26 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
•whatever from the railroad people, either from the lines leading into 
New Orleans, or the one leaving New Orleans. After very close 
investigation they reported that they knew nothing of the trees what¬ 
ever ; that they had not handled them. But our men were of a very 
investigative turn of mind, and so started out to make an investigation 
of their own, and in one of the depots they found a pile of freight ; 
some of the boxes had been piled up there for twenty-five days and 
had not been touched. Some, of course, had not been there quite so 
long, but it looked as though they were making that depot a store 
house for fruit trees. 
What the solution of this question is I don’t know. Sometimes I 
think it would be better for us if we paid a higher freight rate, if we 
could get a guaranty of better service. Some men who attended the 
national meeting at Niagara stated that they paid a rate one third 
higher than the usual rate, and that the manifests were written up on 
a blue paper, and that all the railroads in that section, when they came 
across one of these blue manifests, knew that the goods had to go 
through with despatch, and that they never had any trouble. Now, 
the question is, can we get the southern roads to agree to an arrange¬ 
ment of that kind ? It would undoubtedly be good money in our 
pockets if we could arrive at some arrangement of that kind with the 
railroads. 
I don’t know whether the tracing of shipments can be improved or 
not. We adopted the same plan Mr. Smith spoke of, but the results 
were poor. We found where we did not have a man at the transfer 
point to look up a shipment, that shipment received very little atten¬ 
tion. We have a great big question to solve, and what that solution is 
remains to be seen. There is no doubt that we have got to solve this 
question before our next shipping season comes on. If the present 
state of affairs continues, it will be only a question of time before we 
will be forced out of business. 
A DIFFERENT CLASSIFICATION. 
Mr. Miller—The only solution I see is, as Mr. Wilson says, to move 
our freight under a different classification, and if it is possible to get it 
under different classification and as time freight, I think it can be 
solved. 
Mr. Hood—I called on Mr. Neill, G. F. A., of the Southern at Rich¬ 
mond last fall, and told him we had had more trouble than we ever 
had. He claimed that it was caused by shortage of cars; that so many 
of these small roads did not have cars. That has been the cause of it. 
I asked : “ Will we get any better service if we pay a higher classifica¬ 
tion ?” He said: “No, that we nould not get any better service.” 
He says while the railroads try to get the best men they can for their 
agents, a great many of these small roads cannot afford to pay the 
price to get good men, and he says these men are men who will not 
push the freight along as they should. That is one reason of these 
delays; by the agents at the transfer or small stations. I asked: 
“ Can you have something put in your classification that will 
make all agents forward nursery stock more promptly ? ” He said he 
would like to do everything he could for it. I told him if cheap rates 
was the cause of delay, we had better get a better classification. Some 
time ago we had a shipment to Memphis and I made a suggestion to 
pay a higher classification, but it did not go through in any better 
time. The great trouble, though, is our heavy boxes on the local 
roads, two or three shipments in a oar. They stop the car there and 
wait for several days before they take the boxes out That has been 
the trouble. In our shipments we often set the delivery and give them 
half more time than they should have, and then very often the freight 
is not received. We don’t want our freight to lie over in the depot ten 
days or two weeks. It stays in the depot too long. With northern 
nurserymen they have a man to see if the trees are delivered when,they 
arrive at the point to which they are shipped. 
Mr. Hale—I think the only thing we can do is for this committee to 
take the matter up with a number of the general freight agents and 
appoint a date with them to go before the proper railroad authorities 
and ask them for what we want. 
A motion by Mr. Hale that the transportation committee of 
Association be requested to investigate the matter was 
adopted. 
Messrs. Hale, Van Lindley, Smith, Young, Harrison and 
kiiii.m reported failures in the use of Kieffer pear seedlings. 
Mr. Harrison said : “ I think they ought to be condemned all 
the country over.” 
Mr Miller—One objection w T e have in the very start is that we can¬ 
not get the fresh roots. We cannot get them in the Kieffer. 
Mr. Wickersham—I planted some 10,000 last June and they made a 
poor stand. I thought it was my fault. 
President—The stock is practically condemned, as I see, by this 
Association. Some of them have not tested them quite far enough to 
be quite satisfied. I would like to ask this question : “ How about the 
Japan seedlings ? ” 
Secretary—The Japan has been the best stock we have tried, both 
for grafting and budding. 
President—The Japan has been handled by all southern nurserymen 
ten or fifteen years. 
Mr. Hale—Did you graft or bud ? 
President—I grafted one year and they did very well. 
Mr. Young—I would like to ask if there is any difference seen in 
Japan and Kieffer in the orchards ? 
Mr. Wickersham—The fruit growers in New York tell me the 
French makes a much better tree and lives longer. 
Mr. Miller—We think in Georgia (Northern) that the French root is 
the better tree in orchards. 
Mr. Berckmans—After experimenting with the various pear trees, 
we consider the French pear ahead of all others. 
Question Box : “ How to bring about a better uniformity of prices 
as between nurserymen.” 
Mr. Miller—The best way would be to have a funeral. 
Secretary—This question is asked by Mr. Killian, and I would like 
to ask him if he means in retail way between the agent, or in a whole¬ 
sale way between ourselves. 
Mr. Killian—I have reference to retail. 
A BIG SUGGESTION. 
Mr. Hale—I thiuk this is a great big suggestion. Mr. Miller hit the 
key note when the question was read when he said we should have 
some funerals. If we could get up a rivalry as to who could sell the 
highest instead of who could sell the lowest, we would be better off. 
The nurseryman that goes out and sells trees under cost of production 
does himself great injury. My motto has been and is that a man is 
entitled to a living out of his labors and a decent income from all his 
investments and I do know that much nursery stock is sold throughout 
the country at far less price at retail than we can get at wholesale, 
I suppose that those fellows live, but I don’t know how. I take it that 
when a farmer buys his bill of trees it does not cost him much. I have 
never seen a woman in my life, and I have seen many of them, when 
they ask their friend what a certain thing is worth, but asks the price 
—they never ask about the quality—it is the price. If the price is all 
right they are going to take it. You can give a woman a $5 brooch 
and tell her it cost $50—and it will please her just the same. We can¬ 
not organize so as to make uniform prices, but I am serious in believ¬ 
ing that we do the farmer and the profession a serious injury by put¬ 
ting trees on the market at less than cost of production, and I believe 
that if we would strive to raise our prices and pride ourselves on the 
fact that we can raise our prices and cut off the agent who would not 
raise his prices on stock, it would be better for us. No, sir, a woman 
goes to the merchant who selects the higher priced goods, and we need 
this kind of elevation. We have too much stock put on the market at 
less than it cost us to grow it. The result is that the trade is seriously 
hurt. 
MISREPRESENTATION OF AGENTS. 
Question Box : “ How to suppress misrepresentation of agents against 
other agents and nurseries ? ” 
Secretary—I think Mr. Miller’s reply to the first question that if we 
had a few funerals among tree agents, we wmuld be better off—a very 
large few. 
President—I think an agent would not do much good for himself 
or the man for whom he is employed, if he was to run down other 
nurseries. That rule will w r ork in everything—all kinds of business. 
If a man to work his business up, should run down others, he always 
fails. That has been my experience. 
N. W. Hale delivered an address on what the Association 
has done up to the present time. This address, together with 
