354 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



these horticultural humbugs, I am inclined to think that those 

 who lose their money in that way deserve to do so. I had at 

 my house, as a guest.during the state fair a man who has raised 

 on his farm apples sufficient for the use of his family, and fre- 

 quently some to sell, every year for the last eighteen or twenty 

 years. They were raised from root-grafted trees that he 

 bought for twenty to twenty -five cents apiece. He has increased 

 his orchard gradually, both from the stock of Brother Rich- 

 ardson and Mr. Wedge, as he lives half way between those two 

 nurserymen; he has copies of the reports of the horticultural 

 society that I have given him at dilferent times; he even wrote 

 a letter commending me for what I said about an advertisement 

 or write up that appeared in the "Farmington Tribune" last 

 winter, which I copied, warning the people about purchasing 

 those things, and yet he told me that he had struck it rich on 

 apples this summer. That it had been discovered that budded 

 apple trees were the proper thing to plant in Minnesota to 

 raise fruit, and he ordered twenty from a man in Illinois at a 

 dollar apiece. (Laughter). I told him it was a case of a "fool 

 and his money soon parted." 



Mr. Dartt: I think the great trouble we have to_ contend with is 

 that we are unable to separate the sheep from the goats in this mat- 

 ter. (Laughter). I have no doubt we have just as big frauds who 

 make their home in Minnesota as there are on this broad earth, I 

 may say in all the earth. I think we might match any of them in 

 that or anything else. I have always thought it was impracticable 

 to make any special law to apply to frauds in this business more 

 than any other business. If a man goes out and pretends to be a 

 legitimate dealer, you and I and the people at large do not know 

 whether he is or not. If you attempt to inform the people through 

 the papers you will find there are conflicting statements, and people 

 are a little sensitive about calling their neighbors frauds. It is the 

 same way with newspapers; they take in advertisements for all 

 these nurserymen, who pay for their advertisements, and they do 

 not want to come out and say that one of their advertisers is a 

 fraud, and they will not do it, and it does not seem to me as if you 

 could get at the evil in that way. I do not believe you can separ- 

 ate the sheep from the goats, (Laughter). 



Mr, M. Pearce: It does seem to me that the great misfortune is 

 with the buyer. I do believe that men do become so accustomed to 

 being deceived, defrauded and cheated that they want to be. It 

 does seem 80. I have seen so many things, I saw a case not long 

 ago where a man paid seventy-five cents apiece for Concord grape 

 roots, when I would sell him all he wanted for five cents. He came 

 to me a number of times and looked at my vines, and then went 

 away again, A year later another man came to me and said, " I got 

 one customer away from you. I got seventy-five cents for my Con- 



