326 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
reverse is true. If people will allow themselves to be caught 
with an unbaited hook they must expect to suffer loss. Irre¬ 
sponsible men will vend their wares where so many can be 
found credulous enough to believe their statements ; and per¬ 
haps the honest dealer may be led at times to question the 
truth of the old adage, that “ honesty is the best policy by 
the temporary success which attends them—but in the end it 
will be found, in this as well as every other business, that 
integrity will win. 
Every one who plants an orchard should be governed by 
the experience of those in their locality, or of some practical 
fruit-grower in our own state, rather than by the statements of 
foreign tree peddlers, who know little of our wants, and care 
less. That there are honest tree peddlers I have no doubt, but 
we have abundant evidence that our state swarms with a host 
of scamps, most of them foreign, but many of them home¬ 
grown, who had better be supported at Waupun at the ex¬ 
pense of the state, than allowed to go at large. It would be 
well if a list could be published annually of such as are notori¬ 
ously dishonest, selling trees under false names, purporting to 
come from reliable nurseries, when, in fact they do not purchase 
a tree of them, but only buy where they can buy some refuse 
stock, or an over-stock of some variety offered at low rates. 
People are beginning to learn what they want, and if not im¬ 
posed upon by these swindlers will soon find that money in¬ 
vested in the purchase of trees is not “ money thrown away.” 
We have learned something of the manner in which trees 
should be grown to ensure the greatest amount of hardiness, 
and to answer best the ends for which they are grown. It was 
thought at one time that the nearer the ground they branched 
out the better, and thousands of trees were sent out as low 
trained, when in fact they were miserable trees, suffered to 
grow up like bushes without any training at all, each shoot 
from near the ground striving to become the body. Trees 
grown in. this way will come sooner into bearing, and have a 
greater bearing surface in a given time, but are short-lived and 
unsightly. As they grow the lower branches crowd each other 
