STATE HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 193 



cliange, and so Mr. Gibbs ordered some trees from La Crescent; 

 the result was I got one Duchess and two of the Wealthy out 

 of twenty -five. The nurserymen in this country are scarce who 

 practice no fraud. 



Mr. Harris. Did you say you got them from La Crescent ? 



Mr. Labbitt. Mr. Gibbs said he ordered them from there. 



Mr. Harris. I will say that I never propagated any trees for 

 sale. 



Mr. Labbitt. I didn't say it was you. [Laughter.] 



Mr. Harris. There is no nursery in La Crescent and there 

 has not been for twenty- eight years. 



Mr. Labbitt. The trees were all right so far as growth was 

 concerned, but not true to name. 



Mr. Sias. I have just come in from the ice carnival and feel 

 too cold to talk, but would like to ask the gentleman if he ever 

 bought any trees in Olmsted County f 



Mr. Labbitt said he had not, but thought of doing so. 



Mr. Allen thought farmers were fond of being humbugged. 



Mr. Labbitt. I am not, 



Mr. Allen mentioned an instance where he had cautioned 

 a neighbor against ordering shrubbery, etc., from traveling 

 agents, telling him to order his stock direct from Lake City and 

 he would guarantee it would be satisfactory, as he had dealt ex- 

 tensively with nurserymen and never had received as good satis- 

 faction elsewhere as he had at the Lake City I^ursery. But when 

 the agent of a St. Pual firm came along and went at him "ham- 

 mer and tongs," he countermanded the order and bought of the 

 agent. He had himself bought strawberry j)lants at a high price 

 of an Eastern firm which had never borne a berry, but he lived 

 in hopes. There were plenty of reliable nurserymen in the 

 State, but the trouble was to teach farmers the wisdom of pat- 

 ronizing them instead of traveling agents. 



Mrs. Stager said the agents who had been selling these straw- 

 berry trees had represented them as needing no fertilizer and as 

 bearing wonderful berries, whereas the common plants had to 

 be fertilized and cultivated. It looked very much as the gen- 

 tlemen said, that people liked to be humbugged. 



Mr. Harris. A certain gentlemen wrote me inquiring if there 

 is a hardy peach, a native of Wisconsin, and if peaches grafted 

 on the wild thorn would not be subject to the borer? I rise to 

 inquire if they raise peaches in Wisconsin? 



President Elliot here introduced Mr. J. M. Smith, of Wiscon- 

 25 



