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THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
NURSERYMAN'S RESPONSIBILITY. 
A Live Practical Topic for Discussion Suggested by the Query 
of an Orchardlst who Suffered from Substitution—Reply of 
the Nurseryman who Filled the Order—Moral Right of a 
Nurseryman to Sell Purchased Stock as His Own. 
An orchardist thus states his experience with a case of sub¬ 
stitution in the Rural New Yorker : 
About five or six years ago, wishing to set out a sweet-apple tree, 
I looked over the catalogues, and thinking one described in-’s 
catalogue, called Jacobs Sweet, was what I wanted, I sent for a tree, 
together with a small order for other stock. I received a nice shapely 
tree, and wishing to get fruit as soon as possible, I cut a few scions 
and commenced to top-graft a bearing tree. In the next two years I 
changed the whole top to the kind I bought. The last of August, 
1898. the tree I set out and the scions I first took from it bore 
their first fruit. Color a greenish white ; shape much like a Porter, 
only more pointed, and so sour and bitter as to be unfit to eat either 
raw or cooked. I have lost several years on the tree I bought, which I 
top-grafted last Spring, and through faith in this nursery company 
have a good sized tree grafted to the same worthless fruit, and it will 
require at least four years to change it to a variety of value. Now 
what redress have I for this loss, which any fair-minded nurseryman 
would estimate at not less than $10 ? Looking in the catalogue, I read: 
“ We sell our stock and warrant it true to name, with the express un¬ 
derstanding and agreement that should any prove not true to name, 
we will refund the money paid for such, or replace the stock with 
others that are true to name, but are not liable for damage other than 
herein named.” Now had I sent for another tree (which might not be 
true to name), the express charges would be three times the price of 
the tree. I also bought a few peach trees, which bore in 1898. Five 
trees labeled Foster bore a Late long white peach, and those 
labeled Early and Late Crawford seemed identical, ripening together. 
Now I don’t think the nurseryman would personally intentionally 
serve me thus, but there is a screw loose somewhere, and I am the one 
who gets left. I had great faith in the company, and though my pur¬ 
chases have been small, I have influenced others to buy, which I now 
regret. 
The above letter was sent to the nurseryman who filled the 
order and he replied as follows : 
I do not know how nurserymen can escape occasionally getting 
letters similar to the one you send us. The nurseryman is not living 
who grows all that he sells. We were short of Jacobs Sweet at the 
time stated by your correspondent, and bought of a large nurseryman 
in Ohio, whom we supposed to be reliable, but who has since turned 
out to be utterly unreliable in regard to varieties. There is a chance 
for seedling peach trees occasionally to get in among budded varieties 
where the bud fails, or is blown off, and a strong shoot is sent up from 
the seedling. Our guarantee is to replace such trees as do not prove 
to be as represented. It is my opinion that every existing nurseryman 
in this country who has done considerable business has received oc¬ 
casional letters like the enclosed. Mistakes will occur sometimes by 
packers, who may pull a tree from the front of the stake instead of 
from the back of the stake, thus getting the wrong variety. We take 
great pains to have our trees true to name. I am confident that nur. 
serymen who do a mail order business take greater pains in this respect 
than nurserymen who run agents. We have had experience with the 
latter class, and know that they often mislabel trees knowingly and 
intentionally. 
It pains me to learn of such dissatisfied patrons, and I do not see 
how it is possible for nurserymen to avoid such matters entirely. No 
one can make affidavit that a certain box of trees is true to name. He 
may swear that he has taken every precaution to make them true, and 
that is about all he can do. The most careful nurseryman is liable to 
send out some trees that are not what they are represented to be, 
although the man may be perfectly honest. Mistakes may occur in 
the cutting of scions for budding or grafting, or stakes in the nursery 
or in the packing ground may be misplaced, or the packer may take a 
plant or tree from the wrong trench. Then all nurserymen have to 
buy many items, and cannot be sure that they are rightly served. 
The Rural New Yorker says editorially : 
The discussion between the nurserymen and his disappointed cus¬ 
tomer will appeal to many readers of the R. N. Y. There are probably 
hundreds of them who have had a somewhat similar experience. It is 
an old story of how one buys a tree or vine and waits patiently for it to 
fruit, only to find some poor, worthless seedling. It is not so much 
the actual cost of the original tree, for that may be a matter of a few 
cents. It is the loss of time and the loss of confidence in human hon¬ 
esty that counts. Take the nurseryman’s statement in this case. What 
he says of the liability to make mistakes is without question true. 
Any man who has ever watched the operations in a nursery well knows 
that the master cannot possibly examine every tree as it is packed. It 
is true, however, that some nurseries are more likely to make mistakes 
than others. Some are more careful than others—either having a better 
system, or else depending less on stock which they do not grow. We 
have bought stock which evidently came through several hands, the 
marks on the cases having been changed, without examination of the 
stock. Of course the man who does this cannot possibly give any 
guarantee. We do not think that he has any moral right to sell such 
purchased stock without notifying his customer that he did not grow 
it, and can only take the word of others that it is true to name. Of 
course this would not be necessary in case the stock were unpacked 
and identified at the nursery. There are degrees of carelessness in 
selecting and packing trees and plants. In some cases it is simply 
criminal. After a man has spent years in caring for his trees, only to 
find that they are rogues, it seems to us poor compensation to offer 
simply to replace the trees. This would appear ridiculous with any 
other class of goods. There are plenty of honest, conservative men in 
the nursery business. They ought to devise some fair method of set¬ 
tling such cases as the one recorded. 
CITRUS TRIFOLIATA. 
Nurserymen find it impossible to follow botanists in their 
continual change of plant-names, says Meehan’s Monthly. 
When a plant has been extensively known under a certain 
designation that had been acquiesced in by botanists, to be 
told that botanists have heretofore blundered and the name 
must, therefore, be changed, means a commercial loss to them. 
If the nurseryman adopts the new name, he has to advertise 
all over again to let his customers know that the new name is 
no new thing. But even then there is no assurance that the 
corrected name will not again be corrected. 
A recent illustration of this refers to the hardy orange. 
Linnaeus first thought it a genuine member of the orange fam¬ 
ily, and described it as Citrus trifoliata. De Candolle thought 
Linnaeus wrong, and removed it to another genus, JEgle, and 
describes it as y£gle sepiaria. Index Kewensis does not sus¬ 
tain this view, and it appears there under the Linnaen name 
with that of De Candolle as a synonym. Now comes the Gar¬ 
deners’ Chronicle, of April 28 th, with a note by Mr. Nichol¬ 
son, the curator of Kew, in which the name of Aigle sepiaria 
is again revived for our former hardy “ orange.” When two 
high authorities, both in Kew Gardens, disagree as to the legi¬ 
timate name, what is the unfortunate nurseryman to do ? 
THE ONLY ONE. 
J. A. Taylor, President Southwestern Nurserymen’s Asso¬ 
ciation, Wynnewood, Ind. Ter., Aug. 28, 1900.—“Inclosed find money 
order for $1 for the National Nurseryman for one year. I think it 
is the best journal for nurserymen that 1 have seen. Be sure to send 
me the September number.” 
