STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 405 



told ns plainly that he is willing that we should express our 

 sentiments in regard to fraudulent transactions. There will be 

 no difficulty in getting something accomplished in this matter if 

 we look at it in the true and proper light 



Mr. Dartt. So far as the canvassing is concerned I am not 

 much interested in it. I have looked the matter over and I made 

 up ni}^ mind that a good, straight, honest man wouldn't be a suc- 

 cessful canvasser; and one who was not such I did not wish to trust; 

 so I don't have any canvasser. That is the way it used to be and 

 the same thing still exists; it is almost a necessity for a man who 

 would be a successful canvasser to tell all about the blight side of 

 the story and not say a word on the other side; in other words 

 that he shall misrepresent. Whether this will be the best thing 

 to remedy the evil, I do not know; but I do know that there is 

 danger in asking the legislature for something that you don't 

 want. This is the proper place and time to see and understand 

 whei-e any defect may be, for the presumj)tion is that our rep- 

 resentatives in the legislature don't know as much about this as 

 you do. They jnight pass a law that would be a damage to the 

 best interests of the State, in regard to fruit culture. A few years 

 ago there was a bill before the legislature making it a criminal 

 offense to sell blackhearted trees; I don't know but it came very 

 near passing. If such a law were to be passed I could not sell a 

 tree, for after every severe winter every tree is blackhearted; I 

 think I am safe in saying that every standard apple tree is more 

 or less blackhearted. "We should not ask for a thing that is not 

 well eansidered; we can better ti'ust the Society to say what leg- 

 islation is needed than to trust to the legislature. It may be that 

 this is just right, and if it is it is just what I want; I want fraud 

 punished. 



Mr. Cutler. "We have a '^farmer" legislature and there will 

 be no difficulty in securing such legislation as is in the interest 

 of fai'mers. 



President Elliot. I see this is going to clash with some of our 

 ideas as to the method of selling trees. Last winter when this 

 subject came up I was very much interested in it and watched 

 the discussion very closely as well as those Avho took part in it. 

 I see \ve are selfish beings and we are apt to Avoi-k for selfish ob- 

 jects. I have taken pains to look over the record a little in re- 

 gard to tree peddlers. We can go back to 1852 and then back to 

 1840 and we shall find this same '^pestiferous" tree peddler. 

 He started out in Indiana with a bundle of cions; he was top- 



