186 



HORTICULTURE 



August 7, 1909 



NURSERYMEN PULLING TO- 

 GETHER. 



A paper reafl before tlie Natioual Associa- 

 tion of Nurserymen 1).T J- H. Dayton, 

 of Painesviile, O. 



{Continued from page 141) 



Why, if a tree is worth 11.00 of any 

 planter's money the first of April, is 

 it worth only 20 per cent, the first 

 day of May? Have we not deliberate- 

 ly educated buyers to the fact that our 

 products have no fixed value and that 

 our estimated value fluctuates from 

 day to day during the season, accord- 

 ing to the way our mail opens up, or 

 our food agrees or disagrees with us? 

 Why are we so anxious to dispose of 

 a little surplus at prices far below 

 cost and make every effort as the sea- 

 son advances to demoralize prices and 

 trade, demoralize our standing in the 

 eyes of business men and demoralize 

 our chances of selling our next year's 

 products on a reasonable basis? Fig- 

 ure it out, and you will find the ash 

 heap one of the most profitable articles 

 on the nursery grounds. About 99 

 times out of 100, it is cash in our 

 pockets to sell what we can at a fixed 

 profitable rate and burn the surplus, to 

 say nothing of the better condition we 

 are in for future trade. 



As long as our price basis is that 

 we can grow and sell as cheap as the 

 other fellow or, indeed, go him one 

 better, can we expect anything but 

 meagre returns, or none? Are not the 

 cut rates, reduced lists and cheap of- 

 fers that Wood our mails late every 

 season simply an admission of our in- 

 capacity to dispose of our stock at fair 

 and reasonable profits? 



What about grades? Perhaps no one 

 standard will be adapted to every sec- 

 tion, but is it beyond the capacity of 

 this body of men to fix and put in 

 operation a system of grading that any 

 man can learn and apply and that will 

 make us reasonably sure of what we 

 shall find in our cars and boxes when 

 delivered? 



What about buyers at wholesale? 

 Who are entitled to trade prices? 

 Would it not be possible to have a list 

 of actual wholesale traders, revised 

 from year to year? Is the man who 

 occasionally buys a few trees from his 

 neighbor, or who every year disposes 

 of the products of a few acres of small 

 fruits entitled to trade rates and sur- 

 plus lists? 



Take our own state (Ohio), last year 

 567 applications were made for certifi- 

 cates, 509 issued. Of these 87 culti- 

 vated ten or more acres; one-1-8 of an 

 acre; 82-one acre or less; the large 

 majority of small fruit growers who 

 sell nothing but their surplus plants, 

 yet their names find their way into 

 our mailing lists as nurserymen. 

 Are the public institutions, parks. 



etc., who buy one to three large bills 

 for the planting of their grounds en- 

 titled to same rates as fellow nursery- 

 men? Why not decide and have some 

 ruling that we could all know and un- 

 derstand, instead of as at present, be- 

 ing everyone a law unto himself? 



What about the man who buys an 

 estate and pays the landscape archi- 

 tect a large price for planting plans 

 and supervision? Should we supply 

 the stock at lowest trade rates, assum- 

 ing as we have to, all the risk and re- 

 bates expected by the retail purchas- 

 er? Ought we not to fix our own 

 terms and methods of handling this 

 business instead of allowing another 

 organization to dictate them to us? 



Perhaps none of these things and 

 none that might be mentioned could 

 be changed to suit us in one or two 

 years, but taken up in a spirit of fair- 

 ness and co-operation by the majority 

 of the nurserymen at this Convention, 

 any or all of them could be made prac- 

 tically obligatory for the entire trade 

 in a few seasons. 



We trust each other in every way, 

 until we come to the marketing of our 

 products, when we usually act as 

 though we thought every competitor 

 had the principles of a Sioux Indian, 

 and was out with his little tomahawk 

 to do us up and hang our bleeding 

 scalp in the sacred precincts of the 

 Bankruptcy Court. 



No nurseryman can live to himself 

 alone; anything that hurts one firm 

 hurts all, any method adopted by one 

 or more that elevates the business and 

 standing of one firm elevates all. 

 Should we not stand together, or 

 rather move forward together, co-op- 

 erating not only with one another, but 

 with all kindred organizations, not 

 only to receive some of the results 

 hinted at here, but in connection with 

 the Civic Improvement bodies. Coun- 

 cil of Horticulture, or any or all agen- 

 cies where the object is to make a 

 cleaner, brighter and better planted 

 America. Every back yard cleaned 

 and planted, every scholar interested 

 in a school garden, every farmer 

 shown the possibilities of fruit culture, 

 are bound to extend our business and 

 make a better outlet for our stock. 



Do not think I have no faith in our 

 business or in my fellow tree man. 

 Everyone on the program has a dis- 

 pensation to knock a little. All of us, 

 who have for years been trying to 

 reach an automobile ineome, and have 

 been sweetened by adversity until we 

 now have all faith in walking as an 

 exercise and a sure way to get there, 

 all know that through our organiza- 

 tion much has been accomplished; 

 that there is a better understanding, 

 more of a disposition to look at things 

 with the other fellow's eye, a strong 



desire here and there to get together 

 to put the nursery interest on its prop- 

 er plane. We have done many things, 

 we can do many more. 



Stay over a few days, you fruit tree 

 men, and visit the orchards of western 

 New York. Note the evidences of 

 prosperity, the methods of care, the 

 security evidently felt by these men, 

 that in planting new orchards they 

 will receive trees of the grades and 

 varieties they buy. Who furnishes 

 the trees? The nurserymen. 



Go to the large peach tree belts of 

 Delaware, Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Michi- 

 gan or other states, and note the 

 thousands of cars shipped of the vari- 

 eties best adapted to their locality and 

 market, and again, the trees come 

 from the nurserymen. Drop into the 

 best fruit stores and feast your eyes 

 on the Jonathan, Spitzenburg, Mcin- 

 tosh, Belleflower, etc., from the orch- 

 ards of Colorado, Montana, Oregon 

 and Washington. Read of the won- 

 derful development of these sections 

 and the fortunes made, and the nurs- 

 erymen grew the trees. 



Visit the estates about Boston, New- 

 port, Philadelphia and other cities, 

 the parks and giounds of public and 

 private institutions, all over our coun- 

 try; their landscape architects have 

 called on the nurserymen for the 

 great variety of trees, shrubs and 

 plants, to develop the wonderful ef- 

 fects and magnificent open air paint- 

 ings and have not Ueen disappointed. 



Figure up what the nurserymen 

 have received for it all, and tell me, 

 is it not time we dropped out of mind 

 and heart our mutual suspicions and 

 distrusts and filled the space with good 

 will and faith in our fellow nursery- 

 men, and pulling together put our 

 business and organization not only on 

 a plane with others, but as much high- 

 er as the privilege of dealing in God's 

 best gifts to man entitles us to go. 



NATIONAL APPLE SHOW. 



One thousand dollars and a gold 

 medal banner, with $500 in gold and 

 a silver medal banner to the second 

 and a massive silver loving cup and a 

 diploma to the third, are offered as the 

 capital prize for a car of 210 barrels 

 or 630 boxes of the best commercial 

 winter apples, one or more standard 

 varieties, exhibited by any owner, les- 

 see or agent of the land where the 

 fruit was grown, at the second Na- 

 tional Apple Show in Spokane, Novem- 

 ber 15 to 20. Competition is open to 

 the world. Four points will be consid- 

 ered by the judges in making the 

 awards, as follows: First, value of the 

 varieties for the purpose to which they 

 may be adapted; second, color, size 

 and uniformity of fruit; third, freedom 

 from insect marks and other blem- 

 ishes; fourth, excellence in pack. The 

 rules of the American Pomological So- 

 ciety will govern all commercial con- 

 tests. 



Prof. W. J. V. Osterhout, who has 

 been connected with the botanical de- 

 partment of the University of Califor- 

 nia for 15 years, has accepted a simi- 

 lar post with the department of botany 

 of Harvard University. 



