SUMMER MEETING. 69 



of the soil through the scientific process of cross-breeding or hybridization; that 

 such measure would protect the public in the purchase of new sorts by prevent- 

 ing unscrupulous nurserymen and dealers from furnishing old sorts under the 

 names of the new, which has been so extensively practiced throughout the United 

 States, the unwisdom and foul injustice of the present lack of legal protection 

 for the laborers in the highest department of horticulture begin to be realized. 

 There is reason to believe that an enactment protecting them would form an 

 era in history and constitute one of the greatest legislative acts for the benefit 

 of mankind of the Nineteenth Century. 



The penalty for unlawfully growing fruit trees included in Class 1 might be 

 made a certain price per tree ; but as other plants in that class constitute a 

 crop, the best way is to make the penalty apply instead to the area of land oc- 

 cupied by such crop. Under this system of protection the nurserymen would 

 have just the same rights as other planters, but they could not disseminate 

 protected sorts without first buying that right of the introducers. Authors are 

 protected by law against publishers, inventors against manufacturers. Why 

 should not plant originators also be protected against the horticultural guilds ? 

 Of course it would be necessary to establish experimental stations in various 

 parts of the Union for the trial of new and old sorts. The agricultural col- 

 leges conld render good service in this way. The law should recpiire that no 

 one be allowed to disseminate a new variety without first submitting it for trial 

 to an experimental station and obtaining a certificate from the managers 

 stating it to be a new sort. This would be necessary in order to prevent pro- 

 tected and old varieties from dissemination under new names. It is time that 

 a veto should be placed upon the practice of re-naming old sorts and selling 

 them as new ones. The Main grape and Chapman's Seedling, which turned 

 out to be old Concords, and Golden Queen strawberry, which proved to be that 

 old sort, Trollop's Victoria, are instances to be remembered. Then look at 

 the numerous synonyms seedsmen have given old varieties by hitching their 

 names to them. See the number of synonyms recorded in Downing's work on 

 fruits. 



Another plan of remunerating the producers of valuable varieties which I 

 have heard nurserymen advocate is to pay them adequate amounts from the 

 public treasury. But this plan would not protect the public in the purchase 

 of new sorts ; also experimental stations would have to be established and 

 records kept in order to determine who were the originators, because there 

 would often be more than one person claiming to be the producer of any sort 

 that proved valuable. Besides, it might take a long time to learn the value of 

 some fruits— apples and pears for instance — by popular trial and dissemina- 

 tion 



The hostility of most nurserymen to the grant of exclusive rights to the pro- 

 ducers of new fruits has been the principal hindrance, I think, to making it a 

 law. An old nurseryman once told me that A. J. Downing once advocated 

 the idea, but such an outcry was made against it that he ceased to do so. The 

 horticultural society of western New York, composed largely of Eochester and 

 Geneva nurserymen, ignore the subject. In 1869 a committee of ten was ap- 

 pointed by the Lake Shore Grape Growers' Association of New York State to 

 present a memorial to Congress asking for an enactment making it the duty 

 of the Patent Office Department to grant letters patent, or royalty, on each 

 vine, tree or shrub, bush or specimen of one cent or more, according to their 

 value. This movement Patrick Barry, the well-known nurseryman, president 



