April, ’20] 
SOUTHERN NURSERYMEN’S ASSOCIATION REPORT 
197 
If all the states in which we do business required a copy of each order and a num¬ 
bered tag, we would discontinue our agency business. W§ had one delivery of sev¬ 
eral hundred orders at one point in Mississippi this season. It will give you some idea 
of time to wire a tag to each order and stamp the duplicate number on our tag and the 
duplicate to go to the state department. Now one of our best men has to oversee the 
new girls doing this work or it will be balled up and we get “bawled out.” 
Now this same group of nurserymen, who I judge is the cause of our tag law, do not 
belong nor can they join our Southern Association if they wished. I was informed by 
one of our state officials that he saw a shipment of acre orchards in which the peach 
were all labeled different varieties, but the trees were dormant buds and part of the 
buds dead. They also agree to spray and trim for certain length of time. Do num¬ 
bered tags correct this evil? We have laws against frauds, can’t our state officials 
handle such practices under that act? 
Cooperation 
You are directly interested in the fruit business and we trust your organization will 
support measures for the benefit of the nurseryman as well as the planter. 
The buyer whom you are trying to protect would purchase few trees from a cata¬ 
logue, but waits for the annual trip of the tree salesman. Though there are many 
crooked ones, taken as a whole they have been a blessing. I know of one man who 
has worked the same town and county in Alabama for thirty-five years. Usually, 
though, a great number of them do not return after the trees begin to fruit. 
Not all mistakes are made by the much cussed tree agent or the nurseryman. 
During the past few years inefficient and short supply of labor have been the cause of 
many mistakes. Cutting buds and careless handling by irresponsible workmen causes 
many mistakes; especially is this so with the peach. The peach is the hall-mark of 
the crooked nurseryman. He can mow off the seedlings with a mowing machine 
and give them the appearance of budded stock, can bud them and if a bud dies, let a 
sucker come or just plant a block of seed and cultivate them. I know of one block of 
peach the past season that, owing to a poor stand of buds, contained many thousands 
of seedlings that looked like first class trees at digging time. When that block of 
trees were shipped the weather was bad, they were ordered out by wire, consequently 
the purchaser received many hundreds of seedling trees. I believe that nurseryman 
intended to be honest but was keeping his overhead expense down by employing 
inferior labor during his busy season. 
Conclusion 
What shall we do? 
Now what will the nursery interests represented by the Southern Association do if 
we have a uniform law? Article VII of their Constitution says: 
“It shall be the duty of every member to report to the executive committee hereof, 
any character of dealings on the part of Association members not in accord with estab¬ 
lished business ethics. The secretary shall once each year provide each member with 
blanks for ballot, upon which he shall make a report, and in case any member shall 
receive three or more adverse reports, the executive committee shall immediately 
make such investigation as will develop all the facts in the case, and bring their report 
before the next annual meeting of this Association. If, upon evidence deduced, it is 
proven that such members’ dealings violate established ethical relations, he shall be 
expelled from this Association upon a majority vote of the members present at any 
annual meeting, provided each member shall have the right to be heard in his own 
behalf before such action is taken.” 
Sometimes it is a hard proposition and a serious one to be able to determine whether 
