THE NATIONAL NURSEUYMAN 
IMUCKS OF NUHSFUY STOCK 
Olio of llio iiiosi (lillioiill lliin^s for Iho mirsiMymaii lo 
do a I till* |)r(;s(Md tiiiio is to adjust, tlio prici's of his stock 
lo iiK'ct the immeiFiate present conditions. 
With prices of everytliing that enters into tlie cost of 
jiroduction and doing luisiness going up, up and up on 
the one hand, and the. restricted or at least uncertain 
demand on tin; otlier, it is (juite ;i prohlein to know just 
\\ hat to do. 
Tlie situation proves again what everyone knows, yid 
f(wv act upon, and that is, cost of production, jilus over¬ 
head, should l)c the basis of all prices. 
While admitting the dilliculty of determining costs in 
many establishments, analysis of any nursery price list 
w ill reveal the fact that prices are based on selling pos¬ 
sibilities, rather than cost probabilities. 
Kecent estimates for sujiplying a quantity of nursery 
stock, brought bids ranging from $1700 lo $20,000 on 
specifications that were very detailed. While admitting 
a sad lack of standard which wmuld allow for consider¬ 
able variation according to the way in whicb tlie stock 
had been grown, such a wide difference bolds the trade 
up to ridicule and demoralizes prices. 
Such a condition could not occur if the standards and 
grades were more definitely fixed and the public edu¬ 
cated to recognize them, so they would know' if they 
were buying firsts, seconds or culls, plus sei'vice wbicb 
would cov'er eflicient handling to get the stock to the pur¬ 
chaser in good condition. 
As it seems inqiortant for each individual nurseryman 
to arrive at cost of production, it would not be a difficult 
matter to find an average cost, especially if he grouped 
his plants according to the difficulty of propagation and 
raising. If this were done it would also do away with 
much individual pricing. 
There is no neial for a plant to vary but a fcw^ cents in 
the selling juice if the cost of jiroduction is the same. 
Take the shrubs for instance. They are readily 
groujied according to the time it takes to raise a sjiccified 
grade. Those such as the Cornus siberica, Hibiscus 
Deutzia, Forsythia, raised from hard wood cuttings, are 
such as make a 3 to T ft. shrub in two years with om^ 
transjilanting. 2. Tbose that are raised from soft wood 
cuttings. 3. Those that have to be layered. 4. Those 
that have to be grafted or budded and those raised from 
seed. The only variation necessary would be for novel- 
ti(*s or rare kinds diflicult to jirojiagate by any method. 
hlvergreens may be grouped in the same way. Fast 
growers from simmI and slow' growers from seed, so many 
times transjilanted at so much jier foot. The same may 
he said of thos(‘ raised from cuttings or graftc'd. This 
h'aves only tlu* rare and sjiecialties for individual jirices. 
Trees also lend themselves to the same grouping. 
Fast growers or soft wooded trees such as the Pojilars 
medium hard wooded, such as the Nonvay Maple and 
Hutton hall, and llu' hard wooded and slow growers like 
the; Oak and Ih'i'ch, at so much per inch ealip(*r al a li\(‘d 
luMght from the ground. 
TIum'c will always h(^ rare kinds, novelties, sjx'eially 
grown sjieeimtMis, I'le., for which llu* nursmyinaii may 
fix his own jiriec*, hut th(‘ stajih^s should have a lixed 
s'andai’d of (juality and size lo jirob'ct tin' nurseryman 
from the advimtitious grower. 
I’rof. L. II. Hailey, w riling in Seienei*. calls alliMilion lo 
Ihe fact that there is no jilaee in our botanical r(‘gisl(‘rs 
for cultivated jilants. It is jiossibh* that nurserymen, or 
those who comjiih' the catalogui's hav(‘ found a difficulty 
in jilacing in the jirojier jiosition some of tin; gardiMi races 
of Jilants. 
A good illustration of this is the Mi'chan’s Mallow Mar¬ 
vel, which is a hybrid betwinm Illblsrus coccinen, X mili- 
tarius, X moschutos, in other words these jilanls an* th(‘ 
jirogeny of the thrc'c distinct s|)(*cies, and form a raci* of 
garden plants that have no botanical classificalion. 
In listing botanically it is diflicult to know just w Iku'c 
to put them. The same might be said of the IhuMinit's. 
Phloxes, Iri.ses, Hoses and numerous other groujis that 
have been so cultivated and imjiroved so as to have' los| 
tbeir botanical individuality. It is true some of the cata¬ 
logues attemjit to grouji them as in the roses, umler llu* 
H. P. or H. T., and other families, but this is usually a 
makeshift arrangement at the best. 
Tbere is work here for some genius to comjiile a list 
of cultivated jilants, much in the same way that Asa 
Gray classified the indigenous jilants of America. 
SIIOHT FRUIT CHOP IN FNGLANl) 
According lo the Gardeners’ Chronicle, London. Ihe 
present year is jiroving ilsidf to Ik* one of the jioori'st 
fruit hanosts on naord. There is a very great shortage* 
and not enough to use uji meagre rations of sugar for 
jireserving. This of course, means great(*i‘ (h'lnand for 
American grown ajijiles and oilier fruits, as the ajijih* es¬ 
pecially is becoming one of the* re'cognize'd (‘sse'niial food 
jiroducts. 
The 32nd Annual Convention of the* Anu'i'ican Ceme¬ 
tery Superintendents was held at Ihe Powe'is Motel. 
Uochester, N. Y., Sejitember 11 to 13. Tin* following 
officeu’s were elected lo servi* for llu* (*nsuing y<'c*’: Pri's- 
ident, W. II. Atkinson, Trenlon. N. J.; Vice-Pri'sidenl. 
Henry Adams, Hoston, Mass.; Si'crelary-Tri'asuri'r. \\. 
H. Jones, Pittsburgh. Pa. 
The Convention for 1919 will be held in Cincinnati, O. 
OUH MISTAKF 
In our Sejitcmb(‘r issue we had a news note lo Hu* 
effect that James \\. Fraser. Hunisville, Ala., had hivn 
jiresented w ith a liltle baby girl. 
It seems our r(‘|iorter was all wrong. Inslead of a 
“jK'ach bud" we should havi* said a fulure |ir('sidenl. 
Somehow, wi* IVi'l that we don't have to apologizi*. as 
it is even betl(‘i‘ than first rejiorted. and from all accounts 
“Jim” is mighty jiroud of his fine little boy. 
