THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
17 
enrolled at this meeting. The newly elected officers 
are: President, AV. S. Griesa, Lawrence, Kansas; 
Vice President, C. C. Mayliew, Sherman, Texas; Sec¬ 
retary and Treasurer, E. L. Holman, Leavenworth, 
Kansas. 
PRESIDENT F. A. WEBER’S ADDRESS 
At the 24th Annual Meeting of Western Association of 
Nurserymen, Kansas City, Mo., December 10th, 1913 
Gentlemen of the AVestern Association of 
Nurserymen: 
Another j^ear has jiassed since the AVestern Asso¬ 
ciation met in this City, to discuss the various to])ics 
that were of most im])ortance to our business, and I 
assure you tliat it is a great pleasure to me to have 
the honor of ])residing at this, your 21-th annual 
meeting. 
1 am pleased to see such a large re])resentation at 
this meeting, and I trust that you will, one and all, 
enter into the discussions freely with a view of 
bringing out all the ])oints that may be of impor¬ 
tance to our business, so that we may all profit in 
knowledge, and wisdom, so that when we go home 
that we can say that tlie time has been well spent. 
The year 1913 will soon liave })assed into history. 
If the figure “13” had anything to do with the 
brands of weather we have had during the year, we 
should congratulate ourselves that there will be no 
more “13’s” in our allotted time that we may re¬ 
main here on earth. 
The greater part of the country has jiassed 
through one of the hottest and driest seasons of re¬ 
cord, and in consequence much stock has been lost to 
the grower, and I understand much stock has not 
made the usual grades. During the early part of 
the year there was an excessive amount of rain in 
many localities, and these localities were the ones 
that suffered mostly on account of the drought. 
Lately, we have had reports of a storm in the lake 
regions, and while it probably did not do any great 
amount of damage to the nursery interests, except¬ 
ing that it delayed shipments considerably. Late re¬ 
ports show that Texas is now having a seige of high 
water, with considerable damage. This all goes to 
show that we may plan ever so well, but we must al¬ 
ways expect such conditions to occur from time to 
time. 
The Program Committee has arranged an excel¬ 
lent program and it covers most of the subjects that 
seem to be of importance to our business at this time. 
I desire to call your attention to a few things to 
which we should give careful consideration. One is, 
the Parcel Post proposition. An effort should be 
made to secure better Parcel Post conditions. At 
present, the nursery, florists and seed interests do not 
enjoy the same Ikircel Post benefits that other lines 
of trade do. Just why these lines were barred from 
the same rates has always been a mystery with me. 
1 have with me a letter from the Post Office Depart¬ 
ment at AVashington, 1). C., with whom I correspond¬ 
ed some days ago, and the Secretary will read this 
letter to you later during our sessions, which will ex¬ 
plain the situation more fully. The question of uni¬ 
form legislation is another subject that is of utmost 
importance, and I understand that we have with us 
a Committee on Uniform Legislation from the Amer¬ 
ican Association and I trust that this Committee, 
with our Legislative Committee, will have something 
favorable to report. 
As we have a large amount of work before us, I. 
will detain you no longer, and we will now proceed 
to the work in hand. 
BETTER QUALITY TREES AND PAYING MORE 
ATTENTION TO PARENTAGE 
Read before Western Association of Nurserymen at Kansas City, 
December 11, 1913, J. MONCRIEF, Winfield, Kan. 
The nurseryman should be a professional man 
whereas he is not even a good business man, because 
like a doctor or a lawyer, his constant calling is one 
of great trust by his client, and whereas the client is 
soon aware if he is not getting satisfactory service 
from his doctor or lawyer, he may deal with his nur¬ 
seryman for eight or ten years to find that his trust 
has been misplaced and that he has lost ten years of 
his lifetime and a large sum of money for his loss, 
must be a number of times the first cost of his tree. 
True, in the past there has been no school for the 
nurseryman, no opportunity for him to take a special 
course that would fit him for all lines in the nursery 
business, hence the nursery field is today occupied 
not by scientific men, not by professionals, but by a 
class of men who, although they may rank very high 
for brains or manhood, are mostly happenstances. 
They have drifted into the nursery business from 
either the tree selling gate or from working in the 
field and coming up from that end of the business. 
Their business has further been handicaiDped in 
progressing by the fact of their line being a line of 
perishable goods, by lack of cooperation among 
themselves to benefit by not over planting, and to in¬ 
sure proper distribution in selling, so as to prevent 
big loss by the brush pile. Alany of them have lack¬ 
ed the backbone and nerve to do the thing they knew 
was best for their client. Alany of them are bulls at 
planting time and bears immediately after their 
planting is over, and thus break down prices and ed¬ 
ucate tree planters to expect good trees for much less 
than the amount that it will cost to grow them. 
Again, many of them have tried to maintain a 
