gg STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



heretofore. This feeling finds expression often in that cry 

 which is one of the popular synonyms for deception or fraud, 

 viz: "Humbug!" It is not confined to the ignorant man, 

 who from hick of previous experience too late discovers he 

 has been deceived, and vents his resentment in this common 

 exclamation ; but we hear it from the lips of the most intel- 

 ligent men, who, viewing the tendency of the methods 

 empk)yed to eflect large sales of trees, and the prospective 

 influence it is calculated to have on the cause of pomology in 

 the State, utter and repeat the cry more vehemently and with 

 more earnestness of indignation than any other class. We 

 hear it on all sides, from all classes of buyers. Men who 

 have planted hundreds of trees only to see them die without 

 ever beholding the color of their fruit, are crying "humbug," 

 and cursing the "tree-peddlers." It comes from persons who 

 never purchased a tree in their lives, and who are accustomed 

 to echo the expressions and use second-hand the thoughts of 

 others. 



It is not surprising that such an opposition is manifested, 

 and that ample causes exist, when we know the impelling in- 

 ducements operating upon the tree agents under their engage- 

 jnents with those who employ them ; not strange that the cry 

 ."humbug" is so often heard. Facts of every day occurrence 

 i-prove that the agents for fruit stock arc, on account of the 

 .adverse state of the tree business, obliged to resort to the 

 most questionable methods to obtain orders for fruit stock. 

 •It is not considered sufficient or even essential that the tree 

 agent shall be a man of gentlemanly manners and address, 

 .that he shall have had any previous experience in the busi- 

 ness ; that he shall have any knowledge of the art of tree 

 culture, or of varieties or peculiar adaptation of soils ov loca- 

 tions to certain kinds of trees. But he must be possessed of 

 enough of the quality of stick-to-a-tive-ness to make sales of 

 .stock whether anybody wants it or not. He is expected to 

 sell trees to men who do not want or need them. He must 

 sell, and if he hasn't the "stick and hang" qualification he 

 cannot succeed as a salesman. 



