The National Nurseryman. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK. 
Copyrighted 19J2 by The National Nurseryman Publishing Co.. Incorporated. 
* “ My aim in life is the spiritualization of agriculture." —Prof. L. H. Bailey. 
Vol. X. ROCHESTER, N. Y., JULY, 1902. No. 7. 
MILWAUKEE COISVEISTIOIS . 
PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF 
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN. 
One of the Largest Gatherings In Its History—Unanimous In. 
dorsement of the Federal Bill—Practical Address by Pro¬ 
fessor Bailey—President Berckmans’ Address—Plans for 
St. Louis Exposition—Financial Reports—Charles A. 
Ilgenfritz President —At Detroit Next Year. 
The twenty-seventh annual convention of the American 
Association of Nurserymen was held at Milwaukee on June 
11 — 13 , under most favorable conditions. The attendance was 
large and included most of the prominent men in the nursery 
business. 
At 11:30 a. m, on June nth, President Robert C. Berck¬ 
mans called the first session of the convention to order, and 
after appointing Messrs. William Pitkin, F. H. Stannard and 
H. B. Chase a committee on programme, introduced to the 
two hundred nurserymen present Mayor Rose of Milwaukee, 
who delivered an address of welcome as follows : 
MAYOR ROSE’S ADDRESS. 
“ Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen—I am pleased to 
have an opportunity to meet so many representatives of a great 
industry, whose products afford us so many luxuries of life. 
In behalf of the people of the City of Milwaukee I am pleased 
to extend to you a most hearty welcome. I wish to express 
the hope that your meeting here will be not only profitable 
to those who compose the convention, but so pleasurable 
that when you return to your homes you will carry only pleas¬ 
ant recollections of. our city. 
“ Myself a Badger born, I have watched the development 
of the great Middle West, especially Wisconsin. I take it 
that most of you are strangers to our city and state, and that 
you will be interested in knowing who we are, what we are and 
what we are doing.” 
Mayor Rose then described briefly and entertainingly some 
of the chief characteristics of Milwaukee, and showed that 
although the city has acquired through extensive advertising 
the reputation of producing enormous quantities of beer, the 
fact is that the value of the product of the breweries per 
annum, $ 18 , 000 , 000 , is but a comparatively small portion of 
the value of the total products of the city per annum, which 
is more than $ 200 , 000 , 000 . He said that Milwaukee appre¬ 
ciated the distinguished honor of having the nurserymen of 
the country within its borders, and he asked the visitors to 
visit the residence districts and see the wide lawns and evi¬ 
dences generally of the free use of the products of the nur¬ 
sery business. 
The response was by N. H. Albaugh, Phoneton, O. 
The committee on programme reported an order of business 
as follows : 
Wednesday — Delivery of president’s address ; reports of officers ; 
address by Professor L. H. Bailey ; recess and nomination of vice- 
presidents ; election of vice-presidents. 
Thursday—Address by N. H. Albaugh ; address by Professor F. W. 
Taylor ; report of Committee on Legislation ; report of vice presidents 
election of officers and selection of place of meeting for the convention 
of 1903. 
Friday—Address by A. Willis ; address by A. L. Brooke ; report of 
the Committee on Transportation ; reports of committees on Exhibits 
and Resolutions ; unfinished business ; question box. 
PRESIDENT BERCKMANS’ ADDRESS. 
The report of the Committee on Programme was adopted, 
and President Berckmans delivered the following address : . 
Gentlemen of the American Association of Nurserymen : 
The official position in which your suffrages have placed me makes 
it a compulsory duty to address you at this time. Were I to consult 
my own inclination and pleasure, I should listen with delight to some 
of the distinguished members and guests whom I see present and 
whose scientific attainments and practical knowledge well fit them for 
this service. But in the discharge of this trust I am inspired with the 
hope that you will permit me to share in your discussions and in the 
treasuries of your long experience. 
The earth hath again yielded her increase, and we now convene for 
our twenty-seventh annual convention. Many who aided in the estab¬ 
lishment of this Society have ceased from their labors, but all are not 
gone. Some whose hands helped rock the cradle of its infancy and 
whose wise counsels have aided in rearing it to its present standard, 
some of the founders,—men who have stood as giant pillers of the 
Association—are here to-day to witness the progress and to rejoice in 
the prosperity of the Association. Most happy am I to meet on this 
occasion so many who have come from all sections of this great coun¬ 
try to co-operate with us in our efforts for the improvement of this 
vast industry. When we consider what has been accomplished in the 
past quarter of a century, in growing nursery stock, who can set limit 
to the progress which may be attained during the remainder of this 
century ? Where trees and vines were purchased by the hundred, 
they are now sold by the carload. Where the stock of the nurserymen 
could be summed in the thousands, it is now enumerated by millions 
of trees and vines. Where the grape was scarcely grown a few years 
ago, now thousands of hillsides, from the base to the summit, are clad 
with the verdure of the vine ; and the vintage of the golden western 
slope now rival in value the riches of its mines. here fruits were 
only considered a luxury,they have now become not only a sanitary 
condiment but a daily necessity of food, and enjoyed by all classes, 
the rich and the poor. 
With a country so varied in soil and climate, capable of producing 
almost all fruits of the globe, and constantly opening up to us new 
resources and demands, we have occasion for new, constant and untir¬ 
ing energy and enterprise. The developing of new sections for scien¬ 
tific fruit growing is also making fruit growing more profitable, and 
largely increasing the demand for nursery stock. But we frequently 
hear the cry: “Too much land is being devoted to orchards and 
nursery products, and we will soon have the whole country flooded. 
I can only reply, that there is always room at the top, and a strictly 
first class article will always find a ready sale ; so let it be the constant 
desire of the nurserymen to only send out the best of stock and true 
