The National Nurseryman. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK. 
Copyright, 1901, by the National Nurseryman Publishing Co. 
Horticulture is emphatically the fine art of common life.” —R. C. Winthrop. 
VOL. IX. 
ROCHESTER, N. Y., FEBRUARY, 1901. 
No. 2. 
STOOD BY THE PRESIDENT 
Split Between Nurserymen and Fruit Growers Narrowly Averted 
at Annual Meeting of Western New York Horticultural 
Society—President Barry’s Appeal Finally Prevailed 
—Nurserymen Objected to Action upon San Jose 
Scale Bill-Lively Discussion. 
The forty-sixth annual convention of the Western New 
York Horticultural Society was held in the Common Council 
chamber, Rochester, January 23-24. President William C. 
Barry, of the firm of Ellwanger & Barry, presided, and among 
those present was the senior member of that firm, George 
Ellwanger, one of the oldest and best known nurserymen of 
the country. 
Other well-known nurserymen, fruit growers and scientific 
men present were Professor W. H. Jordon, director of the 
State Experiment station at Geneva ; J. H. Hale, the “ prince 
of peach growers,” of South Glastonbury, Conn.; Professor 
W. G. Johnson, state entomologist of Maryland, who is repre¬ 
senting the “ American Agriculturist Professor F. A. Waugh, 
of the agricultural experiment station, Burlington, Vt.; Pro¬ 
fessor Enos H. Hall, of the state college, Pennsylvania ; Pro¬ 
fessor W. M. Munson, of Orono, Maine ; F. E. Dawley, of 
Fayetteville, superintendent of the Bureau of Farmers’ insti¬ 
tutes ; Professor M. V. Slingerland, of Cornell University ; 
George S. Josselyn, of Fredonia; S. I). Willard, of Geneva; 
J. S. Woodward, Lockport ; R. G. Chase, Geneva; D. H. 
Henry, Geneva ; C. M. Hooker, Rochester ; Irving Rouse, 
Rochester ; F. E. Rupert, Seneca ; George A. Sweet, Dans- 
ville ; Albert Wood, Carlton Station ; L. T. Yeomans, Wal¬ 
worth. 
The plan of limiting admission to the convention hall to 
those who have paid a fee of one dollar and secured a mem¬ 
bership was an innovation but it worked satisfactorily ; over 
$300 in membership fees were taken in at the first session. 
The society is now one of the largest bodies of its kind in the 
United States, its membership in round numbers being about 
800. Last year the membership was 576 ; the increase came at 
this meeting. 
The principal discussion of the convention was that regard¬ 
ing San Jose scale legislation. The rock upon which the 
society has long threatened to split was safely passed, but for 
a time there was some rough sailing. Disaster was averted 
only by the tact and straightforward steering of .President 
Barry, coupled with the universal respect in which he is held 
by the members of the society in general. 
At the morning session, S. Wright McCollum, of Lockport, 
had moved that the report of the legislative committee be 
made the first order of business at the afternoon session, after 
the report from the nominating committee had been made- 
This motion was passed almost unanimously. As every one 
knew, the report of the legislative committee dealt with the 
efforts that have been made by the fruit growing element in 
the convention to secure a passage of a law compelling nursery¬ 
men to fumigate their stock in order to kill the pest known as 
the San Jose scale. The nurserymen have bitterly opposed 
this measure, claiming that the pest is as liable to be commun¬ 
icated by fruit as by trees. The debates on the subject at 
previous conventions have been long and caustic, and consid¬ 
erable personal feeling has been engendered. Mr. McCollum, 
who made the motion, is himself a member of the legislative 
committee, and has been particularly active at Albany in be¬ 
half of the measure. 
The report of the nominating committee had just been 
brought in at the afternoon session naming Mr. Barry for re- 
election as president and the vote was about to be taken on 
this office, when Mr. Barry called Mr. Woodward to the chair, 
stating that he had something which he must say to the con¬ 
vention. In a speech verging at times on the impassionate, 
Mr. Barry besought the convention not to depart from the 
time-honored policy of the founders of the society to allow no 
question which might create serious differences of opinion to 
be carried into the convention. He protested that in all of his 
career as president of the society he had never sought to in¬ 
fluence its members to endorse any measure which might favor 
the nurserymen. He had left all such matters outside the 
convention hall and had tried in the spirit of fairness to pro¬ 
mote only the growth and harmony of the society. He thought 
the fruit growers in the convention ought to maintain the 
same spirit of fairness and not seek to secure the endorsement 
by the society of a measure which was purely a piece of class 
legislation. If the discussion of such questions were persisted 
in, he said, it was bound to split the society, and he finally 
declared that he could not accept the office of president, un¬ 
less the members of the society would agree to drop the dis¬ 
cussion of such questions in the future. 
It was realized that President Barry’s wishes, if observed, 
would shut out the report of the legislative committee. E. A. 
Powell, of Syracuse, chairman of the committee on nomina¬ 
tions, defended Mr. Barry’s position, and urged that in the 
interests of unity and harmony, the society defer to his wishes. 
Mr. McCollum joined issue squarely with President Barry. 
He declared that while the society respected its president and 
wanted to see him re-elected, it would not submit to being 
“throttled” in its right of discussing matters which pertained 
to the most vital interests of the fruit growers and whose sup¬ 
pression, he declared, could only benefit the pockets of the 
nurserymen. “ Self preservation,” said Mr. McCollum, “ is 
the first law of nature, and that’s what we’re here for. We 
don’t propose to be eaten up by a whale and there are several 
whales in this society.” 
In the sally and laughter which greeted this statement, Mr. 
McCollum essayed a motion that the secretary be instructed 
to cast a ballot for Mr. Barry, but without the proviso of sup- 
