290 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



THE FRUIT TREE PEDDLER. 



DURING the spring months fruit 

 tree peddlers get a large amount 

 of free advertising, and this year is 

 no exception. Already the custom- 

 ary wail is going the rounds of the 

 press against the wicked irrepres- 

 sible canvasser. It has become the 

 fashion to pounce upon him at this 

 season of the year, and the whole 

 world of newspaper correspondents 

 and agricultural writers, great and 

 small, are emptying their vials of 

 wrath on his head, and advising 

 farmers to let him entirely alone. 



One writer denounces the agent 

 for carrying with him picture sam- 

 ples of fruit twice as large as life 

 and colored in a corresponding man- 

 ner, and then advises farmers to or- 

 der direct from a trustworthy nur- 

 sery. I have no fault to find with 

 this ; it is certainly better to pur- 

 chase nursery stock direct from a 

 trustworthy nursery than of a ras- 

 call}' agent ; but, on the other hand, 

 would it not be just so much more 

 preferable to buy of a reliable agent 

 than of an unscrupulous nursery- 

 man? Those highly colored pictures 

 are, with hardly an exception, fur- 

 nished by the nurserymen themselves. 

 Some of the most extensive nurser- 

 ies in the United States deal exclu- 

 sively through agents and supply 

 their agents with sample books, as 

 do a large majority of firms engaged 

 in other business. The illustrations 

 in agents' sample books are taken 

 from the finest specimens of the vari- 

 ety of fruit which they represent, and 

 are, of course, larger and finer look- 

 ing than the real fruit grown in a 

 scrubby grass-grown orchard. 



As a rule they as truthfully repre- 

 sent the real fruit as illustrations in 

 catalogues of nurserymen dealing di- 

 rectly with the purchaser, or of seed- 

 men, agricultural implement manu- 

 facturers, and livestock breeders. 



In the same article the writer ac- 

 cuses fruit tree peddlers of pulling 

 up fruit trees by the roadside, or in 

 some farmer's yard, and palming 

 them off for first-class nursery stock, 

 and for this reason farmers should 

 shoot every fruit tree peddler who 

 dared to set foot on the premises. 

 Why not condemn every merchant 

 because a few rascals among the 

 number mix sand with sugar, or 

 would it not be just as sensible to 

 advise fruit tree peddlers to shoot 

 farmers because, once in a while, one 

 makes butter out of lard, and puts 

 stones in his hay to get even with 

 tricky hay dealers ? 



I favor any movement to clear the 

 country of rascally lightning-rod 

 swindlers, patent-right men, and 

 fraudulent fruit tree agents ; but I do 

 not see why all representatives of 

 nurseries, and book agents, especi- 

 ally, should be sat down upon as 

 frauds by every one who has enough 

 literary ability to get his name in 

 print. 



The business of selling fruit trees 

 and books is an occupation of which 

 no man need be ashamed. Many a 

 deserving young man has received 

 an education and gained a foothold 

 in life by spending his vacation 

 canvassing the rural districts in the 

 interests of some publishing house or 

 nursery. The honest, respectable 

 book agent or fruit tree peddler is a 

 friend of humanity. He has carried 

 fruit and flowers, and useful know- 

 ledge, to the utmost parts of the 

 country, and caused roses, beautiful 

 shrubbery, and intelligence to bloom 

 where once grew unsightly briers and 

 weeds of ignorance. While we con- 

 demn fraud, evil, and rascality, let 

 us not be too eager to depreciate the 

 valuable service, or worth, of the 

 honest, intelligent, trustworthy can- 

 vasser. — Linden, in Hnsbandman. 



