THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
97 
THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION 
OF NURSERYMAN. 
An Address to the Tennessee Nurserymen’s Association, but applicable 
to every Nurseryman in the United States. 
By Henry B. Chase. 
In telling you who are not members of the National 
Association, something of its work in the interest of the 
American nurserymen, I do not wish to place myself in 
the attitude of belittling the work or this association of 
Tennessee nurserymen, or of that of the southern or 
western associations, or any association of a local char¬ 
acter. I am a firm believer in these local associations, 
they are all good and are doing good work, but when you 
say that because you are a member of one or more of 
these local associations, you are doing all you should do, 
I take issue with you. Every reputable nurseryman in 
the United States should become a member of the Na¬ 
tional Association of Nurserymen. It’s work is national 
—nation-wide—in its scope. It is working for you 
right here in Tennessee and for us in Alabama, and for 
the nurserymen in New England and California, for the 
nurserymen of all the United States. It is doing good* 
work and doing it well. Just what is it doing that really 
benefits you? Here are a few of the many things: 
Its legislative committee has made ten trips to Wash¬ 
ington in the past six years and has accomplished a lot of 
work in the remodeling of the federal laws as to the im¬ 
porting of all foreign stocks and seedlings, which in many 
lines constitute the “raw stock” or basis of our produc¬ 
tion. Do you know that the original federal law con¬ 
tained a provision that all imports should be inspected on 
the docks at port of entry? Think of a single steamer 
bringing into New York two thousand cases of French 
seedlings, all of which were to be inspected on the docks 
there, where they have no facilities for this work, no ex¬ 
perienced man for the repacking of the stock, meaning 
that all shipments would be delayed, abused, and when 
they were finally released and reached us, the vitality of 
these stocks and seedlings would be greatly impaired. 
Now, the shipments come right through to destination 
without delay and are there inspected as they should be. 
This same legislative committee has fought adverse leg¬ 
islation in various states, brought test cases and carried 
them through the courts in Maine, Wisconsin, Wyoming. 
Montana and Colorado. In one case, in Colorado, the Na¬ 
tional Association helped fight to a finish a case of a 
brother nurseryman where two cars of trees were ille¬ 
gally confiscated and burned, the National Association 
putting up a thousand dollars to fight that case, and more 
than another thousand in handling the cases in the other 
states named. 
The Tariff Committee has made several trips to Wash¬ 
ington and as a result of its work with the authorities 
there we now have the best Tariff Bill we have ever had, 
in that it is clear and concise, so plain that the nursery¬ 
man is no longer forced to pay a duty of four cents each 
on a Manetti Rose stock because someone in the depart¬ 
ment construed the bill to include Manetti as a rose bush. 
This frequently happened under the old bill, the nursery¬ 
man paying forty dollars per thousand duty instead ol 
fifteen per cent, or say forty cents per thousand, and be¬ 
ing out of his money sometimes for six months before it 
could be adjusted. 
Its Transportation committee has done a lot of good 
work that effects every one of us in freight rates, mini¬ 
mum weights of carloads, revised classifications, etc. 
The National Association has a committee on Uniform 
State Legislation that is now working with the state en¬ 
tomologists and they are working closely and cordially to¬ 
gether, trying to bring about uniform state inspection 
laws. What a God-send it would be to the nurserymen 
of this country if instead of so many state laws—Virginia 
requiring a $20.00 fee and a green tag, Texas $5.00 and 
any kind of a tag, which we must have printed ourselves 
—South Carolina another form of tag and fumigation, 
Alabama a $10.00 bill and a yellow tag—Florida no tag, 
but a $5.00 bill, and so on until it gives us brain fever to 
keep track of it all, we had one uniform or near uniform 
law in all the states. This is just what the National As¬ 
sociation is trying to bring about, and the Entomologists 
want it and are co-operating with the National Associa¬ 
tion’s committee to frame this uniform law. Inspection 
is vital to the success of our business, it is for our protec¬ 
tion as well as that of the planter, it is here to stay. In 
the past there has been some friction in some sections of 
the country between the nurseryman and the inspector, 
but this is rapidly disappearing, and one of the greatest 
factors in bringing about this better understanding is the 
work of this Uniform State Legislation Committee of the 
National Association. A year ago this committee, con¬ 
sisting of five leading nurserymen, met the National As¬ 
sociation of horticultural inspectors in Atlanta and only 
three weeks ago another joint meeting was held in Phila¬ 
delphia, and so you see the work is going on all the time, 
and who is doing it? Who is paying the bills? I'll tell 
you, last year four hundred and ten American nursery¬ 
men, the year before, four hundred and seventy-three. 
Now, my friends, is it fair for four hundred odd nursery¬ 
men out of some twenty-five hundred in the United 
States to carry this load? Should you not as a nursery¬ 
man, go into your jeans for $5.00 per year, membership 
fee and help to pay the expenses of this work, which is 
being done for you? Should you not identify yourself 
with the National Association of American Nurserymen? 
Attend the annual convention if you possibly can, but be¬ 
come a member anyway. You get its printed report, con¬ 
taining all the papers, lectures, discussions, committee re¬ 
ports, etc., and this alone is worth the membership fee. 
Again I say that every reputable nurseryman of the 
United States should belong to the National Association. 
