The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1904-03-01

| BY all means, l would advise to buy
of home nurseries, other things being
equal. By "other things" I mean
price, freedom from diseases and relia-
bility of stock. There are decided ad-
vantages in buying trees near at home.
| The purchaser can examine the trees
before buying and at the time of their
being dug and put up, if he so desires.
Then in case they should prove to be
unreliable in any way he has much
better chance for redress. Some men
think that a tree grown in nursery
near where the orchard is to be planted
is better adapted to the climate and
will do better than one shipped long
distance. There is not much in that.
[ have peach trees and plum trees
shipped from New York, Pennsylvania
and Missouri growing side by side with
those grown in Washington and Ore
gon, and for the life of me 1 cannot
see any difference. But the other con-
siderations mentioned above throw the
scale decidedly in favor of home grown
trees. Another important advantage
in favor of the home product is that
the buyer may escape the peripatetic
| tree peddler. There are tree peddlers
and tree peddlers-some are honest and
some are not. 1t is not safe to trust
any of them unless you know to which
class they belong. While a man may
safely pay somewhat more for trees
near at home if he knows them to be
perfectly reliable, yet l would not let
a nurseryman bleed me too freely on
that score. Washington nurserymen are
human beings and vary here as else
where. L know a case where a man
bought bill of Moorpark apricot
trees from Washington nursery and
when they came into bearing not two
per cent were true to name. The whole
lot, with the exception of three or four,
proved to be worthless seedlings. L
know another case where whole or
chard of twelve acres was set to Wash
ington grown trees. Half the peach
trees were seedlings and the apple trees
were such a conglomerated mess that
the owner was fighting mad when they
came into bearing. I would rather send
to Maine for trees and get them true
to name than buy them of my next
door neighbor and get such mess as
this.
There seems to be an idea prevalent
in certain quarters that we are doing
a good thing to drive the sale OF trees
from other states out of our borders.
This is bad policy for the planter and,
besides, it is not right. If competition
is cut off the price of trees would prob
ably advance one hundred per cent and
nothing would be gained in safety to
the planter. It must be remembered
that interstate commerce is one of the
blessings that we enjoy. No one has
greater reason to have it preserved in
it's purity than the fruit grower. We
covet the markets of Montana, the
Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and
nearly all the large cities. Here we
want to send our fruit and do send
large quantities of it. How unfair, not
to say un-American, to say to those
states: "Here, you take our fruit,
but keep your trees at home; We'll
keep them out of our state if we can"
Everything shipped into our state for
sale should stand on the same basis as
that which is produced within our bor-
ders. If it is diseased, infected with
insect pests or adulterated, let it be
condemned. But let the same thing be
done with what is produced within our
borders. The other day 1 met Mr.. Nc
Donald, our pure food commissioner.
He informed me that he had learned