STATE POJIOLOGICAL SOCIETT. " 35 



SO much matter where nursery stock was grown, as liovj it was 

 grown. And I still hoUl to tliat opinion. Yet, for the following 

 reasons, my preferences are for Maine-grown stock. Not neglected 

 fence-corner scrub stock, neither that which has been forced to form 

 a soft, coarse-celled, spongy growth, like much of the stock brought 

 among us from other States. All such stock, wherever grown, is 

 worse than worthless for the State of Maine. Each year's growth 

 should be well ripened and firm at the end of each growing season. 



1 speak from actual experience wiien I say that Maine-grown stock 

 can be produced of far better quality thau the average stock sold by 

 smootii-tongued canvassers from other States and at half the price 

 often paid for such stock. A vender of this sort said to me recently 

 that it cost as much to dispose of his goods as it did to grow them. 

 This statement needs no comment. Furthermore, it is a fact, though 

 peihaps not generally known, that many of the canvassers for the sale 

 of nursery goods are employed hy men who never owned an interest 

 in a nursery in their lives, but who, on getting in their orders, go to 

 some New York nurseryman, and, at a small cost, procure such stock 

 as no reliable nurseryman cares to send out in his own name, with 

 which to fill these orders. And, in my opinion, this is one of the 

 reasons why so much prejudice exists against New York stock. 

 Another reason wh}' we should prefer Maine-grown stock, though 

 often urged upon our notice, will bear repeating, viz : The saving 

 of a large amount of money at home that now goes out of the State. 

 And yet another reason of still more importance is, that stock pro- 

 cured near home may be had fresh from the ground and in good con- 

 dition, while \.\v3it pressed into huge boxes and shipped from a dis- 

 tance is always more or less damaged, and often rendered worthless 

 from causes occasioned by long dtilays while in transit. 



There are locations in everv county in the State where all kinds of 

 nursery stock adapted to our climate may be successfully grown. 

 In fact, probably there is not a farm in Maine where such stock could 

 not, to some extent, be grown with success and profit. 



I think Mr. Atherton stated at the last winter meeting that the 

 principal reason why nurseiy business did not meet with a more 

 decided success in this State, was a lack ot practical knowledge. 

 This, to a considerable extent, is probably true, and is suggestive of 

 a grand opening to the right man in the right place. And it occurs 

 to me that a few young men of the right stamp could not do a 

 wiser thing than to serve an appenticeship of at least one year in 



