240 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
lo this committee the desirability of recommending to the 
members of this association, if you please, the necessity 
of curtailing plantings whenever its investigations sug¬ 
gested that t here was an over-production along any given 
line. I would ask that they go further in the discharge 
of their duties, and at a certain season during the year, at 
that particular time when the best results would accrue, 
that they, through their secretary-treasurer, issue an ad¬ 
dress to every member of this association, the aim being 
to stimulate prices and eliminate cut-throat methods 
which have been too true of the past. And then, gentle¬ 
men, I have the hardihood to stand before you and plead 
that the recommendations of your executive committee 
be the basis upon which your wholesale price lists shall 
be issued, and, I would plead further, that after you have 
issued said trade lists that you stand or fall by the prices 
printed therein. I believe that the time has come in the 
history of the nursery business when, if we are to re¬ 
tain our own self-respect, to say nothing of the other fel¬ 
low’s. if we are to believe in our business to any marked 
degree, we should have some true regard for the worth 
of the products of our toil. I believe that when our 
wholesale trade lists are printed there should be at least 
a semblance of uniformity in prices, and that said prices 
as printed should represent, in a measure at least, the 
price at which our stock should be sold. Nowhere else 
in the broad field of industrial effort is there so nearly 
chaos as is true, in this particular regard, in the nursery 
business. I do not want to be misunderstood as suggest¬ 
ing a combination of interests that would be in restraint 
of trade, of suggesting combination in prices that would 
subject you to a revision by the courts of the land. The 
printing of individual price lists is an individual matter, 
and should continue to be so. but what I am endeavoring 
to say is that there should be some uniformity of prices 
on the same commodity, whether vour trade list is issued 
in Texas or in New York. 
It is not my intention or desire to confiscate the time 
of every other man on the program for the morning, but 
I have just a word further, then, with the consent of the 
association, I want to present in detail the plan that I have 
referred to for your further consideration. In this con¬ 
nection. let me say that I am not a stickler for anybody’s 
plan, not even my own, and if there is a member of this 
association who has a better plan than I shall suggest, I 
will be the first to move its adoption. The plan that I 
have endeavored to work out for presentaion before you 
has in mind the welding together of the nursery interests 
of the United States in a bond of co-operation, and I be¬ 
lieve that only through lines of close co-operation will 
our best interests be served. I have endeavored in w ork¬ 
ing out his plan to keep before me the thought that, all 
other things being equal, if one of us has a commodity to 
sell or buy that his preference should very naturally be 
given to a member of the association rather than to an 
outsider. Furthermore, a tree or plant of a given grade 
should be w orth practically the same price over the coun¬ 
try generally, and when our trade lists offer trees and 
plants at a given price, and, in the course of events, we 
become during the season buyers rather than sellers. I 
believe that it w ould not be unfair to expect that w e give 
or take on the same basis. Now . if we can adopt and live 
up to such a plan, beyond any sort of question the com¬ 
modity that we are growing for sale will have a more 
stable value, and we, as the producers, will have a higher 
regard for our business. 
Graving indulgence and the consent of the association 
for the presentation of the plan I have referred to, I beg 
to be allowed to present in detail my plan for a ‘ Better 
National Association.” 
REJECTIONS 
Address by J. II. Dayton, Painesville, Ohio, before the 
Detroit Convention, June 25th, 1915. 
Telegram— 
April 18th.—Shipment of 10th at hand—not up to 
grade. Wire disposal, or w ill accept at one-half price. 
Letter— 
June 12th—Enclosed find check as per your statement 
of 1st, less -$15.87 for 75 peach, 25 pear, 38 gooseberries, 
16 roses and 8 maples. Your invoice of October 25th. 
Above stock w 7 as dead, damaged and crooked, w^e could 
not use it. 
Report— 
April 21st.—Received 435 Staymans, rejected 148. 
these are too large and do not match w r ell with our own 
stock, several of them are 1 inch or more in diameter. 
Received, 700 Baldwin, reject 235. 140 are under 11-16 
in., 22 crooked, 36 no roots, 37 root gall. Received 15 
Red Horse Chestnuts, reject 4; these have no self starters. 
Letter— 
June 15th—In response to your statement of June 1st, 
the shrubs and roses sent us last fall are all dead. They 
were carefully handled, and you know that w r e have been 
in the business a long time and know how to care for and 
force stock. As they were no good, w r e must decline to 
pay your bill and should be reimbursed for our loss of 
time, care and profit on sales. 
Any of the above sound familiar? What do you do? 
Send a credit memorandum? Order stock returned, 
which you know w ill be worthless when received, or so 
late in the season that you can only put it on the brush 
pile. Write and tell your customers, what they already 
know, that according to terms long established, all com¬ 
plaints must be made within five days after receipt of 
goods; that you are not responsible for loss or damage, 
after delivery of stock in good condition, properly packed 
to carrier at your station. That the trees, etc., had been 
carefully examined by a competent state inspector and 
no evidence found of scale, root gall, wire w r orms. hot 
air or perjury. That you shipped shrubs and roses from 
the same blocks, graded by the same men, to a great 
many firms who forced them all right and paid their 
bills promptly with no complaint or deduction. Do you 
mix in, with the above replies, according to the needs of 
your customers, blarney, sarcasm, appeal to reason and 
to common honesty, veiled and unveiled threats of refusal, 
and the terms of the law, and above all. the solemn fact 
that you need the money? Do you get a check back by 
return mail? If so. what w ill you take for copies of your 
letters, or a receipt as to how to write them? 
Are all rejections reported wrong? No—I care not 
what your facilities are. or how 7 sure you are that every¬ 
thing is labeled, graded and packed right, counts and re¬ 
counts verified, some errors will be made, some stock 
sent out that never ought to go, and when a letter or re- 
