STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 269 



there are unscrupulous firms who have agents going through the 

 country selling inferior stock. You can take our blanks and you 

 will see that we specify everything is of a certain age and of a 

 certain grade; the contracts are such if this stock is not in con- 

 dition, up to size and quality, no purchaser need to accept it. 

 As to selling stock true to name; we claim to be a responsible 

 firm; of course you can easily find out through any of the banks 

 and the mercantile agencies; we agree to deliver stock true to 

 name and if it is not purchasers have their recourse. And as 

 to selling all classes of stock in the same section, I will state a 

 few points on that. For JSTorthern Minnesota we run almost en- 

 tirely on small fruits and crab apples; for Iowa we sell under a 

 larger line; Illinois and Southern Wisconsin the same; but our 

 principal trade consists mainly in such stock as roses, shrubs 

 and small fruits. And I might say here, as I understand this 

 Society is bonused, as you might say, by this government; it re- 

 ceives a thousand dollars a year for the promotion of horticul- 

 ture. Now, as a resident of this city, as a taxpayer, I consider 

 that I contribute to the support of that, while still your Society 

 comes up and denounces me as a "fraud." I say it is a piece of 

 infamy — a piece of infamy, and legislation will have to be had 

 on it sooner or later; my interests are at stake here and I intend 

 to see that I am placed in a proper light before the community. 



Mr. C. L. Smith. That is what our Society intends also. 



Mr. J. M. Smith. A young man came to me in our place, a 

 straightforward and truthful young man, and stated to me that 

 there was a firm at St. Paul by the name of May & Co. that 

 wanted him to sell nursery stock, representing to him that the 

 stock was grown in or close to St. Paul. Did he tell the truth, 

 or did he lie ? 



Mr. May. He did lie, most assuredly. I defy any member of 

 this Society to show me wherever I have instructed one of my 

 men to represent that we are selling stock grown in St. Paul. 

 Our trade comprises much stock that is grown in other states; 

 we could not grow all this stock; people know different. This 

 talk is all bosh, gotten up by rival firms to injure us. 



Mr, C. L. Smith. I met one of your canvassers about a year 

 ago and he said your nurseries were about a mile north of St. 

 Paul. I called at the office of L. L. May & Co., in this same 

 National Bank building, and their clerk informed me that their 

 stock was out about three miles, but he did not have time to go 

 out there with me. 



