Tire NATIONAL NURSERY:\rAN 
405 
iiig any goods lo a customer llial would not, to the best ot 
our knowledge, please and satisfy him. 
We did not look at the present any more than the busi¬ 
ness exigencies forced us to. by some miraele our heads 
stayed above water while we spent every energy estab¬ 
lishing a reputation for good seeds and fair dealings. We 
knew' that w ithout such a reputation ultimate success was 
impossible. 
Despite all the dillieulties we went through with, there 
was never a doubt of ultimate success. In later years it, 
has seemed to me to he the cause of much failure in the 
business w orld, a lack of self-confidence and a lack of full 
belief in one’s particular business proposition. 
Advertising in one form or another is an absolute ne¬ 
cessity to mail order sueeess, and adveilising needs to be 
studied just as carefully as the growdng of stocks. Mail 
order advertising must he absolutely truthful, yet con- 
cessful firms a constantly increasing use of more and bet¬ 
ter illustrations. 
Scores of nursery catalogues come to the writer’s desk 
each year, and I am amazed at the general poor quality of 
them and the lack of illustrations. People like to see what 
they are going to get, and the lack of proper illustration 
ami descriptive matter indicates a lack of appreciation on 
the part of nurserymen of the A. B. G.’s of adbertising. 
Our new^s])aper advertising has always been incidental 
to the catalogue and mostly devoted to inducing prospec¬ 
tive customers to send for the catalogue which carries the 
story of everything we have to sell and the prices, prices 
inducing delivery at his postoffice or R. F. D. box except 
on heavy seeds reejuiring express or freight shipment. 
It is our aim to spend in advertising in all forms an aver¬ 
age of about 15 per cent, of our gross sales. In good busi¬ 
ness years excess of sales may bring it as low as 12 per 
Red Pine 3-year Transplants in Foreground Two-year Seedlings — 
Left Background One-Year Seedbeds Under Screens—Right 
Background. North Eastern Nursery Co. 
vineing. It must he concise, because printer’s ink costs 
much money. It must he in such a simple language that 
the uneducated man may read and understand. 
Our dependence in advertising has been largely in our 
catalogue, two editions per year, due to the fact that in 
our Southern territory there are two distinct planting sea¬ 
sons. Our w inter or annual catalogue, 600,000 copies, 96 
pages, 3 cents postage per copy, brings us the heavy 
s|)ring business. The summer and fall catalogue, 300,000 
copies, 56 pages, 2 cents postage, finishes out the year. 
In catalogue making w e aim to make a picture hook ol 
it, for our experience is that pictures sell the goods. This 
is true of otliei* lines than seeds, and if you w ill make a 
study of catalogues you w ill note in the catalogues of suc- 
cent., hut our allow ance is 15 per cent. This covers news- 
])aper and miscellaneous advertising, the catalogue and 
postage on the catalogue. So far as w^e can learn this per¬ 
centage of advertising expense approximates that of other 
seed houses. 
Without advertising mail order business of any kind 
cannot he successfully done. It must he done on a basis, 
however, that one can hack it up by the goods the order 
is filled w ith and the service you render your customer. 
Our experience is that there is no profit in first orders. It 
is the rej)eat orders year after year that afford profits. 
Two things we are dead set against. The first is the 
sale of goods by traveling agents that we have no control 
over as to the representations they make to the prospective 
buyer. We have no solicitors on commission or othcr- 
wise. One of our salaried men from the house travels 
