112 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



REPORT OF JOINT COMMITTEE ON RELATIONS WITH 



TRADES 



On January 18. 1917, William H. Moon, 

 Chairman of the Ornamental Growers' Asso- 

 ciation; Harlan P. Kelsey, of the Ornamental 

 Growers' Association; James L. Greenleaf, 

 Chairman of the Committee on Relations with 

 Trades of the A. S. L. A.; and Ferriiccio Vitale 

 held a preliminary and informal meeting. 



Mr. Moon stated that the committee under 

 appointment of the American Nurserymen, 

 and the committee under appointment by the 

 Ornamental Growers' Association have pro- 

 posed to unite for conferences with our com- 

 mittee and then report back to their respec- 

 tive societies. Mr. Vitale explained how the 

 A. S. L. A. and the Chapters had formed their 

 committees, and endeavored to make clear the 

 distinction between matters pertaining pure- 

 ly to the Chapter committees and those with- 

 in the province of the main committee of the 

 A. S. L. A. Mr. Kelsey suggested that the or- 

 ganization of Park and Cemetery Superintend- 

 ents be later on admitted to the discussions. 



Mr. Kelsey requested that the Board of 

 Trustees of the A. S. L. A. appoint a member 

 to address the representatives of the Orna- 

 mental Growers' Association at their next sum- 

 mer meeting. The president appointed Fred- 

 erick Law Olmsted to represent the Society 

 at this meeting, but later, on account of very 

 important work undertaken by Mr. Olmsted 

 with the Council of National Defense, he did 

 not attend the meeting, and Mr. Vitale was 

 delegated to take his place. Subsequently the 

 Committee began discussing in a very inform- 

 al way some of the fundamental ethical points 

 upon which relations should be based, and 

 this developed into a preparation of a draft of 

 "Obligations on the Part of the Nurseryman," 

 and other questions which came in succeed- 

 ing years and are referred to in subsequent 

 paragraphs . 



At the January 1918 meeting of the Joint 

 Committee on Relations with Trades, further 

 consideration was given to the question of 

 such subjects as the signing of way-bills, the 

 giving of commissions by nurseries to gard- 

 eners, the question of nurserymen making 

 landscape designs and executing them and 

 other questions of a similar nature. At the 



previous meetings some of these points also 

 had been discussed and the conclusions for- 

 warded to the various societies for their com- 

 ments. In regard to nurserymen handling de- 

 sign work the Board of Trustees returned the 

 following comment to the Committee: 



"The Board hopes that the Committee will 

 find a way to deal effectively in its joint 

 meetings with representatives of the Trade, 

 with the evil of nurserymen rendering any 

 professional service at all as designers. 

 Landscape Architecture is no more properly 

 the business of nurserymen than the nursery 

 business is any proper part of the business 

 of the landscape architect, and the relations 

 between the profession and the nursery trade 

 will never be entirely efficient and harmoni- 

 ous until all nurserymen in good standing in 

 their respective organizations cease to prac- 

 tice landscape architecture at all, whether 

 for, or not for, a fee just as landscape archi- 

 tects in good standing and members of the 

 American Society of Landscape Architects 

 refrain from engaging in nursery business. 

 In this connection, the Board has been fav- 

 orably impressed by Mr. Vitale's suggestion 

 that the small lot may be handled by young 

 men in our offices on their own account. 



"The Board hopes that the joint meet- 

 ings which have already accomplished so 

 much in the direction of a better understand- 

 ing and co-operation between the profes- 

 sion and the trade will become the natural 

 occasions for the registration of specific 

 complaints of landscape architects against 

 individual nursery firms, and of specific com- 

 plaints of nursery firms against individual 

 landscape architects, where they may be 

 frankly considered and effectively dealt 

 with." 



The next regular meeting of the committee 

 was held January 24, 1919, at the office of Mr. 

 Vitale, New York City. At this meeting Mr. 

 Olmsted brought up the question as to what 

 extent nurserymen were willing to undertake 

 contracts for planting, and so forth. The dis- 

 cussion brought out that while certain 

 nurserymen were prepared to sell, deliver and 

 plant nursery materials whether on a contract 



