THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
229 
President E. S. Welch's Address 
L ADIES and Gentlemen of the American Association 
of Nurserymen:—It was with a degree of hesi¬ 
tancy that I entered upon the position as Presi¬ 
dent of this Association, for I feel that it is an honor of 
which I am incapable of fulfilling. 
My time and energy have always been devoted entirely 
to the nursery business, and while I enjoy the work and 
all connected with it. yet, I have never dreamed that the 
time would come when I would be honored in this way. 
I wish to assure you that I appreciate it beyond words, 
and my most ardent hope is that I may in some small way 
be able to contribute something for all you have given me. 
We meet here on this our Forty-first Annual Conven¬ 
tion in this beautiful city of Milwaukee—better known 
as the metropolis of Wisconsin. We appreciate the 
courtesy and hospitality of its people, and trust that this 
convention here in this city will leave some marked in¬ 
ti uence of our existence as a profession. 
The nurseryman of to-day is no longer looked upon as 
a mere peddler of fruit trees, but rather a distributor of 
necessary commodities, the same as any other commer¬ 
cial industry. The increase in our population, the desire 
to beautify the city, homes and roadsides has made the 
work of a nurseryman grow more toward a man of ser¬ 
vice than a mere toiler for worldly gains. 
The grandeur of our cities, the beautifying of homes, 
the distribution of foliage throughout the barren wastes 
of our country all are monuments erected to our service 
and our profession. We no longer like Wordsworth’s 
Peter Bell; “A primrose by the river’s brim, a yellow 
primrose was to him, and it was nothing more.” What 
might that primrose have been to the seeking eye of the 
artist—a symbol of light or the coming of springtime. 
But to mention all of the interesting forms would be 
impossible, for the nurserymen’s duties cover too large a 
space, and are too far reaching in their scope. Yet to 
those who admire nature, we can gain comfort like the 
child who in the story “Without an End;” wandered 
away and away with nature, the dear old nurse, who 
sang to him night and day the rhymes of the universe, 
and whenever the way seemed long, or his heart began to 
fail, she would sing a more wonderful song or tell a more 
wonderful tale. 
The new era of business has come upon us with a rush 
of energy that no century has shown before. In most 
respects, it is like all others. .Tust as men are men, so 
times are times. 
The applications of science has made the great world 
grow small, while every part of it has grown insistent. 
As the earth has shrunk to come within our grasp, so has 
our own world expanded to receive it. The work of. the 
nurserymen will not grow less as time goes on. for ours 
is one of expansion, not contraction. The needs of hu¬ 
manity will not decrease with time, and to the tillers of 
the soil will fall the inheritance of supplying the needs of 
the world. The sooner we realize it all. just so soon, 
will we as an organization grow more effective. 
America, says Emerson, is another name for opportun¬ 
ity. While Napoleon, perhaps the greatest soldier of the 
modern world and a man whose intellect baffled Europe 
for half a century said: America is a fortunate country; 
she grows by the follies of our European Nations.” 
How far seeing was that man of destiny. Who could 
have foretold the conditions that exist in Europe today? 
Are we wise enough to profit by the experience of others? 
I shall never forget the pleasing impressions and val¬ 
uable experience that I gained by visiting some of the 
European nurseries not many years since. Yet the 
things that are possible in Europe are not impossible 
here. We are endowed with better soil, favorable cli¬ 
mate, and men capable of producing as good results in 
our own country as they are in Europe. I refer you to 
the figures which give the importation of nursery stock 
F. W. Dixon, Robert George, C. N. Shumaker, 
Harry Simpson, J. W. Root 
from Europe during the year ending June 30th, 1915; 
taken from the records of the Federal Horticultural 
Board:— 
Fruit Trees. 3,821,547 
Fruit Tree Stocks .21,645,672 
Roses. 3,516,568 
Rose Stocks . 5,808.814 
Forest & Ornamental Deciduous Trees 1,287.274 
Ornamental Deciduous Shrubs. 3,612.884 
Evergreens . 1,732,716 
Field Grown Florist Stock. 1,958,587 
Grape Vines and Bush Fruits. 242,200 
Stocks, Cuttings or Seedlings. 9.184,840 
Total .48,989,555 
The above figures will give us some idea of the enor¬ 
mous amount of nursery stock which is imported from 
Europe, and how utterly dependent we have been upon 
the foreign growers. It seems to me that with our won¬ 
derful facilities for growing nursery stock in this coun¬ 
try, and with the tremendous handicap that we have to 
