THE NATIONAL NURSERYi\rAN 
57 
Maloney Tiros. & Wells Company, of Dansville, N. Y., 
have purchased the Fred Harder farm in the town of 
Sparta, consisting of 150 acres which is to he used for 
I)ropagating trees. 
This is on the upland at an elevation of 1500 feet and 
considered I)y nurserymen who are ac(}uainted with it, as 
one of the best farms in this part of the countiy for grow¬ 
ing trees. It joins the farm which we now own. This 
gives us al)out three hundred acres of tlie finest kind of 
upland. 
The American Nursery Company, 149 Broadway, with 
its branches, the F. & F. Nurseries, Springfield, N. J., and 
the Bloodgood Nurseries, Flushing, N. Y., has adopted a 
policy of paying the same dividend on its wages account 
as on its capital stock, and announces that this will be 
its settled future policy. 
V. L. Beyer, horticulturist and manager for the Mis¬ 
sissippi Farms Co., for the past five years, and J. B. 
Campbell have established a nursery at Wiggins, Mis¬ 
sissippi, and have set out five hundred thousand Citrus 
trifoUatia on which they will bud Satsuma oranges. 
They will also carry a general line of high grade nur¬ 
sery stock. 
Miss Dorothy Perkins, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. 
Cicorge C. Perkins, of Newark, New York, was married 
January 27th, to Mr. E. B. Estabrook, of Germantown, 
Pa. Miss Perkins’ name has been made very familiar 
to the horticultural world by the popularity of the well 
known climbing rose, raised and introduced some years 
ago by Jackson & Perkins Co., and named in honor of 
Mr. Perkins’ daughter. 
PERTINENT REMARKS ABOUT PRICES 
By D. R. Hanford 
National Nurseiyman, Hatboro, Pa. 
Gentlemen:— 
Your gentle reminder received. To get along without 
the National Nurseryman would be—well, maybe not 
impossible, but ’twould be so blame close to it that there’d 
be no fun in it. We enclose our check herewith. 
We have been much interested in the articles regard¬ 
ing the practice by certain firms of quoting wholesale 
prices indiscriminately, and if there is anything that 
hasn’t been said against such a custom, we’d like to say 
it. It is not only unjustified and inexcusable; it is un¬ 
fair to all parties concerned, for it gives the customer a 
wrong impression of values and a strong prejudice 
against the fellows who are asking a fair, reasonable 
price for their stock; besides which, in the long run, it 
does the seller no good. 
We would like to suggest that the firms guilty of this 
practice be reported to your magazine as fast as discov¬ 
ered, and that their names be published under an appro¬ 
priate heading. It seems to us that such a stunt might 
go far toward discouraging this evil. 
And while we’re talking prices, don’t the prices some 
of the fellows are retailing at make you wonder if they 
have any idea at all ol what it costs to do business? If 
we can’t sell at a profit, what’s the use of selling at all? 
If we can’t break even on our costs, and realize a sub¬ 
stantial profit besides, let’s find out where the trouble is 
and correct it. 
If it costs ten cents to produce a certain item, we aren’t 
making 200 per cent, profit when we sell it at thirty 
cents. How much of our thirty cents do we spend in 
selling it? The selling expense, and the overhead ex¬ 
pense, is just as much a part of the cost of that item as 
the first cost, and in a majority of cases, it will be found 
that the first cost is by far the smallest cost. 
Suppose our sales expense amounts to thirty per cent 
of the selling price. That means that of the thirty cents 
we get for our tree, we spend nine cents in selling it. 
Field of Phlox on the De Kalb Nurseries, Norristown, Pa. 
Suppose our total office and over head expenses amount 
to ten per cent of our total sales; we must then add ten 
per cent of our thirty cents, or another three cents. 
Now our tree has cost us ten cents plus nine cents plus 
three cents, or twenty-two cents, leaving us a net profit 
of eight cents—twenty-six per cent of our selling price; 
and the chances are that if some of us were to change 
these percentages to correspond with our books, we’d 
find our margin of profit so much less than this on some 
items that it would make us sit up and take notice. 
Let’s do a little figuring before we have occasion to 
regret it. The whole trend of everything at this time is 
upward. It is costing all of us a good deal more to do 
business today than it did a few years ago, and it is high 
time we realized tlnit our stock is worth a fair price. 
We can get it, and we’ve got to get it, or suffer the con¬ 
sequences. 
