The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1859-03-17
q ri & n 4 / nral.
(rnoH THE AMERICAN Aenrou1run1sr.l
Frauds and Mistakes of Nurserymen.

by VenuerS OF trees. Says one man Of
dered five Rebecca grapes of ---, paying
fancy prices for them, and after waiting two
years for the little starvelings to show their first
cluster, they turned out to be the second rate
Clinton grape" And another 81 ordered a
lot of first class cherry trees, apples and pears,
and ornamental trees from distant nursery,
and on receiving them by express I found nearly
half of them dried up, the limbs broken, the
roots, in taking them up, had been chopped off
within few inches Of the trunk and altogether
they were sorry sight. When the cherries
came into bearing, part of them proved to be
only bitter little mazzards the apples, many
of them, were untrue to their Names and the or
namental trees were long time in becoming or
namental" Such occurrences are SO frequent,
that some persons have come to regard nursery
men as set of sharpers, and many are so afraid
of imposition that they go to the trouble of rails
ing their own seedlings and grating and bud
ding their own fruit.
Undoubtedly, there are dishonest nurserymen,
as well as dishonest men in other callings With
them, indeed there is.a strong temptation to de-
fraud in that the gain is immediate, and the
dishonesty cannot generally be detected under
several years. 7Tee-peddIers are more likely
to be ensnared by this temptation than estab-
liShed nurserymen whose success in business de
ponds upon careful and faithful dealing and is
sure to follow it. There is not so much dishon-
o4xyn ;c
ed What are often called frauds, are only
mistakes, which they regret and in most cases
will try to make good. These mistakes often
occur in ways like these
A young nurseryman wishing to stock his
ground speedily with certain kinds of fruit sends
to an older establishment at distance for speci-
men trees, and, taking for granted their correct
ness begins forthwith to bud and engraft his
seedlings from them Next year, sells the
young trees by the thousand, and the same thing
is repeated next year, on larger SCALE But
in few years he begins to receive letters from
indignant customers all over the land complain
ing OF fraud and injustice he has sent out vile
and worthless trash causing loss of time and
money and patience to his purchasers Now
where was the dishonesty? There was none
it was simply carelessness in not first proving
the trees from which he propagated. Yet it
was highly culpable carelessness.
Some foreign nurserymen are less conscientious
in there business than American dealers Sew
eral years ago gentleman in New York, hav-
ing been frequently imposed upon by certain
French nurserymen, determined to show up his
character effectually and SO he invented list
ordered them Forthwith his order was filled
under those very names! What Yankee nur-
serymen ever did the like of that? We under
stand that European dealers have lately found
out that Americans are not all ignorant savages
and that it is worth their while to treat them so
as to retain their large custom
Some of the so-called frauds and mistakes
OF nuserymen" should be charged over to the
purchaser Some men order trees without
knowing much ABBOTT them, and then are disap-
pointed because they don't realize their expec-
tations. Others suffer their young trees to be
browsed off by CATTLE or to be otherwise broken
down, so that livestock grows up instead of the
graft. Others, again, give their trees such
poor soil and tillage that the result is almost a
total failure
Then, the tree-peddler, before mentioned,
must take share of the blame Many of them
are honest and worthy men, but not all. These
last, with an eye to a fine speculation, gather
up the catalogues of respectable nurserymen
and lot Of highly colored picture of fruits and
MOWERS and go about the country, representing
themselves as the agents of these establishments
OF even partners in the business, and by much
fair speech aud large promises effect great sales
But 1t generally turns out that the trees they
furnish nurseries, bought for song and sold at
full or even higher prices and it often proves
that they are untrue to their names. if not mere
wildings Such peddlers seldom travel twice in
the same track it would be hardly safe for them
to do SO. Yet, the country is full of lust such
men and it becomes prudent people to look
out for them. Wemust be allowed to saw here
that the persons who get most sadly imnosed
upon in this way are, generally, those who do
not patronize well established nurseries near
home. The pictures, the snowy catalogues, the
distant nursery and the brazen assurance of the
pedder are too mach for them. The only safe
way is to let these itinerants alone, unless they
can give satisfactory evidence of honesty.
Meanwhile, it becomes nurserymen to exer-
else increasing care in all the details of theil
business, SO that fewer mistakes shall occur. Fol