20 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
The National Nurseryman 
Established 1893 by C. L. YATES. Incorporated 1902 
Published monthly by 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN PUBLISHING CO.. Inc. 
218 Livingston Building, Rochester, N. Y. 
Editor .ERNEST HEMMING, Flourtown, Pa. 
The leading trade journal issued for Growers and Dealers in 
Nursery Stocks of all kinds. It circulates throughout the 
United States, Canada and Europe. 
Official Journal of American Association of N urserymen 
AWARDED THE GRAND PRIZE AT PARIS EXPOSITION , 1900 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
One Year in Advance.$1.00 
Six Months .75 
Foreign Subscriptions, in advance.$1.50 
Six Months .$1.00 
Advertising rates will be sent upon application. Advertisements 
should reach this office by the 20th of the month previous to the date 
of issue. 
Payment in advance required for foreign advertisements. Drafts 
on New York or postal orders, instead of checks, are requested by the 
Business Manager, Rochester, N. Y. 
Correspondence from all points and articles of interest to nursery¬ 
men and horticulturists are cordially solicited. 
Photographs and news notes of interest to nurserymen should be 
addressed, Editor, Plourtown, Fa., and should be mailed to arrive not 
later than the 25th of the month. 
Entered, in the Post Office at Rochester, N. Y., as second-class matter. 
Rochester, N. Y., January, 1915. 
May each one of our readers in par- 
THE ticular and every nurseryman in 
EDITOR’S WISH general, take the New Year and 
FOR THE make it as happy as possible. 
NEW YEAR May the collective Mr. Nurseryman 
during the present year come into 
the full realization of what he is, and what he is here for. 
May each separate part of the hig Mr. Nurseryman 
largely forget his own individual self and be co-operative 
to the limit of his capacity in growing and marketing. 
May the theory that might is right and competition is 
the life of trade give place to the conviction that in unity 
and co-operation there is strength and little waste and 
cut throat competition is not the best way to develop a 
market. 
May the struggle for bread and butter not be so hard 
this year as to make him forget that one well grown 
specimen creates more desire for nursery stock than a 
hundred cripples either growing or on the brush pile. 
May the law maker’s good intentions be well directed 
and not too experimental; when practical knowledge 
has given the answer. 
May the collective Mr. Nurseryman realize that his in¬ 
dividual parts are continually returning from whence 
they came so the newer ones should be many and well 
trained to take the place of those gone; so that our splen¬ 
did profession may in time take the rank to which it 
rightly belongs in the economy of the nation and the 
world. 
A man’s attitude of mind or the way 
THE ATTITUDE he looks at a thing will usually de¬ 
termine his opinion and action. 
From time immemorial the nurserymen’s attitude in of¬ 
fering his plants to the public has been much the same. 
A list of botanical names of the plants he has to sell. It 
is true these lists have been wonderfully diversified, in¬ 
cluding common names, descriptions, illustrations until 
the catalogue has assumed the dimensions and cost of a 
work of horticulture and become a tremendous expense 
to the business; and while sweating under the expense he 
sees no relief because the attitude is still the same based 
on the fundamental promise that his chief salesman must 
be a list of his goods arranged in an alphabetical manner. 
It will not hurt him to stop and ask himself the ques¬ 
tion. Is this the best way to offer my goods to the public? 
Does the tinker, tailor, candlestick maker and florist do 
the same thing, if not why not? If the nurseryman needs 
a suit of clothes does he send for a catalogue with every 
known make of cloth and cut from which to select? Is 
he not more likely to say I want a serge, worsted or broad 
clofh of a suitable cut for a given purpose. In other 
words the tailor’s one view is not his goods, so much as 
the customer’s needs. 
The nurseryman’s attitude is the reverse, he puts more 
thought on presenting his goods than to the needs of the 
purchaser and yet the average man is much more capable 
of selecting a suit of clothes for himself than he is to se¬ 
lect plants from a botanical list to decorate his ow r n 
grounds. 
Why not take a different attitude toward the subject of 
advertising our goods, and view the subject with the slant 
of vision that will only see the customer’s needs? 
The wholesale list going to the trade of course is not 
under consideration; hut that vast undeveloped market 
consisting of home ground of 25 feet and up. Who 
does not know a shrub from an evergreen or a paeony 
from a shade tree when seen in a nurseryman’s cata¬ 
logue ; so what is the use of sending them one and expect¬ 
ing it to he a good salesman. 
To the nurseryman born and raised in the business this 
will seem an extreme view, but if he wishes to prove it 
let him engage an advertising man, who has never ex¬ 
ploited plants of any kind and watch him flounder, or at 
the best copy some other man’s work, or what is better 
still, do a little retail selling himself without pictures to 
customers who have never bought before. 
He will soon perceive there is a wide chasm between 
the nurseryman’s catalogue and the customer’s mind, that 
needs to be bridged. Educating the public up to the nur¬ 
seryman’s catalogue is a long and expensive job. Maybe 
the customer and goods could he brought closer together 
by giving less time and money to catalogue lists and more 
to the customer’s needs. Tell him what he wants and 
show him what he wants rather than what you have for 
sale. 
P. Owerkerk appealed from a decision of the collector 
of customs who assessed 25 per cent advalorem on a 
shipment of Rhododendrons on the ground that a portion 
of them were Rhododendron ponticum and should have 
been admitted free as evergreen seedlings. 
The Board of United States General Appraisers refused 
to distrub the finding of the collector of customs on the 
grounds that part of the consignment were grafted plants 
and dutiable and he had a right to assess all at the high¬ 
est rate applicable to any of them, no attempt having been 
made to separate the consignment into dutiable and non 
dutiable sections. 
