5o 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
During the World’s Fair, June 7 and 8 , 1893 , the eighteenth 
annual meeting of the Association was held in the Assembly 
Hall on the Fair grounds, President H. Augustine, Normal, 
Ill., presiding. Notwithstanding the many outside attractions 
there was a good attendance at the sessions of the convention 
and a full programme of papers was presented. The nursery¬ 
men were provided with a trade journal this year, the National 
Nurseryman having been established in February, 1893 . 
For the nineteenth annual meeting the Association went to 
Niagara Falls, on June 6 and 7 , 1894 . President U. B. Pear¬ 
sall, Fort Scott, Kans., presided. At this meeting the Associa¬ 
tion changed the date of annual meeting from the first to the 
second Wednesday in June and adopted the National 
Nurseryman as its official journal. A purse of $100 was 
raised for E. W. Bull, the originator of the Concord grape. 
There was a lively discussion of the tariff question and there 
were papers on the nursery industry in the North, East, South 
and West, by J. Cole Doughty, William C. Barry, P. J. Berck- 
mans and President Pearsall, respectively. 
The twentieth annual meeting was held in Indianapolis, 
June 12 and 13 , 1895 . In the absence of President J. H. 
Hale, Vice-President N. H. Albaugh presided. The San Jose 
scale first appears as the subject of extended discussion at this 
meeting ; it was the subject of a paper by Professor F. M. 
Webster of the Ohio Experiment Station. Among other 
things he said : “It seems to me we need a United States 
law. 1 he San Jose scale can be wholly eradicated from a 
nursery or an orchard in a year. It can be stamped out. I 
am inclined to think that the scale can be carried on Califor¬ 
nia fruit to the East.” Professor L. H. Bailey delivered a 
memorable address on “ Reflective Impressions of the Nursery 
Business.” He also discussed conservation of moisture so 
clearly and instructively that he has been asked annually to 
give the nurserymen more of his valuable experience at the 
conventions. His time, however, is fully occupied. While in 
Indianapolis the nurserymen called upon ex-President 
Benjamin Harrison. 
On June 10 and n, 1896 , the nurserymen found themselves 
back in Chicago attending the twenty-first meeting of the 
American Association. President Silas Wilson, Atlantic, la., 
was in the chair. E. H. Bissell, Richmond, Va., called up the 
San Jose scale question by referring to Virginia legislation. 
A. Willis, Ottawa, Kans., proposed that the scale laws of the 
states be published in the proceedings of the Association. 
1 his was not done, but the laws were published in the 
National Nurseryman as they appeared, and afterward in 
book form by the National Nurseryman Publishing Com¬ 
pany. A resolution declaring unfair and unjust the laws enacted 
by states discriminating against nursery products, was adopted, 
and it was asked that such laws be repealed. Professor Bailey 
read a paper on “The Nursery Lands of New York,” and 
George W. Campbell a paper on “Improving the American 
Grape. I he tariff discussion resulted in the appointment cf 
the following as a committee to call upon congressmen : 
^ dliam C. Barry, J H. Hale, N. H. Albaugh. 
At St. Louis, June 9 and 10 , 1897 , was held the twenty- 
second meeting of the nursenmen. Silas Wilson again pre¬ 
sided. The convention was marked by the attendance of ihe 
leading members, the adoption of a federal bill which is pend¬ 
ing in congress, relating to the inspection of nursery stock 
and many pleasant features chief of which were the visit to 
Shaw’s garden and the banquet at the Mercantile club. A 
new tariff on nursery stock was secured in 1897 . While not 
all that the nurserymen had hoped for, it was still a long step 
in advance of any previous bill. 
The twenty-third convention of the American Association, 
at Omaha, on June 8 and 9 , 1898 , was one of the quietest in 
the history of the Association. About 150 of the 426 members 
were present. The Omaha exposition had just opened and this 
proved an attraction to some of the members. Comparatively 
little business was transacted. There was talk of incorporating 
the Association, but no action was taken. 
There was an unusually large attendance at the^twenty- 
fourth convention in Chicago, on June 14 th and 15 th last year, 
President Brooke presided and considerable business was 
transacted. The attention of the committee on transportation 
was called to the need of a rearrangement of the classification 
of nursery stock. Mr. Watrous reported regarding the 
Whitney claim which has since been paid, Treasurer Yates 
having deposited recently to the credit of the Association the 
amount of the claim, $ 1 , 629 . 80 . Evidence of a generally 
stronger market for nursery stock was noted upon all sides 
and prices advanced steadily from the date of the convention. 
A committee composed of Thomas B. Meehan, J. J. Harrison 
and Theodore Smith was appointed to investigate the subject 
of custom house abuses. The delays complained of were 
stopped by an order from Assistant Secretary Spalding of the 
treasury department expediting the appraisal of nursery stock 
at the custom houses. 
This is a brief summary of the work of the American 
Association of Nurserymen as shown by the reports of the 
annual conventions since its organization. Space does not 
permit mention of the many valuable papers that have been 
presented to the Association by its members and those who 
have been invited to appear before it at the annual meetings. 
In addition to the matter that has come before the conven¬ 
tions, there have been many subjects of special interest to the 
trade discussed in the official journal of the Association^ shown 
by its files. Indeed, aside from the official proceedings of the 
annual meetings of the American Association, the files of the 
National Nurseryman afford the only consecutive record of 
transactions in nursery trade circles. This fact should be 
sufficient incentive for the preservation and binding of the 
numbers of the trade journal as they are issued. 
It is to the files of the official trade journal that recourse 
must be had for details of the important controversy over the 
San Jose scale, the Canadian exclusion act and its partial sus¬ 
pension, the Stringfellow method of close root pruning, reports 
of nursery interests connected with the meetings of horticul¬ 
tural societies,nursery transactions throughout this and foreign 
countries, the plans and movements of individual members of 
the trade, spring and fall reports of the trend of trade, 
cultural topics and comment upon nursery methods, sketches 
and portraits of prominent members of the trade, the latest 
offerings from nursery rows and that free interchange of 
opinion which appears only in a journal devoted exclusively 
to the interests of the particular trade represented. 
At the close of its first quarter century the American Asso¬ 
ciation of Nurserymen finds the trade well protected by the 
vigorous work of the Association committees, prices more 
nearly what they should be than they have been in some time 
and the outlook good for a continuation of a period of pros¬ 
perity in the business. 
