30S 
SEED TRADE BUYERS GUIDE 
Horticultural Books 
I T IS SURPRISING to note the 
great interest being manifested 
in horticultural books today. 
They are fast becoming one of the 
retail seed store's most popular lines. 
This is undoubtedly due to the fact 
that the interest in home gardening 
is increasing with leaps and bounds. 
A few years ago the vegetable gard¬ 
en was much more popular than the 
flower garden, but today the reverse 
appears to be the case, and there 
is an enormous interest in the beauti¬ 
fication of home surroundings. 
Here are a few suggestions that 
should be given serious considera¬ 
tion by dealers handling horticul¬ 
tural books:— 
Do not lose sight of the fact that 
the average home owner is an ama¬ 
teur when it comes to his garden. 
He knows very little about what to 
plant and when to plant it. If you 
really want to help him, you can do 
nothing better than recommend that 
he purchase and read some of the 
interesting and instructive books now 
available which will give him just 
exactly the information he wants and 
needs, but be sure you have these 
books to sell to these customers. 
•k * it 
When you sell a packet of flower 
or vegetable seeds, you are dealing 
with a "live" prospect for a garden 
book. Show him the books you have 
in stock and it's almost a "sure bet" 
that he will walk out with a book un¬ 
der his arm. 
* * * 
Set aside a small space in your 
store, if this is at all possible, where 
your customers can sit down and look 
over your books and actually get a 
comprehensive idea of what is in the 
books. If you have a complete refer¬ 
ence library of popular books for the 
amateur as well as the experienced 
gardener, you have sornething of 
vital interest to all of your garden 
customers, and especially so if you 
make this library available to them. 
When a customer comes in and cas¬ 
ually gets to looking over your gard¬ 
en library, he will be almost sure to 
find at least one book which holds 
his interest and which he buys be¬ 
fore he leaves your store. 
* * * 
Display books at all seasons of the 
year and have them where they are 
easily accessible to your customers. 
★ ★ * 
A window display devoted entire¬ 
ly to books in the spring of the year 
will create an enormous interest. It 
is very easy to make an effective 
display of books that will attract the 
passerby and draw him inside the 
store to buy. 
★ ♦ * 
It is unnecessary to carry a large 
stock of books. A few copies of the 
m.ost popular sellers can be carried 
in stock. If a book is wanted and you 
do not have it in stock, it will take 
only a day or two for you to order it 
from the publisher and have it on 
hand. 
* * * 
In addition to carrying a stock of 
books, you should have the publish- 
Directory Section Index—Pages 4-6-8-10 
