266 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[August, 



Horticultural Societies. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



American Nurserymen's Association. — The 

 seventh annual meeting was held this year 

 in Rochester, under the Presidency of Mr. 

 Wm. C. Barry. Mr. Barry is the youngest man 

 who ever held such a position, and it was very 

 gratifying to his many friends to note how ably 

 he filled the position, and it must have been 

 gratifying to him to find the meeting one of the 

 most successful ever held. A great number of 

 the States were represented at the meeting, and 

 the State in which the meeting was held sent a 

 large number. The great advantage of these 

 meetings is the social intercourse. Men in the 

 profession learn to know each other, and friend- 

 ships are formed which often last for life. At 

 these meetings much business is also transacted. 

 It is a sort of commercial exchange. At this 

 meeting it is believed that stock to the amount 

 of at least $100,000 changed hands. 



The meetings themselves are turned to good 

 business account. One of the great questions 

 before this gathering was how to get better ac- 

 commodations from the railroads for the trans- 

 portation of nursery stock. Customers complain 

 that goods are too long on the way and refuse to 

 take them. The roads having brought the 

 goods so far have to go back to the shipper and 

 make him pay the freight. This entails loss of 

 time, trouble and loss of cash. To save them- 

 selves, many roads insist on cash in advance, 

 which has to be collected from the customer by 

 the shipper. When these matters are brought 

 before the railroad companies for redress, the 

 complainants are told— at least so it was repre- 

 sented at Dayton — that their business is but a 

 trifling one, and not worth consideration. It so 

 happens that the business is really a very im- 

 portant one to the transportation companies ; so 

 a committee was appointed at Dayton to pre- 

 pare statistics and lay them before the railroad 

 companies that they might themselves see it was 

 no trifling afl"air that they had to deal with. 



At this meeting the committee reported that 

 the nurserymen did not want to let people know 



their business, and so they would not give any 

 figures, and the railroad companies reported that 

 they also did not care to expose their business 

 and so they would give no figures, and the re- 

 port therefore was " nothing can be done." It 

 seems very strange that we may know the num- 

 ber of barrels of a;'.ples, bushels of corn or head 

 of cattle shipped from a district, or carried over 

 a road, but it is a '' business secret " when trees 

 are concerned ! There is no doubt from all fiiis 

 that the inference will be that the railroads are 

 right in their taunt that it is a "small busi- 

 ness." When a lady is twenty she does not care 

 who knows it, but the census-takers declare that 

 many a lady of thirty appeared to them to be 

 forty or more. One would think if the enor- 

 mous business was done, as is represented, there 

 would be no harm in publishing it. This will be 

 the impression and we regret very much that it 

 is, because we know that it is a wrong impress- 

 ion. There is an enormous business done be- 

 yond what the community has an idea of, and 

 we hope the Association will yet find some way 

 to get at the figures, and without exposing " each 

 person's business." 



In regard to the practical discussions, it was 

 felt that a nursery business was different to most 

 others. He who followed it had to make a 

 want, supply the want and at the same time 

 educate the people as to how to use properly the 

 things which they bought. The character of the 

 papers read were therefore such as would aid the 

 business man in this educational work. 



In regard to the general success of the busi- 

 ness, it was believed that the profits for some 

 years back had not been at all commensurate 

 with the capital invested, that stock had gener- 

 ally been sold below cost, but the prevailing tone 

 was that it is better than it has been. 



The next meeting will be at St. Louis, with 

 Col. N. J. Colman as President. Among the 

 pleasant features of the meeting was a reception 

 given by the nurserymen of Rochester, under 

 the immediate superintendence of Messrs. Dewey, 

 Gould and Mr. H. Ellwanger. The occasion was 

 one long to be remembered by those who took 

 part in it. 



