272 
March 5, 
Hope Farm Notes 
A FRUIT GROWER’S,STORY. 
I have been thinking what I could say 
this week to help make our horticultural 
number complete, and have finally decided 
to tell a true story. I do not give the 
real names since the case was settled, 
but the things I am to tell really happened. 
1 will ask you to read this with care, for 
the principle which 1 shall try to make 
clear is one which all farmers and fruit 
growers may be called upon to face. It is 
this hard old question of “substituted 
trees.” 
The man who will head this story was 
much like the rest of us—a plain man of 
the farm. The great majority of us have 
our troubles and our sorrows, and we may 
say that this man, as I hope the rest of us, 
tried to do his fair part in the world. 
You know how we all work and plan for 
the future, hoping that as we grow older 
the fruit of that work will mature and 
pay like money at interest. Some start a 
herd of cattle or sheep and breed up care¬ 
fully. Others put their money and strength 
into drain tile, still others start an or¬ 
chard. One does this, another that—but 
every one of them plans and works and 
endures for about the noblest purpose 
that any man can have. For there is no 
truer or more pathetic side of manhood 
than that which leads us on in an effort 
to make the soil take good care of those 
we love. We are trying to do this very 
thing at Hope Farm in our orchards, anu 
that is why the story I am to tell appeals 
to me. 
For this man also started an orchard. 
1 suppose if there ever was an orchard 
planted with rosy hope this was the 
one. The man fitted his ground, made 
sure of the varieties he needed, and then 
went to a nurseryman for the trees. Now 
I often wonder if these nurserymen con¬ 
sider the hopeful or future side of their 
business. They turn the little trees out 
by the thousands, and I presume that as 
the years go by the work becomes more 
and more mechanical to them. l’erhaps 
they come to look upon 100 trees much as 
a bricklayer looks at 100 bricks. I suppose 
it depends somewhat on the man whether 
he regards the nursery business as about 
as dry as selling groceries, or whether each 
box of living trees is like the text for a 
great, living horticultural sermon which is 
to go on for years. 
The man we are talking about hunted 
for what he thought was an honest nursery 
firm and bought his trees. Now I do not 
suppose that nurseryman could understand 
what those trees meant to the man. It 
was a small order comparatively, but when 
you are a little in debt, your wife is not 
strong and the future begins to shake its 
head at yon a little, there are dreams and 
hopes wrapped up with the trees which 
start your orchard. You men and women 
will sit by the fire and read this and 
know in your hearts just how that man 
felt. It was a matter of business and repu- 
tation for that nurseryman to deliver trees 
true to name, but he could no more realize 
the poetry and hope in the soul of that 
planter than the lumber dealer who sells 
the boards can realize the feelings of the 
young man who builds with them a house 
for liis*bride. 
Well, the man had faith in the nursery¬ 
man and he planted those trees. And he 
cared for them—for here was the chance 
to turn living care into needed money. 1 
am talking now to thousands of people 
who love a tree as they love a human 
friend. They know just how this man 
watched and toiled in his orchard. Day 
after- day through the dust and heat or 
through the Winter’s cold his hopes grew 
as those trees responded and grew nearer 
and nearer to fruitage. When at last they 
burst into bloom that man and his w ife 
began to feel the spirit of mastery which 
comes to those who conquer the forces of 
nature. 
It is an awful thing to fall from the 
upper heights of hope. Just as you raise 
yourself to look into the happy land be¬ 
yond your feet slip and you are dashed 
back down the hard road you have labored 
so hard to climb. This man found that his 
trees were worthless! Instead of the 
standard varieties which, had they been 
true would have paid the debt on the 
farm, the nurseryman had given him seed¬ 
lings or miserable kinds that were merely 
a nuisance. The labor of years had been 
thrown away, and all the Hope and all the 
joy of that labor killed by a blight as 
cruel as death ! Some of you large planters 
with your acres of orchards would be an¬ 
noyed at this, but you can hardly grasp 
the full significance of what this meant. 
You are strong and powerful because your 
orders are, large and your influence is felt. 
Here was a plain, common man—one of 
the little orders which mean scarcely a 
drop in the nurseryman’s bucket! I some¬ 
times think there is nothing quite so pa¬ 
thetic in all business as the hopeless strug¬ 
gle such a man must make to obtain jus¬ 
tice. Every - year there are thousands of 
THE RUKAL 
men who have their spirit and courage 
crushed into bitterness through cases sim¬ 
ilar to this one. You cannot realize until 
you have had experience how easy it is for 
the strong and influential to bluff off these 
plain, common men who must oppose them 
without money or strong friends. 
The nurseryman was “very sorry,” but 
could not see how it happened! Would 
that do you any good with a sick wife and 
a debt on your place and three years lost 
on worthless trees? All the money and 
all the labor had gone into that orchard- 
banked on the faith in that nurseryman’s 
word. Now he merely offered to replace the 
trees—that is, give the same number of 
young trees as before and not even a 
guarantee with these. That seems to be 
what the nurserymen usually regard as a 
fair settlement for “substituted trees.” It 
is why I think they must regard their busi¬ 
ness much as a brickmaker regards his, 
for in making such an offer they cannot 
appreciate what their blunders mean to 
such as this man. 
As he could get nothing but an offer of 
more young and unguaranteed trees from 
the nurseryman, this man came to The R. 
N.-Y’. Our folks studied the case from 
the bottom, got all the facts, heard both 
sides, and became convinced that the man 
had both a moral and legal right to dam¬ 
ages. We had had a little run. in with 
that same nursery a few months .before 
over a smaller case. When we first ap¬ 
proached them in behalf of our reader they 
were very bold : “What business is this of 
Hours t We want to know right off why 
you come in?” They were told that our 
license was given by 100.000 subscribers. 
They got into communication with some of 
those subscribers and took a trial sub¬ 
scription. The story of this transaction 
NEW-YORKER . 
was in type and ready for printing when 
they came and wanted to settle rather than 
go to that jury of 100.000. This later 
case of “substituting” was very much more 
important. There was more money in¬ 
volved, and it might establish a principle of 
settling such cases which would change 
the nursery business. We do not give here 
the excuses presented by this nurseryman. 
Mr. Black gives them all and more. They 
seemed to us puny and inadequate beside 
the facts that nearly all the trees were 
wrong, and that the man had lost through 
his faith in that nurseryman. 
It is a serious thing to set the power¬ 
ful machinery of a paper like The R. N.-Y. 
in motion against any man. It never 
should be done and never will be done 
through spite or malice or with incomplete 
evidence. Here was a case, however, 
where simple, unadorned justice demanded 
that the under dog should be given a fair 
chance. In cases of this sort a common 
man cannot afford An expensive lawsuit, 
and he cannot bring strong business in r 
terests to help him. The only possible 
chance for him is through the right sort of 
publicity, for no one dreads to see the 
story of an outrage or injustice plainly 
told in print so much as the one who per¬ 
petrated it. After much correspondence 
“Publisher’s Desk” made it possible for 
that plain farmer to go and talk with that 
nurseryman as man to man, his equal in 
power and authority, because there went 
with him the fighting spirit of 100,000 
“Knights -of the Postage Stamp." They 
talked for some hours without agreeing. 
Then the following dialogue ensued • 
“I suppose if we do not settle this to¬ 
day you will sue!” 
“No; but I will let The R. N.-Y. settle 
it!’- 
Within a few minutes after that the two 
men had come to an agreement, each mak¬ 
ing concessions. The nurseryman offered 
to pay for the use of the land three years, 
for pulling the old trees and resetting and 
to throw in new Ireos. The man finally 
got this and a sum of money besides. He 
went home and paid the debt on his 
place and can now start his new orchard 
in hope once more. Had this man been 
alone he never could have got anything but 
young trees. Had he brought suit I think 
he would have won the case, but the law¬ 
yers would have had all the money. lie 
got what he did because be could show 
that he was one of a great army. Instead 
of the bitterness which the beaten man 
must feel against the strong he is hopeful, 
for he has had a vision of what the spirit 
of honorable organization can accomplish. 
I have tried to picture in my mind the 
homecoming of that man. He tells us 
simply: “It made my wife happy, as 
she is in very poor health, and this matter 
worried her!" I like to think of them 
as they sat after supper talking it over 
and planning for the future which now 
has more in store for them. I would 
rather feel that The R. N.-Y’. can use its 
power to do such things for those who 
would otherwise be helpless than to go into 
the President's Cabinet. 
This man was authorized to use such 
power as The It. N.-Y’. could give him 
because we felt that he had a just cause. 
As a last resort for settlement we could 
have printed the facts in this case just 
as thev are without comment, simply giving 
all the names. That simple thing per¬ 
sistency kept before the public would prove 
a terrible weapon for justice so long as 
our friends knew that it was true. Y'ou 
see. if it were not true the weapon would 
be turned against us, for we would have 
no friends and we would deserve none. 
I have given you the story as it oc¬ 
curred. I could give you 100 others in¬ 
volving larger or smaller amounts. The 
recital of them would touch human nature 
in all its phases—comedy, tragedy, nobility 
of character, contemptible meanness, hope 
and despair. We are grateful that we 
have been able to fight for our friends 
as w-ell as to help instruct them, and not 
a day passes that we do not feel more 
thankful for the loyal supporters who 
make this battle possible. h. w. c. 
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