58 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
yon say to him “ I will not accept these orders,” and 
“You are dismissed from my service ?” Not always. 
You sometimes meekly join in the laugh at the expense 
of the supposedly ignorant granger, who is not there to 
enjoy the fun, and who, while open to the charge of 
ignorance, is rapidly acquiring experience which is suffi¬ 
ciently expensive to be exceedingly valuable in future 
transactions with the genus salesman. Oftentimes a 
mild reproof is administered and the agent goes forth in 
his picturesque tour of falsehood and misrepresentation, 
expecting his work to lie along the same lines, and that 
the orders will be taken knowingly and wittingly that 
contracts made cannot be kept. 
Has there ever been a really undesirable article 
catalogued When the Transcendent crab and the 
Flemish Beauty pear are catalogued, is the information 
added, that they are peculiarly subject to blight ? Why 
not ? Because it will stop sale. Let the other fellow 
find that out by trying same as you did, is the catalogue 
maker’s rule of faith. 
Why not state this tendency, and farther, that in 
many localities no other apple or crab will ever fruit, 
except the Transcendent, and the certain result will 
follow that you will be short on Transcendents. 
The apple planting world is an old one, and pretty 
much up to snuff and not fooled as often as one sup¬ 
poses. General rules apply to all situations. “The 
greatest study of mankind is man.” The Navajoe 
squaw weaves from good honest wool and warp a 
blanket that holds water. The man that predicates 
success upon a foundation of falsehood, simply invites 
certain disaster. How long a time does it require to 
produce from the seed a merchantable apple tree ? 
About two and one-half years will round out and de¬ 
velop the good two-year-old tree, too short a time to 
warrant the sale of undesirable varieties which crawl into 
orders under cloak of that infamous clause that ought to 
open prison doors to those who use it, “the substitution 
clause.” We are personally known to him who on 
receiving a catalogue with lOO sorts of apples, and 
when persuaded to buy, concludes his order of loo trees 
by selecting one of each kind. To such the substitu¬ 
tion clause is a righteous punishment, but when it comes 
to making the “punishment fit the crime,” and the 
orchard planter, who has a fixed market for Duchess 
and Wealthy, purchases accordingly, and of your agent, 
and when the trees fruit they develop into entirely dif¬ 
ferent sorts, worthless in quality, it becomes time to 
read the riot act to those engaged in such procedure. 
How is this work to be avoided ? By propagating, by 
cataloguing, by selling, by substituting fewer sorts. 
How few of us are proud of poverty except it be on 
“assessors day.?” A. issues a 32-page catalogue; B. 
goes him 16 pages better; we double them both, and a 
100-page work of art goes out to the world, to encom¬ 
pass which innumerable sorts and varieties are included, 
worthless to orchardists and all, except it be the amateur 
experimenter. These catalogues go to the agent, and 
are studied with the customer, and the direct result is, 
varieties are sold that can’t be supplied from your stock, 
and you must either substitute or buy from your neigh¬ 
bor and give him a chance to substitute. 
Why not revise our catalogues to match plantings on 
the same principle that tomb stones ought to bear such 
inscriptions so that when the occupants respond to the 
last trump, they may not be tortured with the idea that 
for all these years they have been occupying the wrong 
pew .? When the catalogue is issued, star a few of the 
best leading sorts, and advise the agent to confine sales 
to these. Give him a few good arguments to store in 
his retentive memory. When he sends in orders, scan 
them closely and note if he is obeying your orders as to 
varieties sold. It not, drop a few postals to his customers 
advising them that you can’t supply the goods called for 
in their order, but with his permission, you can supply 
other sorts as good or better. Select for such treatment 
orders containing sorts such as you know he is booming 
and that cannot be supplied, and you will soon break up 
a disposition to run counter to your wishes. In other 
words, ^a/ce a little interest in your ozvn business. 
And now, Mr. Tree Peddler, with whose hopes of 
endless joy I seem to be charged, please stand up. 
The first reformatory step to be taken will be a change 
of name, from tree peddler to nursery salesman. Allow 
no man to apply the obnoxious name to you, either in a 
business or jocular sense ; it is undignified and 'degrad¬ 
ing. You are not on a par with the peddler, who is ex¬ 
pected to balance his pack by an abnormal development 
of the nasal organ, nor are you on the same level as that 
astute individual, who for a consideration of rags, the 
older the better, stands ready to McKinleyize the country. 
These are both estimable gentlemen, but we can get our 
‘ ‘ hand me downs ” and the shining receptacles for the 
lacteal fluid all the same if their race be incontinently 
cut off; but half the joy of life would be lost were your 
peregrinations to be cut off, and the world thus deprived 
of lucious fruits, umbrageous foliage and lovely bloom. 
Yours is a high and noble calling, and no man can dese¬ 
crate it except you be a party to the transaction. If you 
cease to misrepresent your wares, act in a manly style, 
‘ ‘ do him not as others do you, but as you would wish 
to be done by,” you will find yourself quoted away above 
par in the bucolic mind. 
Surprise yourself by trying the first day out to con¬ 
fine yourself to “ the truth, the whole truth and nothing 
but the truth.” • It won’t kill you, strange as it may 
seem, and it’s a candid fact that when they ‘ ‘ get on to 
you,” you can double your orders. Please do not inter¬ 
rupt me, either of you, by the remark, ‘ ‘ you do not 
know what you are talking about.” 
