PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. O 



we know there are many honorable exceptions ; but, that at least nine-tenths 

 of them are utterly ignorant of much they ought to know before undertaking 

 so important a work, is patent to all who understand the subject. And why is 

 this so ? May we not admit that their employers are the really guilty parties ? 

 Nurserymen are supposed to understand their calling, and if they do they also 

 know what should be the qualifications of a good agent, and in sending out one 

 lacking such qualifications, are they not more deserving of censure than the 

 honest but ignorant man, who, like all tyros, is very apt to think he knows all 

 about it ? If we admit ignorance as a common and principal defect in agents, 

 a partial remedy should be found, in nurserymen requiring of them at least one 

 year's service in the various departments of an establishment, where it should 

 be easy for one who knows, to judge their fitness for the work. Such fitness, I 

 believe, should depend not alone on thorough -going business qualifications, but 

 also upon being thoroughly honest and too manly to stoop to the little tricks of 

 trade. He should know all about the various fruits and plants he offers, not 

 only their growth and quality, but their adaptation to soils, climates, etc., and 

 should be quick to detect differences in kinds and signs of disease or damage in 

 root or top, with various other requirements unnecessary to mention here. It 

 might have been added, however, that he ought not to have a lazy bone in his 

 body, but should be able and willing also to deftly handle a spade, in showing 

 how much time and labor are saved and how much better a tree or plant is set 

 with the little mound at the bottom of the hole, or how quickly the hole may 

 be enlarged by digging under and leaving the sod intact, etc. Of course the 

 agent should be a fair talker, but judging from some we meet, it is natural to 

 ■conclude that this talent has had undue weight with the employer and caused 

 him to overlook the want of many other essential qualities. To show that a 

 man may be too good a talker, I will relate a case or two of the many that have 

 come under my own observation. 



I met a neighbor one day on the highway who, possibly, began to suspect he 

 had been sold. At any rate, he seemed anxious to tell me of a little trade he 

 had just made with a tree agent. It appeared the fellow professed to have 

 trees of an altogether new apple, superior to all others in perfect hardiness, 

 and in being a very young and an annual bearer of enormous crops of very 

 large and beautiful fruit ; and, best of all, the quality was more delicious than 

 any other, and being very tender and juicy, was especially suited to aged people 

 like my friend and his wife. 



My friend said he appeared like a very nice man, and offered him one of the 

 trees for fifty cents; but, as a special favor, would let him have three for one 

 dollar, adding that that was all he could possibly spare him. the stock being 

 limited, and a fruit of such wonderful value should be in the hands of as many 

 good people as possible. That hook was well baited, as the dollar changed 

 hands, and the oily tongued agent continued to entertain mine host till after 

 reluctantly (?) partaking of a bountiful dinner, when he finally bade him 

 adieu, charging him as he left to take the best of care of his three pets ; 

 hoping, he said, to revisit these parts when the trees were in bearing, and 

 when the pleasant acquaintance could be renewed, and they could enjoy the 

 luscious fruit together. 



Was my neighbor a fool? Not by any means. He was a hard-working, 

 honest man, who had acquired a competence; was fairly intelligent, with a 

 fund of common sense and unbounded trust in and charity for the weaknesses 

 of others. 



