July 6, 1907 



HORTICULTURE 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY SEED 

 CATALOGUE. 



Synopsis of an address delivered before 



the American Seed Trade Association 



in Kew York, June i^tj, 1907. \>y 



J. Utirace Mcl'\irlaiid. 



Old-Time Methods. 



No one will dispute my claim that 

 the primary purpose of a Twentieth 

 Century Seed Catalogue is to sell seeds 

 and the accompanying merchandise 

 handled by the seedsman. Yet the 

 time is not yet out of mind for some 

 of us when the selling purpose was not 

 so apparent, and when pictures of the 

 not-tor-sale proprietor, or his hardly- 

 for-sale home, or his selling head- 

 Quarters, took up much space in the 

 catalogues of that day. And when the 

 catalogues of a generation since did 

 get down to seeds, both descriptions 

 and illustrations tended to extravag- 

 ance, with some notable and honorable 

 exceptions. I well remember the com- 

 plaint of a well-known illustrator of 

 that time, when he showed me the yet 

 unengraved wood block of a water- 

 melon field which had been returned 

 to him by a customer because there 

 were not enough melons in the field. 

 "I'll plant them so thick he couldn't 

 walk in the field without stepping on 

 them, and that will satisfy him," said 

 the artist. And so he did, and I saw 

 the wonderful result not long after in 

 full catalogue glory! But that was 

 almost a generation ago. Nowadays 

 exaggeration does not prevail so con- 

 siderably, 1 am glad to say. 



How to Stimulate Sales. 



If selling seeds is the object of a 

 seed catalogue, we may properly seek 

 to analyze the methods of approach to 

 make sales through a catalogue. They 

 are at least three in number, and they 

 often mix as freely as does corn when 

 differing varieties are grown in the 

 same tield. Sometimes the mixture 

 shows as unpleasantly, too, as when 

 the persistent Black Mexican invades 

 the purity of the Country Gentleman! 



A reputation, gained by years of 

 honest dealing and painstaking effort, 

 is a most effective help In or method 

 for selling seeds. Hard to get, it is 

 hard to retain, meaning constant vigil- 

 ance and expense, and including many 

 (iisappoinlments. Yet it is priceless 

 and price-producing, and it is a poor 

 tradesman who does not seek by every 

 means to maintain his reputation for 

 quality of goods sold, and for quality 

 and justice of service rendered. 1 have 

 been on the hearing side of the seeds- 

 man's confessional for more years than 

 I want to mention, and were not my 

 lips as firmly sealed as any priest's, 

 I could tell some startling tales. For 

 there is another side to reputation in 

 seed-selling — the side of a bad reputa- 

 tion, held by the man who sets price 

 above purify, and who thinks of the 

 present dime from his temporary cus- 

 tomer more than the "prospective dollar 

 of a solid trade. 



Another means of selling I may 

 mention as special presentation. This 

 includes extra description and illustra- 

 tion of the seeds to be sold, and is 

 fraught with danger unless pursued 

 with great moderation. To shout in 

 print about every article offered tends 

 to dull the ears of the buyer, or, to 

 speak more accurately, to tire his eyes. 

 We have all ^een the flamboyant offers 

 of a certain international so-called 

 "wizard," who described three new 



plums on the same page, accurately, 

 he said, with each as "the best ever!" 



Low prices and premiums to buyers 

 are other selling inducements which 

 sometimes work to expand business, 

 if not to produce profits. I question 

 the expediency of both, save in special 

 and limited instances. The best 

 Twentieth Century Seed Catalogues 

 rest on a jealously maintained reputa- 

 tion for quality of stock, confine special 

 presentation to articles of special and 

 assured merit, and put prices upon a 

 fair basis oi profit relation. 



The Contents of the Catalogue. 



The contents of a seed catalogue 

 luerit consideration. This term is in- 

 clusive of the preliminary information, 

 the specialties or novelties, the main 

 collection of seeds, bulbs, and other 

 viable articles, and the accompanying 

 implements, insecticides, etc., which we 

 printers sometimes allude to as "bug 

 stuff." 



The proportion of space to be a.s- 

 signed to these various Items of con- 

 tents is important. There should be 

 a basis upon which to consider their 

 value. It may be found by dividing the 

 total cost of the catalogue when actual- 

 ly in the mails by the number of pages, 

 thus getting a price per page. Tried 

 by this truly acid test, there is likely 

 to be a surprising disparity in com- 

 parison with results. The necessary 

 space given to essential information, 

 to cultural directions, is found to be 

 expensive, and it may often be cur- 

 tailed with benefit. One friend who 

 bad used full 16 pages out of 32 for 

 cultural directions in his simple 

 catalogue of strawberry plants found 

 that he was doing the educating, while 

 the other fellow was making the sales; 

 wherefore he cut out the encyclopedia 

 features, reduced his catalogue to IG 

 pages, and profited by the change. 



It is safe rule to suggest measur- 

 ing the preliminary matter, the testi- 

 monials, the showing of warehouses 

 and fields and store fronts, by the dol- 

 lar value. There is some value in 

 them, surely, but not as much as is 

 sometimes claimed. 



Circumspection as to Novelties. 



Next in attention, frequently, in the 

 Twentieth Century Seed Catalogue 

 come "Novelties" or "Specialties," 

 done on pink paper, with a flourish of 

 trumpets. To throw down a glove 

 against seed novelties in this as- 

 semblage may be as hazardous as to 

 take one's best girl across the bull 

 pasture under a red umbrella, so I 

 will only express my gratification at 

 the seeming decline of the once over- 

 spreading novelty department, and 

 wish that the foreign seedsmen, at 

 least, might be compelled to have their 

 floral wonders tested in America five 

 years before daring to offer them to a 

 suffering trade. The dump-heap would 

 grow larger in consequence. I am sure! 

 These novelties, too, need the dollar 

 page test. Do they pay? 



There is a growing and commendable 

 tendency to push ve.getables or flowers 

 of real merit, or stocks of selected and 

 proved excellence, instead of imcertain 

 and dubious new items. With proper 

 care of the stocks handled, this plan 

 has been known to stand the dollar 

 page test fully. 



The Dollar Test. 

 The so-called "general collection" of 

 seeds tends all the time to include 



more and more varieties, spreading out 

 the catalogue, increasing expense, and 

 getting up against the unjust postage 

 wall, without a corresponding advan- 

 tage in business. The dollar page test, 

 again, is worth applying here. Some 

 years ago a certain organization was 

 storming the seed business along lines 

 of lavish expenditure. On a forty-dol- 

 lar-a-page cost, against my protest, a 

 whole page illustration of portulacca 

 was used. Of course it didn't pay, and 

 the firm also soon didn't pay, much 

 to the discomfort of those who had not 

 sought financial shelter when they saw 

 the process of exchanging experience 

 for cash proceeding so openly. 



The handling of accessories seems to 

 be growing in the seed trade. Imple- 

 ments, insecticides and tools form no 

 inconsiderable part of the twentietli 

 century seed catalogue. Again the dol- 

 lar test is wise, and it will result in 

 using smaller engi-avings and cutting 

 oft big handles on a hand cultivator, 

 very frequently. 



The best modern seed catalogue wiU 

 be well balanced, beginning without 

 waste of space, offering only novelties 

 and specialties which can he honestly 

 commended or which are frankly pre- 

 sented for trial, giving due space to a 

 sharply reduced general list, and list- 

 ing tuch accessories as are worth the 

 space they take, both by reason of 

 merit and selling quality. 



Sizes of Catalogue. 



The maker of fine books speaks of 

 the size and shape of a book as its 

 "format." Tlie "format" of a cata- 

 logue is a matter of importance, and is 

 ccnnected with considerations not par- 

 ticularly bothering the book-maker. 

 The catalogue man has to deal with 

 illustrations and with postage, the gov- 

 ernment practically controlling him 

 through its ancient, unjust and arbi- 

 trary postage scheme. 



Of standard sizes for seed catalogues 

 there are three, and these serve as 

 types only, being widely varied from 

 In practice. The 6x9 size is time-hon- 

 ored but used more by nurserymen 

 than by seedsmen. Indeed, I know of 

 but one prominent dispenser of seeds 

 who holds to it. Allowing reasonable 

 margins, the 6x9 page, with 54 square 

 inches of paper surface, carries 36 

 square inches of actual type or print- 

 ing surface. Thus the proportion of 

 the white paper actually used is 66 per 

 cent. The main difficulty with this 

 smaller size is its relative wastefulness 

 of room in the placing of the average 

 ilh:!~ti'a(ions. 



To have a truly economical 6x9 cata- 

 logue "make-up," every engraving 

 should be made to fit either the width 

 of the type page (from 4 1-2 to 4 3-4 

 inches), or half that width, though 

 variations can be made up to a point 

 of width which will allow not less than 

 1 1-4 inches of clear space for type to 

 the right or the left. Even with much 

 care, inevitable wastes occur in adapt- 

 ing illustrations, headings and lists of 

 prices to this size, wherefore it is 

 easy to see why it has been generally 

 discarded. It is a tribute to Mr. Bur- 

 pee's notable skill as a catalogue mak- 

 er tliat he can produce so excellent a 

 result in this size against all its handi- 

 caps. 



The size generally mentioned as 7x10, 

 but trimming in commercial practice 

 to 6 7-8 X 10, as cut from stock papers, 

 is the second standard size, and it is 

 largely used by seedsmen. With 69 



