THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
they do, they should be soaked a while before planting. 
Sycamore, Lombardy Poplar, Silver Leaf and Carolina Poplar, 
Cottonwood, Catalpa, Weeping-willow, Blooming Willow, Box 
Elder, Cal. Privet, Crape Myrtle, Althea, Wisteria, Purple 
Lilac, and a number of other deciduous trees, shrubs and 
vines grow well in open ground, from cuttings. Roses can 
be grown by grafting, budding, cutting and layering, but I 
prefer the finer roses grafted on hardier stocks, as they make 
much stronger plants, finer roots and larger blooms. Ever- 
blooming roses usually have very weak roots. Prairie Queen, 
Seven Sisters, Manetta and some others are generally used for 
stocks. The cuttings of same should be put out in the fall, 
before they are injured by the cold, which will insure a perfect 
stand, and these can be budded very low in summer to pre¬ 
vent suckering so much ; or ground grafted in fall or winter. 
Or the roots can be taken up and grafted in doors. The cut¬ 
tings of some of these hardy roses can be used, for grafting if 
done before injured by the cold. All piece root rose grafts 
should be planted out when made, as they will not stand to be 
packed away any length of time. Grafts should be mulched 
in winter so as to prevent injury from cold as much as 
possible. 
I plant Cape Jasmine cuttings at any time during the sum¬ 
mer, in nursery row, where I wish them to stand. First, pre¬ 
pare the land well and open with a spade for cuttings ; leave 
the cavity open till well watered and then press the wet mud 
around them closely with the hands and shade with a twelve- 
inch plank by putting bricks under each end so as not to 
crush the cuttings, and hey can get plenty of air. If weather 
is very dry water once a week. In a few weeks plants will be 
well rooted and planks can be removed. Brush would answer 
in place of plank. Or, they can be grown in beds in the same 
way. Magnolias are grown from seed, which I gather when 
ripe, never allowing the pulp to dry on the seed, as the oil will 
penetrate and kill the germ. Put the seeds in water as soon 
as gathered and in one or two days the pulp can be washed 
off easily through a coarse sieve. Or, if seed are planted as 
soon as gathered, in damp earth, it will draw the oil out. 
They should be planted in a latticed house which gives a par¬ 
tial shade, as the hot summer sun is too severe on the young 
plants in open ground. Irish Juniper, Rosedale Hybrids 
grow very well from cuttings if put out just before the spring 
begins to open. Arbor Vitae are grown from cutting, grafting 
or from seed. Wild Peach are grown from seed or from 
suckers. 
HIGHER STANDARD OF AGENCY TRADE. 
The following address was delivered by C. C. Mayhew, 
Sherman, Tex., on “A Higher Standard of Agency I rade 
at the recent meeting of the Texas Nurserymen’s Association : 
The nursery business of this country is done largely through 
dealers, or agents as they are termed, though when we want 
to say real hard things about them and “ tickle the ribs ” of a 
part of our readers, we call them “ tree peddlers.” Whatever 
they mav be, salesmen, agents, dealers or peddlers, we are 
interested in them and are practically one of them. 
I do not remember ever reading any severe criticism on the 
“tree agent” or “tree peddler” but that I felt sure the writer 
was spinning his own yarn, and giving his own experience, 
sometimes slightly exagerated ; for the nurserymen who sell 
261 
their stock through catalogue, push their high-price “new 
creations ” exactly as the agent does his specialties, and offer 
varieties of equal, and usually more value, at one-half, one- 
fourth and sometimes one-tenth the price asked for their won¬ 
derful new varieties. 
Under our present system and present prices we are both in 
a manner excusable ; for to succeed, we must sell stock at 
good prices, and specialties are all that we can offer at good 
prices with the hope of sales. So, I see no use of abusing the 
agent for doing exactly what he is taught to do by the nursery¬ 
man’s catalogue. 
I believe that conditions will remain as they now are just as 
long as we practice our present system of cut-price business. 
Our standard stock is grown too cheaply, packed too 
cheaply and sold too cheaply for the nurseryman to succeed 
on strictly a high standard or method of business. 
I do not believe there is any other class of business men in 
the country who do not offer their dealers more protection, 
and extend to them more courtesies. 
Suppose a planter goes to a flouring mill for 1,000 pounds of 
flour—will they sell it to him any cheaper than his grocer 
would do? Certainly not. Or suppose he goes to the pack¬ 
ing-house for a can of lard—will they charge him the grocer’s 
price for it? Certainly they will. But suppose he wants five 
hundred or one thousand peach trees, and goes to the nursery¬ 
man, will he sell them for less than his dealer can sell them 
profitably? Why, he never thinks of his dealer. He some- ' 
times consults his wholesale list of surplus stock offered to his 
brother nurserymen, and quotes the stock to planter at one half 
a cent per tree above the prices named therein. Should he get 
this bill, it might amount to some $30, $40 or $50, but the stock 
will have cost him almost as much, or possibly more to grow 
it, but he thinks it is perishable stock—" if I don’t sell it I 
may lose it, and I can’t afford that.” 
The nurseryman may have a dealer whose stock account 
amounts to several hundred dollars each year, and on this class 
business he makes his living; still he will not protect the agent 
by giving him the same customary treatment that every other 
enterprise in the country gives its best customers. 
I don’t believe the output of the nurseryman (as long as it 
remains half as great as it is at present) can be sold without 
the agent, and I do think that he should be encouraged and 
protected in his work. I also believe that every time he in¬ 
duces a man, woman, or child to plant a good tree or plant of 
any description, he is that far a public benefactor. He may 
paint his pictures a little too bright in color, and lead them to 
believe that his stock is the only stock worth planting, and do 
various other things of which we do not approve, especially if 
he is selling some other fellow’s goods in territory that we 
think belongs to us. 
Still, he sells the goods, and so far has proven to be the only 
man who can sell them in quantity, and I believe we can help 
him (and ourselves as well) to reach a higher standard of busi¬ 
ness, by establishing a reasonable difference in the wholesale 
and retail prices, allowing him to make a legitimate profit on 
standard goods, thereby giving him the protection to which he 
is entitled. 
By so doing the agent would not be compelled to push the 
specialties, or rather he might make a specialty of the 
most valuable sorts whether old or new. I believe a fixed 
difference between wholesale and retail prices of say 25 per 
