THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
57 
) 
In Common Council 
WHOLESALE VS. RETAIL PRICES. 
Editor National Nurseryman:— 
In the April Number of the National Nurseryman there 
is a very interesting letter from E. W. Carbary on this subject. 
We h avc had the same experience for the past two years that 
the writer complains of, viz: that certain wholesale nurseries 
send the very same prices out to planters indiscriminately 
that they send to us. We have had customers bring their 
price list along to show us how cheap they could buy trees 
at wholesale. We can go farther than Mr. Carbary and say 
that trees were shipped here by the car load, and advertised 
to sell at wholesale prices to planters, using the name of the 
nursery sending them in the advertisement. We believe 
such practice to be illegitimate, and unwise in the end. On 
the other side we get some letters from wholesale men that 
read like this. “Sometimes through mistake we send a 
list to a man that is not entitled to it, if you know of any such, 
you will confer a favor by reporting the fact to usd’ It is 
needless to say which of the two kinds we deal with. “ Should 
nurserymen buy of nurserymen who send their wholesale 
lists to planters” is a very pertinent question. While we 
do not favor any “boycotting scheme,” we think if every 
retail nurseryman and dealer had a complete list of firms 
doing such business, that the evil would correct itself very 
quickly. We think such nurseries would be safe in reducing 
their planting 50% the first year. Good orchard men usually 
prefer to see the trees before investing money in them, and 
are usually willing to pay a fair price for good stock, and 
know that the reputation of the home nursery is at stake, 
when they buy trees from the proprietor. If a wholesale 
grocer should sell a few bills to consumers, all the retail 
grocers would quit him at once. We all understand that, 
and we see no reason why the same rule should not apply in 
the nursery business. 
Gainesville, Texas. A. S. Bassett & Son. 
A TEST NURSERY CASE. 
Editor National Nurseryman: 
In the spring of 1902 a nurseryman of Des Moines, la., 
whom we will call Brown sold a bill of nursery stock amount¬ 
ing to about $100 to a man of Des Moines, la., whom we will 
call Smith. Smith represented to Brown that he wanted the 
trees to go on a small place owned, as he said, by himself, 
but which Brown lately found out was owned by his widowed 
mother with whom Smith was living, and the trees were 
delivered by Brown to that place and were placed in charge 
of the mother who managed it, she accepting the goods with¬ 
out protest. 
Smith promised to pay for the goods in installments, but 
after a number of payments had been made, got into bad 
habits, lost his position and was unable to pay further. Brown 
made continuous effort to collect, but failed to get anything 
more than promises and finally filed a mechanic’s lien against 
the property, which was in the name of Mrs. Smith, the 
widowed mother and which place was her homestead exempt 
from ordinary executions. Suit for foreclosure was brought 
and the Smiths came into court, Mrs. Smith swearing that 
she had bought the trees from her son and paid him cash 
for them and disclaiming any bargain whatever with Brown. 
She swore that her son was not her agent, but legally had 
been only a boarder at her house, and that he had paid board 
to her since he was 14 years old. She also swore that a 
large part of the stock had not been planted on her place at 
all, but had been sold to another party and that the cash 
had been paid in that case also. She admitted, however, 
that the goods had all been delivered together on her grounds. 
The defense was that the man Smith was the only party 
involved in the contract and that Mrs. Smith should be held 
harmless, Smith of course being judgment proof. The 
defense also held that nursery stock was not a proper subject 
for a mechanic’s lien and did not come under the meaning 
of the statutes. The plaintiff claimed that nursery stock was 
a valuable and permanent improvement and as such could 
be collected for under the law. 
The court held with the plaintiff on every moment and judg¬ 
ment for the full amount was rendered accordingly. The 
court held that the fact that the defense, Mrs. Smith, had 
allowed the stock to come on her land without protest, know¬ 
ing that Brown expected the trees to be planted there, ren¬ 
dered her liable for the payment of the bill and she accord¬ 
ingly paid the claim. 
This is a decision of importance to nurserymen, as the 
point had never before been raised in Iowa and we presume 
that in many other states the decision has never yet been 
had. The defense in this case expressed themselves as satis¬ 
fied with the judgment and did not appeal. 
This case covers some points in agency which are also 
valuable and shows that the mechanic’s lien law is an immense 
help to nurserymen on collections where an attempt is made 
to beat an honest debt as is many times met with by all 
nurserymen. 
“A law which deprives one class of the community of a 
part of their property, in order to bestow it upon another 
class, s an- intolerable violation of national justice,” and 
too, “If a person forcibly takes away a part of Ins property 
from another person, without any equivalent, it is simple 
robbery,” says History of Economics. 
Des Moines, la. S. H. Linton. 
FREE DISTRIBUTION OF TREES. 
At the city nurseries, Dorchester, Mass., says an exchange, the free 
distribution of shade trees has begun. Most of those who had pre¬ 
viously made application for trees had them delivered to the express- 
men of their respective districts; but there were many persons, some 
- of them quite young, others very old, who appeared in person to get 
trees. Not only were they eager to get one or more, but many even 
purchased loam in which to plant their trees. Those in greatest de¬ 
mand were the Rock and Norway maples. T he three other \ arieties 
that were given away were the elm, the ash and the poplar. There 
have been many applicants for the purple beach, but this variety is 
not included in the free distribution. 
A. L. Limmerman, Weatherby, Mo.—“I enclose $1 for subscription 
for National Nurseryman. Must have it. Can’t tell what’s going 
on among the tree men of the country without it. 
