TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 79 



varieties that are usually not good for anything. They are instructed to 

 urge these, to show the attractive pictures to the women, and are told by 

 the nurserymen: "Sell three 'specials' each day and you make your 

 wages. All the rest is profit to us." I once went to a nursery with an 

 order for peach trees. I saw them dug, labeled and tied up; the nursery 

 rows were all nicely labeled with stakes; but what did the purchaser get? 

 He doa't know, and I don't know, except that in the whole lot there are 

 two Crawfords. On the other hand, I once went after Shropshire Damson 

 plum trees, but got something large and fine and much better than 

 Shropshire Damson. There's your honest nurseryman! We agents may 

 try to do our very best, but for most of the troubles you nurseryman are 

 to blame. 



Mr. Bird: The remedy lies with the experiment stations if we have 

 enough of them and they are rightly conducted. They can test new 

 varieties and prove their value. 



Mr. Stearns: I class myself as a fruitgrower; but for years I was a 

 nurseryman, and I will back nurserymen for honesty and integrity, against 

 any class of men, and none, unless it be bankers and railway men, are more 

 vigilant to guard against mistakes. True, they try to find out what varie- 

 ties of fruits are wanted and to supply them. An honest man may go 

 forth to sell fruit trees and be unable to sell twenty-five cents' worth, while 

 the offerings of one who has a plum that curculio won't touch will be 

 snapped up. 



Mr. Bogue defended the nurserymen in their efforts to introduce new 

 varieties, citing as examples Ellwanger & Barry with Industry gooseberry 

 and Mills grape. If they had waited for results at experiment stations it 

 would have been years before these excellent fruits had become known. 

 True, there are many places where the industry does not succeed (as in 

 the case with other fruits) but there are many other localities where it is 

 highly successful. When such specialties are bought it is on the basis of 

 their successful growth by the introducer and not otherwise. 



President Lyon: I have never bought a tree from an agent and I never 

 will buy one. If I want any stock, I find where it may be had and go 

 directly there. Then, if it is not all right, I know to whom to go about 

 it. Whovever buys of an agent must expect to pay two or three times 

 what the same article would cost at the nursery. 



