THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
167 
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN NOW 
A CORPORATION 
REPORT OF THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE 
By Paul C. Lindley, Chairman 
The Executive Committee have had the A. A. of N. incor¬ 
porated under the laws of the Stale of New Jersey. 
The action was endorsed during a session of 
the Convention 
CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION 
—OF— 
“AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN” 
This Is to Certify, that the undersigned do hereby associate 
themselves into a corporation, under and by virtue of the pro¬ 
visions of an act of the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, 
entitled “An act to incorporate associations not for pecuniary 
profit,” approved April 21, 1898, and the several supplements 
thereto and acts amendatory thereof. 
First. The name of this Corporation is “American Associa¬ 
tion of Nurserymen.” 
Second. The particular objects for which this Corporation is 
formed are, to improve conditions in the nursery industry by 
making business between members profitable and pleasant, by 
bringing into closer relations nurserymen, planters, and those 
in allied trades, by protecting the interests of members in their 
various business transactions, and in general by doing all and 
anything that will add to the prestige and standing of the 
“American Association of Nurserymen,” make their business 
more profitable and to advance the nursery industry in the 
public esteem. 
Third. The membership of this Corporation shall consist of 
three classes: First, active or voting members, who shall be 
actively engaged in the nursery business, and bear a reputation 
for trustworthy dealings that must be maintained as a condi¬ 
tion of membership; Second, associate members, being those 
in the allied trades; Third, honorary members. 
Fourth. This Corporation shall have power: 
1. To have perpetual succession by its corporate name; 
2. To sue and be sued, complain and defend in any court 
of law or equity; 
3. To make and use a common seal and alter the same 
at pleasure; 
4. To appoint such officers, managers and agents as the 
business of the corporation may require; 
5. To make by-laws, not inconsistent with the laws of the 
state or of the United States, for the management of its 
property and the regulation of its affairs; 
6. To contract and be contracted with; 
7. To take and hold by lease, gift, purchase, grant, devise 
or bequest any property, real or personal, for the objects of 
the corporation; borrow money for the purposes of the cor¬ 
poration and issue bonds therefor, and to secure the same by 
mortgage; 
8. To exercise any corporate powers necessary to the exer¬ 
cise of the powers above enumerated and given. 
Fifth. The private property of members of the corporation 
is to be exempt from the corporation’s debts and they shall not 
be liable for such debts. 
Sixth. The location of the principal office of this Corpora¬ 
tion is at No. 90 Nassau Street, in the Borough of Princeton, 
in the County of Mercer, and the name of the agent therein and 
in charge thereof, upon whom process against the Corporation 
may be served is John Watson. 
Seventh. The number of trustees of this Corporation is 
Three. 
Eighth. The names and places of residence of the trustees, 
selected for the first year of the existence of this Corporation 
are: 
Frederick L. Atkins, Rutherford, N. J. 
Lester Lovett, Little Silver, N. J. 
Samuel E. Blair, Nutley, N. J. 
In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals 
this Eighteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand nine hundred and twenty-one. 
Frederick L. Atkins [l. s.] 
John R. Hartung [l. s.] 
Lester C. Lovett [l. s.] 
Rudolph Roehrs [l. s.] 
Fred. D. Osman [l. s.] 
My text today is from “Paul”; not Paul of Rome but “Paul” 
of Pomona. It consists of two words: “Trustworthy Trees,” 
and it was given to me by this Association. You, you and you 
—each member of this Association—is responsible for the text. 
Speaking for the Vigilance Committee, permit me to say that 
it is our earnest desire that you forget for the time being the 
fact that this 1 text represents a trade-mark, and remember that 
it is a motto, a guide in our relations with our customers. 
The work of the Vigilance Committee is constructive and not 
destructive. 1 once asked a saw-mill friend of mine what tim¬ 
ber was most useful in construction work. He promptly re¬ 
plied: “Two-by-fours.” With your permission, may I say that 
about ninety per cent of the membership of this Association, 
including your chairman, are what I shall call “two-by-four” 
nurserymen. While “two-by-fours” are most useful in construc¬ 
tive work, it is necessary that they have support; let us assume 
that about ten per cent of our members are “twelve-by-twelve” 
nurserymen. These constitute the leaders, the financially strong 
nurserymen. “Two-by-fours” if left standing alone will warp; 
it is necessary to nail them together even for scaffolding. But, 
they can be made into “twelve-by-twelves,” and then they be¬ 
come even stronger than the original big timber. 
The “two-by-fours” alone or the “twelve-by-twelves” alone are 
useless, but a combination of the two—the big nurserymen and 
the little nurserymen—with a functioning Vigilance Committee 
for a foundation, will make a powerful combination; an asso¬ 
ciation working in harmony—a solid and permanent heme. And, 
when Peter comes along and says: “What have ye done to reach 
this place?” we can truthfully and proudly say: “Your Honor, 
we’ve sold Trustworthy Trees.” 
Does not this old saying, “While Nero fiddled, Rome burned,” 
express present conditions of our association affairs? Only at 
the present time many “Neros” are fiddling, and seem unwill¬ 
ing to forget small things long enough to start the big things 
moving. You remember Lot’s wife looked back and was de¬ 
stroyed. Looking back is destruction, the beginning of the end. 
Some of us pride ourselves in being what our forefathers 
called “sot in our ways,” and scorn anything new just because 
it is new. If it had not been for someone’s new ideas and their 
faith to carry them out, the world would still be in the dark 
ages. In giving you this report, I have no other interest than 
to tell you the Truth. 
I want you to think of it as a report relating to our Associa¬ 
tion, your business, your bread and meat, your future. No one 
can serve the association in a vigilance way without some criti¬ 
cism and abuse and monetary losses to himself. Some have 
called me a saint, others a hypocrite. In all my work I have 
endeavored to secure Facts. I am not reporting on what I have 
heard, but what I have Seen, and what I Know. “They said,” 
“he said,” “she said,” “I heard,” mean nothing insofar as this 
report is concerned. 
This report is divided into three parts: Catalogues, the Press, 
and Seedlings.The Executive Committee will repeat the findings 
of this Committee in their report. These headings represent 
what your committee feels have been troublesome elements in 
the nurserymen’s relationships with his customers during the 
immediate past. 
CATALOGUES. 
In many instances a collection of cuts, which are absolutely 
foreign to the nursery business, are used; a picture of a baby 
carriage would be just as appropriate. After carefully looking 
over one mailed out by one of our leading members, it recalled 
to my mind the old saying of Barnum, “The American public 
likes to be humbugged.” 
Many still use the tomato can type of cover and highly litho¬ 
graphed colored plates that could be called either a peach or a 
plum. If you look carefully, you will find in one Eve reclining 
on the bough of an apple tree, in others pictures of the mayor 
of our city, our political aspirations,—affidavits of our trust¬ 
worthiness. 
One of my correspondents covers the entire subjejet in the 
following paragraph, which I quote from his letter. 
“Don’t you think it about time that the nursery firms which 
think their goods should be highly painted, change their 
methods, so that public confidence in the nursery business 
may be increased and not impaired further?” 
The following is copied from a catalogue of a nurseryman 
who is doing considerable business, though not a member of our 
Association. This man features “Modern Methods.” 
“We have to start the young tree in its natural soil—in the 
kind of soil in which nature started it when she called it into 
