MARKET NURSERY WORK 



INTRODUCTION 



THE NURSERYMAN 



AMONG those who are prone to generalise rather than to- 

 reason there is a widely prevailing idea that the principal 

 difference between a nurseryman and a private gardener is 

 one of " rough and ready " methods as distinct from those of 

 a careful and even a fastidious character. Nothing could well 

 be wider of the mark, and our first step must be to dissipate 

 that fallacy and impress upon all who read these lines the fact 

 that the great nursery establishments of our land are not only 

 not built up on any but precise and scientific methods, but that 

 any attempt to run them on " rough and ready " lines would 

 most indubitably bring about their undignified appearance in 

 the Bankruptcy Court. 



The really fundamental difference between the gardener and 

 the nurseryman is purely economic. It is quite safe to say 

 that prior to 1914 the private gardener, in his laudable anxiety 

 to produce things as nearly perfect as possible, could pursue 

 all necessary operations without being too violently brought 

 into contact with the question of cost, and though he finds 

 his liberty somewhat curtailed in the present days, this still 

 holds good to a certain extent. At the worst, he has only to 

 clear expenses ; he is not expected to show a profit. The 

 nurseryman, on the contrary, while turning out products of 

 equal perfection, has to do so with a strict regard to costs, and 

 these must, under no circumstances, exceed that point at which 

 current market selling prices permit him to show a reasonable 

 margin of profit. To the one, then, the cost of production 

 is, to say the least, a subsidiary matter ; to the other, it is 

 absolutely vital a distinction with a very appreciable difference. 



It is well that everyone who aspires to be either a nurseryman 

 or a responsible nursery employee should appreciate the fact 

 that, primarily, he must grow for profit and not for pleasure. 



