk : But if we can not rely upon such men, upon whom can 

 Ave depend? Either they recommend something tliey know nothing al)out, 

 or they know that which they state is false. 



S. Sheffer: Change of soil and ditference in tillage have much to do 

 with failures of new varieties. The home nurseryman is the one of whom 

 to buy, and we have several in Allegan county, fortunately, whom we can 

 rely upon, who try to do exactly right in these matters. 



Harrison Hutchins: I agree in the main to what Mr. Wigglesworth 

 said of tree agents and nurserymen, but there are exceptions and Mr. 

 Hamilton of Ganges is one of them. 



Alexander Hamilton first humorously depicted Mr. Wigglesworth in the 

 act of buying trees of the peddler, after listening to his talk and seeing 

 his pictures, for all his strong averments he would not do so, and continued: 

 South Haven men are usually careful purchasers. They will, before buy- 

 ing, go to the trees the buds came from. That is one of the best ways to- 

 do. The other one is to grow the trees yourself — and make mistakes, just 

 as other people do. But you can not stop the tree peddling nuisance, for 

 there are men all over western Michigan who will buy of agents in spite of 

 all advice and experience. 



John P. AVade: I call the gentleman to order. He is not talking to 

 the question, which is about introduction of new varieties. 



Mr. Hamilton: AVhy, can't Mr. Wade understand me? That's just 

 what I am talking about. ( Laughter. ) A gentleman in Mr. Wade'a 

 vicinity is a good example of these men and the way they are worked. I 

 remember his coming to me and saying he had bought a horse-chestnut 

 tree of a certain agent. "The price of it was a dollar," said he "but he 

 let me have it for fifty cents." I told him there was a good profit in such 

 trees at twenty -five or thirty cents and I would like to supply him at that 

 price. The man said he would look up the rascal and countermand the 

 order. I afterward asked him if he did so, and he said he met the man at 

 Fennville next day and told him what I had said. "Well," replied the 

 agent, "what kind of a horse-chestnut would he sell you for twenty-five 

 cents?" Said the man, "O, I don't know; I s'pose they're all alike; ain't 

 they?" " I should say not," said the peddler. " Mr. Hamilton might well 

 enough sell you a common, ordinary horse-chestnut at that price, but mine 

 are the Carthaginian horse-chestnut!" 



K. Morrill: Some of the gentlemen are too hard on the new varieties. 

 The Bartlett pear, Baldwin apple, and Wilson strawberry were once new. 

 New varieties are now largely introduced as the Jessie strawberry was, 

 $6,000 having been paid for the plants on two acres, by an energetic 

 nurseryman, who has introduced them by extended advertising. The Early 

 Harvest blackberry was found wild in a fence corner in Illinois l)y a 

 farmer named Pope. Its merits were noised about until Lovett of New 

 Jersey bought the stock and advertised it. But the demand was so great 

 that he bought other stock and sold it for Early Harvest. He is now 

 introducing the Erie, which is nothing but the Lawton. The Erie was 

 known as the Uncle Tom originally. Another present method is for an 

 originator to call the attention of nurserymen to any new thing he may have, 

 and sell it to the highest bidder. There are many men at work originating 

 new varieties, because it pays, and these are often put forth before they are 

 properly and generally tested. Experiment stations are likely to be a help 

 in this regard, but they do not seem to publish results when they are 



