THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
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to you or your canvassers that apples are worth 4 cents 
each only. This has been brought about by two methods, 
either of which is subject to condemnation and neither 
has been very profitable to those who have perpetrated 
the injustice on the trade. I refer to the broadcast dis¬ 
tribution of wholesale prices and to the advertising of cut 
prices in our current agricultural, hoiticultural and family 
papers. 
This is why only about 2 per cent, of the canvassers 
for retail (consumers’) orders can make a living out of 
their business. This is why the majority of retail sales 
are made on commission by a class of salesmen who 
spend part of their time at other business and who can¬ 
not, from the nature of the case, become well-posted and 
efficient salesmen in ours. Nurserymen owe a duty to 
canvassers, they have not been protected, and here again 
it is a fault of the growers themselves. 
Again, we all know that a large quantity of a commod¬ 
ity in sight has a depressive effect on the market prices 
of that particular commodity and other collateral stocks. 
A surplus of corn means a low price not only for corn, 
but of oats, etc. The presence of 2,500,000 ounces of pig 
silver in the vaults at Washington, with no information 
as to what is to be done with it, keeps the price of silver 
down to cost of production. 
Our growers are doing all they can to keep a big stock 
in sight. Can the effect on prices be different than it is, 
and will not low prices be the rule as long as advertisers 
proclaim as they do, in circulars and advertisements, that 
there are millions on millions of trees seeking a market ? 
If ten advertisers offer 10,000 hydrangeas each, does it 
not appear that if ten growers have 100,000 and I have 
20,000 that I did not advertise, the prices must go down 
at once below cost of production. 
Advertisers do themselves an injustice if they use large 
figures to catch the eye of consumers. If consumers 
alone were to see these big numbers the matter would be 
effective and possibly a benefit, but, ye advertisers of 
large surplus, remember that there are others who have 
these same things to sell, possibly more than you, and 
beware of the results. 
Some of your readers will remember, years ago, in the 
councils of the American Association of Nurserymen the 
futile efforts of some of the larger buyers of the West to 
get reports on the quantity of trees, particularly pears and 
cherries ready for market and which were mostly con¬ 
trolled by the eastern growers, and at that time were 
mostly bought by the West. New York growers natur¬ 
ally failed to make full reports on quantities because they 
knew that large lots could be reported and that prices 
would naturally drop. For this same reason we have 
noticed that the western nurserymen who now grow the 
bulk of cherries in the United States, do not place on the 
records of the A. A. N., the quantities they have to offer. 
Buyers are said to be sharper than sellers, but we are 
hopeful that the change above hinted at, together with 
a careful consideration of some of the foregoing com¬ 
ments, may have a tendency to brace up the depressed 
features of the nursery business. A. 
NURSERY CATALOGUES. 
I am pleased to find that you give appreciative notice 
of the nursery catalogue of Samuel Moon, of Morrisville, 
Pa. It is the best that has come into my hands this year, 
and is particularly to be commended for a point which 
you do not touch. Mr. Moon has made an effort to 
bring his names up to date, and in conformity with the 
best authorities. He has done this with more success 
than have some others who profess to be immaculate. I 
live nearby Mr. Moon, and know his love and enthusia-m 
for his work, and can say tha' his stock is as interesting 
as his catalogue, and I visit it often This being so, he 
will pardon me if I express a hope that he will give his 
catalogue another overhauling next year, and see his way 
to expurgate synonomy entirely. We, in this country, 
have no use for obsolete terms ; we are not so conser¬ 
vative as are the dictionaries, and synonomy is not only 
misleading, but tiring, and a waste of labor and ink. 
Laburnum should not be Cytisus ; Sassafras should not 
be Laurus; Magnolia purpurea will scarcely stand. 
Pru nus should precede Persica ; Salisburia should be 
dropped entirely, so should Sorbus, and Abies Canadensis 
we are told won’t do at all now-a-days. Pseudo Tsuga 
is also the polite thing for A. Douglasii, and Picea for 
A. polita. Then Picea Smithiana should be P. Morinda. 
Retinospora is now old-fashioned, and should only be 
found in the smallest of small type, until we are all edu¬ 
cated to drop it out completely. Prunus must be written 
for all the plum and peach sections, and Diervilla, as Mr. 
Moon says, must take the full place of the other name. 
Ihenitis perfectly horrid to call a verbenaceous plant 
like Caryopteris, a Spirea. 
Pavia also must be dropped, and parviflora must be 
substituted for macrostachya. Bignonia ought not to 
show its face—not even to the Moon catalogue. Puera- 
ria Thunbergiana is longer to write and harder to remem¬ 
ber, but more exact, we are told, than Dolicnos. Passi- 
flora-ccerulea isn’t hardy, but P. incarnata is, and will 
make flowering growths every summer where Mr. Moon 
lives. I am not sure but some others of those from the 
Mexican vicinity might do so too if they were tried. 
In perennials such names as Eulalia, Funkia, Hyaciti- 
thus, Imantophyllum and Tritoma must certainly be 
attended to, and give place respectively to Mischanthus, 
Hosta, Galtonia, Clivia, (a name that must have worried 
the priority apostles) and Kniphofia aloides. Then 
finally that handsome plate isn’t Yucca gloriosa, but 
Yucca recurvifolia seemingly. Finally, as I pointed out 
to my friend a few days ago, Gordonia lasianthus is the 
“ loblolly bay,” not G. pubescens. 
Now: don’t any of you think I am carping at Mr. 
Moon, for I am not; I am simply making it easy for him 
to make his catalogue just about the most perfect issued 
in the United States. I wouldn’t write this to you if I 
thought any of you would do a thing but chaff my 
friend into continuing his excellent work, and it might 
be consistent if you would do as well as he, before you 
chaff. 
