Keep at it and take advantage of this offer of Mr. Jones. I believe by following those lines you can very easily go out and get five or ten members apiece.
MR. BIXBY: I don't want to throw cold water on any idea that is going to increase the membership but it seems to me that there are some objections to the proposed plan. In the first place the association has gone on record as favoring largely the planting of grafted trees. Now on the proposed plan the minute we get a new member in we have to send him a seedling tree. That does not seem to me the best thing to do. In the second place, I have had a good many years' experience in merchandising and it has always worked out with me that people do not much appreciate what they get for nothing. You can do this if a man is going to buy a certain kind of goods, by offering him an inducement, giving him something for nothing you can make him buy more than he would otherwise; but if a man who has never had a certain kind of goods, generally speaking you can't sell them to him by offering him a prize with them.
In the case suggested by Mr. Spencer, where a member working in a certain location could club with others and get several new members, why that hasn't the same objection. I do think that it would be a fine thing if the members in the different sections each agreed to get five or ten members, go after them and get them. I think that would be fine. And if they are willing to be responsible at the end of the year if they don't get them, and pay two dollars apiece for the ones they don't get, why that would help out the treasury.
MR. SMITH: Mr. Chairman, I am rather in favor of the premium plan. In this great state of New York there exists an organization at Geneva known as the New York State Fruit Testing Co-operative Association. In order to get members they offer premiums, a yearly premium. The year that I joined the association they sent me a new apple which had been tried out and found to be a very desirable fruit. They named it the "Tioga" variety. The next year they sent me as a premium twelve new raspberries that had been tested first by the Geneva Experiment Station, a branch of the agricultural college, and then by this association of fruit growers.
Now I don't know how it would operate with others but it was an inducement to me in the first place to get that new apple to experiment with, and the next year it was an inducement to get the twelve new raspberry bushes which are claimed to be the best raspberries grown.
The objection raised by Mr. Bixby seems to be, however, quite a valid one. The organization has put itself on record as opposed to seedling nut trees and it is a question whether we ought to encourage the distribution of seedlings. But in some way or other I'm in favor of the premium plan to attract new memberships.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it not better to plant seedlings than none at all? It is possible that some of the seedlings might be really worth while. Those that are not really worth while can be top worked.
MR. JONES: Mr. President, my idea about the Chinese walnuts and the Stabler walnuts was that if we want to get new varieties we have to get them from seedlings. My plan was to grow these and send them out as extras to people who had sent in orders for other trees. I thought that in that way we could introduce them to those who would take an interest in them. It would take a good deal of land and a good deal of money and a good deal of attention to care for several hundred or several thousand such trees, but you could send them out in that way one at a time and possibly get new varieties superior to anything we have. That was my idea in disposing of these trees. I thought that if the association felt that that would be an inducement for new members we could send them out in that way as premiums. The only difference in the cost to me would be the packing.
MR. SMITH: Would it be possible for the association to take out from this first year's dues sufficient to compensate Mr. Jones for the difference between the value of a seedling and some of the best nut trees, so we could say to a proposed member, "We are giving you something that years of experience have proved to be the very best thing up to date, and we want you to plant this and care for it"? I think he would be more interested if he knew he were getting a tested tree than if he were getting a seedling. The seedling may be a good thing and it may not.
MR. WEBER: Mr. President, we know that in the spring the dry goods stores distribute shade trees, and people carry them all day with the tops tied up and the roots uncovered. You might as well expect a fish to live out of water as to expect those trees to live. If we send the average person a tree he may make it grow but the chances are he will not, so why let him ruin a good grafted tree with his initial experiments in planting a nut tree. On the other hand you will emphasize the distinction between seedlings and grafted trees, because on his coming into the association you will present him with a seedling and explain to him in advance just the purpose for which it is being given. He will then plant that tree. If it grows he can see its performance along side of a later grafted tree which he will buy if he is interested in furthering his nut tree plantings. If he isn't, why, you get his membership fee and he centers his membership around that seedling which he thinks is the finest thing in the world.