THE following article is communicated to the Massachusetts Ploughman, by a correspondent who is evidently posted in the secrets of the Nursery Trade. It contains some facts of a startling nature, enough to alarm all fruit-growers throughout the country. We are very glad to see the swindle exposed, and trust the community at large will hereafter give tree agents a wide berth, save only when they are endorsed with written authority of their employment by responsible Nurseries. We believe newspaper readers will be better served by reading and patronizing those who advertise and are well known, than to swallow the assurances of some glib-tongued but unscrupulous tree swindler:

"In a recent visit to the city of Rochester, the great centre of the nursery business, we gained some information as to the manner in which this great business was conducted, and which we thought would be valuable.to your readers.

" We were surprised and somewhat astonished to learn that probably nearly three-fourths of the nursery stock sold throughout the United States, is sold by personal solicitation of agents or dealers, and a large number of these dealers are irresponsible and feel their mission is ended when they have received an order, delivered the trees, and got their pay. And so it is on their part, but the customer would have to wait several years before he would know if he had been swindled, or not.

"There are many honorable and reliable men engaged in this business, and it is astonishing there are so many well informed persons who will allow themselves to be swindled by irresponsible dealers, when the remedy is in their own hands, by ordering directly from some well known nursery firm. These irresponsible dealers can and do obtain catalogues from some responsible nurseries, and travel to solicit orders, and showing their catalogue lead the purchaser to believe they are obtaining their trees from the firm they are supposed to represent. As a general thing they are selling from Rochester Nurseries, when there are over twenty different nurseries in and around Rochester.

" We will cite an example: a dealer obtains a catalogue from Genesee Valley, Mt. Hope, Commercial or Monroe County Nurseries, and any of these catalogues can be had by asking or writing for them, and he represents he is going to canvass for the sale of trees, and would like to purchase his wholesale bill of them when he has obtained his orders. The catalogues are sent. The man takes his retail orders, but when he comes to purchase his bill, he might not go near the party whose catalogue he sold from, but go elesewhere and buy a cheaper or inferior article and regardless of the trees being true to name.

"For instance, a dealer would sell from some responsible Nurseryman's catalogue, and purchase his stock from some other equally reliable Nurseryman. His sale, amongst other things, would in the aggregate amount to 5,000 Apple trees; 1,000 of them to be Baldwin, and the Nursoryman said he could furnish but 500 Baldwin, but could give some other good variety. Well, do so! Some kind you have plenty of, a good grower that looks like Baldwin.

" The Nurseryman puts in 500 Talman Sweet and labels them so. But when the dealer comes to Mr. Smith's order or some other man, for 100 Baldwin, he perhaps may give him fifty Baldwin and fifty Talman Sweet, but he removes the name from the Tallman Sweet, and puts all in for Baldwin, and the customer pays for his trees, and does not know he has been swindled until he finds his Baldwins, as he supposed, are bearing sweet apples. He then remembers the firm, or the catalogue he bought from, and blames them for furnishing trees, which they knew nothing of, or the purchaser or agent either. We were informed that many sales had been made of the Russian crab, and the variety known as such, Tetoftsky, a valuable, hardy, Summer Russian Apple (not a orab however) not yet being grown sufficient to supply the demand. Other varieties were substituted for the above, by these dealers, and in some instances three or four different varieties for one; the Duchess of Oldenburg, a valuable hardy Autumn Russian Apple (but not a crab), the Transcendent Crab, Hyslop and Soulard Grab all have been sold for the above.

"A responsible nurseryman will not fill his customer's order unless he has all the varieties ordered, but leave out such as he cannot supply, unless his permission was obtained to substitute. We heard of an instance of an agent's sale of 10,000 trees, apples, pears, peaches, cherries, plums, etc. The nurseryman told him he could furnish the trees, but not all the varieties. He took the order, but substituted some of the varieties. The agent went into a shop or room and wrote off 10,000 labels, one to each tree, direct from his book, and where lady apple was called for, the greening apple tree bore the name of the lady apple.

"Again, there are but few that know the great difference there is in the growth of different varieties of trees. A Baldwin at four years is as large or larger than a Spitzen-berg at six or more years, and a Baldwin is of straight upright growth, while the Greening is very crooked. Suppose the agent or dealer had orders for a quantity of Spitzen-berg, Swaar, Newtown Pippin, Early Joe, or other excellent varieties, and upon seeing the trees he finds them so much smaller and poorer-looking than other strong-growing varieties, he would say those trees would not deliver well, would lose money on them, and would prefer stronger and straighter trees, which would be furnished and substituted by him, for these weaker growing sorts; whereas the upright nurseryman would decline to furnish these sorts genuine, unless the purohaser was informed of the difference of the quality of trees, or allowed the privilege of substitution. This is greatly the fault of the purchaser, for they prefer the timber and growth and size of trees to getting genuine varieties.

"If persons want varieties of fruits or other articles genuine and true to name, they should go direct to some responsible nursery, and there are some in and around Rochester, and then, if any mistake occurs, they will rectify it. In some of these firms of long standing, they have many persons employed who can generally tell by the eye from their long experience whether a tree is genuine or not, where the customer could not distinguish any difference".