302 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
THE KANSAS NURSERYMAN IS UP AGAINST IT 
AGAIN 
Editor National Niirseryinaii, 
Dear Sir:— 
You will remember my writing you, recently, setting 
forth a number of useful stunts that could be pulled off 
with a Cadillac Auto. The writer saved many a dollar 
last fall by hauling loads of trees, seedlings, etc., behind 
the auto. Just recently we pulled off a stunt that helped 
materially in balancing the account. 
A short time ago the writer’s youngest son and a 
friend started out for a little ride before taking “Dad” 
down to the office. They were coming hack on a beautiful 
stretch of road and I suppose were hitting up a pretty 
lively clip. Just as they reached the crest of a hill, a 
buggy loomed up in front of them well to the left side of 
the road. They barely had room to i)ass on the left and 
were preparing to shoot by. The woman driver jerked 
the horse suddenly to the left, which prevented them from 
passing. It was either a question of smashing into the 
buggy and killing the occupants or sw^erving sharply to 
the right and taking chances on upsetting. The boys 
eboose tbe latter and as you will see from tbe photo en¬ 
closed, they upset and did a good job of it too. How¬ 
ever, in passing the buggy to tbe right they caught the 
top and right wheel of the buggy. They snatched the 
seat off the buggy and set the four occupants down in 
the middle of the road. An old lady had two ribs broken 
and the other three occupants were badly skinned and 
shaken up. 
The writer has just finished paying several hundred 
dollars in claims and doctor bills. 
Just tbe day before I left for the convention, a friend 
persuaded me to take out some indemnity insurance. 
When the accident occurred a few days after my return, 
I had forgotten all about the insurance, but, believe me, 
I was very glad to be notified that I had some. I am now 
strong for indemnity insurance. As far as the Cadillac 
is concerned, I had no collision insurance and when I 
came to figuring the new parts that were required and 
got to .‘f^iOO.OO I quit figuring and the auto is still in the 
garage unrepaired. 
The two boys were riding in tlie front seat and were 
thrown into the tonneau and fortunately for them, each 
landed under a rear door. The backs of the seats held 
part of the weight of the car off them, otherwise they 
would have been killed. If you will examine the photo 
carefully you will see how much room there was under 
the door. The boys were badly skinned up, but are now 
out of the house and all right again. 
When the accident occurred, the top of the car was 
up. If you will turn the photo up side down, you can 
see better how much of it was left. The wu’iter is now 
driving a “flivver.” 
Yours truly, 
L. R. Taylor & Sons. 
SYSTEM 
There is nothing quite so profitable and satisfactory to 
a business as a well adapted system for handling detail 
and there is nothing quite so expensive and foolish as 
one that is used for system’s sake. 
Due to the changing conditions, the nurseryman must 
necessarily do eveiything possible to handle his business 
in tbe rusb seasons. Green help is quickest taught to 
follow a simple routine both in office, packing shed and 
on the grounds, and the temptation is great to overload 
the business with checks, routines and methods that re¬ 
tard rather than facilitate. 
There are no ready made systems that will fit every 
business, each one has to work out his owm, and here 
is wdiere the manager can show^ his wuirtli. If the office 
boy forgets to send the mail off' in time to catch the five 
o’clock train through being assigned to some other work, 
it is not always wise to delegate some other employee to 
check up his work to see that it does not occur again. 
It may not. 
If a piece of correspondence is lost and disrupts the 
office for an hour or so, it is not always profitable to in¬ 
augurate an elaborate system to prevent such an occur¬ 
rence in the future. May be the system will take an 
hour a day to work it. 
If there is a loss of about six dollars’ worth of tools a 
month out on the nursery, it is not profitable to spend ten 
dollars a week in wages to have a man check them as they 
come and go from the tool house. If you expect to get a 
full day’s work out of a man or woman, do not overload 
with elaborate time sheets, and reports, unless they are 
really indispensible. 
Systems grow like weeds and are just as likely to 
choke out efficient work as weeds are to choke out the 
plants. 
It may be the business has reached a point where it is 
no longer feasible to fill the order from the original so 
that a copy must be made to send out into the nursery. 
It only takes a little more time and paper to make a car¬ 
bon copy as well so that one can remain with the corres¬ 
pondence and be there to refer to should inquiries come 
from the nursery or packing house in relation to it. A 
little later it will be found a carbon copy would be useful 
so that the other department may be getting up their sec¬ 
tion of the order at the same time. 
Ry now the packing clerk decides he ought to have a 
copy so that he can tell when the order is complete and 
be better able to get the order shipped on time. The 
system is growing. The billing clerk needs a copy with 
prices attached, and maybe a copy ought to be sent to 
