88 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
WHOLESALE LISTS. 
Should they be Sent to Planters?—C. L. 
Watrous’ Paper before the American 
Association—A Hearty Endorsement. 
C. L. Watrous presented the following paper before the 
American Association at St. Louis last month : 
“ For two thousand years the man who killed his faithful 
friend and servant, the goose which laid for him a golden egg 
every day, has been held up to the derision and contempt of 
mankind. Nobody has pitied the despair his greed brought 
upon him. It has seemed to me for years that every wholesale 
grower, tempted to send his trade and surplus lists to planters 
ought to buy a copy of the old book and commit to memory 
the fable of the avaricious man and his goose. When the 
wholesaler sends his prices to planters in hopes of selling more 
stock he kills the business of the retailer, who by himself or 
his agents, through heat and cold and hunger and discomfort 
visits the scatte’ i homesteads and urges sales to planters. 
“ We usually have a round or two at cursing the tree peddler 
at our annual gatherings, and we feel very virtuous about it, 
of course. The tree peddlar is a sinner, beyond doubt—a 
poor miserable sinner—but without his labors half the nursery¬ 
men would have to quit business. This, you may say, does 
not seriously affect the public welfare. But something else 
would happen which would be of public concern and deep 
concern, too. Three-fourths or nine-tenths of the fruit and 
flower planting which is now done, and ought to be done, 
would cease to be done. Men will not buy unless you go to 
them. Every business has fallen into that habit. It would be 
a public calamity of serious proportions if you could starve 
out of business the host of small nurserymen and dealers who 
grow some stock, push sales to planters, and buy at wholesale 
whatever they lack. 
“ One wholesale list will spoil the salesman’s work in a 
neighborhood Probably only one man will buy, and he is 
liable to delay action till the season is past. If he buys the 
wholesaler has gained one sale, but he has done what he could 
to kill the goose which has brought him golden eggs, and 
would have continued to do so if the knife had been kept out 
of its vitals. 
• 
“ The wholesale trade cannot prosper unless the retailer is 
allowed to make a living. Tiie retailer can make sales among 
his friends and neighbors which the distant wholesaler can not, 
and the community is vastly benefited in the long run by their 
missionary efforts in procuring the sale and planting of whole¬ 
some fruits and stately trees and beautiful flowers. We shall 
never have too much of this work, but may easily have too 
little of it ; and, in spite of all his sins, the tree missionery has 
done a mighty work in turning the wilderness of our vast 
country into fruitful and smiling homes, fit for the health, the 
comfort, and the pleasure of the most luxurious people on 
earth. May his tribe increase ! 
“ It takes a vast expenditure of energy and personal magne¬ 
tism to persuade men to pay money for trees and plants 
which will bring no profit for several years, but the country 
needs the planting. A community without plenty of fruit and 
flowers is a community without homes fit to rear the best 
type of men and women. Homes adorned and enriched with 
abundant fruits and trees and flowers are the hope and the 
best heritage of the nation and the good the tree missionary 
does in making them what they are will live and bless the 
land long after his sins are forgotten.” 
At the conclusion of Mr. Watrous’ paper, A. L. Brooke 
said: “Prices of late are at such a point that something 
ought to be done by this association. The sending of whole¬ 
sale price lists broadcast is one of the worst things that could 
be done. I know how it is in the West. There is scarcely a 
planter in Kansas who has not a price list from New York and 
Illinois. The same list is sent to us. 
“This practice seems to me outrageous. It is nothing less 
than business suicide. As long as nurserymen will do this 
there is no protection for the trade. 
“ I heartily endorse all that is said in Mr. Watrous’ paper. 
We ought to drive it home. Each nurseryman here should 
upon his return try to get his price lists into the hands of pro¬ 
per persons. Why, I see right here in this hotel price lists 
which should be confined to the trade ; yet they are scattered 
about here broadcast. A farmer comes in here and secures a 
list, if he has not one already, and he gets his nursery stock as 
cheaply as do I.” 
Mr. Webster, Ill.—“ I endorse all that Mr. Brooke and Mr. 
Watrous have said. There are men in my section who never 
purchased at wholesale in their lives ; yet they have the whole¬ 
sale lists and we are asked to compete. 
“ Gentlemen, the way the nursery business is being con¬ 
ducted in this country is a disgrace to the fraternity.” 
A. C. Griesa—“ If we continue as at present, we shall have 
to sell as we buy, at wholesale” 
E. H. Bissell—“ In other lines of business those in the 
wholesale department generally display a sign ‘ Wholesale 
Only.’ Why should not firms who persist in sending whole¬ 
sale rates to planters be reported to this association ?” 
Mr. Webster—“ One remedy, it may be, lies in the power of 
the protective associations. Let them reconstruct their lists 
and cross off many of the names.” 
Mr. Brooke—“ I move that this convention by a rising vote 
heartily endorse the sentiments contained in Mr. Watrous’ 
paper.” 
The motion was adopted, all present rising to their feet. 
CALIFORNIA COMMENT. 
Leonard Coates, the well-known nurseryman of Napa, Cal., 
writes as follows to the California Fruit Grower: 
“ The Nurserymen’s National Convention is now (June loth) 
assembled at St. Louis. The lait census gives the capital in¬ 
vested in the nursery business in the United States as approxi¬ 
mating $54,425,669, and the total number of nurseries at over 
4,500. It is a pity that California is not represented at. this 
convention. Far better would it be for us to be more in touch 
with the craft east of the Rockies rather than continue a sort 
of pseudo-friendship which frequently but veils real enmity. 
Because our environments differ is no reason why we have not 
much in common. Orchard fertilizers, cross pollination, and 
many other vital questions have been much longer combated 
there than here, and the nurseryman, as everywhere, the 
pioneer and instructor in horticulture, should be familiar with 
all these things.” 
