DECEMBER MEETING. 233 



and wiuii a nice little prolit lie wiis going to pocket, when lu; happened to espy 

 the little Enonyinus, sometimes called Strawherry Tree, which is sold at about 

 one-fourth what the Thorns had cost liini. ]Ie made the exchange at once, 

 and I suppose delivered these shrubs that cost him next to notliing, taking five 

 dollars apiece for them, and pocketing the whole thing. 



But in thei'ace of these examples I do not hesitate to say that there arc a 

 great many honest, straight-forward agents of nurseries, and iiurscrymen, as a 

 rule, are honest, if for no other reason, because it is a good policy. 



My own advice, based upon a considerable experience with nurserymen, is to 

 deal directly with well established nurserymen. It is better to have them near 

 at hand, but if tliere is any question as to the correct naming of varieties, it is 

 better to go farther away, for I have no sympathy witli those who cry tliat trees 

 are injured by traveling some distance, provided, always, that they are rightly 

 handled by the nurserymen. 



Prof. Tracy. — I am sorry to say that a good deal of tiie swindling is done by 

 the people who buy. They swindle themselves. As an instance of this, when 

 I was working in a nursery at Geneva, onr firm put out a catalogue in which 

 was a line plate of the common Peony ; only its botanical name was attached, — 

 Feonea OfficinnUs. A lady out west who was overrun with the "common 

 pinies," saw the plate and decided to get this new variety, and wrote to the 

 firm, ordering several specimens of this "new variety," as she called it. Of 

 course, when it bloomed, she was disappointed, but her mistake was not the 

 fault of the nurseryman, but was due to her own lack of information. The 

 tree agent goes into a new country and takes advantage of this ignorance and 

 cheats the people. 



Mr. Fox, Kalamazoo. — There are some honorable exceptions to these 

 swindlers, for one sold me a bill of trees, and when he delivered them he 

 actually told me that he could not obtain all the varieties I ordered, and made 

 in one or two cases substitutions, which he named. I have more confidence in 

 the profession since this instance. 



Mr. Steele, Elk Rapids. — I must lay on the blows hard, for I can not 

 express my abhorrence for the men who will go into our new country where the 

 settlers have all they can do to obtain food and clothing for their families, and 

 by showing up the advantages to accrue from a growing orchard induce the poor 

 people to squeeze a little harder and buy a few trees, and all this for a lot of 

 worthless stuff that never will give anv return. It is a shame that such men 

 are allowed to pray upon the people. They ought to be tarred and feathered — 

 yes, exterminated. I have no patience with the semblance of men who are so 

 lost to all honor or sympathy. Where you have an occasional case of this kind 

 in your old settled parts of the State, we have dozens of them. They have 

 made our country a sort of stamping ground. As some one has said before me, 

 we have one notable exception to this, a man who is selling trees in our country, 

 wlio seems not afraid to remain there. He gives advice about planting, and 

 even assists in the work, and follows up closely the orchards of trees he has sold, 

 and seems anxious to have them thrive and come into early bearing. As a 

 result of this he is " a big gun " among the settlers, and is becoming immensely 

 popular. I call up this instance as a hint to our friends here who are interested 

 in the nursery business. 



J. N. Stearns. — We should get rid of a good deal of this imposture spoken 

 of if the people could only be educated to know that all varieties of trees can 

 not be grown straight and nice, and that the buyers must not expect straight 



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