68 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
There have been a number of new things in the way of nursery 
products iD the last quarter of a century. I was thinking of Fay’s 
currant and was looking for Mr. Josselyn, who, through the introduc¬ 
tion of that currant has flourished exceedingly. Another sturdy mem¬ 
ber of the early days is a man from the wilds of Wisconsin. I say this 
advisedly, for before me he sits, one of the wildest. His known aver¬ 
sion to water alone prevented him from being here before any of us as 
a passenger in the Mayflower. And then there was that plain, sturdy 
Quaker from Baltimore, Franklin Davis. The well known firm is rep¬ 
resented here by an able member of the family, but Franklin Davis’ 
place cannot easily be filled. W. Brown Smith of the old firm of 
Smiths & Powell, began as a cabinet maker at day’s wages. He 
attained a high position by integrity and left his impress on every asso¬ 
ciation with which he was connected. One of the members of this As¬ 
sociation, a firm, steady, energetic, unflinchingly honest man from the 
suburbs of this city was Robert Douglas. With no superiors and few 
equals, he was a man with whom it did one good to shake hands. At 
the Niagara Falls convention I asked him if that grove of trees all 
gnarled and twisted by the ocean winds, of the Pacific coast, was of 
the variety Cedar of Lebanon, and he replied: “Mr. Albaugk, when 
you saw that grove of cedars on the Pacific coast, you looked upon the 
only grove of the kind in the world.” Robert Douglas stood in our 
society unparalleled. 
Among educated nurserymen whose fame has gone around the world, 
was George W. Campbell. His statements regarding the culture of 
grapes were unquestioned. He was acknowledged as the highest 
authority on viticulture. He has been greatly missed. One of the 
quaintest characters was that genial Frenchman, Isidor Bush of Bush- 
berg, Mo. At one of our meetings a few years after the great Chicago 
fire, Mr. Bush, responding to the toast, “The Parks and Suburbs of 
Chicago,” said: “ May ze ashes rise up and make Chicago ze grandest 
city of ze world.” Isidor Bush’s prophecy has come true. Our friends 
are not altogether gone, for their virtues and actions remain with us 
and will be a constant reminder of their good works. 
WONDERFUL CHANGES. 
We have had a number of wonderful changes in the nursery business. 
Twenty-five years ago we and the insects were warring, as now. The 
codling .moth came in for a larruping every time we met and despite 
all we could do it came up smiling again. It was the same with the 
curculio. These two insects were attacked and provided for. All at 
once our special friends (I say this somewhat hesitatingly) from Cali¬ 
fornia sent us a new subject for discussion at our meetings. The cur¬ 
culio and the codling moth have given place to the San Jose scale. 
We have had scales on our eyes, ears and pocket books. There have 
been San Jose scale laws in the states and scales San Jose in the fed¬ 
eral legislature until we are all somewhat scaly on the subject, and I 
wonder with Mr. Brooke if it has not become too much of a big-a-boo 
or bug-a-bee. 
Twenty-five years ago the man who would have stood up in one of 
these meetings and declared that the Keiffer pear was fit even for a 
pig to eat, would have been gently but firmly led out of the hall by 
the ear. Yesterday at noon we had Keiffer pears for dessert at this 
hotel and the plates were cleaned of them and I thought I heard a nur¬ 
seryman asking for more. To-day that pear stands at the head of the 
list for profit (and for flavor after it comes out of a tin can) and to-day 
the nurserymau who has 100,000 first class 2-year-old Iveiffers at about, 
well, say ten cents, for delivery next fall can be relieved of them at 
once, if he will only hold up his hand. There have been wonderful 
changes. Twenty-five years ago a peach that is now grown from Cali, 
fornia to Maine and from Canada to Florida, was resting in an orchard in 
Georgia without even a name. Nobody had ever heard of the Elberta, 
now the synonym for the highest color and flavor and the greatest 
financial interest in peach growing. So it is with a number of other 
fruits. Our friend from North Carolina gave to us in Georgia a new 
peach. He named it after the wife of one his neighbors, calling it the 
Lady Ingo. It has developed so beautifully that we call it the Lady in 
Gold. And this same friend in North Carolina, who never blew his 
own bugle except when he served three years in the Civil War in the 
cavalry and wore the blue, though he lived in Carolina, is J. Van Lind- 
ley, here with us to-day. 
How few of us will be here at the fiftieth anniversary of this Asso. 
c iation. Will there be a fiftieth anniversary, does some one ask ? Will 
there ? Do the stars shine at night ? Does water run down hill ? 
Does the dew fall and does the sun shine ? As certain as are these 
things, there will oe a fiftieth anniversary of the American Association 
of Nurserymen. You will find, though, that that there are compara¬ 
tively few societies that have hung together twenty-five years. Only 
one married couple in 1,000 passes the twenty-fifth anniversary of their 
marriage; only one in 100,000 passes the fiftieth. If the good Lord is 
kind to me and mine I hope to pass the fiftieth anniversary of my mar¬ 
riage soon. 
Few of us will be here on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of 
this Association. But what we say and do will live long after we are 
gone How important it is, then, that we form friendships here; that 
we may continue the clasping of fraternal hands long remembered. 
My prayer is that this society, existing so happily, will go on spreading 
information and continue its grand progress to tli^ end, when time 
shall be no more. 
RETAIL NURSERY BUSINESS. 
Vice-president N. W. Hale, Knoxville, Tenn., in an address 
on “ The Retail Nursery Business ’’ said : 
I speak with reference to the business of such firms as send soliciting 
salesmen or literature through the country. When we think of the 
magnitude of the country and realize that there is scarcely a man 
owning land that does not need and will not buy nursery stock if he 
meets the right solicitor or receives the right circular we see the grea^ 
extent of the retail nursery business. We have some hindrances, to be 
sure. We have suffered more or less at the hands of salesmen and of 
dealers who do not do business as we do it. But in the last ten years 
public sentiment has changed toward the nurseryman. As a class the 
nurserymen send out intelligent, bright, honest salesmen who preach 
the doctrine of planting orchards and beautifying homes. I know of 
no other business that is being prosecuted more forcibly and success¬ 
fully. Almost every farmer is entertaining from five to seven sales¬ 
men in every twelve months and receiving many circulars. Through 
these agencies the farmer has learned to build white houses, plant 
arbor vitm and roses and improve his driveways and fences. It would 
be well for us, in view of these things, to be careful to employ honest 
industrious and alert salesmen, who are anxious to please the customers 
in every detail, and thus make the profession what it merits—the fore¬ 
most in the country. 
There are drawbacks in the retail nursery buriness—almost a black 
cloud for every bright hour. The man in the office handling 150 
salesmen on the road is sorely tried. His best man is sick, for instance, 
another’s horse breaks down, another incurs expenses beyond receipts. 
But there is a brightness. One salesman, for instance, has sold stock 
to the amount of $200 with expenses of but $1 ; another sells a large 
bill and has no expenses. Then come the days of collecting and the 
man in the office is changed from an angel to a demon. In comes a 
check for $500. Good. Then the announcement that a salesman has 
stolen all of a large total of collections. 
But this is so in all kinds of business. The retail nurseryman has as 
good a time as any. What is better than after you have been poor as 
Job for eleven months to have a few thousand dollars come rolling in ? 
And then the fellows come in from their rides in mountain and valley 
and tell their experiences. 
The retail business needs some things it has not. I have thought 
that it would be well to have an organization to maintain prices so 
that all classes of retail nurserymen could get a living price for stock ; 
and then there might be literature especially adapted to the needs of 
agents. 
The wholesale trade depends upon the retail trade. The retail man 
must be persevering and be a good judge of human nature. He must 
have the skill of the banker, the decision of a general, the patience of 
Job, the forgiveness of the Almighty, and be as happy as a sanctified 
Methodist minister in the South ; though there are times when the 
retail nurseryman cannot be held accountable. 
THE EXHIBITS. 
The committee on exhibits reported as follows : Rochester 
Lithographing Co., plates, etc.; Greening Brothers, record 
books ; Henry Wallis, Missouri raspberry ; Joseph Heinl, 
juniper, arbor vitce ; Baker Brothers, new evergreen Rosedale, 
(Continued on page 72.) 
