248 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
I hear some one saying that I am overlooking the 
economic law of supply and demand —that’s just what 
I’m not doing. 
Gentlemen, if I told each of you confidentially that 50 
of the largest apple growers had prepared careful statis¬ 
tics covering the supply and demand for the past five 
years and that these figures showed that west of the 
Rocky Mountains they had only one-third enough apple 
trees to fill last year's demand, that the Mississippi Val¬ 
ley showed twenty per cent, less apple trees than were 
actually sold any year in the last five, that throughout 
ithe East the supply was just barely large enough to cover 
last year's sales and that, on top of all this, one of the 
largest concerns in the country had recently raised retail 
apple prices ten to fifteen per cent, and the week follow- 
ling the raise had sold forty-eight per cent, more trees 
/than the same week last year—if you had a block of 
apple trees would you take five cents for them after 
I had told you all these things and you knew I told you 
the truth? 
If you received trade list from these fifty leading 
growers, quoting apple at not less than twelve cents 
would you still list yours at five cents? 
No, you would not—especially if you knew that those 
fifty men had access to accurate information as to the 
available supply, the number sold each year for the last 
five years and the general trend of the market. You 
would raise your price, sell more trees, have more con¬ 
fidence yourself in the worth of your own stock and 
create confidence with the planter. 
The basic principal involved is just this—lowering- 
prices does not increase total consumption of our pro¬ 
ducts in trade circles, and we all know low prices de¬ 
crease rather than stimulate purchasing by the planter. 
The American people in general feel that an article is 
worth what you ask for it. I wouldn’t pay $5 for a suit 
of clothes—I’d think it was either no good or second¬ 
hand. 
Let me cite a concrete instance. 
In one issue of a leading agricultural publication last 
winter there appeared about twenty nurserymen’s ad¬ 
vertisements—no less than fifteen of these advertised 
“Trees at half price.’’ 
Do you think reading that paper would tend to create 
a desire to plant trees, increase consumption and uplift 
,the business of the nurserymen in the eyes of the men 
who read it? Doesn’t it more likely create the impres¬ 
sion that nurserymen are a pack of fire sale criers and 
job lot peddlers? Gentlemen, it is false salesmanship. 
Actual worth, not price, is the foundation on which to 
build a successful business, or advertising campaign. 
The planter, as most of us know by actual experience, 
prefers trees at reasonable prices rather than trees that 
are too cheap—he is justly afraid of “Cheap Trees.” 
Rut what are we going to do about it? 
If we nurserymen, or even forty or fifty leading 
growers would trust each other a little more and try to 
po-operate long enough to supply themselves with the 
bare cold facts in the case—with the figures as to past 
sales and present stock—if this were done, they would 
be able to make prices consistent with the market and 
approximate cost of production—prices based on actual 
existing conditions. 
Wouldn’t this be better than a scale “Just a little 
below’’ some poor fellow’s who can't grow good trees, 
doesn’t realize that there are such words as “Cost of Pro¬ 
duction” and is as ignorant of supply and demand as a 
“Heathen Chinee?” I believe so. 
It’s illegal to “fix’ prices, did you say? Yes, not only 
illegal, but, in the nursery world, absolutely impossible. 
We don’t want or need any price fixing, it costs more 
to grow trees in one place than in another, and prices 
must vary more or less but we do want more co-opera¬ 
tion, more actual knowledge—and less blind ignorance 
<as to number of trees propagated and probable demand. 
Other lines of business and at least two associations in 
our own line have already instituted systems of records 
that are doing much good. The members of those bodies 
are at stated intervals required to report to the secre¬ 
tary the totals of the various items they are growing. 
Later on each member receives a copy of these com¬ 
bined reports. At a glance he can tell about what the 
-total supply of any item is—he knows who has a sur¬ 
plus to sell, or he sees who can probably use his own 
surplus items. 
Briefly, these statistics serve a manifold purpose—they 
show total available supply; bring buyer and seller 
together; and enable members to make prices consistent 
with the real state of the market. That this is coming I 
sincerely believe. When it does come to pass we will all 
have more trade, more money, more knowledge, more 
Confidence, and more self respect. 
CREDITS 
Read at the Detroit Convention, June 25th, 1915 by 
Thomas B. Meehan, Dresher, Pa. 
S OMETIME since a prominent member of the Asso¬ 
ciation said to me, “Its a good policy, when you 
get up to talk, to make some excuse for talking. 
It gives the impression that you are doing it only because 
the importance or seriousness of the situation demands 
that you speak your views and not because you want to 
do so.” 
Our friend Burr, who is Chairman of the Program 
Committee, wrote me in great distress a few weeks ago, 
that he had five minutes time unfilled on that program, 
that he had used every endeavor to get some one who 
knew something to occupy that five minutes, but without 
success, and as a last resource, he implored me to do so,— 
and that is my only excuse for taking up your time. 
I am somewhat in the same position as a lady down in 
Delaware, who lived next door to a public school. One 
day she went to the principal and said “Mr. Possom, I 
know you have troubles of your own, and I am not dis¬ 
posed to add to them. I have kept quiet when the school 
children threw dead cats on my front porch, called me 
disrespectful names and tied a tin can to my dog’s tail, 
but when one young cub told me to go to the devil, I 
came straight to you.” 
Brother Burr told me to talk on “credits.” I have been 
/trying to get at the bottom of that very subject for a good 
many years and am no nearer a solution now than I was 
ten years ago, so I feel that I am particularly qualified to 
talk to you about it. 
