40 



HORTICULTURE. 



July 13, 1907 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CATA- 

 LOGUE. 



J. Horace McFarland before I lie American 

 Seed Trade Assooialioii. 



{ContiTtuCti from pitge ll). 



Catalogue Covers. 



With trepidation I take up che sub- 

 ject of seed natalogiie covers and llie 

 sometimes accompanying "plates." 

 Mucli experience has made nie shy in 

 relation to having any deSinite opin- 

 ions as to the selling yower of any 

 particular form of cover. Tliis same 

 experience has convinced me that 

 there is a tendency for better covers; 

 that is, those truer to life and free 

 from the garish characteristics of the 

 German school of lithography. Yet 

 candor compels me to also state that 

 I have seen an apparently beautiful 

 and a>:curate cover fall down utterly 

 in pulling business, and an extremely 

 plain and simple cover produce satis- 

 factory results. 



Covers fall into two general divi- 

 sions, the first including that type of 

 cover which specifically offers some- 

 thing to sell in addition to announc- 

 ing the business of the seedsman. The 

 second class includes the plain and 

 decorative covers not mailing any spe- 

 cific selling offer, but intended to 

 serve merely as the protection im- 

 plied in the name "cover," or, if suffi- 

 ciently dignified or decorated, to stop 

 the catalogue on the way to the yawn- 

 ing waste-basket which is the seeds- 

 man's Hades. 



The "selling" covers have been us- 

 ually colored, and sometimes gaudily 

 colored: yet a number of extremely 

 satisfactory covers are in monotone. 

 Speaking cautiously and with an at- 

 tempt to consider the whole country 

 and not the east merely, I feel that a 

 well-oonsidered colored cover made 

 by some one of the processes which 

 gives truthfulness in form as well as 

 in color, is likely to be satisfactory 

 and profitable. That it is hard to de- 

 vise and secure such covers no man 

 before me needs to be told. That 

 dependence upon the imagination of 

 the lithographer, who secures his 

 stimulating information from the en- 

 cyclopedia, is a poor way to get a 

 good cover is knowu to some of you. 

 A study of the field and proper photo- 

 graphs of things that seem to be in- 

 teresting and feasible, with color notes 

 made at the critical time, will serve 

 as the best possible preparation for 

 success in this line. 



Mr. McFarland displayed later in mono- 

 tone liy tbe lantern some colored covers 

 and some decorative and dignified covers 

 sliawing that there is a value to the lat- 

 ter form in escaping the waste basket 

 danger and also in being permitted to mix 

 with the better magazines on the leading 

 tables of wcll-tn-do people. 



I think that after all the question 

 of covers simmers down closely to 

 the class of trade sought. It the seed 

 house is of age and dignity, the cov- 

 ers of its catalogues should show that 

 dignity and can bear to inlvantage 

 some restraint. If the trade sought is 

 that of the farmer, color may and 

 frequently does prove distinrtiy ad- 

 vantageous. That one of the strong- 

 est, oldest and largest American seed 

 houses has within the last two seas- 

 ons found it pay to drop entirely the 

 glaring forms of lithography for an 

 extremely refined decorative cover on 

 its expensive book, is a significant 

 point which may well be sharply con- 

 sidered. 

 As to the value of inserts, I can 



only say that they bear a distinct 

 relation to the cover, and should be 

 in the same key of treatment. Illus- 

 trations soil the goods, and if the 

 insert is properly handled and placed 

 it ought to be eflioient, and frequently 

 is. 



The Preparation of Copy. 



Of inniortance hardly inferior to the 

 illustrations, which will be treated 

 later, are the descriptions in the cata- 

 logue, of what the printer calls the 

 "copy." It would not be dilficult for 

 me to show some extremely horrible 

 examples of how "copy" comes to 

 the unfortunate printer, ncr to give 

 instances of the way in which the 

 man whose next year's trade is at 

 stake depends on luck and imagina- 

 tion. Most of the leaders, however, 

 have a clear idea as to the prepara- 

 tion of copy. I ara glad to see a grow- 

 ing tendency toward reduction of the 

 size of descriptions and the elimina- 

 tion of flamboyant language. The 

 ideal description covers in the briefest 

 possible form every point that needs 

 to be known about any particular 

 vegetable or flower, fairly commend- 

 ing its merits and not omitting to 

 frankly state its demerits. This ideal 

 description has not yet appeared in 

 any catalogue, although there are 

 several approaches to it in current 

 practice. 



To reduce the constantly expanding 

 general collections to the fewest num- 

 ber of varieties by continually drop- 

 ping duplications, and to get these 

 items down to a terse and succinct 

 descriptive form, tends not only to- 

 ward general economy but toward pro- 

 viding more room for the description 

 of specialties. It seems to me that 

 every seedsman with individuality pre- 

 fers to stand on a compai-atively se- 

 lect list, the stocks to supply which he 

 especially safeguards and the merits 

 of which he fully believes in. 



T have before adverted to novelties. 

 They form a fascinating country, of 

 great possibilities and still greater im- 

 possibilities, and travel in this mys- 

 terious land of horticultural novelties 

 is beset with many trials. Current 

 American practice distinguishes the 

 novelties by separation from the body 

 of the catalogue, by colored paper, by 

 various decorative adornments, by ex- 

 panded illustrations and yet more ex- 

 panded descriptions. I can hardly 

 venture to have any concrete ideas as 

 to the value of these differing methods, 

 but I can safely say that the dollar 

 test before alluded to is the best test 

 after one has applied the touch-stone 

 of truth to novelty statements. 

 The Illustrations. 

 Of tremendous importance in the 

 catalogue are the illustrations. Prop- 

 erly handled they sell the articles 

 listed. I have a dream of the twenti- 

 eth century catalogue which will give 

 a picture, even if only of thumb-nail 

 size, of every article oti'ered. That 

 catalogue will have io be sharply con- 

 densed in number of items, however, 

 to make such a scheme practicable. 

 Indeed, it mav be utterly impractica- 

 ble. 



As I have previously said, the illus- 

 trations of a few years ago proceeded 

 largely from only two sources, both of 

 of which are now practically aban- 

 doned. Photographs are largely used 

 and will be more largely used as the 

 means for making them are adopted 

 by the seedsmen. I have expressed my- 

 self as to the advisability of the pro- 



duction of th3 photographs by the 

 seedsman himself, or by an organiza- 

 tion under his direct control. I know 

 how difficult it will be, for I have 

 painful experience of the exaense of 

 .getting good "selling" hoa-ticultnral 

 photographs — an experience extending 

 over the production of a collection 

 now exceeding ten thousand items. 

 Those of you v/ho do the Mount Pleas- 

 ant Press the credit to call at its 

 premises and see .those photographs 

 are never shown the ash-heap or the 

 dun.p pile. You see our successes, 

 but not our failures, i'ou are not told 

 of the futile trips; of the rainy days; 

 of the wormy cabbage; of the wilted 

 annuals. You do not laarn how our 

 well-laid schemes for getting speci- 

 mens sufficiently artistic to please us 

 and sufficiently flamboyant to please 

 you fall down. I would have you try 

 the work, becauco it will be better 

 for you and, frankly, better lor me. 



Method of Engraving. 



An hour might well be spent in dis- 

 cussing the mechanics of photography 

 as applied to seedsmen's uses and the 

 methods of making illustrations. We 

 do not have that hour at our disposal, 

 and I therefore pass quickly to the 

 methods of engraving used, now con- 

 fined practically to but two. Of these, 

 the line cut re(piire3 drawing and thus 

 interposes the hand of man. The 

 only reason for using line engravings 

 is to permit printing on cheaper paper, 

 and the tendency is away from them 

 at the present time. 



The twentieth century catalogue is 

 illustrated photographically, and the 

 engravings are made by the halftone 

 process, which I wish I might have 

 opportunity to explain to you in de- 

 tail at some future time. In having 

 the halftones made, however, I would 

 simply point out one pitfall, and that 

 is the square-inch rate offered by the 

 cheapest man, who makes you be- 

 lieve you are getting your engrav- 

 ings cheaper while he gets more money 

 out of you and you get less efficiency 

 out of him. The square-inch man 

 always gets square inches. He makes 

 square-finish cuts and he gives you 

 plenty of margins and white space 

 included within the dainty little lines 

 surrounding his productions. The 

 most of the difficulty experienced by 

 the printer in using halftones is in the 

 printing of these non-essential black 

 spaces or white spaces. 



The engraver who will treat your 

 photographic copy according to your 

 needs and constantly aim to reduce the 

 size oi" your engravings without im- 

 pairing effectiveness is certainly the 

 cheapest. The use of outlining and of 

 the various other methods for securing 

 effectiveness from half-tones is ex- 

 tremely important. The handling of 

 your photogi^aphs so as to avoid either 

 pure white or solid black backgrounds, 

 and making them so that they will fit 

 the designed use of the page, is an- 

 other point worth considering in the 

 twentieth century catalogiie, if we had 

 one whole year of that century in 

 which to bring the details out. I have 

 hinted, however, as to the methods of 

 eflieiency, and in some of the concrete 

 criticisms to be made later by aid of 

 the lantern I can go, perhaps, a little 

 further. 



Styles and Sizes of Type. 

 In planning a Twentieth Century 

 Catalogue careful attention must be 



