358 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



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THE DIFFICULTIES AN HONEST AGENT ENCOUNTERS 



IN CANVASSING. 



BY A. D. LOUCKS, CHICAGO. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 



When I was honored with a request to prepare a paper to be- 

 read at the Twenty-third Annual Meeting of your Society, the 

 subject upon which I was to write was chosen for me. I make 

 this explanation to dispel from your minds, any suspicion that may 

 have arisen from reading its title in the program, that I am desir- 

 ous of posing either as a martyr or a saint. Working for succes- 

 sive seasons in the same section, and representing a responsible 

 and reliable firm, well known throughout that section, upon whose 

 support I could depend in my endeavors to convince purchasers 

 that all of our interest was not confined to getting their orders and 

 collecting payment therefor, I have not experienced the hard trials 

 of many of my fellow workers. Still, it must be confessed that, 

 even under the most favorable conditions there are more difficul- 

 ties to be overcome in making sales of nursery stock than exist in 

 any other branch of trade. There is nothing to be gained by clos- 

 ing our eyes to the fact that the dear public does not welcome our 

 endeavors in its behalf with that confiding spirit which would tend 

 to lighten our burdens ; in fact, there exists a positive distrust of our 

 honesty of purpose that is both disagreeable and, at times, posi- 

 tively disheartening. This should not be, and in asking why it is 

 so let us be honest with, and to ourselves. A profession that deals 

 with the beauties of nature, should be a source of joy to all parties 

 concerned. There are faults upon both sides. Do not many nur- 

 sery-men, in their anxiety to increase the amount of their sales, 

 neglect that protection of their reputations which greater care in 

 selecting agents to represent them would insure? We have all 

 seen advertisements for nursery salesmen that read "experience 

 not necessary." Viewed in the broad light of results to be at- 

 tained, is there any other business in which experience is more 

 necessary than in this, the prime object of which should be 

 to make oases of Nature's desert places: to make bright and 

 beautiful that which is bare and unattractive? Experience through 

 which alone can come that knowledge of causes and effects rela- 

 tive to the growth of plant-life under the varying conditions of 

 climate, soil, etc., which, practically applied, succeeding years shall 

 but round out the design, and make more beautiful the effect. See 

 that new place, the house completed and furnished: everything 

 being done by the owner with the intention of making it a home, 

 in the best meaning of the word. 



He secured the services of an architect of reputation to design 

 the house: he decided upon heating apparatus, furnishings, etc.,, 



