264 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Choate: You should remove the tree before the other man 

 gets possession, 



Mr. Yahnke: If I buy a seedling tree, and after I begin to propa- 

 gate it I find two or three other parties have got it, can I shut them 

 oft? 



Mr. Choate: If they came lawfully in possession you cannot stop 

 them from selling. 



Mr. Yahnke: If I prove they stole it can I get possession? 



Mr. Philips: Yes, if you can convict a tree grower for stealing. 



Mr. Peter M. Gideon: When I sell a seedling tree I sell so many 

 cuttings off with the privilege of cutting cions for two or three 

 crops, and then it goes out to the world. Now, the multitude of seed- 

 lings that are coming into bearing every year will undoubtedly pro- 

 duce some apples closely resembling one another. I have seedlings 

 that are entirely different, the appearance of the tree is different, but 

 the apples would pass for the same every time. They are the cases that 

 get mixed up. I have sent out 60,000 seedling trees. Those produced 

 thousands of varieties that so closely resemble each other that no 

 man living is able to tell them apart. It would be nonsense to fence 

 every man in that got the first seedling apple, because he might 

 have forty others equally good; so I say let each one. propagate. 

 When I was propagating my seedling apple trees and sending them 

 out, I calculated to make something just on the first setting of the 

 variety in the nursery. I never limited any man in the propagation 

 of it. He had perfect liberty to propagate it as fast as he could. 

 Other apples might come in that might look nearly like it. A man 

 might claim different origin, and it might create endless litigation. 

 But no apple goes out from me that will ever produce litigation so 

 far as I am concerned. I do not calculate to let them out in that 

 way. All I make from an apple is from the first setting I sell. Sup- 

 pose the Wealthy had been put out in that way, and no one had the 

 right to propagate; here comes in the Peter, which is so nearly like 

 the Wealthy that it might result in an endless amount of litigation. 

 I do not believe in any protection whatever beyond the sale of the 

 first lot of trees sent out. I do not believe there should be any limi- 

 tation placed on the sale of any tree. That is the way I have done. 

 (Applause.) 



Mr. Hartwell, (111.): That accounts for the hearty handshake this 

 morning. (Laughter.) 



Mr. Harris: I am a prohibition-democrat. I believe if I buy any- 

 thing it is mine. If I had bought one of the first Wealthys, I had 

 as good a right to propagate it as Peter M. Gideon. I do not believe 

 it is in the interest of progressive horticulture to give any protec- 

 tion to a variety after it has gone out of the hands of the producer 

 and originator. However, the more he gets out of it the better, but 

 in the interest of progressive horticulture after a man has bought 

 a thing he ought to have the right to do what he pleases with it. 



Mr. St. John: I have my doubts about there being such a thing 

 as a prohibition-democrat. (Great laughter.) 



