National and Educational Interests. 115 



stitution of the United States which says : ' No person shall 

 be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of 

 law.' If the owner disseminates it, and thus confers a general 

 benefit, it is no more than just he should have such exclusive 

 rights in its dissemination as will enable him to make the 

 benefit reciprocal. 



''But when the fact is considered that new varieties are 

 often disseminated without the consent of the producers, ow- 

 ing to the facility with which plants, cuttings or seeds of the 

 same may be stolen from the field or garden, for which there is 

 no legal redress ; that such productions are generally the re- 

 sult of many years of costly experiment ; that, even when not 

 stolen, the first sales of the production do not afford the orig- 

 inator an opportunity to obtain compensation (he must rely 

 on these) by reason of the cost of introduction ; when it is 

 considered further, that the protection proposed would confer 

 inestimable benefits upon the entire nation by stimulating 

 efforts to improve the products of the soil through the scientific 

 process of cross-breeding or hybridization ; that such measure 

 would protect the public in the purchase of new sorts by prevent- 

 ing unscrupulous nurserymen and dealers from furnishing old 

 sorts under the names of the new, which has been so extensively 

 practiced throughout the United States, then the unwisdom 

 and foul injustice of the present lack of legal protection for 

 the laborers in the highest department of horticulture begin to 

 be reaHzed. There is reason to believe that an enactment 

 protecting them would form an era in history, and constitute 

 one of the greatest legislative acts for the benefit of mankind 

 of the nineteenth century." 



The registration idea appeared in three forms last year, in 

 Mr. Bancroft's and The Rural Pubhshing Company's proposi- 

 tions, where it was fully and carefully elucidated, and in a 

 modified form in Annals of Horticulture for 1889. The history 

 of Mr. Bancroft's effort is told as follows by a publication of 

 the California committee on registration, w^iich the extract also 

 describes: 



''As the present movement to establish a national plant 

 register seems to be an assured success, it is nothing more 

 than right that a correct history of the inception of the move- 

 ment should be given. The idea originated with A. L. Ban- 

 croft of San Francisco, about two years ago. The first publi- 



