308 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



FUTUKE OF THE NURSERY BUSINESS. 



Thomas Meeluin, at this same meeting of American Nurserymen, took a 

 yery hopeful view of the future of the nursery business, but expected to see 

 some changes as indicated in the following summary of his remarks : 



lie said that it had been stated by parties that the meetings of the associa- 

 tion had not generally been of much acconnt, for they only paid attention to 

 business; but that they were glad it was turning its attention more to the dis- 

 cussion of scientific, literary, and other sul)jects. He thought that to be a 

 great mistake, that the association did not pay enough attention to business. 

 He had read in the recent proceedings of an Iowa horticultural society, the 

 statement of a Western nurseryman that the nursery business was no business ;. 

 that he had to deal in chickens, pigs, Short-horns, and almost anything in 

 order to eke out an existence. The remark of Mr. Albaugh had attracted his 

 attention, when he had said that the nurserymen of the East had more money 

 than those of the West, which he had urged as an objection to the next meet- 

 ing being held in an Eastern city. JSI'ow, why was this? $40,000,000 was 

 received annually from the sales of nurserymen and florists, and that was 

 chiefly the actual receipts, and did not include the sales of those indirectly 

 engaged in the 'business. A business of this magnitude, he thought, was 

 worthy of being conducted in a business-like way. In his own case he had 

 turned his attention to science, was a member of the oldest scientific society 

 in the United States, the American Philosophical Society, founded by Benja- 

 min Franklin, who was its first president; was vice president of the Academy 

 of Natural Science of Philadelphia ; and Fellow of the ximerican Association 

 for the advancement of science; besides all this, lie was a nurseryman and 

 business man, and he would rather be a business and nurseryman than all of 

 these. The products of the nursery were different from the products of other 

 Jvinds of business ; it required peculiar knowledge to produce from the nursery, 

 and longer to realize from it; therefore the ordinary rules of general business 

 scarcely applied to nursery business. The attempt to find out how much stock 

 there was in market, as a basis of prices was of little value. The better rule 

 should be, to have an idea before raising stock of how much one would almost 

 certainly sell, and to plant more than he would sell, with the idea of burning 

 what might be the surplus. In regard to the future prospects of the nursery 

 trade, his impression was, that too much was made of the mere fruit tree- 

 department of the nursery business; his impression was that probably not one- 

 third of that $40,000,000 was from fruit tree sales, and that this proportion 

 would be continually growing less, as the country increased in wealth and 

 refinement. Eastern nurserymen were already experiencing this change and 

 profiting accordingly. Their best sales were from ornamental trees, plants, 

 and flowers. This was the natural tendency of civilization as exem])lified in 

 European nurseries. The fruit tree department became in time a very small 

 portion of their business. It would be wise in Western nurserymen to make 

 this change, and govern themselves accordingly. P>ut this branch of the 

 business required a high order of intelligence. The art of adornment should 

 be understood ; that an acquaintance be formed with those trees, plants, 

 and llowers that would aid in adornment. A nurseryman, in fact, must 

 be an educator of the community as well as a nurseryman; his own 

 place should be a model of landscape gardening, and he should have 

 specimens of all varieties to be obtained, as well as specimens of skillful 

 growth, so that those in his vicinity could learn their value for their 



