THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
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he would strain a point to go. It would be difficult for him 
to find an excuse big enough to keep him away. He would 
be like a pilgrim attending the shrine of his faith; it would 
be the one object of his year’s labor. For there he will have 
the opi3ortunity to measure himself up against the best in 
the land in his particular line. Every man he meets will be 
a sympathetic brother having the same labors, the same 
troubles and the same ideals. Even though he does not 
sell a dollar’s worth of goods while at the Convention, there 
will be something wrong with him if he does not get full 
value for his time and money. He will hear of the progress 
and success of brother nurserymen and will be able to judge 
the reason for it. He will also hear of the failures and their 
causes. In his contact with other nurserymen there will 
be many leads and hints that will materialize into money 
if he is live wire enough to piek them up. The trip to the 
great Empire of the West will be an education that he can 
get in no other way. He will get a glimpse of the magni¬ 
tude of his own country and begin to see the stupendous 
possibilities of the nursery business of the future. He will, 
unknowingly, drop the small narrow-minded views that are 
sure to cramp a man who does not travel, and come in 
contact with the larger views. He will get pointers in buy¬ 
ing, selling and growing and what is of most value that 
personal acquaintance and touch that is only to be obtained 
by meeting a brother nurseryman while not dressed in his 
business clothes. 
The day is past when a business can hold its own much 
less progress without constant effort. New systems, new 
methods, new ideas are cropping up all the time and unless 
the business man is cognizant of them and to be able to 
weigh and analyze them and if necessary to apply them 
wholly or in part to his own particular business, he is falling 
behind. 
For many nurserymen, the annual convention is the only 
chance he has to get in touch with the newer ideas and the 
broad reaches of his profession. 
Don’t miss it. It will pay and the Westerner is noted 
for his enterprise and hospitality. 
A bill was introduced in the New York 
UNNECESSARY Assembly, February loth under title 
LAWS of “To amend the Agricultural law in 
relation to the sale of fruit bearing trees,’’ 
copy of which is given on another page. 
It is evidently aimed at the unscrupulous nurserymen 
and intended to protect the confiding public. If the gentle¬ 
men who introduced the amendment would stop to con¬ 
sider, or perhaps become a little more familiar with the 
nursery business and the fruit growing industry, he would 
soon see that such a law will not accomplish the desired 
result, but tend to retard an important and growing industry. 
It will fall heaviest on the responsible nurseryman whose 
aim in business is to send out only reliable stock, true to 
name, because his business has been built upon honest deal¬ 
ing. The unscrupulous dealer is here today and gone to¬ 
morrow; where will he be in six or eight years’ time when 
the trees begin to bear. It is safe to say he will not be within 
reach of the process server. 
Then again, although the trees be tagged when delivered 
and a bill of sale made out according to the proposed law 
after several years required for their coming into bearing, 
how is their identity to be established to the satisfaction of 
the courts or if this is done, who is going to be the final judge 
that they are or are not true to label. It may be easy enough 
with certain varieties but there will generally be difference 
of opinion enough for a law suit. 
What is to prevent a planter from buying say 500 York 
Imperial from one nursery and 500 Baldwin from another, 
then changing the' labels and bringing civil suit because they 
are not true to name. If the fruit grower needs protcctio;^ 
from the dishonest nurseryman, then so would the nursery¬ 
man from the dishonest fruit grower. 
Such a law is not needed. The unscrupulous nurseryman 
is the exception and if the public would deal with responsible 
houses rather than trying to get something for nothing, 
they would be no more likely to buy fraudulently labeled 
trees than if they dealt with the Department of Agriculture 
itself. 
Nurserymen have cause for congratual- 
THE REED tion upon the successful outcome of 
CASE the suit tried before the United States 
Court, sitting at Denver, Colo., early 
this month, and which is fully outlined in this month’s issue 
of the National Nurseryman. 
Each year breeds a lot of new laws in the various states, 
aimed at the nurseryman. Some of them are no doubt 
good, others are simply annoying, but the greater mass of 
them are pernicious and are framed by men who have no 
idea of what they wish to accomplish. 
Some of the State laws passed within the last few years, 
relative to nursery stock have been ludicrous and no attempts 
have been made to enforce them ? Again, others have been 
enforced, entailing unwarranted loss and inconvenience to 
the nurserymen. 
It is time that this foolish legislation should cease, and 
the verdict in the Reed case will go far towards suppressing 
the unnecessary activity of State officials. 
The individual nurseryman, the Western Association of 
Nurserymen, and the American Association of Nurser^nnen, 
who subscribed the money to fight the Reed case, deserve 
the thanks of every nurseryman in the country, and they 
should rally to the support of these grand organizations 
which are constantly working to prevent and contest the 
unjust legislation so rampant throughout the various states. 
TO NEW AND OLD MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN 
ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN 
To prevent confusion, all members of the Association— 
those listed in 1912 Badge Book—should send their Badge 
Book advertisements, also membership dues to John Hall, 
Secretary, 204 Granite Bldg., Rochester, N. Y. All new 
applications for membership, initial dues, and requests for 
information should be sent to James McHutchison, 17 
Murray St., New York. Remit your dues promptly and 
invite your nursery friends to join. 
James McHutchison, 
Chairman Membership Committee. 
