THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
95 
he believes, as did his father, that the secret of success in 
the nursery business is a very simple matter, after all, if one 
will only do three things, but it is essential that those three 
things should be done thoroughly: First, grow your stock, 
and good stock, economically; second, sell it and at a profit; 
third, collect your money. And then success is pretty certain! 
Stanley H. Watson gives his whole attention to the agency 
department; he is an old agent himself, and can sell as many 
as any, and believing that the bulk of the nursery business is 
done through traveling salesmen, he looks after this important 
department himself. While directing the boys, he finds time 
to carry a plate-book himself now and then. He is well known 
and is considered very popular. He says it is a good idea to 
get out and shake hands with customers. That is the way to 
keep them. And the Watsons do keep them. Last January they 
filled an order for one of their customers who first bought 
trees from them in 1867; he is one of many. Several of their 
agents are sons of former agents; and in the list of ex-agents 
who have in former years sold Watson’s trees one can count 
members of the state legislature, county and district judges, 
and several who have become prominent in national politics. 
The local county judge is an ex-agent. The Watsons expect 
to find one of them president yet. They have nearly one hun¬ 
dred agents at work this year, including salary, commission 
and local agents. Nearly all their trade is through agents, 
besides, of course, a good office business. 
Stanley H. Watson enjoys the distinction of being probably 
the youngest proprietor of any large nursery business in the 
Union; he certainly is in Texas, besides having the oldest 
nursery in that state. He is “less than thirty.” So is John 
Watson, his brother, who is general business manager. L. C. 
Watson manages the mail order department, J. H. Merrin is 
stenographer and I. B. Johns secretary. John Watson, after 
his return from the University of Texas, entered the nursery 
office, the work of which he directs. He supervises generally 
during his brother’s absence. Nursery-born and nursery-bred, 
the Watson brothers ought to be and they are nurserymen. 
Their teacher was an acknowledged authority upon matters 
pertaining to horticulture in Texas, and they believe, as did 
their father when he went there forty years ago, that no section 
of the country can equal the immense resources of that state. 
With the development of those resources the growth of the 
nursery business must go hand in hand; every new farm 
opened means trees; every new home improved means flowers; 
and all of it means a great deal to the nurseryman. 
Many of the northern people have no idea of Texas. It is 
vast; one could build a Chinese wall around the state and 
could find everything within its borders necessary to life and 
comfort. However, a Chinese wall is not the sentiment of 
those people; they are too cosmopolitan for that. 
The Watsons have adopted as their motto Admiral Dewey’s 
famous words at the battle of Manila bay: “Keep cool and 
attend strictly to orders.” Orders are what the nurseryman 
wants. 
L. G. Kellogg, Ripon, Wis. —“Enclosed find draft for $1 for 
National Nurseryman. Can not do business without the journal.” 
J. Van Lindley Nursery Co., Pomona, N. C., July 24, 1899— 
“ We regret that we had overlooked our subscription to the National 
Nurseryman. We do not want you to let the paper lapse, as it is 
a good trade paper. We would like to receive it weekly instead of 
monthly.” 
CORNELL’S COURSE IN FORESTRY. 
A year ago Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., secured 
30.000 acres of woodland in the Adirondack mountains near 
Axton, N. Y., for the exclusive use of her forestry department. 
This land has been divided into a number of sections, and 
several seed beds have been laid out, in which have been 
planted over 1,000,000 small trees of different variety. Pro¬ 
fessor John Gifford, recently elected to the chair of forestry at 
Cornell, and Professor Roth, of Cornell, have been in these 
sections inspecting the woodland and directing the work of 
the surveyors, for six weeks. 
KANSAS FRUIT. 
Secretary Barnes of the Kansas Horticultural Society gives 
the following census of bearing fruit trees in the state: Apples, 
7 . 533 - 35 8 ; P ears - 191,660; peaches, 4,058,762; plums, 638,233; 
grapes, 6,354 acres. For the present crop he gives the follow¬ 
ing estimate: Apples, 47 1-12 per cent.; pears, 33 per cent.; 
peaches (only fourteen counties reported), 32 per cent ; plum , 
35^ per cent.; grapes, 70 5-7 per cent. He says: “Trees 
throughout the state are making vigorous growth, and those 
injured but not killed during the extreme cold weather of Feb¬ 
ruary last are fast recuperating, and bid fair to be heard from 
next year.” 
CROP CONDITIONS. 
The crop report of the United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture, dated August 1, states: There are but few states from 
which the reports as to the apple crop are not even more unfa¬ 
vorable than they were last month. Taking the fourteen states 
having 3,000,000 or upward apple trees in bearing at the last 
census, there was a further decline during July of seven points 
in New York and Tennessee, three points in Pennsylvania and 
Kentucky, four in Missouri, North Carolina and Maine, and 
six in Iowa. The condition in Illinois, Indiana and Kansas 
underwent no change, and there was an improvement of two 
points in Ohio and of three points in Michigan and Virginia. 
AMERICAN APPLE SHIPPERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
The American Apple Shippers’ Association in convention 
at Detroit on August 3, elected the following officers: Presi¬ 
dent, G. E. Richardson, Leavenworth, Kan.; vice-president, 
C. P. Rothwell, East Palestine, O.; treasurer, W. L. Wagner, 
Chicago; secretary, A. W. Patch, Boston. 
The report of the committee, compiled from reports of the 
association’s statistician, shows the following percentages of a 
full crop of apples ift each of the states named: Arkansas 60, 
California 75, Colorado 50, Illinois 45, Iowa 50, Kansas 45, 
Kentucky 25, Maryland 60, Michigan 45. Missouri 40, New 
England 25, New Jersey 75, New York 40, Nebraska 40, Ohio 
65, Pennsylvania 45, Virginia 65, West Virginia 60 Wisconsin 
35, Washington 50, Canada 65. 
A >ECESSITY. 
H. J. Weber & Sons Nursery Co., Nursery P. O , Mo.: “En¬ 
closed find $1 in currency, for which kindly renew our subscription to 
the National Nurseryman. We could not think of doing without 
it.” 
