298 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
one grower will be calipered at the crown, while from 
another grower they will be calipered six inches above 
the crown, which necessitates an endless amount of cor¬ 
respondence and ofttimes something decidedly more 
costly. In this connection, and in passing this whole mat¬ 
ter should be referred to a special committee, a higher 
grade of peach, plum, and apricot seems to be demanded 
in the south than in other sections of the country. 
(h) Standardization of agents’ contracts and our deal¬ 
ings with agents. To the member who deals exclusively 
wholesale, this is not a problem, but to many of us oper¬ 
ating with salesmen in the same territory we should at 
least come to a better understanding. What part of a 
dollar’s worth of sales in commissions justly belongs to 
the salesman, and when should said commissions be paid? 
The salesman is coming more and more to believe that he 
is entitled to the lion’s share, and his position is doubtless 
the result of the keen competition among nurserymen for 
his services. Without in the least abridging the right of 
contract, would it not be possible for us to come to a bet¬ 
ter understanding among ourselves concerning this ques¬ 
tion? Furthermore, should not every one of us respect 
the rights of every other member of this Association and 
quit overbidding for the services rendered by salesmen? 
I think, furthermore, that every member of this Associa¬ 
tion should file with the Secretary the name of every un¬ 
desirable salesman at least once a year, and oftener if 
necessity arises. A member desiring information con¬ 
cerning an applicant would thereby get the same depeud- 
ahle information concerning salesmen as is possible to¬ 
day from the Protective Association on growers and nur¬ 
serymen generally. If. when this information is avail¬ 
able, a member writes a contract with a salesman listed 
as undesirable, it should be grounds for dropping him 
from the Association. 
There needs to he a house-cleaning here. Would not 
some such plan as I have suggested purify the sales end 
of the business? Would it not get rid of a lot of “bum” 
tree peddlers, and would it not save a lot of us money 
who gamble on retail sales? 
(c) Standardization in advertising. I do not know 
that I can make myself thoroughly understood when I 
attempt to define a standard in advertising. The adver¬ 
tising clubs of America are hammering away on this 
question, and to good elfect. The thought I hope to get 
before you is that our advertising should be constructive, 
should be honest, should ring true of a service that is 
competent, not something cheap, but something valuahle. 
Pick up any one of a dozen farm journals during the 
planting season and you will hecome thoroughly sick 
over the character of advertising some people are doing. 
“First class peach or apple trees at 2c each” is a lie. 
The firm who writes the advertisement, the paper that 
receives and prints it, and the public who reads it, know 
that it is a lie. I believe our advertising should stand 
for par plus, furthermore, that we should look with dis¬ 
favor on that character of advertisement carrying prices, 
whether at one price or another. Some day after we 
learn the worth of co-operation, we will advertise co¬ 
operatively, and will thereby get results and a character 
of publicity we shall not he ashamed of. I favor a plan 
which will force out of this organization any member 
who is responsible for an advertisement, whether issued 
publicly or privately, that is not one hundred jier cent, 
truth. Futhermore, in the matter of advertising, it is 
a colossal blunder for wholesale lists to be so cheap that 
after the hona fide nurserymen over the country have been 
supplied a few lists are left on hand for distribution to 
“commercial orchardists” planting a dozen trees or more, 
town site developers, etc., etc. To he sure, there are 
some honest mistakes here, and I am of the opinion that 
most of us favor a restricted mailing list for our whole¬ 
sale trade lists, hut we have been too careless and some 
of us have been too anxious to sell stock wholesale. There 
is a way to safe-guard the matter of wholesale trade lists 
going to people who are not entitled to wholesale prices, 
and it is up to us to find that way and walk therein. The 
nurseryman who knowingly places his wholesale trade 
list in the hands of a retail customer is unworthy of mem¬ 
bership in this Association and should forfeit it. 
(d) Standard in Ethics. Put on the soft pedal here? 
By no sort of means. The highest known standard is 
none too good for the nurserymen of America. One of 
my good friends suggested a subject for this program 
which should have been included, “The Esprit de Corps 
of the Nursery Business.” That subject goes to the 
heart of the question. The spirit, the high purpose of 
men associated together in a common cause. It is 
worthy of our best thought, and, my friends, as much as 
it shames us to admit it, we need to clean house here and 
the cleaning should be from cellar to garret. We know 
there are policies practiced by some in the nursery bus¬ 
iness which only the search-light of constructive criticism 
will correct, and we ought to get busy and get the job off 
hand. House cleaning is a most desjiicable job, and 
when in the nature of things it has to he done, we take to 
the woods and leave our wives to face the issue alone, 
but it is a better place to live after the ordeal. A bill is 
introduced in congress named “misbranding” and the 
news drives us to desperation. Why? “Get busy with 
your Congressman and Senator” is the cry from one end 
of the land to the other. IIow many titues we have 
found ourselves seriously embarrased endeavoring to 
compose letters in opposition to bills that, to say the least 
of it. had some merit, and which were intended to correct 
irregularities which have brought the business into dis¬ 
repute. A bill which provides that salesmen, before 
offering nursery stock for sale, procure a “clean health 
certificate” from accredited authority, gives us business 
hysteria. Why? We do not want anybody “nosing” 
into our private affairs. Are there good and sufficient 
reasons? This is an executive session, the doors are 
closed and nobody is present except us, no report of what 
I say will be printed, hence I can say these things. T 
am not scolding, neither am I preaching, but I want you 
to get this, there is going to be a house-cleaning and the 
issue is squarely up to us. We can do the job if we will, 
and we should, hut it is goiii" to be done and if we refuse, 
it will be done for us. Indiscriminate substitution is a 
crime, and so long as practiced will degrade and debase 
the business. Just so long as salesmen without char¬ 
acter are given credentials to sell our products, just so 
long will we continue to be embarrased. These are only 
exceptional cases, to be sure, and in the main the ethics 
of the nurserymen are not inferior to the ethics of men 
engaged in other lines of business. “Ye are clean, but 
