STATE HORTICTJLTUBAL SOCIETY. 93 



the man who stole the property was one of seven men that he knew, 

 and he said he was going to whip the seven men in order to be sure 

 and find the right one. That is about tlie way with this law; they 

 calculate to whip every man in the Northwest for the sake of whip- 

 ping the right man. It seems to me there ought to be some other 

 way to get at it. I am just as much in favor of punishing these fel- 

 lows as any of the rest of you. 



Mr. Dartt. Mr. President, there seems to be no doubt as to the 

 intention of the law. It was intended for the punishment of crimi- 

 nals. The question comes up, what does it do? It is not what is the 

 intention of the law, but what it does itself. I have read it carefully, 

 and I claim that anj^ man that ships in any article of nursery stock and 

 sells it without first growing it himself, or giving his bonds, is liable 

 to pay a fine. That is the straight reading of the law. If this was 

 not so we could bring in foreign stock and sell it, as May & Co. did; 

 but it was to hit just such cases exactly. You may say that if Bro. 

 Pearce wants to import a few plants he can do it. But if he can, why 

 cannot Mr. May? Laws are made that way. I claim the law as it 

 stands hits those it was not intended to, but I don't believe our dis- 

 cussing it to-night will be productive of any good; we might better 

 leave it just as it is. 



Secretary Hillman. At the annual meeting of the Society one year 

 ago, the committee of five, which had this matter under consideration, 

 reported recommending unanimously in favor of the enactment of a 

 law to prevent frauds in the sale of nursery stock. The legislative 

 committee was expected to prepare a bill and to obtain its passage in 

 the legislature. The one prepared was introduced in the Senate, and 

 was afterwards very carefully considered by the judiciary committees 

 of both houses, and approved so far as its constitutionality was con- 

 cerned. The object of the law was simply to prevent the practice of 

 fraud, and in procuring its passage the committee simply followed the 

 instructions of the Society. 



President Elliot. I would like some expression as to whether there 

 is any need of the law. " 



Mr. Latham. I move as the sense of this Society, that some law is 

 needed for the protection of the poor from fraud and misrepresenta- 

 tion in the sale of nursery stock. 



Mr. Underwood. I think that hardly covers the ground. We have 

 got the law, and why should we pass such a resolution when we 

 already have it? As long as we have it, I think we want to pass a 

 resolution endorsing the action of the legislative committee in secur- 

 ing the law that we already have. 



