26 
Me national nurseryman 
United States that agriculture would be profitable every 
year where it is, under present plans, unprofitable. There 
is a great army of people who belong to no one of our or¬ 
ganizations, farmer growers who, collectively, produce 
an enormous amount of stock that is year by year 
dumped upon the market and which depresses prices and 
disarranges all of our plans. While this is true, there is 
little question but that the growers who regularly attend 
our association meetings produce a very large majority of 
the stock used in the United States, and were it possible 
to thoroughly organize the leading growers of the coun¬ 
try, both the question of propagation and that of sales 
could be handled along decidedly better lines than has 
been true of the past. There is little doubt in my mind 
but that we have produced more stock in the past than 
has been good for us and that every grower, without ex¬ 
ception, has been plunging rather than operating along 
conservative lines. 
Over Production 
I again ask the question, what is conservative propaga¬ 
tion, and answer by saying, the growing of any number 
of trees and plants which we may find a sale for at pro¬ 
fitable prices. When the season comes to plant, we plant 
all the stock we can buy on June 1st, time, regardless of 
many conditions that enter into the case and very often 
with little thought of our probable needs. Following out 
this thought brings us face to face with another phase of 
the question which cannot be reckoned with far in ad¬ 
vance. A policy that would be conservative one season 
would be ‘ plunging” another, for conditions which gov¬ 
ern the sales end of our business and which, as before 
stated, constitute a question so closely related that you 
cannot separate the two, render the question almost im¬ 
possible of solving. Each of us is, to a marked degree, 
governed by local conditions. For illustration: last sea¬ 
son I dug some quarter of a million peach and practically 
my entire growing was sold at good prices while this sea¬ 
son, with one hundred thousand peach, I am, unless the 
north takes them, left with peaches to burn. The reason: 
the southwest, in which section my principal business is 
had, is depressed and distressed because of the condition 
of the cotton market, our one money crop. Cotton, mid¬ 
dling basis, which sold in 1913-14 for 13 cents, is bring¬ 
ing the present season 6 V 2 and 7 cents. Last year the 
people of my section had money and spent it, while this 
year they are in miserably hard shape. These questions 
enter largely into the question of demand, and demand 
governs practically all questions. While this is true, we 
have not done as well as we might have done. 
I believe with all my heart that every man should be an 
optimist, but if ever there were a set of fellows who over¬ 
worked the principle of optimism it is the nurserymen. 
Somehow or other, certainly without any reason, he gets 
it into his head that whatever he grows he will find a sale 
for. I call to mind one poor fellow who purchased a car 
load of peach seed when he only needed about twenty- 
five bushel, buying to supply Texas nurserymen who had 
already bought, individually, more than they needed. 
When in conversation with him I asked what he was go¬ 
ing to do with the purchase he answered, “Plant ’em, by 
gosh, and bull the peach market.” That “Bull” butted 
him off the bridge the following season. Another man 
with no experience, no established business, no money, 
nothing whatever except youth and optimism, was going 
to plant a million roses and thereby get rich. And he 
would have accomplished the purchase had not several of 
the large wholesale growers written to just the right 
parties in the southwest in regard to the reliability of the 
man. I use this illustration to show the “wild cat” 
methods in vogue in growing nursery stock over the 
country generally, which method is encouraged by the 
wholesaler who has stock to sell. The rule has been, buy 
anything we can buy on a credit and sell to any one who 
will take our stock. Is there a remedy? First, I want to 
say that much of this “wild cat” business in propagation 
would be stopped if credit was not so cheap. I am not 
ready to say that all lines of credit should be recalled, but 
I do say that draft with bill lading attached, where such 
policy should govern, would curtail the planting of mil¬ 
lions of treestocks which go into irresponsible growers 
hands, depress prices, and glut the market of the legiti¬ 
mate nurseryman. I had occasion a year or so ago to go 
GREEN NURSERY CO. 
Garner, N. C. 
We offer a general variety of MULBERRY 
TREES at the lowest wholesale prices. % Write 
for our trade lists and let us send you r samples. 
Griffith’s Surplus 
Grapes Currants Gooseberries 
Agawam Elvira Cherry Houghton 
Catawba Green Mt. Fay Downing 
Champion Green Early Milder 
Concord Lindley Black Champion 
Diamond Moores Black Naples 
Salem Worden Lee’s Prolific 
This stock is graded to the highest standard and 
guaranteed right. Can ship on short notice. 
Send in your want list. 
R. B. GRIFFITH, 
FREDONIA, N. Y. 
WE OFFER 
Spring 1915 
General Line of Nursery Stock 
200,000 Dwarf and Standard Roses: Perpetuals, 
Chinas, Polyanthas, Climbers, Teas, Hybrid-teas, etc. 
Ampbelopsis, Wistarias, Ivies, Hydrangeas, Horten- 
sias, Magnolias, Ivies, Laurels, Aucubas. All varieties and 
Sizes of Conifers. 
50,000 California Privet, 4-6 feet, also Golden Privet. 
500,000 Rosa Canina Briar Seedlings, etc., etc. 
Ask for General Catalogues. 
BUYL BROS., “The Greatest Nurseries” 
Cherscamp - - - Belgium 
Please address all letters at: 
Buyl Bros. Nurseries, Hotel “De Zwaan” J. van den Hemel, 
Sas van Gent, Holland. 
