216 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



each other to find work. Much of this is owing to the fact that the 

 average farmer puts forth no effort to make home attractive, wlierea& 

 a little money and a good deal of care would make home so alluring 

 it would he hard, very hard, to leave it, and the very thought of it will 

 be a refreshiup; memory. Now, it is strancre that when the farmer 

 is so very apt and intelligent about everything else he should be so- 

 deficient along this line. Why, he can tell you all about a railroad 

 from the tie to the roundhouse, and how much it costs to run it, and 

 all about the minutiae of it, far better than men who have been forty 

 years in the business. He knows all about currency. He can talk 

 bi-metallism, silver and gold, and greenbacks till you are tired. Send 

 him to the legislature and he is a natural detective. He will appro- 

 23riate $40,000 or $50,000 to smell out a fraud and then appropriate to 

 the horticultural department of a great state just about enough for a 

 respectable coffin for it. But in horticulture he persists in being ut- 

 terly and entirely indifferent, and so fraud comes along and preys on 

 his ignorance. 



There are two classes of men who sell trees. One is the tree fiend. 

 No one knows whence he comes or whither he goes. One visit is 

 enough, ultimately bringing up at the fiend's home. He used to sell 

 Russian apples at seventy-five cents and then go over to Iowa nurser- 

 ies and pick these same Russian trees out of refuse brush piles to fill 

 his bills. He is famous for selling an immense amount of cheek and 

 lip and very poor trees. Then there is the tree dealer. God bless 

 him. He is a benediction. He awakens an interest and an enthusi- 

 asm. Most of our fine orchards and fine grounds are traceable to his 

 influence. He does not get rich at it, but he is a blessing to a new 

 land. You know where to find him. He gladly rectifies mistakes. 

 Well, to return to the fiend. I met a fiend in Polk county one day 

 who told me with great glee that he had "just bought twelve tree 

 strawberries for only $3." *' Is that so," said I. Then that city girl 

 was not so far out of the way after all. She was visiting out in the 

 country with some friends aud they noticed she was constantly looking 

 up into the tops of a stately row of elms. " What are you looking for 

 up there?" "Oh," was the sweet answer, "I wanted to find some 

 strawberries." Another fiend met a prominent farmer in Adams county 

 aud he took him out to see his orchard and he asked him why it didn't 

 bear. "Well, I will examine it." He had a little magnifying glasa 



