THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
.?99 
THE NURSERYMAN’S SERVICE 
An Address by J. R. MAYHEW, Waxahachie, Texas, Before the Southern Nurserymen’s Association 
at Mont Eagle, Tennessee. 
Mr. President,.Ladies and Gentlemen: 
A few days ago I received a communication from your 
worthy secretary inviting me to address you on this occasion, 
and very kindly suggesting that I choose the subject upon 
which I should speak. A delegation of gentlemen once 
waited on a banker friend of mine in my home town, inviting 
him to address our business club. After getting his consent 
they asked: “Judge, what subject shall we assign you on the 
program?’’ His answer was, “Gentlemen, the subject of 
my address is unimportant because,’’ said he, “I make the 
same address on all subjects.’’ I find myself pretty much in 
the same situation as was my friend, making the same address 
year after year before our association meetings. It would 
have mattered little whether our secretary selected my sub¬ 
ject or whether, as he elected, he left the subject open. 
My friends, I am glad to be in attendance on this the six¬ 
teenth annual meeting of the Southern nurserymen, a privil¬ 
ege I have not enjoyed as often in the past as I desired, and I 
assure you I appreciate the opj)ortunity of talking to you 
today. Having been reared in this section of the country, 
my heart is especially wann and my feelings tender in sympa¬ 
thy and love for the splendid people of our dear old vSouth- 
land. I will not be criticised for saying that within the 
borders of our splendid Southland there have always lived 
the bravest and truest men, the ])urest and most beautiful 
womanhood to be found on earth. There is something in the 
very atmosphere that bids the -sons and daughters of this fair 
land be true. The very mountains which lift their majestic 
crowns above you and bid you “Lift up mine eyes unto the 
hills from whence cometh my strength.’’ The trees in their 
majesty and beauty speak of the wonderful possibilities in 
plant life an example to man to be big, true, and beautiful in 
character. God has endowed this beautiful land with a 
bounteous hand, and who knows what an influence this proves 
in the lives of men ? I realize as I look into your faces that I 
am talking to true and good men, men who are in the main 
measuring up to the opportunities that come to you day by 
day, and if you were not you would be unworthy of the 
heritage of this goodly land. 
Coming over here I began to think on some suitable 
subject for this address and could think of nothing better to 
talk to you about than the nurseryman’s service to humanity. 
Service the True Gauge of Greatness 
Man’s worth is not measured in the dollars he has gathered 
to himself, neither is it a safe criterion to measure man’s 
worth by the honors he bears, for property may be inherited 
or gains ill gotten, and honors are sometimes unworthily 
bestowed. There is but one correct rule to gauge man’s 
worth, a rule suggested by that greatest of all Teachers two 
thousand years ago, a rule that has [never and will never be 
improved upon, the rule of service. The man who is worth 
most to the world is the man who gives most Sentiment? 
No. Happiness is the goal of every human heart and the 
only road to happiness is through service. Go ask the great 
men and women of our illustrious past, and without a single 
exception they tell us that true contentment is found only in 
service to others. 
The time was, and to some extent yet is, that that family 
who could trace its lineage farthest back boasted of “blflc 
blood,’’ and this has been more especially true of the peo])le of 
the South than any other section. The question was, who 
are your kinspeople? We are today asking an entirely 
different question, i. e., what can you do? Shall we condemn 
the old regime as a whole? To my mind reverence for the 
traditions of the South are suggestive of many virtues, for 
that man who feels that royal blood courses through his veins 
strives to live up to that high mark of virtue obtained by his 
fathers. 
I love to look into the face of the man who believes himself 
the peer of kings. I love to sec the glow of pride in the e3^cs of 
men and women as they recount the deeds of valor of their 
fathers. Then, I love to see them go out into this beautiful 
world and, through loyal service to their fellows, prove tliein- 
selvcs worthy sons and daughters of a noble ancestry, for 
service, may I repeat, is the true gauge of greatness. 
In the men before me today I see men, not rich as the 
world counts riches, but men some of whom have grown gray 
in service to their fellows, and therein truly great men. In 
the particular line of activity in which you are engaged the 
possibilities of service to the world arc great beyond com]iari- 
son. With no intent to disparage other useful occupations, 
the service rendered the world by the merchant or banker is 
menial in comparison to yours. Oh, he may make more 
money, and the chances arc that he does, and he may be able, 
because of this fact, to ride in high speed automobiles and go 
gaits that you cannot go, and I might add that you should 
not go, but, in comparison of the service he renders the 
world, he is not in the same class. 
‘Some of the Things you are Giving the World 
There is not a student of economics but that realizes the 
influence of the aesthetic upon the lives of the young and, to 
some extent, upon the lives of the old. Surround the child 
with the beautiful things of life and you create within that 
life a love of the beautiful and the good. Withhold from that 
life the beautiful things of the world, and that life becomes 
dwarfed and its tendencies criminal. Had you ever thought 
that every tree, rose, shrub, or plant that goes out from your 
nursery goes out to bless humanity and proves an influence 
for good in the lives of others? Not for a day or a year, but 
so long as that plant lives. The world is coming to a realiza- 
