Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-05

"biiilng up" Usually one man, who writes
| labels, employs one or two boys as runners.
| The boys take the labels and speed to the
trenches, where the varieties are which the
labels call for and carry them to the "moss-
ers'' and 'tyers," who place the different
| kinds in one bundle and tie cord with the
number and name of the customer upon it.
The bundles are then dipped into what is
called a pudding trough, containing clay
and water. The bundles are then put in
boxes. generally from 10 to IL feet long and
| 111 to feet deep and wide. The trees are
packed in moss, straw, etc. If properly
packed trees can be shipped to distant points,
| even to Australia.
When the aggregate Of sales is finished,
| packed and nailed up tight in boxes the
freeman labels the boxes, designating the
route chosen to reach consignees. The
agent calculates the time when they will
arrive and follows the trees later.
In country districts farmers house or a
hotel in the town is chosen as rendezvous
The farmers have been notified by the tree
man when and where to call for their trees.
In the city they are delivered in trucks. At
last the trees are all delivered, the money
collected and the freeman goes home to 'see
the boys" and tell new stock OF stories.
THE FREEMAN AT HOME.
a iollier lot of men than a crowd of
treemen home after good delivery ana with
their pockets full of cash is hard to find.
They try to rival each other in their yarns
and make things lively. Some of the in
dustrious commence canvassing Immediately
after the spring delivery, but the majority
take a vacation. They are generally home
again for two or three months after October.
The word town" used above has particular
significance as the homes of the treemen
are generally in small towns. Crawford
and Erie counties, Pennsylvania, send
out many treemen, and Ohio and
New York are centers for treemen as we'll as
nurseries. Dayton, O., one year sent out
225 treemen, and many other towns have
euualed, if not beaten, this record. The
male population of the small towns of the
northwestern and southwestern corners of
Crawford and Erie counties, this State, are
nearly, without an exception, treemen or ex-
treemen. If farmer is asked how he got
his start he will answer "selling trees" 1t
is the same with the merchants and other
business men.
As the seasons come and 60 these agents
scatter to all parts of the continent. includ-
ing the far-away islands of the Atlantic and
Pacific. Not long since one died in the
Sandwich Islands. Others are at present in
Alaska, Newfoundland, the West Indies
and other distant points. There are at
present number from this "home of the
treemen" in Pittsburg.
In the nursery sections mans education
is not considered finished until he has
strapped on his plate book-for one season
at least-taken his bottles of specimens"
(made to magnify the fruit inside),
and started out to tell the farmers of for
tunes to be made by planting fruit trees or
market fruits of all kinds, showing him
pictures of mammoth berries and new vari-
eties of pears, peaches, ounces, apples, etc,
that are warranted curculo proof, free
from blast and will live in the middle of a
rock"
FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
took his first and last lesson in selling trees.
A book filled with highly colored pictures
OF all kinds of fruits and trees was first OBJ
tanned. The little preparatory lingo at
tached to each was mastered and start was
made for Butler county in company with an
old freeman, who expected to make good
agent out OF the new man.
After a change of cars at Wampum, and
a spin around the hills, the two came to the
little town of Zelienople. The first business
was to sell the hotel man an order. The old
agent took the initiative in selling to the
farmers while the other looked on to see how
it was done. All the babies encountered
were the 'cutest little things ever seer" the
farmers horses and cows came in for q share
of praise, and later his name usually
went on the order book. After the third day
the old agent took one direction. and the
writer another, and the first tussle COM
menced.
The roads in Butler county are the most
.exasperating things imaginable. You see
house over across the hills and then start
for it. Soon one comes to the end OF the
road and then has to 60 cross lots. And
such hills! 1t was one of these roads that
led to the first house in sight, which was
reached after half an hours tramp. The
farmer was up in the field attending to farm
work. Two girls were hoeing corn. The
man said all treemen were scoundrels, liars.
thieves and everything bad. The writer
tried to impress upon him the fact that he
was one of the honest fellows, but it wouldn't
20 down, and he left in disgust.
DINNER AS PART PAYMENT.
The next man didn't want any trees, but
at last the woman of the house was prevailed
on to buy half dozen strawberry plants
and two rose bushes, and dinner was eaten
as part payment There is one pleasant
memory COHueCteu WITH IHdL ulQneT, anu
that is the bread. Butler county wives
know how to bake bread every time.
The afternoon and the next day passed
without success. In the evening an old
farmer was inveigled into buying $40
order and supper and lodging was obtained.
After supper the old man sat on the
porch and drank cider and the
girls attended to the milking. The
barn was a palatial affair, the cows sleek,
the horses large and of the finest breeds.
The house was made of squared logs, with
mud in the chinks. 1t was typical Butler
county homestead in many respects.
The morrow brought no better luck, and
at last a ride was obtained to town in a
farmers wagon. The change in the pocket
book was found to be just enough to get
home on, and Butler county and the old
agent were left behind with a note saying
that the writer was sick. The word "hone"
was not prefxed.
To this day the agent says that he made
great mistake in not appropriating the
pocketbook, and mourns the fact, as he
thinks, that as a result the world lost one
good tree agent. The memories of that trip
in and about the quaint old towns of Har-
mony and Zelienople, with their odd build
ings and surroundings, will ever live, and
with them the thought of how narrowly 1
escaped being a tree man.
CLYDE NJ. ALLEN.
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