446 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



persistent solicitation must wield an immense influence either for 

 good or for evil in horticulture, and I feel certain that this influence 

 has never been properly considered or understood even by the 

 nurserymen. 



The nurserymen have not properly considered or understood the 

 weighty moral obligation that they are under to the public. For 

 through this great army of personal solicitors they mould an influ- 

 ence over the common people as no other force possibly can do. 

 They reach hundreds of thousands of people that are not reached, 

 or if so in a linaited way, either by the horticultural editors or writers. 

 The moral aspect of this question has not, I am sure, been fully 

 considered. Indeed, this is by no means the only subject where the 

 weightier matters of equity and righteousness have been for a long 

 time overlooked in the ever present struggle for existence. 



It requires a powerful effort on the part of the best people and the 

 best minds of the age to educate and bring up the public mind to 

 a high standard of moral excellence so that it will recognize 

 the fact even in a business sense that the right wayi& the best wa_y. 



In horticuHure behind the great number of solicitors stand the 

 nurseryman, the florist, the gardener and the special horticulturist 

 and pomologist. And if for a quarter of a century past these men 

 had properly weighed their influence for good or ill, there cannot 

 be the least shadow of a doubt that the whole nursery and horti- 

 cultural business would stand upon a much higher plane than it 

 does. One of the greatest obstacles that has confronted the nurs- 

 eryman and the horticultural public has been the lack of suflicient 

 knowledge and appreciation of the great value of adaptation of 

 varieties of trees, shrubs, vines and plants to special localities. And 

 as hinted before, the nurseryman has not sufiiciently considered the 

 men or the methods used in securing trade for his products, or the 

 character of the cominercial or middle man to whom he sold his 

 stock, whether he was a man who was upright in his dealings, or 

 whether he was the most conscienceless scoundrel who was ever 

 permitted to prey upon the public. 



There should be more community of action and more unity in 

 business among nurserymen The practice of sending out untried 

 novelties with such over-wrought descriptions that it amounts to 

 little less than positive falsehoods and preconceived fraud, should 

 be frowned upon and most severely denounced, whether it comes 

 from the weakest itinerant salesman or from the most opulent and 

 highly respected advertiser. 



Nurserymen should demand as a first requisite in a solicitor that 

 he must be honorable in his dealings. Nurserymen should also 

 combine with each other to maintain good living prices on all well 

 known valuable varieties throughout the entire list of horticultural 

 products, to the end that they may have something above the neces- 

 sities of every day life, so that they may properly test all new varie- 

 ties, and by thus doing protect their patrons and be able to give 

 them value received for what they buy. 



Again.that important factor in the problem of successful horticul- 

 ture, namely: 



Adaptation of varieties, should receive at the hands of state and 



