292 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
pendous pyramids, before Greece or Rome were born, men planted 
seeds and reared fruiting plants. And in these treasures of the or¬ 
chard, garden and woodland we have the most perfect union of 
the useful and beautiful th t I kno . America is a new country 
measure by the life of other nations and even considering its com¬ 
paratively short span 1 must confess my limitations in telling you 
the work the nurseryman has done here. 
In order to realize the achievements of the pioneer nursery¬ 
man, let’s go back to the early days of American horticulture. 
Downing says that “the indolent native of the tropic sits amid a 
surprising luxuriance of vegetation and without effort gains his 
sustenance in refreshing, delicious and nutrative fruits. But na¬ 
ture wears a harsher and sterner aspect in the temperate 
climes.’’ In close antitheses we have plains bounded by rocky 
hills, visited not only by genial warmth and sunshine, but by 
cold winds, and seasons of ice and snow and periods of flood and 
drought. The native forests were truly uoble, the outskirts of 
which were sprinkled with crabs and wild cherries, festooned 
with the clambering branches of the wild grape. These native 
fruits at first offered little to the eye or palate. They were des¬ 
tined to perpetuul struggle with nature and it is here we find 
man, amelioratirg and transforming them. He transplants them 
to a warmer aspect, he rears new plants from selected seeds, 
carefully prunes and shelters them and by slow degrees he 
watches the sour and bitter crab expand into a Golden Pippin, 
the wild pear looses its thorns and becomes a delicious Bartlett 
or Anjou, the dry and flavorless peach becomes at length a 
tempting and luscious fruit. It was thus in a climate where na- 
was not prodigal to perfection and in the midst of thorns and 
sloes that man, the nurseryman, arose and forced nature to yield 
to his art. It was and is in this transformation from the wild 
to the domesticated, from the ordinary to the improved, from the 
commonplace to the beautiful that the nurseryman has played 
such a pre-eminent part. 
A criticising public is not so much interested in how many 
millions of trees we grow, but rather the ultimate results of 
these trees. Had I the capacity of initiative to delve into the 
records, I might present you with a great array of figures and 
translate them into money. When I say that fruit is the fairest 
of all the commodities, or'remind you of its great economic value, 
then when I measure the millions and millions of fruiting plants 
brought from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from the Border to the 
Gulf, train and truck loads, wagons and barrows with containers 
and adinfinitum of fruit, am I not in the same breath reminding 
you that these same trees and plants were once the products 
of the nurseryman? Speaking in terms of money, the value of 
the crops produced by the fruiting plants last year alone was 
629 and one-half millions of dollars. If you were to strike from 
the diet of the American family their fruit, as it is now handled 
in various forms, you wcu’d leave an irreparable void in our 
present day menu. The nurseryman has been responsible for 
most of these trees and aren’t they worth while? 
The lumberman’s axe is quickly striking at the hearts of our 
great forests. Chip by chip with astonishing speed we see the 
diminishing of our native trees. Soon at the present rate of use 
we will be a nation without forests. These appalling and alarm¬ 
ing conditions are slowly being recognized and millions and 
millions of young trees for re-forestation and reclaiming pur¬ 
poses have found their way from the nurseries. Those gaunt 
wastes of land, those barren spots unsuited to agriculture have 
suppliantly called our products. Were it not for trees, erosion 
would wash even greater gullies into our hillsides, exposing the 
bare ribs of mother earth. The nurserymen have made it possi¬ 
ble to lay over these soil blemishes and wounds an economic 
and protective mantle that will some day merit the commenda¬ 
tion that such deserves. 
Of ornamental Horticulture I might say—If the interpretation 
of that group of philosophers who say that all human action is 
prompted by the desire or motive to realize personal happiness, 
be correct, then the ornamental plants of the nurseryman are 
certainly to be favorably recognized. America has been a home 
making and a home loving nation, and a home is now more than 
a group of buildings, for just as association moulds an individ¬ 
ual’s character, the environments of contiguous grounds reflect 
similarly on home life. Our trees and plants in their various 
forms and colors, their many uses and interesting habits are not 
only decided enhancements to property values but think of the 
pleasure and inspiration incited by that delightful contact with 
nature. Happily through out the country there is an interesting 
intimacy between art and nature, architecture and landscape. 
An analyst of outdoor beauty would say to you, “what would 
the city and the countryside, home and hamlets be today were it 
not for our shade trees. Think of their sheltering, sheilding 
leafy arms, spreading in protection, or their cooling comforting 
shading from the torrid noonday sun” and as for beauty, “Their 
foliage is deeper than the greenest ivy, and in its passing the 
scarlet of kings and queens or the purple of dignitaries may well 
blush!” Or, of we should take from the lawns and parks our 
shrubs and leave exposed their great barren spots of naked earth, 
or leave unsoftened the rigid lines end shirp angles of our 
buildings, or uncovered and unhidden the depressions and un¬ 
sightly vie v s, wouldn’t we miss them, f rir of flower, interesting 
of foliage and attractive of fruit? Or remove our evergreens, the 
symbol of the never dying, who hold aloft the promise of con¬ 
tinuous life when the icy gr sp of v, inter is finally loosened. 
Or what of the rose, that fairest flower that lips have prest, that 
we caress in happy and disconsolate hours? The nurseryman 
produced these and aren’t they worth while? 
Nurserymen are really creators, for our garden varieties are 
not all natural forms. Trees are the artificial productions of our 
culture. If the arts of cultivation and propagation were aban¬ 
doned for a few years all the annuals and perennials, in fact in 
time most of the varieties of plants offered today would disap¬ 
pear or be replaced by the few original, wild forms. Strip from 
the farms and ranches our fruits, tear from the streets and parks 
our shade trees, exterminate the rose and destroy the clinging 
vines from the walls, trample to death our blooming shrubs, 
gather from the bosom of the earth our conifers, destroy the 
perennial garden, and instead of America paradisiacal in beauty 
and bounty, you will have left on its remains a veritable Sodom 
and Gamorrah, cursed and without inspiration, beauty, lovliness 
or purity. The pleasure and beauty of the garden, the comforts 
of cooling shade trees, the satisfaction of delicious fruits 
are sufficing reasons that the existance of the nurseryman has 
happily been worth while. 
While we are prone sometimes to measure ourselves by what 
we are capable of doing, still we invariibly measure others by 
what they have done. If this is so, then just as you value the 
existance of the nurseryman. Nursery products have supplied 
America with things of necessity, utility, luxury and beauty. The 
nurseryman has been the necessary antecedent of horticulture 
as it is now practiced in America. While we have many plants 
that are indigenous to our country, think of the hundreds of for¬ 
eign varieties introduced by the nurseryman. We have been the 
originators and collectors of new varieties, that relieve the 
monotony of restrictive plantings. We have instilled the desire 
to plant for beautification as well as utility. We have been re¬ 
sponsible for the larger per cent, of such planting for we have 
been the outdoor decorators of America. We have advised as to 
the congeniality of plant and location. Is there any one selling 
a product like ours that increases in value instead of decreasing 
each successive year? Cur nurseries have been the channels 
through which have flowed practically all the plants placed 
by the hands of man. Just as the Nile is the life of Egypt, so 
is the nurseryman the life of American Horticulture. Just as 
the majestic stream expands beyond its banks, and leaves great 
fertility and moisture in its recessions, so have the nurseryman’s 
products been distributed to enrich the purse and gladden the 
heart of man. So the nurseryman works in a preferred field. 
His is a practice of amelioration, his is a process of domestica¬ 
tion by which he has clothed the newer America with a wonder¬ 
ful flora, the beauty and utility of which is well beyond all cal¬ 
culable value. Can there be any one so profligate that does not 
appreciate trees, full of soft foliage, blossoms fresh with spring 
beauty, and finally fruit melting, luscious and beautiful. 
Then how am I to measure the real value of the nuresryman 
and his influence on America’s development? How can I justly 
appraise his work? Perhaps to tell you that the nurseryman 
had filled places of honor and trust, or that he had done his 
share in the economic upbuilding of America, that annually his 
business amounted to twenty millions of dollars represented in 
millions and millions of trees and plants, that he employs a hun¬ 
dred thousand men, or that they were liberal users of certain 
commodities or that the fruit from the plants he sold last year 
brought many millions of dollars, might measure him by one 
standard, but show me a standard by which I might gauge the 
effects of his products. How much would you value the happi¬ 
ness and encouragement inspired by the first foliage of spring, 
measure the overflowing cup of joy when nature unfolds her 
blossoms, or weigh the satisfaction occasioned the eye or the 
palate when observing or enjoying her luscious fruits.* Is there 
a measure into which w e may pour the comforts of cooling shade 
or shadows, or what relative value would you place on the cheer¬ 
ing effect of the ever present verdure, or bring me the scales on 
which to balance the beauty and inspiration incited by the de¬ 
velopment of these things the nurseryman sells. To value the 
surgeon’s knife guided by the eye of science, or the consoling 
effect of a murmured prayer, or the inspiration of the bard were 
just as easy. The existance of the nurseryman has been one of 
production, education and inspiration, his products necessary, 
utilitarian and beautiful. We are the followers of a chosen pro¬ 
fession and let us continue to ennoble it. so when America has 
