THE NATIONAT. NURSERYMAN 
221 ) 
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS 
l*r<‘si(h‘nl Joint Wats())t nuulc a very fuU (uid roiniirt'liensive report. So that its many valaahle rerom- 
memlatiotis should not he lost to the assorialton, a rommiltee teas ajipoinled to pass upon them. Due to 
its lenytti we ratniot prhit it iti full, hut herewith yive extracts stiffieietd to indicate to the memljers, not 
present at the Convention, and those of our readers who are not memhers an idea of the scope of the work 
heiny undertaken hy the American A’alional Association of Surserymen. 
Advisory Hoard. 
Acting' ujion the instructions contained in your resolu¬ 
tion creating the Advisory Hoard, I wrote to the President 
or the Secretary of all tin* nursery trade associations ask- 
V V 
ing that each designate a ineinher of the Hoard; twenty- 
one state and district associations responded fayoralily, 
expressing approyal of your idea, and all the memhers 
of the Adyisory Hoard haye been iiiyited to attend this 
conyention. The drawing together and unifying the 
yarious trade organizations and making the National 
body a sort of clearing-house w here the business of the 
whole tratle can he considered, cannot fail to prolit all 
the interests represented. *** 
Executive Committee. 
*’“1 recommend that the Executive Committee of seven 
memhers he continued and selected as at present, hut that 
they he made a Hoard of Directors and that from their 
numher they select three directors who shall constitute 
an Executive Committee with power to act, for occasions 
will and do arise when on account of lack of time or 
something else, it is impossible to secure an expression 
from all the widely scattered memhers of the Executive 
Committee. 
Dues. 
I recommend that the dm^s he made iiayalile .Tanuary 
first of each year. * * 
Membership. 
I recommend that upon the first day of Eebruary of 
each year, a ballot he furnished to every active memh('r 
of the Association, jirinted with a list of all the niemhers 
to he voted on and returned to the Secretary and that 
those w ho receive less than 25 adverse votes shall consti¬ 
tute the memhership until the next election; and that all 
those who receive 25 or more adverse votes to Ix' con¬ 
sidered as having been dropped from the list of memhers. 
Directory. 
In my letter to you of March first, 1 called your atten¬ 
tion to the difliculties experienced hy Seendary Smith and 
hy the committee in some of the states in getting the 
riapiisiti* matter together for its seasonable publication 
in such form as w ould he of value. D w ill not he neces¬ 
sary for me to review now what I reportial at that tiiiuv 
In my letter. I asked for your instructions in the matter 
of having the Secretary procei'd with the juinting which 
meant an outlay of a good many hundreds of dollars, 
.ludging hy the numher of ri^plies receiviMl, less than ten 
per emit, of our memhers fidt an intmi'st in the suliject 
and all hut some half dozen of those votial to hold tin* 
matter in aheyanci' until this meeting. 
Hulletix. 
I hav(‘ hendofnre called tin* attention of the memhers 
to their failure to use the opportunity offered them for 
expressing their views on trade matters in our Oflicial 
Hullelin. During the past year the Hulletin has hemi a 
very valuable news-letter covering many l(‘gal decisions 
and giving our members a great deal of valuable informa¬ 
tion about transportation, inspixdion, quarantine, colh'c- 
tion and other matters; hut it is to he regretted that while 
this matter has been carefully prepan'd and excellently 
presented hy Mr. Smith, yet it could have been made 
much more interesting with the assistance and co-opera- 
tion of our members. 
Meeting Place. 
The advertising possibilities in our trades exhibit have 
never been quite realized or used to advantage hy the 
nurserymen. This year we have a larger and Ixdter 
display than usual thanks to a very active committee of 
wide-awake young men, hut as a matter of fact, our As¬ 
sociate memhers have always had more sjiace in the ex¬ 
hibit and have gotten more value from it than the nur¬ 
serymen have; and I think that is largely because of tin' 
difference in the classes of goods that may he shown. 
The nurserymen’s stock is not dormant in .June and the 
stock kept so late in storage from the .lime Convention 
is hardly attractive then and represents a crop that is 
gone and is not a sample of what can he supplied later; 
and I wonder if it would not be a good idea for the As¬ 
sociation to consider deciding upon some permanent {ilace 
of meeting or for say a period of five years in some ctMi- 
trally located city, and then, closehy, to lease a plat of 
ground where permanent exhibits could he planted and 
where new' or rare varieties could he shown in growth. 
That idea might he extended to the point of making such 
a plantation a sort of test-garden for untried varietic'i 
and in that way, under the auspices of the Association, 
the merits of new" things could be ascertained before pro¬ 
pagating them extensively for sale, and thus avoiding 
occasional disappointment. The idea id’ meeting in dif¬ 
ferent places has been, very properly, to keep the Asso¬ 
ciation from becoming localized and not to havi* the at¬ 
tendance drawn too largely from any one stati* or from 
any particular section. In every convention in formiM' 
vears, there has been a large attendance id' local nurserv- 
men who have been absent from latiu' meetings. With 
a permanent ineinhership, it would s<‘em well to sidi'ct a 
central meeting place and to extend tin* exhihits section 
liy means of permanent plantings. 
Arboretum. 
It is a peculiar fact that we have in this country no 
National Arboretum. We should hav(‘ one; the Amer¬ 
ican Association of Nurserymen should initiate and stand 
sponsor for a movement to secure it. I feel sun; that 
every nurseryman in the Association would lie glad to 
have his stock drawn upon for such an undertaking; that 
