National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-06-17
TREES, PLANTS, FLOWERS.
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERY.
MEN, sEEDMEN, AND FLORISTS.
Able Address OF Commissioner Colman
TO the Delegates Organizing for Busi-
ness-Imrortant Papers TO bo Dis
oussed To-day.

The Association OF Nurserymen, Florists,
seedsmen,. and Kindred Interests as
kembled yesterday morning at 10 o'clock
in one OF the largehalls In the agricultural
bureau. Prior TO the meeting OF the asso-
citation Hon. Norman j. Colman, commits
sioner Of agriculture, with his usual fore
thought, had decorated the hall in hand
some style with flags and other suitable
surroundings. This is the eleventh annual
meeting Of the association. There woroin
attendance yesterday about 300 delegates,
many of them having their wives and
daughters with them. This organization
represents one OF our most important ana
productive Industries, Is OF growing useful
ness TO all its members and TO the public
generally. The field OF It's work is large, and
growing every year at O rapid rate. The
members are a fine looking body OF practl-
cal and thorough.business men, alive to the
great industry that they are here to repre-
sent and act for. Promptly at. 10 o'clock
the association was called TO order by Nor
man ]. Colman, president, who then de-
livered the following annual address:
GENTLEMEN OF THE ASSOCIATION It Is
one Of the marked features OF our time
that those engaged In the same occupation
are drawn together into associations and
societies and assembling from time to time
in conventions like this. The effect Of
such conventions should be TO increase the
intelligence OF the members, to broaden
their views, not only Of their own special
work, but their views OF life and business
generally, and greatly to promote their In
terests.
The last census places gardeners, nur-
serymen, and vine dressers together as OF
the same class, and gives their number as
5l,4S2. How many belong to one or an
other division OF the general class 1t Is per-
haps impossible to determine, nor is II very
important TO do so. The vine dressers
have recently assembled here In council
and made an impressive exhibition.
The nurseryman is engaged In useful
and most honorable calling and one most
venerable for it's antiquity. 1t is the prlml-
tive calling OF man. In the account OF
creation given us In the Bible, trees are the
first thing spoken OF after the earth took
Its present shape. They preceded man, as
the necessary means OF preparing the earth
to be inhabited by him. They were neces-
eary in order to make its atmosphere
respirable by absorbing It's superabundance
Of carbonic acid. Neither man, nor beast,
nor bird could have lived on the earth until
the trees had thus prepared 1t for them.
Destroy the trees and you make the world
desolate and a dead world. And they are
not ouly necessary In order to provide an
atmosphere which man can breathe, but
they are the grand source of most of mans
needs besides. 1t is distinctly declared In our
first account OF them that they were given
to man for food, and ever since mans first
appearance In the world the trees have
continued to be his main source Of supply
for food and for clothing, and also shelter.
AT the present day the condition Of things
is so little changed from the primitive life
OF Eden that there are millions of our race
who pluck their food, as appetite prompts,
from the trees near at hand, and live under
their branches, or In huts made of rough
logs rooted over with leaves or strips Of
bark, and whose clothing, what little they
need, Is derived from the same source.
There are single species OF trees, Us the
palms, which IN the tropical climates, where
they abound, furnish in themselves the
supply Of almost all the physical wants Of
man.
And when man does not live In this
primitive manner, where he has most
changed his mode OF living, where life has
become most artificial and complicated, his
dependence on the trees Is not lessened, but
rather manifestly increased, and is shown
In more numerous forms. Has he, in what
We call civilized lands, abandoned his hut
or wigwamp 1t is because he has hewn
down the oaks and cedars Of thousand
years. growth and squared them and framed
them carefully together, and finished and
adorned his mansion with other costly and
beautiful woods gathered, perhaps, from
widely different parts Of the globe. IL he
is no longer content to satisfy his appetite
by plucking day after day the fruit OF the
palm or some other tree, IL Is because he
has hidden the swift ships Of commerce or
the flying railway car to bring him the
varied fruits of all climes so that even
though he may have his home almost In the
frozen north, he may sit down to his table
spread with the orange, the fig, the olive,
the grape, the almond, the banana, and
every other fruit that is tempting to the
appetite or beautiful to the eye.
And with the tropical fruits at his COM
mand, be may have a tropical warmth
also, II he desires 1t, by means OF the coal, the
stored-up trees of by-gone ages, which now
give him both heat and light. So, wherever
man turns, his dependence upon the trees
is manifest. The furniture Of his dwelling,
from the plainest to the most elaborate aud
ornate, is the production OF the trees. His
workshops and factories, what are they,
for the most part, but so many contriv-
ances for converting the substance Of the
trees into articles OF beauty or utilityP They
build his ships and cars, and these run to
and fro chiefly TO carry and ex-
change between the various coun-
tries the various products Of their forests
the woods, the gums, the seeds, the
leaves. Into how many uses do these
enterP What craft or trade could exist
without themG The ships Of England carry
to her ports every year from other lands
timber and lumber In the rough to the value
of $l00,000,000 and Of all the products Of
the forests to the value Of more than 81, O00,-
600 every day. 1t is estimated that the
annual products Of our own forests amount
to not less than $500, 900 in value, or
more than ten times that of the products
of our mines Of gold and silver, which we
are SO ready to protect, while we leave our
forests to be plundered and burned.
When we consider thus the place which
the trees hold In connection with human
life, how closely they are interviewer with
Ii In all its stages of development, we see
the importance and dignity Of the calling OF
the nurseryman. That calling dates back,
as we have seen, to the earliest history Of
man. Then man found himself born into
Tree world--a world of luxuriant forests
growing under the original law of species
bywhich each should bringfo forth fruit "after
Its kind.n Under that law OF abiding order
and harmony, without which all human life
would have been only chaos Of confusion,
the earth was given into his hand. 1t was
given TO man In q wild state. The trees had
been hitherto the lords OF the world, and had
overspread II with their exuberant growth.
Now, man was installed as lord and master
and hidden to subdue the world to his uses.
How far he has gone In this work we have
only to glance backward to see. The trees
OF Eden bore no such fruits as do ours 1t
was a wild garden. Its products would be
no temptation to our eyes to-day. The
apple, II indeed 1t was an apple, which was
plucked by Eve, and
Whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world aud all our VICE."
was not even n respectable crab apple, as
we now estimate fruits. The crab is, In
fact, great advance upon the apple Of
Eden. The tabled gardens of the Hesper-
1deB bore no aunh lugplOua fruita aa NAV
now be found In the garden Of the recent
settler In Nebraska or California. The spe-
eies brought from Canaan, no such pro-
duets as may be seen at any OF our horti-
cultural exhibitions. The grapes OF Es-
ehol would compare only unfavorably with
the clusters which grow on our Pacific
coast, ana In thousands of places all over