218 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
be permitted to be attached to the agricultural or any other bill unless 
we had been notified and given an opportunity to be heard and as the 
time was very short such a course would be out of the question and we 
should be satisfied to prevent adverse legislation at this session and 
trust to the future, or such legislation as might be thought beneficial 
to the whole country. 
VALLE OF COMMITTEE WORK. 
It will be seen from the foregoing that if this association had not had 
any committee we should have been in a very forlorn condition. 
Mr. Haugen of the House agricultural committee wrote me a letter 
saying, “ If this bill is attached to the agricultural bill, the bill will go 
to conference. The conferees will report back to the House the agree¬ 
ments upon the different amendments, and probably move the previous 
question, giving no opportunity to oppose one single amendment. 
And in order to defeat one amendment the whole report would have to 
be voted down. This, you see, would place me in a very embarrass¬ 
ing position, being a member of the committee, to antagonize any 
report from that committee. I advise that this matter be looked after 
in the Senate, and if an amendment is likely to be adopted, to have the 
amendment perfected in the Senate.” 
By this it will appear that if your committee had failed to be on the 
ground, this amendment would, without any reasonable doubt, have 
become a part of the law, and we should have suffered in consequence. 
Whether it maybe advisable to attempt by correspondence to bring 
about harmony among the various interests and still secure the passage of 
a bill in substance such as had been more than once agreed to by the nur¬ 
serymen aud the California interests in conference, may be a question 
for this association. If we do not attempt any mutually agreeable 
sjlution of the question, one thing is certain—the nursery interests of 
the country must be prepared at any time to have very injurious legis¬ 
lation inflicted upon them by the fruit interests of California. 
Having a little leisure time, your committee thought best to visit that 
division of the department of agriculture in which the amendment was 
written. We found there that the same impression prevailed which 
had influenced Senator Dolliver. They believed that the nurserymen 
had agreed to such an amendment and were greatly exercised when 
informed what would be the effect of such legislation upon the busi¬ 
ness of nurserymen from year to year. We laid the whole matter 
candidly before the Secretary of Agriculture, showing him how nearly 
a great interest had been to serious harm through the action of some 
subordinates, which action, though in perfectly good faith, had been 
entirely a mistaken one. We received from him the most emphatic 
assurance that nothing of the kind would happen again. We sug¬ 
gested, in the light of what had taken place as was evidenced by the 
proposed amendment which we put into his hands, that it might not 
be asking too much on our part that a thorough understanding be had 
that nothing of the kind should be again allowed to go out unless 
members of your committee, endowed with authority to speak for the 
nursery interests, had been consulted so that there could be no serious 
harm done in their absence. The Secretary was entirely agreed and 
seemed very glad that no harm had been done this time and assured 
us again that we might rest entirely easy that such a thing would not 
happen again. 
It appears to your committee that the visit to Washington was pro¬ 
ductive of very great good, and we hope these views may be shared by 
this association. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 
William C. Barry, after the reading of the report said: “ Mr 
President, as a member of the Association I appreciate the 
services of this committee. I do not think this committee 
should be obliged to apologize to this Association for its 
action. If this Association is good for anything, it is good for 
this very thing. If you have members who are willing to spend 
the time necessary to accomplish these things, instead of criti¬ 
cising them you should take great pains to extend to them a 
vote of thanks. I hope we will have as good a committee 
during the next year. 
‘‘ How does it happen that reports get abroad that we are in 
favor of measures against which we are really directly 
opposed ? This seems to be done. I am glad we have such a 
wide-awake committee.” 
The report of the committee on the treasurer’s report was 
that the items had been checked up and had been found cor¬ 
rect. 
OFFICERS AND MEETING PLACE. 
The committee of vice-presidents reported as follows as to 
the officers and place of meeting for next year: 
President—Robert 0. Berckmans, Augusta, Ga. 
Vice-president—R. J. Coe, Fort Atkinson. Wis. 
Secretary—George C. Seager, Rochester, N. Y. 
Treasurer—C. L. Yates, Rochester, N. Y. 
Executive committee—Peter Youngers, Geneva, Neb.; N. W. Hale. 
Knoxville, Tenn.; William Pitkin, Rochester, N. Y. 
Place of meeting, June, 1902—Milwaukee, Wis. 
Mr. Watrous moved the adoption of the report. Motion 
seconded. Chas. E.Greening, Monroe, Mich , argued for Detroit 
as the next meeting place. The question on the report was then 
divided. That portion relating to the recommendation as to 
new officers was adopted. That portion relating to meeting 
place was declared open for discussion. Silas Wilson said he 
hoped the report of the vice-presidents would not be over¬ 
ridden, as it had been regularly voted upon in committee and 
Milwaukee had received a majority of the votes, 14 as against 
10 for Detroit. Mr. Greening moved as an amendment that 
the convention be held in Detroit. 
Mr. Brooke—“There is an under-current in this convention 
to the effect that our Association should locate somewhere in¬ 
stead of being a traveling show. We have just heard import¬ 
ant reports from three committees. There is business enough 
in these committee reports to keep the convention occupied 
one day. I believe that Chicago is the place to meet; but 
other cities have asked us to come. Another thing we should 
consider is that New York knows that the most successful 
conventions have been held in Chicago. New York’s repre¬ 
sentative to-day reported in favor of Chicago. But as Mil¬ 
waukee is a suburb of Chicago, we may find it profitable to go 
there. The sooner we come to a knowledge of the fact that 
this is a business convention and not a sight-seeing one, the 
sooner will we get at the greatest interests of the nurserymen.” 
Mr. Greening’s amendment was lost by the same almost 
unanimous vote that Mr. Watrous’s motion to go to Milwaukee 
was adopted. 
GOVERNMENT DISTRIBUTION. 
The question of free distribution of nursery stock by the 
United States government was brought up. Mr. Brooke said 
it is an important one and he referred to the fact that the 
result of such distribution had already been felt in Kansas. 
He moved that the committee on legislation be instructed to 
submit a resolution condemning the free distribution of nur¬ 
sery stock by state or national authorities. The motion was 
seconded by Mr. Gamble. 
Chairman Watrous of the legislation committee suggested 
that a state matter should be referred to the horticultural 
society of that state. William C. Barry said that the experi¬ 
ment stations have done and are doing much good work; but 
that if they distributed nursery stock free to the American 
public the nurserymen might as well go out of business at 
once. Mr. Brooke said the Kansas station was doing more 
than giving away nursery stock—it was growing it and selling 
it away below the prices of the nurserymen. 
“ This Association is the body that should speak out in this 
matter,” said Mr. Brooke “ The legislation committee need not 
be known in it except impersonally. It is the backing of this 
