Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-04
SOME FILIAL DEFENSE.

In THE GAZETTE of the 1st of January you
publish an extract of a letter from my
father, William Watson, to Mr.. Holland of
Farm and Ranch, on transplanting pecan
trees. In your editorial comments on it
you claim that pecan trees will not succeed
transplanted, but say ''of course it is TO the
interest of the nurseryman to sell trees for
transplanting, " thus intimating that my
father wrote that letter TO Farm and Ranch
for the purpose of inducing people to buy
nursery-grown pecan trees.
In this you do him great injustice. You
ought to have been fair enough to have
said, as Farm and Ranch said. that the eX-
tract was from a private letter. My
father is practical fruit grower as well
as q nurSeryman. He has been engaged in
that business since 1853 here in this
county, and ought to know something, by
this time, about fruit growing and general
horticulture. uThe horticultural press
recognizes this fact and repeatedly solicits
him to write articles for publication, but he
persistently refuses TO Go SO, knowing that
a man in the trade cannot write letters for
publication without people charging him
with seeking free advertising, and writing
from a selfish motive.
Mr.. Holland of Farm and Ranch will tell
you that he has time and again requested
my father to write papers for publication in
the Farm and Ranch, and that he has al
ways declined to do so.
Mr.. Holland requested my father to write
an article for the special horticultural edi-
ton of Farm and Ranch for January l, but
my father declined to do so, and in the
letter declining to write 4 paper for publ
cation he alluded to this pecan question,
but he never thought that Mr.. Holland
would publish any part OF this private
letter, hence he could not have had sell
fish motive in claiming that pecan trees can
be transplanted.
Strong evidence can be produced to prove
that pecan trees tranSplanted will succeed,
but as my father is in the nursery business
l suppose 1 will be ruled ont as biased
witness, although have no pecan trees for
sale myself, and have no direct interest in
my fathers nursery business. l ask you to
kindly publish this letter in justice to my
father DAVID II. WATSON.
Brennan, Tex.
If our correspondent will refer back to
the article mentioned by him he will find
that good deal of stretching will be ne
cessary ere it can be made to well fit this
letter of his. We fully agreed with Mr..
William Watson in every statement made
by him in that extract from ''private let
ter, but of course no longer private after
it had found place in the columns of Farm
anu AleillNu- We IICA CAtAAOiy 4OAS A4A-
Watson and went on to detail our own
and observation relative to the
pecan, and finally wound up with the eX
preston attributed to US, without so much
as having Mr.. Watson at all in mind. In
deed, we did not even then know that Mr..
The reference made to him by Farm
and Ranch as 'the venerable nurseryman''
led US to suppose that he had been
a nurseryman, but left US no means Of
knowing that he was a practical nursery
man still. Nor was that expression thrown
against any nurseryman, but rather an ex-
preston of regret on our part that it should
be necessary to take position against nur-
recan trees, as witness the fol-
lowing, Immediately following the objec-
tionable quotation: eve wish it were
for nurserymen are a class de-
interest we feel in having many fine pecan
groves correctly started in Texas, compels
US to warn all interested against
to establish groves
with tTansplanted trees"
This had no reference TO what MIR. Will
lam Watson had said MIR. Watson had
said pecan trees could be transplanted, and
50 had we, and so say we still. Mr.. Watson
mad not said they would or would not make
groves, and al said to the effect
hat they would not was entirely our own,
IND could not be referred to anything that
Mr.. Watson had said.
To make long story short, we VT give
t as our candid opinion that we don't be- |
ieye there is regular nurseryman in
Texas who would recommend the growth |
# anything that he had reasons for believ-
ng would not succeed as represented by |
lin They could not afford TO do it, and it
s not at all probable that any Of them would |
20 II If they could.