TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 75 



comes in. Most men never see the clause until they have had some sor- 

 rowful experience. Now, I would like to know what moral or legal right 

 a body of nurserymen have to meet and adopt such a rule to govern us? 

 As well might our grocers adopt such a substitution clause in their trade. 

 Then, if we order sugar, send us salt if they happen to be out of sugar, 

 assuming that they know what we want as well as we do ourselves. 

 This, and the practice of working a certain amount of old and stunted 

 stock into the younger grades, are perhaps the worst features of the business, 

 as far as the deal direct between the nurserymen and ourselves is con- 

 cerned. But I presume not more than one fourth of the stock sold in this 

 state is sold in this manner. Much larger quantities are sold by agents 

 and dealers, and we wish to call particular attention to the antics of some 

 of these gentlemen. 



Many of these large nurseries employ a large number of agents, and we 

 often see the advice printed to purchase only of agents who carry the 

 credentials of a reliable firm. Suppose we follow this advice and demand 

 a showing of papers. We find our agent is armed with authority to rep- 

 resent one of the largest nurseries in America, so we buy of him, paying 

 him two or three times the value of the stock, as we find him provided 

 with most beautiful colored plates and lists of just the stock we want. In 

 our innocence, we think now we have done just the right thing, even if it 

 is a little expensive. But there is one thing that this nice agent for a reliable 

 nursery did not show us. That is his contract with said nursery, in which 

 it is agreed that they will not be bound to furnish exactly the grade or 

 variety ordered, but will adhere as closely as convenient to his orders. 

 Still you have signed an order in which you have agreed to 

 pay full price for the trees on delivery, and may not get what 

 you buy at all, and you are much worse off than in the first instance, 

 as there is a third person between you and the man who should 

 be responsible. This method of imposing on the public originated 

 with the nurseryman; and why should not the public adopt a rule that 

 in case they are out of cash when the trees arrive, they reserve the right to 

 pay for them by an equivalent in butter and eggs (stale eggs if the trees 

 are not true to name)? The most rascally method of selling trees that I 

 know of is the practice of furnishing a " billing ground " for dealers. Do 

 you all know what that means? It means just this: that a dealer can can- 

 vass a large territory, selling all kinds of fruit trees to you and your neigh- 

 bors, and not own a single tree. Now then, after collecting all the orders 

 he can, he goes in the spring to one of these nurseries and purchases 

 enough trees to fill his orders, getting the cheapest he can that he thinks 

 will fill the bill and pass inspection. Nearly all nurseries have a certain 

 amount of well-grown trees of unsalable varieties, every spring, which they 

 are glad to sell our dealer at any price, and will furnish him a " billing 

 ground " and all the boxes, labels, and packing material he may need — at 

 the same time the nurseryman certainly knows that he is furnishing the 

 dealer the means of swindling a lot of ignorant farmers, and the very fact 

 that he has made the operation so convenient accounts for the immense 

 amount of this swindling business that is being done all around us. 



This scheme was also a nurseryman's invention; or rather, has been the 

 natural outgrowth of the business. Of course I am aware that the ever- 

 lasting hunt for cheap trees, by farmers, has in a certain measure com- 

 pelled the nurseryman to sell so low that he must sell all his stock at some 

 price in order to live and do business like other men; but a man with a 



