108 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



B. S. Hoxie — The company referred to is the L. L May. 

 Nursery Company, of St. Paul. They have two of the best 

 lawyers in St. Paul to fight it off. It went through the 

 house all right, but has not passed the senate. We went 

 before the committee last Friday, and there was every 

 reason for believing that they were going to recommend 

 the bill for passage by striking out section 7; but those law- 

 yers undertook to convince the committee that the bill was 

 unconstitutional. The question I asked the committee was, 

 v^hether it was right to protect one or two men in pillaging 

 the country, or to protect one or two million people? I sup- 

 pose the question hangs on some point of law. We would 

 like to have Wisconsin pass a law regarding this class of 

 violations. The license fee is only one dollar, but they have 

 got to deposit with the secretary of state a bond of one 

 thousand dollars; a bond to cover expenses of suits, or any- 

 thing of that kind. They deposit that bond before they can 

 take out a license. In each county they go before the clerk 

 of the court and show their license, and then they have the 

 right to peddle trees in that county. , 



J. S. Stickney — I have no doubt there has been one hun- 

 dred thousand dollars taken out of this state by just such un- 

 scrupulous parties. I refer to the Sparta nursery. There 

 are about two acres of trees grown in the nursery, but none 

 of those trees have been used in their sales. 



H. C. Adams — I think we ought to have the other side of 

 the question stated. While the need is very great, I should 

 dislike to see any legislation of this nature placed upon our 

 statute books. I do not think it is the right way to 

 go at it. I do not think it is constitutional or good 

 public policy. The whole difficulty lies in the ignorance 

 that exists among the farmers of the state, and the state 

 cannot place its protecting arm around them in such a 

 manner that they will not make fools of themselves. I 

 think that some good results come from this practice 

 in just this way: If a man gets bitten once he is a sharper 

 man afterwards. He looks up this business and he becomes 

 a more thoroughly informed man after that, because his 

 pocket has been touched. The true policy for us to adopt is 



