301 
1920. THE RURAL 
THE NURSERYMEN’S SIDE OF THE This summing up of these two varieties 
SUBSTITUTED TREE CASE. 
Part II. 
A customer bought from a nurseryman 
a lot of trees, and asked for and got 
instructions about planting them. He 
was told not to put fertilizer in the 
hole-, where it would come directly in 
contact with the roots, but to apply it to 
the surface of ground. The following 
Sr ring this man returned with the com¬ 
plaint that more than two-thirds of the 
trees had failed to grow. When told 
that the trees were delivered to him in 
the finest possible condition, and that 
the amount of loss was an indication 
of negligence on his part in the 
planting, he claimed he had im¬ 
plicitly carried out the instructions 
given him to the very last word and 
while no guaranty had been given to 
replace, yet he was given the full number 
he claimed died, making a total loss on 
the whole deal to the nurseryman. This 
man was a professional man and held in 
high esteem. Yet he told one of his 
neighbors that he had killed his trees by 
putting too much of a complete potato 
fertilizer in the holes when he planted 
them. 
Some years ago a peach tree grower 
(who by the way is one of the most 
upright, conscientious and honest men I 
know) got struck with the notion of 
improving his stock by budding from 
bearing trees. He went into a bearing 
orchard at fruiting season and saw one 
variety that seemed to him the finest 
fruit and healthiest trees he had ever 
seen of that variety, so he obtained per¬ 
mission to cut buds from the trees when 
the budding season came on. The fruit 
was off the trees when he cut the buds, 
but he selected the healthiest and most 
vigorous looking tree in the lot from 
which to cut the buds. The following 
year these buds were noticeable for their 
stronger growth than the other trees of 
the same variety grown from his nursery 
buds, and finally budded his whole stock 
of this variety from the orchard strain. 
This man sold most of his stock to other 
nurserymen who were short, and as this 
particular variety was a popular market 
sort, it soon became widely disseminated; 
one nurseryman buying most of the 
stock for several years, and also budding 
his own stock of this variety from buds 
purchased from this man’s “pedigree” 
orchard strain. The result was that this 
one tree that had shown up so favorably 
in the orchard, was a natural sucker that 
had replaced a dead bud. and had not 
been noticed by the orchardist. When it 
came.to fruit in orchards where the 
nurseryman had sold it, a small cling 
absolutely worthless was the result. 
\\ hen this fact was made known to 
the nurseryman who had disseminated 
the trees, he hurried like an honest man 
to inform every customer that the trees 
were wrong and worthless, and offered 
to replace at once all such trees, and this 
he did. Damage suits were commenced 
against him, but only one was ever tried 
in the courts, it being unprofitable to the 
plaintiff. Had these suits been success¬ 
fully continued they would have ruined 
this man, who was an old and reliable 
nurseryman, and noted for his square 
and honorable dealings for years. As 
it was it nearljr broke his heart, that 
such a thing had happened in the 
last years of his business life. All 
this came about, through the noise 
about grafting and budding from fruit¬ 
ing trees, and ignorance, I must ad¬ 
mit. on the part of the man who 
originally cut the buds from the orchard 
tree, and the continuous propagation of 
it in the nursery. While the whole 
general appearance of the tree would 
have passed it as true to the intended 
variety, the practical nurseryman under¬ 
standing what lie was supposed to know, 
could in this case have easily detected 
the spuriousness of the variety as the 
natural had a reniform gland, while the 
true variety had a globose gland. I am 
sorry to say that not enough of the 
bucklers understand the difference in the 
glands, or even the color of leaves of 
the different varieties of the peach. 
The case recently reported in The R. 
N.-\. of a man suing a nurseryman for 
$13,000 damages for 2,737 peach trees 
that proved untrue to name shows again 
the unreasonable damages demanded in 
such cases. In this case only 763 trees 
out of an order for 3,500 proved to be 
true to label. 1 lie published order does 
not give the kinds substituted, but I 
notice that out of 500 Red Cheek Melo- 
eoton 57 proved correct, and out of 
1,000 Late Crawford 139 proved correct. 
would disbar the expert judge of va¬ 
rieties from consideration, as 1 do not 
believe there is a single tree in any 
peach nursery anywhere of the old 
original Red Cheek Melocoton, and if 
there were such, I do not believe that 
any man, I care not how expert a judge 
of peaches he was, could distinguish the 
difference between it and many of its 
seedlings, especially the Late Crawfo.rd; 
as the Beers Smock has wholly super¬ 
seded the old Smock Free, so the Late 
Crawford has wholly superseded the old 
Red Cheek Melocoton. This man had 
further ordered 500 Susquehanna and 
got none, 500 Oldmixon and got none, 
but of his 500 Elberta got 48(X Of 500 
Beers Smock he got 87, and of the 
substitutes he got Capt. Ede and Craw¬ 
ford’s Early—in what proportion the 
report does not state—and a few na¬ 
turals. 1 he naturals may have been 
suckers from the stocks after the buds 
had died after planting in orchard, but 
a few would be excusable in any order 
of the number in this case. If propor¬ 
tionately the Capt. Edes had equaled the 
Susquehanna, then in 99 cases out of a 
hundred the Capt. Ede would be trebly 
profitable to the Susquehanna, and equal 
to, or more profitable, than the Red 
Cheek or Late Crawfords. None of 
these qualifying matters are considered, 
but simply because they are wrong, a 
suit for damages is commenced for an 
amount that would make most nursery¬ 
men consider themselves fortunate if 
they could leave such a sum to their 
families after they had left this mun¬ 
dane sphere. 
One man writing in The R. N.-Y. 
claims he is willing to pay a good price 
for guaranteed trees, but no nurseryman 
was willing to guarantee against a pos¬ 
sible loss, and when he asked one man 
what he would charge to guarantee 
peach trees, that at the age of four or 
five years might prove untrue to name, 
the nurseryman to refund two dollars 
for each tree proving untrue after four 
years or when fruiting, the nurseryman 
replied that he would sell under such a 
guaranty only at two dollars per tree; 
the only answer a sane man could make 
to such a proposal. Soil, location, culti¬ 
vation, fertilizer and numberless other 
things will so affect a variety of peach 
that its whole character may be changed 
and the best judge might be uncertain if 
not worse as to its variety. The long 
list of varieties budded by nurserymen, 
and then not having anywhere near the 
number asked for from the different sec¬ 
tion of the country, proves the variable¬ 
ness of varieties in the peach, also in 
the apple. As near as I can recall at 
the present time, there were growing 
in nurseries in the United States in 
1890, 250,000,000 apple trees, 90,000,000 
plum trees, 80,000,000 pear trees and 
50,000,000 peach trees, and millions of 
other trees and plants, but the above 
being the principal orchard fruits I 
name them as indicative of the vastness 
of the business. Each one of these mil¬ 
lions of trees had to have a single graft 
or bud for each stock, and thousands of 
men had to be employed to cut. label 
and put in each graft, cut, label and in¬ 
sert each individual bud, and again to 
dig. grade, trench or cellar, and again 
to fill tens of thousands of individual 
orders, in a limited season’s time of 
the _ Fall and Spring, when each tree 
again had to be handled, labeled and 
packed, when orders had to be written 
in a rush by office employees, and when 
this stock arrived in the hands of the 
purchaser and planter, he, with the 
help of employees, both inexperienced in 
the handling of such stock, must handle 
again, unpack, trench or plant in orchard, 
and in hundreds of cases mix up the 
stock after it gets in their hands and 
then blame the nurseryman. The con¬ 
stant complaints, the insinuations that 
are forever being thrown out that some¬ 
thing is wrong, or may be wrong, from 
the day that trees or plants are re¬ 
ceived. until they come into fruiting, 
coming through the mails or in person, 
wind up with threatened exposure 
through the columns of some influen¬ 
tial paper of the nurseryman’s rascality, 
or else a damage suit, the last being the 
most popular, as it is considered the 
the more profitable. These damage suits 
caused the seedsman first and the nur¬ 
seryman next to print the non-warranty 
or guarantee that is common among all 
at the. present time. The seedsman 
prints it so that if the seeds are not ac¬ 
cepted upon the non-warranty, they are 
to be returned at once; the nurseryman 
giving no guaranty expressed or implied, 
further than the replacing of the stock, 
or refunding the money. There is no 
middle course for them to take, as 
matters now stand, for the papers in 
which they advertise, the planter to 
whom they sell, the courts of law, and 
the employees upon whom they must 
necessarily depend more or less, are all 
against them. e. s. black. 
NEW-YORKER 
If You Can Afford to Spend $3.98 a 
Week to Run this Big 4 Cylinder 
30 H. P. Touring Car, Then Write Me 
I want to get in personal touch with every reader 
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here is an automobile you can afford to own—a big, 
roomy, family touring car, that the wealthiest man is 
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afford to maintain. 
Perhaps you have said to yourself that “automobiles cost 
too much to keep.” If so, you are just the man I want to 
talk with, for I can show you that you can afford to own a 
Maxwell. My partner, Mr. J. D. Maxwell, Vice-President 
of this Company, has for eight years devoted his time to 
improving and simplifying the Maxwell. 
Now I know that we have the “Great Economy Car,” and 
in proof I want to give you the actual figures showing for 
just how little this big car can be kept, 
I do not ask you to buy anything. I simply want to put 
all the facts before you. You are to be the only judge. I have 
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to show you that it can be run one hundred miles for the 
astonishingly low figure of $3.98 a week. 
Send for these Valuable Books, Free 
Besides the folder, printed in true-to-life colors, (suitable for 
framing) 1 want you to have these books. 
OUR LATEST CATALOG 
Completely describing the 
“Great Economy Car” at $1500. 
Also our new 4 cylinder, 22 H.P. 
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THE “CO-OPERA TOR” » 
A bright, newsy magazine 
that we publish regularly, twice 
a month. Written to teach 
Maxwell owners to run their cars as economically as possible. 
HOW TO JUDGE AN AUTOMOBILE 
A practical treatise on automobiles. Written for the 
farmer who wants to be better posted on this subject. 
Write me—a postal will do. Just say “Mail folder and 
books.” 1 promise you, that never will one cent be invested to 
greater advantage. 
SALE OF MAXWELL CARS TO DATE Yours truly. 
SOLD TO JANUARY 31 , . . 21,869 
SOLD DURING FEBRUARY'10 l ,.m 
MAXWELLS IN USE TO-D A Y 23,229 
WAfCH THE FIGURES GROW 
Prea’t. 
Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Co. 
Main Office and Factory 
Art 3treet, Tarrytown, N. Y, 
Kew Castle, lnd. Providence, R. I. Pawtucket, R. I, Kingsland Point, N. Y, 
iaccnsed under Selden Patent. Members A L. A M. 
