194 MiNNEsarA state horticultural society. 



jobber or nurseryman also who fills the orders with trees unsuited 

 to clmiate or untrue to label. The tree agent is blamed for all this. 

 The delivery agent has to watch that some farmer don't take his 

 trees ten or twenty miles in wind and. sun without covering. Then 

 if the man plants them twenty feet apart and lets them grow up 

 in grass and weeds, or mice and rabbits destroy them, "agent's to 

 blame/' and "trees no good." Why, you could not grow a willow 

 that way! Those wise horticulturists call him "tree tramp," think he 

 knows nothing about trees, and the fact is the agent traveling around 

 through the country from place to place sees trees under different 

 conditions, different soils, different care, and being a man of good 

 common sense and a keen observer knows more about what varieties 

 grow well under these conditions than this wise horticulturist who 

 does not visit so many places — and the ones he does visit are those 

 under the best care. Why treat the tree agent thus '^ 1 could never 

 understand how or why nurserymen could sit in meetings and hear 

 tliese men berated by some sour individual without raising a protest- 

 ing voice, men they must have and coax to get. A healthy respect from 

 horticulturists and nurserymen would create respect and lessen 

 prejudice from the mass of people who buy and want trees — and 

 every owner of ground wants trees if he thinks he can get good ones. 



The person that takes up nursery canvassing thinking it an 

 easy job or "soft snap" better stay at home. He will find and have 

 to overcome the man that don't care ; the man that is going to plant, 

 oh yes, but hasn't just made up his mind yet; the man that has 

 hard stories to tell about the other fellow fleecing him; the man that 

 knows they won't grow, because he tried it three times — the first 

 time he planted fifty trees and not one leafed out, the next time 

 a hail storm killed them, the next time they all started nicely, and 

 the sheep ate them — so he knows "trees won't grow, young man." 

 The beginner will stay in the country during the week, must be 

 sociable, entertain the whole family all the evening and the man 

 for a couple of hours longer, probably until twelve or one o'clock, 

 then t,o bed. It is only one night with the farmer, so at half past four 

 o'clock he is up, and at five breakfast is ready. "Get that tree feller 

 up!" The agent is glad when Saturday night comes. 



It requires a man of more than ordinary push and energy to be 

 an order getter. A man that can sell trees can sell anything. An 

 agent remarked to me at the end of one of his week's work that he 

 had "farmed, raised stock, auctioneered sales and handled machin- 

 ery, but never was so tired as now." Of course, an agent must be 

 clever and artful as well as subtile and discreet, presenting the good 

 points, well posted on nursery work and proper orcharding, varieties 



