280 ANNUAL REPORT 



must send a strong man out to bunt up the leading men in every 

 section; to correspond with them, and to send them some trees. 

 He must get a few trees started in every community, and then we 

 will soon get sale for all the trees that Bro. Dartt can raise. This 

 must be the plan for the present. Just start the thing and it will 

 run itself. 



Mr. Dartt. I would like to give some of the reasons why I think 

 a man, raising trees at public expense, should not sell them. Now, 

 as much as we may deplore the fact, a man is more or less influ- 

 enced in favor of the things he has to sell. I think you will all 

 agree with me there. If he has something that he wants to get 

 money out of, his sympathies naturally incline that way. In my 

 case, I don't think I am big enough or have brains enough to run 

 that experiment station properly, and at the same time run a com- 

 mercial nursery; and I don't think I ought to be asked to do it, or 

 that it would be wise to have me do it. At the central station it 

 might be a little different, but on general principals, I believe it is 

 better for those who receive compensation from the public, not to 

 sell trees for profit. There is another point in this matter of sell- 

 ing trees. Now, if it is the plan for me to sell trees to help pay 

 expenses, I must start a nursery with that view, and it costs money, 

 and I have not the money to command, but if I adhere strictly to 

 experiment work, I only need ten or twelve trees of a kind, and 

 could put a lot of money into straight experiments that otherwise 

 would have to go into young stock. 



Mr. Pearce. I look at this experiment work from Mr. Dartt' s 

 standpoint. I do not think his business is to grow trees for sale. 

 It is experiment work entirely. He is there for experimenting, 

 and we expect him to report to us the success he is having in the 

 experiments he is making. Well, now, when he gets a good thing 

 and is perfectly satisfied with it, then he should send to all the 

 different parts of Minnesota or Dakota, two or three of each of 

 those varieties, and have them tested. That is what I call tree 

 experiment work. But there must not be one dollar coming back 

 to him, or the station, because he is working for the good of the 

 public. 



Prof. Green. As I look at this matter of sending out trees it 

 strikes me in this way. I find, and I know that other people have 

 found, that where people pay a small price for a thing they are apt 

 to take more care of it than if it is thrown into their hands. Peo- 

 ple don't take much care of things that cost them nothing. I think 

 it is all right for experiment stations to send out at a moderate 

 price, desirable novelties in small quantities. 



