HUMBUGS. 285 



price does not enhance their value. A neighbor 

 bought a bill of Concord grapes for $100.00 which 

 could have been furnished for $10.00 at a fair profit. 



The State Nursery. This is another ingenious 

 mode of swindling. The operator lives at the 

 capital, or pretends to, and is the "Superintendent 

 of the State Nurseries." In his attire he is gotten 

 up regardless of expense, has a fine rig and driver. 

 The latter calls at the house of the victim informing 

 him that the state nurseryman has been sent there 

 and he is invited out to see him. On being intro- 

 duced he is met with cold but dignified cordiality. 

 He tells his man that he is fortunate in having 

 some influential friend at the capital who has 

 secured for him some of the state's goods, which 

 are not sent out till they have been tested and 

 fruited five years. The common every day farmer 

 is not proof against such dignity, style and patron- 

 age. He is flattered by the call of this great man 

 and signs gladly whatever he is asked to, and will 

 boast to his neighbors of his luck till he finds that 

 they have all been "selected" in the same way. 



There is no such thing as a state nursery, and no 

 trees or other goods are grown, or bought and sold 

 for profit, by any state (with the possible exception 

 of S. Carolina). 



Budded Apple Trees. This fraud has been 

 exposed so often that there ought to be few who 

 are not posted in it. The operator travels with 

 " two sticks," one he says is cut from a grafted tree, 

 which is very much discolored, while the other is 



