THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
or. 
CONSERVATIVE PROPAGATION 
Shall We Grow for Normal Demand and Eliminate 
Plunging? By J. H. May hew. Bead Before the 
Western Association of Nurserymen. 
W HAT is “Conservative Propagation?” Who, un¬ 
der our present methods, has the faintest con¬ 
ception of what “Normal Demand” is, and 
what constitutes “Plunging?” Our policy of gathering 
and compiling statistics, which would in a manner ans¬ 
wer these questions, is crude, in fact we have no such 
policy. Every fellow propagates as if he were the only 
grower in the country and he had a monopoly. This is 
one of the many problems that confront us in every day 
life, and life is made up of problems. No picture is truer 
of life than that old phrase “Life is just one darn thing 
lifter another.” As members of this and other similar as¬ 
sociations, we are wont to meet many times each year to 
discuss problems relating especially to our line of bus¬ 
iness, and very naturally the fellow who studies a ques¬ 
tion with an eye to discussing it believes, after going into 
it, this is the greatest of all our problems. 
There is no discounting the fact that our program com¬ 
mittee unloaded on me a gigantic subject, and while I ap¬ 
preciate the honor conferred, I am dreadfully afraid I 
shall be unable to say anything of much value to you. 
If it were possible to know, even approximately, what 
to grow, most of our problems would be solved, but grow¬ 
ing is just half the story. Closely related to the question 
of propagation is the problem of selling, so closely re¬ 
lated, in fact, that you cannot separate the two. It makes 
no difference how much or how little stock we grow, if 
we find a sale for our products we have grown conserv¬ 
atively. If, on the other hand, the selling end of our bus¬ 
iness is out of commission and if, for any reason, our 
stock fails to go, we are plunged into debt and despair, 
no matter how little stock we have propagated. Believ¬ 
ing the two questions, that of growing and selling, so 
closely related that they are in fact one subject, I shall 
feel at liberty to discuss the question assigned me from 
such point of view, having as much to say about market¬ 
ing as about growing. 
If it were possible to hit upon some plan whereby we 
would be reasonably certain of disposing of thegoodstock 
we grow at fair and reasonable prices, it would very 
naturally solve our troubles and give us profits where 
quite often we have losses. The nurserymen of the 
country maintain numerous organizations which are in¬ 
tended to promote the best interests of the trade, and 
while we are numerously organized, we plan individually 
rather than as an organization and work at cross pur¬ 
poses, of l imes, rather than along co-operative lines. We 
are organized for benefitting one another, and inciden- 
ally ourselves, but in the multiplicity of organizations, 
national, western, southern, Pacific, state, etc., there is 
confusion and lack of conservation of thought and action 
so necessary in maintaining a commercial organization. 
The leading nurserymen of the country are members of 
all these different organizations and loyal to them all. In 
view of a co-operative plan I shall suggest further on, I 
feel disposed to make a suggestion right here that per¬ 
haps many of you will not agree with me in, that fewer 
organizations would serve our business interests to de¬ 
cidedly better advantage provided there were certain 
needed changes made in the by-laws and constitution of 
our national association. I have been for years, as have 
you, a member of one or more of these associations, con¬ 
tributing of my means and time to all, and am loyal to all. 
hut I fail to see wherein the National Association would 
not be able to do all the work of all organizations more 
efficiently than has been true of the past. The facts in tin' 
case are, all our organizations promote a fine social at¬ 
mosphere, and to that extent are good, but when the tilin' 
comes to get down to the rock-bottom of our business 
problems and solve them for the good of all. we are not 
in the same class with other commercial organizations. I 
believe that our best interests would be served by concen¬ 
trating our money and labor in making the National Asso¬ 
ciation what it should be, changing the membership fee 
to, say. $25.00 or $50.00 per year, and with an executive 
committeeman from each state in the Union. 
But what has all this to do with the subject assigned 
me? Simply this, as I have already hinted, if we are to 
accomplish anything worth while in conservative pro¬ 
pagation and uniformity of prices, wholesale and retail, 
if any considerable number of our problems are solved, 
it will be through the closest co-operation, and the fewer 
organizations the easier this will be to accomplish. Co¬ 
operation is a beautiful theory but exceedingly difficult 
to put into practice, a nice thing to talk about but a hard 
think to work out. When we consider organizing the 
great number of nurserymen of the United States, we are 
confronted with the same problem that is true of the at¬ 
tempt to organize the agricultural interests of the coun¬ 
try. It is a foregone conclusion that if it were possible 
to thoroughly organize the agricultural interests of the 
“THE MONTHLY SUMMARY OF COMMERCE AND FINANCE” FOR OCT. 1914, GIVES THE FOLLOWING REPORT OF 
IMPORTS OF PLANTS, TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES. 
ARTICLES 
OCTOBER- 
TEN 
MONTHS ENDING OCTOBER— 
1913 
1914 
1912 
1913 
1914 
Quantity 
Value 
Quantity 
Value 
Quantity 
Value 
Quantity 
Value 
Quantity 
Value 
Plants, trees, shrubs and vines : 
Bulbs, bulbous roots, or corms, cul¬ 
tivated for their flowers or foliage 
All other.1 j ee "" 
Total. 
9,191 
133,217 
27 
254,676 
25,070 
284,008 
629 
283,143 
265,069 
1,455,910 
12,895 
1,033,288 
172,298 
1,556,597 
13,984 
1,139,198 
204,171 
1,857,161 
12,657 
1,145,952 
387,920 
567,780 
2,502,093 
2,709,779 
3,015,770 
