The National Nurseryman. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK. 
Copyright, 1898, by the National Nurseryman Publishing Co. 
Vol. VI. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y., MARCH, 1898. 
No. 2. 
HARMONY AGAIN 
Opposition to the Federal Scale Bill Overcome Through the 
Efforts of President Rouse of the American Association 
—Florists Added a Section But This Was After¬ 
ward Modified—The yew York Bill. 
In several states legislative bills to regulate the transporta¬ 
tion of nursery stock are under consideration. It is probable 
that during the present alarm over the San Jose scale, laws 
will be made which will be found so inadequate to solve the 
problem or so unnecessarily restrictive that many amendments 
will be proposed. In the case of the New York bill, for instance 
the provisions were such as to elicit the criticism of the most 
prominent nurserymen in the state. 
The federal bill was slightly amended in the senate, the 
changes in no way affecting the bill from the nurserymen’s 
standpoint. 
But while the changes in the bill are of little moment, a sec¬ 
tion was added at the instance of the florists, to which 
nurserymen took exception. Section 8 was as follows : 
“ That the provisions of this act shall not apply to florists’ 
greenhouse trees, shrubs, plants, bulbs and so forth, commonly 
known as florists’ stock.” 
Roses may be regarded as florists’ stock or as nursery stock. 
It is deemed by the nurserymen unfair to require roses 
handled by nurserymen to be inspected while those handled 
by florists may be transported without restriction. The same 
florists who objected* to the nursery schedule in the tariff bill 
demanded the adoption of section 8 of the federal scale 
bill. They secured the addition of the section in the senate 
tf rough Senator Platt, of New York. They demanded and 
secured an advalorem duty instead of a specific duty on bulbs 
and now, after a trial of the schedule, peremptory orders have 
been issued by the federal authorities in Washington to the 
A erican consul in Holland that hereafter exporters to the 
United States must deposit their catalogues with the Ameri¬ 
can consul and that prices on all consular invoices must agree 
v ith the prices in the catalogues or written lists. 
The New York Florists’ Club has appointed Patrick O’Mara, 
r epresenting Peter Henderson & Co., Charles H. Allen and 
John N. May a committee to visit Washington, Albany, Tren¬ 
ton, N. J., and other places in the interest of the florists, 
^hese gentlemen with others secured the following amend¬ 
ment to the New Jersey scale bill : “ Florists’ plants, flowers, 
cu tings, scions and buds grown under glass and commonly 
ki wn as florists’ stock are exempt from the provisions of this 
at .” 
There was an interesting scene in Albany on February 23d. 
A scale bill had been introduced in the New York legislature 
to which nurserymen took exception because of its inadequacy. 
A committee representing nursery and horticultural interests 
composed of President Irving Rouse, of the American Associ¬ 
ation of Nurserymen, Samuel D. Willard, of Geneva, and H. 
B.- Hooker, of Rochester, sought a hearing before the senate 
committee on agriculture. Those gentlemen met there the 
florists’ committee above named who wanted the bill to include 
a section like that added to the federal and the New Jersey 
bills. I he three florists were ranged on one side of a long 
table and the three nurserymen and fruitgrowers on the other 
side and then they went at each other, and incidentally at the 
subject, much to the entertainment of the senate committee, 
the members of which heard more about scions and buds and 
cuttings and creeping things than ever before. 
Finally President Rouse called Chairman O'Mara of the 
florists’ committee to one side of the room and told him that 
although the new section added to the federal bill could never 
be passed, he would on behalf of the American Association of 
Nurserymen agree to withdraw opposition provided the florists 
would agree to make the added section read as follows in both 
the federal and state bdls: 
“ That the provisions of this act shall not apply to green¬ 
house plants, flowers and cuttings commonly known as florists’ 
stock.” 
Mr. O’Mara agreed to this proposition in the interest of 
harmony and he and President Rouse at once wrote to their 
respective representatives in Washington to that (ffect. 
There is, therefore, no opposition to the federal bill nor to 
the New York state bill as amended and both will undoubtedly 
be passed. The New York state bill is drafted on lines 
entirely supplementary to the federal bill. 
PEARS $7.50 EACH. 
The London Daily Standard referring to Christmas fruit at 
Covent Garden, says : 
Pears deserve more than a passing notice. Fifteen and twenty 
years ago, enormous pears from Paris used to be marked up in the 
Grand Row at Covent garden Market at ten, twenty and thirty shillings 
each, and they were even lent out for table decoration at West-end 
parties. They were immense fruits, and usually created much as¬ 
tonishment when seen. So with the large supplies of autumn pears. 
French fruits have monopolized the English markets. During the 
past few T months, however, they have been eclipsed by the superior 
pears from California. The California Easter Beurres are superior to 
the French ones. So with the Beurre Diel, Glou Morceau, Winter 
Nelis, anil Beurre Clargeau. A few pears are now coming from 
Guernsey and Jersey, and the Channel Island Chaumontelles, of course, 
are always much sought after, when they are large and well colored. 
The English supplies are so short as to fie hardly worth a notice. 
In a copy of the Rochester, N. Y., Telegraph of October 28, 
1823, recently presented to the Rochester Historical Society, 
is an advertisement of the first nurseryman in this country, 
William Prince, Flushing, L. I., in which he offers shrubs and 
plants and concludes as follows : “ The Livingston Journal 
and Spirit of Times (Batavia), will please insert this three 
weeks and send their bills to Smith & Beebe, Rochester.” 
