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The Horists^ Review 



Jdnb 17, 1920. 



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NEWS OF THE NURSERY TRADE 



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MiLLAKD Sharpe, of VaCaviUe, Cal., 

 will have charge of the field work of the 

 recently organized Nursery Bud Selec- 

 tion Association of California. He will 

 work with the United States Department 

 of Agriculture under E. E. Huffman, 

 assistant farm manager of Sacramento 

 county. 



First session of the American Associa- 

 tion of Nurserymen next week at Chi- 

 cago will be a dinner at 7 p. m., June 22, 

 at the Congress hotel. The following 

 morning at 10 a. m. the members will 

 gather to talk things over instead of 

 listening to someone else talk. Secre- 

 tary Watson presented a list of live 

 subjects for discussion in The Eeview 

 May 27. 



* ' Progress is being made — and prog- 

 ress is greatly needed," said Alvin 

 Nelson, of the Swain Nelson & Sons Co., 

 Chicago, referring to the work of the 

 committee of which he is a member and 

 which was appointed at the convention 

 of the Hlinois State Nurserymen's Asso- 

 ciation February 12 to consider the 

 problem of a uniform system of account- 

 ing for the members of the association. 

 Mr. Nflson feels strongly that in all 

 branches of the plant and flower produc- 

 ing industry there is an immediate need 

 for more effective business organization 

 of each enterprise and that a uniform 

 Hyst<?m of accounting is the best founda- 

 tion. 



CALCULATING NURSERY COSTS. 



Basis for Efficient Management. 



The greatest problem confronting 

 nurserymen today and tomorrow and 

 the rock upon which, in the past, the 

 business of many a nurseryman has 

 foundered, is that of efficient manage- 

 ment. 



The majority of nurserymen grow a 

 good tree at a minimum of labor cost. 

 But in determining the cost per tree 

 of the trees he sells, the proportion of 

 trees of each variety and kind that it is 

 advisable to grow, or in placing a price 

 upon the trees wliich he grows and sells 

 profitably enough to pay, not alone the 

 iinmediate cost of production, but also 

 his overhead selling expense and collec- 

 tion expense, and allow a fair margin of 

 profit on the investment, or in jiutting 

 on an intelligent selling campaign with- 



Fnim ill! addrPKs on "Our Grentost Problt'in 

 Todii.v," l)y .T. E. HprKtholdt, seirotarv and 

 manapor of the Silva-HcrRtholdt Co., Nowcastle, 

 Cal.. dclivcrod before tlic meotinB of tlie Cal- 

 ifornia Nurserymen's Association. 



in the territory tributary to his nurs- 

 ery, or in giving credit and effecting 

 collections, or in cooperating with other 

 nurserymen in the business for mutual 

 benefit — in these vital factors the nurs- 

 erymen of today, like those of the past, 

 are sadly deficient in the exercise of 

 intelligent business methods. 



Count in All Costs. 



Nurserymen can easily determine, and 

 most of them do, the total expenditure 

 required in growing a crop of trees. 

 By dividing this amount by the total 

 number of trees of salable grades de- 

 livered in his yard, he can easily de- 

 termine the cost per tree. Now, many 

 a nurseryman, having arrived at this 

 cost price per tree, stops at this figure, 

 when, as a matter of fact, such factors 

 as the interest on his investment, his 

 own time, the depreciation of his plant 

 and equipment, his advertising ex- 

 penses, his overhead expenses; his sell- 

 ing expenses, such as agents' commis- 

 sions, conducting the yard, and personal 

 solicitors; his collection expenses, his 

 loss from bad accounts, are rarely taken 

 into the account of costs, or not to a 

 sufficient degree. Yet these elements 



represent an outlay which, on thr 

 average, is sometimes more per tree sold 

 than the cost of a tree delivered in the 

 yard for sale. 



Selling as Expensive as Ghrowing. 



Take, for example, a nurseryman who 

 grows, sells and delivers to the planter. 



If it costs him 8 cents to grow a tree 

 and he succeeds in selling every tree he 

 grows, these minor factors which have 

 been enumerated and which are so 

 rarely taken into account by nursery- 

 men will cost him, on the average, an 

 additional 8 cents. In other words, it 

 cT>sts as mucn in expense to sell a tree 

 and perform the business between the 

 delivery of that tree in the yard and 

 the deposit of the proceeds from its 

 sale to his credit in the bank, as it does 

 to grow a tree and deliver it into his 

 yard. That is, if it costs him 8 cents 

 to grow that tree in his yard, and 

 he sells every tree he grows, his total 

 expenditure on the tree, by the time he 

 has realized the proceeds from its sale, 

 will average J 6 cents, not allowing for 

 any profit in the transaction. 



Now, no farming business can be con- 

 ducted safely on a smaller margin of 



NOW READY 



OUR NEW CATALOGUE OF 



PEONIES 



and IRIS 



May we have the pleasure of sending you a copy? 



PETERSON NURSERY 



30 N. La Salle St., Chicasfo, 111. 



NURSERY STOCK for FLORISTS' TRADE 



Fruit Trees, Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, Small Fruits, 

 Roses, Clematis, Phlox, Peonies, Herbaceous Perennials 



w«>TEjoR^p™wHoi,E. yf^ ^ j^ SMITH COMPANY, Geneva, N.Y. 



74 Years 



lOOO Acres 



