36 MASSACHTSETTS HOETTCTLTURAL SOCTETT. 



were sold by auction at exceedingly low prices. The market was 

 glutted. This is not a healthy condition of things either for 

 growers or purchasers, and the effect on nurserymen will be depress- 

 ing. On the whole, the picture of long-continued excellence in 

 cultivation is not encouraging unless we can have protection, and 

 he was free to say that he believes in protection. 



Jackson Dawson was astonished at Mr. Strong's remark, for he 

 thought many things are grown here more cheaply than in Europe. 

 He did not think that any nurseryman in Europe could' compete 

 with American nurserymen — grow fruit trees in Europe, pay 

 freight and duty on them, and sell them at as low prices as many of 

 our western nurserymen, who offer apple and peach trees one year 

 from the bud at the rate of five dollars per hundred. It is true 

 that many seedling stocks from France are sold at very low rates : 

 but he had known of many European exporters who sent the stock 

 referred to by Mr. Strong, who are heartily sick of the experiment, 

 as the plants in many cases sold for less than enough to pay 

 freight and duty. Mr. Dawson thought good packing pays. 

 Many plants received from Europe are poorly packed ; the great 

 trouble there is that they are packed too wet, especially those from 

 around London where the soil is clay and the plants are packed im- 

 mediately in wet moss and not dried off properly before being 

 packed. In many instances the whole case has decayed. The 

 speaker had found that the lightest packing is best — that is, the 

 plants, especially those of a succulent nature, should be dry, and 

 the moss used in packing moist — not wet — and having the moss 

 around the roots and air space around the tops. 



Robert Farquhar said that Mr. Temple's paper carried him 

 back to his early days, for the seed firm with which he was brought 

 up had also a nursery of one hundred and sixty acres, and, as Mr. 

 Temple had said, a permanent force at the very lowest rates. In 

 the fall gardeners who were out of employment would seek for it 

 in these great establishments, which formed harbors of refoge for 

 such, and this skilled labor was secured at low rates. In such 

 places seedling trees could be grown at very low prices. Such 

 establishments undertake the planting of forests by contract. 

 European nurseries are great in the line of plants used there, but 

 it is a different class from those most in demand in this country. 

 The time is coming when these things will be grown on as large a 

 scale and with as good success here as in Europe. 



