TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 261 



don't know, and T have heard of circumstances in this state, where 

 agents have taken the order-books of reputable nurseries and have gone 

 out and taken orders on these books, and have sold trees, and have pur- 

 chased their stock wherever they could get it cheapest, and filled those 

 orders; and, so far as you know, you have bought trees from Greening 

 Brothers, but they may have been grown in Georgia and Greening Bros, 

 known nothing about the transaction; still, his order blanks have come to 

 you, and if there are a number of pages missing in that book, who can say 

 that the man didn't tear the order out or spoil it? I don't believe it pos- 

 sible for a man to avoid mistakes. The only man who makes no mistakes 

 is the man that does nothing. The nurserymen do deliberately substi- 

 tute; there is no question about it. Mr. Willard touched on one point 

 that I have always thought a poor practice. That is, budding from nur- 

 sery stock. I do believe there is a loss in blossom buds, but I believe that 

 the nurseryman ought not to take the risk of propagating a mistake. He 

 should propagate from bearing stock if it is possible. For instance, I 

 was talking with the superintendent of one of the large nurseries of 

 Bloomington. I said, "How do you know when your varieties are cor- 

 rect ?" He said, ''We get our stocks from reliable parties." I said, 

 "Where do you get your grafting stock ?" He said, "I don't know; they 

 were in the nursery when I came here." I asked him how long he had 

 been there, and he answered, "Thirty years." Now, if ever a mistake came 

 in, it had been continued thirty years. As I have said before, perhaps 

 many of you are corresponding with Tom, Dick, and Harry to see who 

 will sell you trees for the least money. You are throwing out the temp- 

 tation, and when you do that, look out. When you go to the man who has 

 the best stock, and pay him a fair price for it, you have a right to call him 

 to order, if anything goes wrong, and most nurserymen are as jealous 

 of their reputation as any man that lives in the state of Michigan. I 

 know they will do all they can to right a wrong. Of course, there are ex- 

 ceptions. I would like to ask in connection with this, whether there is 

 any deleterious effect on the bearing qualities of the fruit, from cutting 

 from nursery stock for thirty years instead of going to the bearing tree 

 to get buds. 



Mr. Willard: It would take an older man than myself to answer that 

 question. Mr. Harrison may be able to. 



Mr. Harrison: I don't know why a peach should change its nature, 

 whether it is one, two, or ten years old. If any one can see why it should, 

 that would answer the question. It seems to me it should retain its 

 individuality as perfectly as if you never allowed a tree to get more than 

 one year old. Take a Crawford and cut from that, and put it in a stock 

 and keep doing so, on through all time. It would still be a Crawford 

 peach and it would still be true to its original. 



Mr. Morrill : While it would still be true to its original, would it not 

 deteriorate in quality? Some years ago a discussion came up in regard 

 to getting apple grafts from nursery stock, and I remember the nursery 

 people said they got their grafts from bearing trees ; it seems to me you 

 get better results to cut from bearing trees than nursery rows. 



Mr. Slayton: In the study of botany, we learn that that thing has 

 come so near to animal economy, as to make some plants produce the 

 blossoms of another genus. In other instances, they have produced 



