THE ANNUAL MEETING. 233 



upon the others and must rci)Ose confidence in the otlicrs. It may luippen 

 that the nurserymen propa2,-ate and sell trees which produce inferior or worth- 

 less fruit; it may hajipen that the fruit-growers may pack sjood. apples in the 

 end of tlic barrel, and very poor and mean fruit in the middle; he may pack 

 worthless apples and mark them anythini^ but what they are. In either case 

 the consumer is cheated out of that whicli he had reason to expect. These 

 things come about through ignorance, dishonesty or accident, on the part of 

 somebody, and in such cases all parties must suffer more or less. It is evident 

 that the nurseryman and the fruit-grower sliould be honest, capable and care- 

 ful, guarding the interest and reputation of himself and others, and faith- 

 fully, honestly and intelligently doing his duty to himself and his neighbor. 

 And even then when men are governed by good motives and honest intentions, 

 there will mistakes and faihires enougli occur to satisfy us that perfection 

 has not been reached by all at least. 



As a rule men seldom are gainers by being dishonest ; besides others suffer 

 from it. If all the fruit sold in the market was what it ought to be, the con- 

 sumer could pay a better price for it ; the producer -would receive more money 

 for the same amount of labor performed ; the transportation, commission and 

 wastage would be less ; leaving a larger balance for the producer. Then he 

 would be willing, in turn, to pay better prices to the nurserymen for his trees, 

 and all parties would have more money and better credit, and be better satis- 

 fied. The nearer the standard of right any one of the factors entering into 

 this business of producing, handling and consuming fruit gets, the nearer will 

 the whole prove to be. To bring this about requires integrity, ability, and 

 constant care on the part of all parties concerned. 



There is little use of comjdaining of what has already been done ; we can- 

 not remedy the past ; our only hope is in the future. If there is any way by 

 which we can avoid the mistakes of the past, let us at once adopt it and carry it 

 out to the end. 



The planter should not expect that the nurseryman who grows good reliable 

 trees, and expends extra time and money in his work ; who is ready to correct 

 all mistakes, and make good his contracts, can sell at as low prices as the man 

 wdio comes along from some other State and puts off upon him such stock as 

 is often sent here without the grower's name, that has been picked up almost 

 unywhere. 



Our nurserymen ought to take pride in furnishing trees that will be a credit 

 to them in time; selecting scions and buds from bearing trees, or from stock 

 which came from such; giving the setting of them his personal attention, and 

 labeling every thing correctly. If any nurseryman is doing this, or trying 

 to do it to the best of his ability, and his knowledge of his business is sufficient 



»j ■ CD 



to warrant a reasonable degree of accuracy, then the planter ought, in justice 

 to the nurseryman and his own interest, to patronize him and pay him a rea- 

 sonable price for his trees and stock. 



It would be useless for all of the nurserymen to set up the claim that they 

 had always acted in good faith and followed the above rules ; because the 

 many orchards mixed with seedlings and worthless varieties, would be a 

 standing witness against them. I believe that the majority of nurserymen 

 are as honorable as men in any other business, and know that their success 

 depends upon the correctness of the stock which they send out. 



I am satisfied that if the fruitgrowers and the nurserymen would act together 

 and assist each other, they could improve the fruit which is to be grown here- 



