CRITICISMS OF NURSERYMEN. 4II 



CRITICISMS OF NURSERYMEN. 



E. F. PECK, AUSTIN. 



(So. Minn. Hort. Society.) 



I find that one meaning of the word "criticise" is to examine and 

 judge with attention to beauties and faults. I could hardly use this 

 at this time, for I have never known a nurseryman that could justly 

 lay any claim to beauty, and it would not be characteristic of the 

 intelligent farmer to entertain an argument with but one side. I 

 have also found that "to pass judgment on with respect to merit or 

 blame" is also used as a definition of the term "criticism." This 

 being the case I infer that to the person whose conduct is such as to 

 invite criticism, criticism may not always come in the guise of a 

 compliment. And it may not be out of place right here to venture 

 that he who is able and willing to gracefully accept just criticism as 

 it comes need lose little and may gain much that is of real value. 



It is an open secret that between the farmer and the nursery- 

 man there is a strained relation, something like that which exists 

 between the mother and the daughter-in-law, and the friction thus 

 caused is a menace to the greatest development of the horticultural 

 interests of the northwest. From its effect I will turn to some of 

 the causes : 



It is estimated by some who have given it careful attention that 

 only about ten per cent of the nursery stock planted on the farm 

 comes to full fruiting age. The blame does not always lie with the 

 nurseryman. The planters neglect and often destroy the greater 

 part of the trees, shrubs, vines and plants before they have been 

 given a chance to demonstrate whether or not they possessed any 

 real value. This condition of affairs does not materially affect the 

 nurseryman. True, he has been compelled to outlaw a few varieties, 

 but you find him today heralding to the ignorant and innocent farm- 

 er glad tidings of "evergreens that live," "fruit trees that bear 

 fruit," "hardy stock for the northwest," "trees that grow," "Dakota 

 peaches," "free strawberries," "the Bismarck Apple with fruit as 

 large as pumpkins on trees less than two feet in height," "barberry 

 hedges," etc., etc., and as a result his business is increasing year 

 by year, and the country is deriving little benefit from it. There is 

 something radically wrong when the best part of the middle west, 

 distinguished for the intelligence of its sons and the fertility of 

 its soil, proves so ungrateful to the labors of the husbandman along 

 horticultural lines. 



The most fruitful cause, perhaps, of disappointment to the 

 farmer comes to him through the purchasing of trees and plants 



