Me national nurseryman 
249 
The word “credit" has any number of meanings. Tin- 
great Noah Webster delines it thus,—“Credit,—a trust 
given or received, expectation of future payment for 
property transferred, or fulfilment of promises given. 
Mercantile reputation entitling one to be trusted,—ap¬ 
plied to individuals, corporations, committees or nations. 
—as to buy goods on credit.” 
I have often wondered why it is that the nursery bus¬ 
iness cannot be conducted on the same line as any other 
commercial business—I find, however, that if you attempt 
to do so, you are pretty sure to “get in wrong” with some 
of your customers. 
For instance, if a new prospective customer w rites to 
you for a line of credit, and you know nothing of his 
financial standing or responsibility you would naturally 
feel justified in getting a commercial report on him. That 
is what you would do if you were a wholesale dry goods 
merchant. But try it in the nursery business and if your 
prospective customer gets wind of it he is highly insulted, 
and in all probability buys his stock from some one who 
is willing to “take a chance on him.” 
On the other hand, if you were in the dry goods bus¬ 
iness and went to a wholesale merchant to purchase a 
line of dry goods, almost the first thing you would say 
would be “Mr. Brown, I carry my account at the Traders 
National Bank, Oshkosh, and can refer you to Mr. Penny, 
‘the Cashier. I also refer you to James Muslin & Co. and 
the Silkaline Co., with whom I have done business for 
several years.” 
You would know that to open a line of credit, you 
would have to give good banking and commercial refer¬ 
ences and that before a bill of goods would be shipped to 
you, the references you gave would be looked into. Now 
why should a nurseryman look on this matter in any 
different light than a dry goods merchant? 
Here is an example. This spring we received a small 
order from a certain nurseryman, with whom we had had 
no previous dealings, but we knew he was alright and 
credit good. This order was acknowledged promptly and 
shipped five days after it had been received,—a Sunday 
intervening, so that there were but really four working 
days between the date the order was received and 
shipped. The day after the shipment had gone forward 
we received this letter,— 
“Gentlemen:—The enclosed copy of my letter to 
the Blank Credit Co. of this city will explain itself. 
Why didn't you send me an itemized bill, as re¬ 
quested, instead of writing to this credit company, as 
though the matter involved hundreds of dollars? 1 
trust there will be no further delay and that my order 
will receive prompt attention, or that you will inform 
me of its cancellation. If you don’t want to do 
business with us, we can't compel you to. 
Naturally this letter “riled” us a little, but we kept our 
temper and wrote him, pointing out his error and 1 must 
say he came back very nicely, explaining that since writ¬ 
ing us he had found it was not we who had written to 
the credit company, acknowledging his mistake and ex¬ 
tending full apology for his previous letter, and since 
then we have had some very pleasant and valuable cor¬ 
respondence with him. 
But why should he have lost his temper at the idea that 
we had investigated his credit ? Had we done so, it woe id 
only have been lollowing out the business lines of any 
commercial company. 
Here is another example ol credit seeking. A nursery - 
man sent us a list ol stock lor prices. We sent hiio quo¬ 
tations and in concluding our letter we said that “terms 
would be cash with order.” He sent the order and the 
cash and with it a letter, in w Inch he expresseed surprise 
at our terms, stating that he had bought from us on 
credit some years previously. W T e knew In- had, and w e 
(knew also that it was necessary for us to collect that bill 
through an attorney, and we were not now taking any 
chances on him. 
There are very many nurserymen w ho seem to have no 
thought as to the consequences resulting from a disregard 
of a good financial credit. 1 am well aware that it fre¬ 
quently happens, particularly during the past two years, 
that a nurseryman may not be in a position to meet his 
bills promptly when they are due, but I fully believe 
that in such cases, were he to write an explanation to his 
creditors they each and all would be glad to give him an 
extension of time. It is the utter disregard of an obliga¬ 
tion that irritates and results in a poor credit reputation. 
Then there is the nurseryman who writes you on the 
15th of July as follows:—• 
“Dear Sir—Your statement of.)uly 1st. amounting 
to $250 is received,—I cannot pay you now. as I had 
an opportunity, this spring, to buy 10 acres adjoin¬ 
ing my present nursery grounds, and 1 am short now . 
I will try and pay your bill after I make collections 
on next fall's sales.” 
If it were not ground he had to buy, his greenhouse 
boilers burst, or he got married, or his wife had twins, 
or some similar catastrophe occurred to make an excuse 
'to delay payment of his account. Now r why should a 
man expect another nurseryman to bear the burdens of 
his business extensions or misfortune's? 
But of all, I think the following is the limit: 
There is a certain firm with w hom w e had dealings for 
several years, always unsatisfactory, because of the dif- 
ficuty in making collections. Finally we had an inquiry 
from the firm for quotations, and in reply we wrote as 
follows:— 
“We have your favor requesting prices on certain 
stock and the quotations are enclosed herewith. 
We must say frankly that w e must decline to send 
you any more stock. We have been giving you 
credit now for several years past but in every case, 
the bills were not paid when due and only after 
much delay and correspondence, w ere w e able to 
secure notes from you in payment of the hills and 
some times it has occurred that you have not met the 
notes when due and the notes had to be renewed. 
We cannot do business on this basis, as it takes cash 
to run our business." 
Here is his reply:— 
“You may forward the stock quoted upon, for 
which I enclose check. I cannot see that you have 
really lost anything by our delays in payment, as 
when we gave you notes w e alw ays paid the interest 
and w henever they were renewed you did not have 
to put up the cash, simply endorse the notes for de¬ 
posit. 
