106 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
NEW FRUIT COMPANIES. 
Ozark Fruit Growers Association—$2,000. P. A. Rodgers, 
A. Taylor, E. L. Real and others. 
Baracoa Fruit Co., East Orange, N. J.—$125,000. Charles 
A. Greene, Paul Munter, Joseph Gerradt. 
Safety Fruit Picker Co., Rochester, N. Y.—$5,000. Willis 
II. Coon, Charles L. Hunt and George C. Haines. 
Thayer Fruit Co., Thayer, Ariz.—$150,000. John Buch¬ 
anan, E. J. Loop, Clark Hall, John W. Smith, F. M. Douglas, 
George Miley. 
The Bostonia Fruit Growers and Packers Co., Portland, 
Me.—$200,000. William S. Crosby, William M. Payson, 
Charles 0. Burrows. 
Eastern Washington Fruit Growing Co.—$500,000. Theo- 
phil Albert, Walter II. Welclen, Carl W. Moegling, Will H. 
Adams, and Friedrich C. Barth, all of Spokane. 
Perla Vineyard Co., Napa, Cal.—$50,000. Agnes Lennne, 
August Schilling, H. C. McPike, of Oakland, Claus Schilling, 
of San Francisco, and W. F. McPike, of St. Helena. 
Articles of incorporation were filed May 4th by the Watrous 
Nursery Co., of Des Moines, la. The capital is $20,000. 
The incorporators are C. L. Watrous and Charles A. Watrous. 
Central Ozark Fruit Co., Springfield, Mo.—$100,000. E. 
W. Pondester, M. C. Holeman, H. A. Warner and J. A. Buff- 
kin, of Topeka, Kan., John Combs and W. S. Thompson, of 
Springfield. 
The Mill Cree^ Fruit Shippers Association, Mill Creek, 
III. —Capital, $1,000. Shipment of fruits, vegetables, etc. 
Incorporators, G. W. Dillow, C. L. Lingle, C. L. Cruse, J. 
M. Miller, J. L. Goodman, J. Id. Poole, L. A. Fink. 
The Cauca Tropical Fruit and Fibre Co., Frankfort, Ind. 
—$5,000,000. Frank S. Newby, president, Frankfort, Ind., 
John C. Hamilton, Warren C. Buell, J. E. Fisher, Crawfords- 
ville, Ind. The company already owns a large banana farm 
on the eastern coast of the Gulf of Darien, Columbia, South 
America. 
Utah Seedless Apple Co., Provo, Utah.—Capital stock, 
50,000 shares, par value 10 cents. W. C. Scheu owns one- 
half the stock. Other holders, F. Dunn, Guy W. Mendenhall, 
W. C. Cooper, M. W. Roylance, Alva Nelson, Geo. Haver- 
camp, J. M. Wilson, G. A. Storrs, Alex. Hedquist, L. O. Taft, 
Jacob Evans, T. C. Thompson, O. H. Berg and W. E. Bassett. 
—American Fruits. 
WESTERN CLASSIFICATION COMMITTEE AT WORK. 
We are informed by Chairman Albertson, of the Classifica¬ 
tion Committee, that a meeting of the Western Section was 
held recently, and that no changes in the classification of nurs¬ 
ery stock were made. This will probably meet the approval 
of Middle State men. It appears that the special committee 
asked for specific changes or none at all. The negative was 
chosen by the Western men. 
Mr. Alberton is of the opinion that the January meeting 
would be a good time to press for the change asked for, but 
denied at this time. He believes that such changes in classifi¬ 
cation should be made as it will make the Western schedule 
harmonize more closely with the Eastern classification. 
We invite correspondence uopn this important subject. 
THE TRIALS OF THE IMPORTER. 
ANDRE L. CAUSSE. 
Read before Convention of National Nurserymen, held at Atlanta, Ga., 
June 22-24. 
The broker or agent handling nursery stock, for account of 
foreign houses, does not always travel on a path strewn with 
roses, even if he sells roses, and many are the thorns that he 
has to contend with. 
His correspondents abroad will invariably report failure of 
crops, or some crops, long before the selling reason is at 
hand; the buyers in turn will be sure to be especially in need 
of those stocks that are reported to be in short supply, hence 
when footing up his sales, the agent will generally find that 
he has over-sold some lines of stock, while he has left, onhand 
a sickening quantity of the plentiful ones. He reports his 
correspondence must follow until orders are properly adjusted 
and booked. A period of dullness will now occur of which 
the agent will take advantage to renew his instructions, 
about proper grading and packing of the stock and entreaties 
about earliest possible shipment to get the goods on this 
side of the ocean before cold weather sets in. But of late 
years, abroad, Mother Nature has not wanted to put on her 
winter coat till Christmas is near at hand, and by the time 
the first fall shipment of stocks reaches our shores, snow is 
flying over our Western States. The agent anxiously watches 
the mercury and could get rich if he could bet, that the arrival 
of a shipment will coincide with the appearance of a cold 
snap. * 
Uncle Sam steps in and gets in his fine work to add to the 
broker’s torment. The consular invoice on which the duty 
is going to be levied has been honestly made at the price of 
sales, the shipper, if for no other reason, having no interest 
in undervaluing his goods, for he does not pay the duties. 
You and I might think that the market price of foreign 
nursery stock is established in the producing districts abroad. 
Please disabuse your mind of such an erroneous idea. The 
market price is hatched on the ninth floor of the New York 
public stores by a government official, who has .never bought 
or been offered a single stock in his life. I suppose that after 
brooding over a number of trade lists catalogues wholesale 
and retail, he takes the average price asked for each article 
and makes up his mind to call the figures arrived at the whole¬ 
sale marked value of the stocks, unless maybe he goes out and 
consults a clairvoyant. This arbitrarily made-up market 
value is sometimes below but generally above the price at 
which purchases have been made in June, by level-headed 
nurserymen, importers of stocks. If some goods have been 
purchased by you, and invoiced above custom house market 
value, the agent has to pay duty on a higher valuation than 
actually required by the appraiser; for he has no right to re¬ 
duce prices appearing on consular invoices; but if on some 
articles consular invoices and purchase price is under Vhat 
the appraiser has decreed market value to be, then consular in¬ 
voice prices are correspondingly raised, and a penalty imposed 
besides additional duty. If the advance reaches fifty per cent, 
goods may be seized by the government. 
Imagine the position of the agent to whom goods are 
consigned when the first shipment of the season reaches him. 
He goes to the custom house, swears to the correctness of 
