THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
251 
The Committee has again by the action of the American 
Association of Nurserymen been given practically carte 
blanche to further all reasonable legislation. In this way, as 
in the case of its action last year, the Association has com¬ 
mitted itself to the principle of legislation and the protection 
of home fruit industries. It is to be hoped that the matter 
will not drag along indefinitely, as its present unsettled 
condition injects an element of uncertainty into the imijorter’s 
business, which is not justifiable. After all is said and done, 
it is pertinent to ask, in reference to home affairs, what 
domestic quarantine has ever done in the restricting of 
injurious insects? We shall be glad to publish striking 
examples of the influence of such legislation applied to any 
part of the country. 
MEETING OF AMERICAN PEONY SOCIETY 
New York State College of Agriculture, Ithaca, 
June 18, 19 
The annual meeting and exhibition of this Society was 
held in Ithaca on the dates above. The weather was favor¬ 
able, the Cornell trial plots were at the height of condition, 
and the exhibition blooms gathered therefrom and displayed 
in the auditorium of the State College of Agriculture made, 
together with the competitive exhibits, a show that was 
surpassingly attractive. The main business of the Society 
had to do with the disposal of the surplus plants of the trial 
plots. This cooperative work, which has been going on for 
six or seven years between the American Peony Society and 
the Department of Horticulture, is now brought to a close, 
and will be finally wound up when an additional report is 
published, which is now in course of preparation, giving 
complete and authoritative descriptions with synonyms of a 
select list of varieties approved and recommended by the 
Society and the Committee on Nomenclature. Arrange¬ 
ments to this end were made, and arrangements were also 
perfected for the sale of the surjilus plants. When this final 
bulletin is published, it will complete a series of five bulletins 
on the culture, nomenclature, and classification of the peony. 
These are all available to members of the American Peony 
Society. The first four are on file in the Department of 
Horticulture, and are available to residents of New York, but 
can only be secured by purchase by non-residents or by taking 
out membership in the Peony Society. The President is Mr. 
B. H. Farr, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania; secretary. Prof. A. P. 
Saunders, Clinton, New York. 
PRESIDENT THOMAS B. MEEHAN 
The newly elected president of the American Association 
of Nurserymen is a thoroughly trained plantsman by ex¬ 
perience as well as by heritage. His father secured his 
apprenticeship in gardening and his training in botany in 
the schools of Britain. He came to this country at an early 
age, and established a nursery business in the city made 
famous to botanists by the operations of Bartram and 
Marshall. In due time, he has been succeeded by his three 
The subject of our sketch was born in Philadelphia May 7, 
1866. He received his education in the public schools of 
Philadelphia and began active work in the nursery business at 
the age of fifteen. vStarting at the bottom, he, after the old 
country fashion, passed through the various departments 
and entered the offiee at twenty, where his suceess was so 
marked that his father turned over the general management 
of the business to him‘and took him into partnership the 
following year, although maintaining an oversight of the 
business for some time later. As the two younger sons, 
J. Franklin Meehan and S. Mendelson Meehan, reached 
their majority, they were also taken into partnership. 
As the growth of the city of Philadelphia expanded, these 
men, with commendable foresight, secured land at Dresher, 
then Dreshertown, Pennsylvania, for the growing of their 
ornamental and fruit crops. This was a venture by the 
younger men, thoroughly sanctioned by Thomas Meehan, Sr. 
The founder of the firm died in 1901. The business was 
then purchased by the three sons and was divided into 
three departments. The wholesale department, under 
Thomas B. Meehan, is located at Dresher. The retail 
establishment is at the old stand in Germantown, while 
there is associated with it a landscape department, whieh 
is, however, quite distinet. These two latter departments 
are managed by S. Mendelson Meehan, in charge of the 
retail department, and J. Franklin Meehan, in charge of 
the landscape department. An interesting feature of the 
eompany’s business is, as indicated above, that each of these 
departments is managed quite distinct from the other, and 
that in the interchange of stock between one and the other 
a striet account is kept and charges made as if ]3urchases 
were from an outside concern. 
The wholesale department at Dresher has grown rapidly, 
and over two hundred twenty-five acres are now occupied 
by nursery stock. Large storage cellars, packing sheds and 
seed houses have been erected, so that the whole jdant 
represents a well equipped wholesale department. 
Mr. Meehan has a splendid record of attendance at the 
meetings of the American Association of Nurserymen. He 
has not missed a single one for twenty-eight years, with the 
exception of one year, when his excuse was an excellent one, 
namely, that he was absent on his wedding trip. He has 
just completed his twenty-second consecutive year as secre¬ 
tary of the American Nurserymen’s Protective Association. 
He has also occupied the executive chair of the Philadelphia 
Florists’ Association. 
Mr. Meehan was accompanied by his wife, daughter, 
and son Albert T. Meehan, at the Boston convention. It 
is pleasing to know that his son, who is an ex-student of 
Cornell University, has adopted the nursery business as his 
life work and is now actively engaged in the wholesale 
department at Dresher. President Meehan sails on the 
George Washington July 13 th, for a six weeks’ tour in Europe, 
accompanied by ex-President Dayton and Mr. James 
McHutchison. 
E. S. Welch of Shenadoah, Iowa, with his wife called on 
his Rochester friends after the Convention, before return¬ 
ing to Shenandoah. 
sons. 
