88 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
nurserymen have, no doubt, justly eoinplained about 
in reeent years. Wholesale nurserymen itb whom I 
have eorresponded are just as anxious to have this mat¬ 
ter elear«Ml up as are the retailers, because all realize it is 
a eommon cause. I believe a committee should be ap¬ 
pointed whose duty it would be, at least to roughly define 
trade prices, wholesale prices and retail j)rices. The 
As.soeiation may lind it desirable to have a committee de¬ 
finitely define just what is the meaning of “trade price 
list”—“wholesale prices”—“retail prices.” 
A great deal of trouble and misunderstanding, as well 
as the cut-throat competition and cut-throat prices seems 
to he due to the misconception in many quarters as to just 
what a wholesale price list is, and what a trade price list 
is, and what persons are entitled to each. This matter 
will he discussed later on in our program, and it is one of 
the most important subjects to come before the Associa¬ 
tion. 
Prices: There has been even more agitation on the 
subject of prices this year than heretofore. Increased 
prices are absolutely inqierative, and considering the 
cost of labor, raw materials, and the increase in all over¬ 
head expenses I feel that every man of this and every 
other nurserymen’s association is convinced that prices 
must he materially increased. 
Tariff: The desire for increased tariff by a number 
of nurserymen will, perhaps, he somewhat affected by 
the recent decision of the Holland Nurserymen’s Organi¬ 
zation to prohibit any member of that Association from 
shipping nursery stoek to the United States for auction. 
This, of course, will not affect members outside of their 
Association, but it will, no doubt, greatly relieve the sit¬ 
uation. If the members desire any tariff action the mat¬ 
ter should receive attention so the Tariff Committee may 
understand the desires of the Association. 
Propagating Stock: In order to prepare for the fu¬ 
ture, the members of this Association, as well as the 
American Association, and the individual nurserymen of 
this country should, as far as they can, endeavor to fos¬ 
ter the production of our raw" materials in this country. 
It is simply a question of “safety first.” In spite of 
everything w"e can do, it may he that w e w ill find it ab¬ 
solutely necessary to depend on this country for all of 
our propagating stock. Of course, the difficulty is that 
even should an absolute prohibition against all importa¬ 
tions he put into force by Congress and the seedling indus¬ 
try thus forced into existence. Congress w ould also have 
the power and might at any time repeal that law" and 
again allow" the importation of stock. This, of course, 
would practically wipe out any investments made in 
these plantations. 
Membership: It has been suggested, and I believe the 
time will come in the near future when this i\ssociation 
will find it desirable to promulgate certain regulations 
and requirements before nurserymen become members, 
and that they be lived up to in order to retain membership 
in this Association. MY have all come in contact w"ith 
many classes of business men and in spite of all they say 
about the tree salesman and the nurseryman I am con¬ 
vinced that there are no more black sheep among us than 
in any other business—perhaps not so many—and while 
w"e are on this subject I think this Association and every 
Other nurseryman’s association should vigorously remon¬ 
strate, through their proper officials, when any unfair 
statements, striking at the basic honesty or integrity of 
the nursery profession, are brought to light. 
For instance, I understand that the following statement 
appeared in a paper wdiieh is supposed to be fair and 
square and w hose aim is to insure fair dealings to all its 
readers. This w ell-knowm paper in brief makes the fol¬ 
lowing statement: “Misrepresentation seems to be the 
principle stock in trade of nurseiy agents. If they told 
the truth few" w"ould sign orders, etc.” This same paper 
warns its. readers to avoid tree agents and seed agents, 
telling ridiculous stories, etc. There undoubtedly are 
unscrupulous tree agents, dishonest tree agents, and tree 
agents who tell ridiculous stories, but they are in the 
vast minority, and the nurserymen of today are just is 
anxious to have honest salesmen and agents as this same 
paper is to have fair, honest statements in its columns. 
It is obviously unfair to the nursery profession to pick 
out one flaw and use it to paint the whole profession 
black. It wmuld be just as unfair for the nurserymen to 
spread throughout the land Jo the farmers that they 
should avoid reading farm papers because some editors of 
farm papers are crooks and because the crooked editor 
of a leading farm paper dowm in Indiana was sent to the 
penitentiary the other day because of some fraudulent 
subscription scheme. 
It reminds me of a story a friend told me the other day 
—supposed to be a true story.—One of his salesmen 
went in to call on a banker in a large towui. The banker 
threw up his hands in horror and said he would have 
nothing to do with a tree agent, that they were all a bunch 
of scamps, and ought to be in the Penitentiary. The 
salesman in question happened to be a clever chap and 
he came back at the banker straight from the shoulder. 
Said he “I’ll bet you -$25.00 that I can go over here to the 
penitentiary (there w"as a penitentiary in the town) show 
you tw^elve bankers in the penitentiary for every tree man 
you show^ me;” the banker laughed and realizing the ab¬ 
surdity of his antagonism to tree agents in general (per¬ 
haps on account of reading such assertions as mentioned 
above') turned around and bought an order—a good sized 
one—from the Agent. 
Some nurserymen, of course, do not believe in selling 
through agents; some do not believe in selling through 
catalogs. No matter what sales method we believe in, 
any mud thrown at one hranch of the nursery profession 
is bound to stain anv one even distantly connected with 
that profession. We must not only endeavor to raise 
the morale of the nursery profession (and we must do 
that). but we must make the public know and believe that 
w^e are doing it, and that thev can confidently do business 
with us no matter whether they do business through our 
representatives, our catalogs, or what not. And we 
should severely censure any attempt by any one in or 
out of the nursery trade, who makes statements or insin¬ 
uations that strike at the basic honesty of the profession. 
Handling: Another subject that seems to warrant 
more attention from the nurserymen is the handling of 
nursery stock from the time it is ready to dig until it is 
placed in the hands of the planter. Briefly, it seems ap¬ 
parent that a great many nurserymen are too careless 
