38 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
The National Nurseryman 
Established 1893 by C. L. YATES. Incorporated 1902 
Published monthly by 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN PUBLISHING CO., Inc. 
Hatboro, Pa. 
Editor .ERNEST HEMMING, Flourtown, Pa. 
The leading trade journal issued for Growers and Dealers in 
Nursery Stocks of all kinds. It circulates throughout the 
United States, Canada and Europe. 
AWARDED THE GRAND PRIZE AT PARIS EXPOSITION, 1900 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
One Year in Advance .$1.50 
Foreign Subscriptions, in advance .$2.00 
Six Months . $1.00 
Advertising - rates will he sent upon application. Advertisements 
should reach this office by the 20th of the month previous to the 
date cf issue. 
Payment in advance required for foreign advertisements. Drafts 
on New York or postal orders, instead of checks, are requested by 
the Business Manager, Hatboro, Pa. 
Correspondence from all points and articles of interest to nursery¬ 
men and horticulturists are cordially solicited. 
Photographs and news notes of interest to nurserymen should be 
addressed, Editor, Plcurtown, Pa., and should be mailed to arrive 
not later than the 25th of the month. 
Entered as second-class matter June 22, 1916. at the post office at 
Hatboro. Pennsylvania, under the Act of March S, 1879. 
Hatboro, Pa., February 1922 
FREE One of the most popular subjects for 
REPLACEMENT discussion at the meetings of Nur¬ 
serymen’s Associations is that of re¬ 
placement. Shall a nurseryman replace free, plants that 
die, after delivering them to the transportation company 
or the customer in good condition? 
Around this controversy has been waged many a 
wordy war. Many resolutions have been made in tbe 
negative, but still the question is just as unsettled and 
every nurseryman adopts his own standard of action re¬ 
gardless of any expression of opinion as to what is 
ethical or otherwise. 
Apart from the question of whether it is a good bus¬ 
iness practice or not, whether it works to the detriment 
of the trade or otherwise the fact remains that any nur¬ 
seryman can make any agreement with his customer he 
may see fit. 
He can quote his products on the nursery, packing ex¬ 
tra or delivered to his customer and there is no reason 
why he should not quote them planted and established 
in their new quarters, if he thinks it good policy. 
Trade customs and usages make moral laws that the 
average business likes to observe. Unfortunately the nur¬ 
sery trade has never adopted a uniform policy on the 
subject. 
The average nurseryman feels that after he has de¬ 
livered his goods in good condition he is entitled to pay¬ 
ment, after that it is up to the purchaser. The purchaser 
does not take kindly to this view and it is very difficult 
to educate him. At the recent meeting of the Pennsyl¬ 
vania Nurserymen’s Association, the Moon Nursery, 
Morrisville, Pa., which is one of the oldest in the coun¬ 
try, quoted an entry from their books made 150 years 
ago, showing the customer expected a free replacement 
of failures and the nurseryman made it. 
In transactions between nurserymen the custom is 
fairly well established, that goods are at the buyers risk 
after being shipped, but even in the trade, there are few 
nurseries that would not make some concession in the 
event of a serious loss, although they like to feel it is 
from a motive of generosity rather than an obligation. 
Between the nurseryman and tbe consumer it is hard¬ 
ly likely the rule, “that the nurseryman’s responsibility 
ceases upon the customers receipt of the goods, ’ will 
ever become popular with the consumer. 
Such a rule or custom could only become of general 
adoption by a very large majority strictly adhering to it, 
and this is not likely to occur because each nursery 
feels that it can make its own terms of sale with its cus¬ 
tomers. 
If we may draw conclusions from other lines of bus¬ 
iness and the tendency of the times, responsibility for 
successful transplanting will be more and more loaded 
upon the nurseryman’s shoulders. This may not seem an 
equitable tendancy towards the nurseryman, and indi¬ 
vidual large nursery firms that are strongly intrenched 
financially may try to combat it but service is the key¬ 
note of modern merchandising and the nurseryman that 
can give the consumer the most satisfaction will be the 
one that will get the business. 
What the trade should do is to get together and draw 
up a code of ethics based on fairness to itself and the 
consumer recognizing that good business is based on 
service, not on monopoly, and that a sales transaction 
must benefit both buyer and seller to be a good one. 
We are too ready to jump to the conclusion that plants 
are like other merchandise, they differ in this respect, 
they have life which is endangered in transferring from 
one place to another more than any other kind, they are 
not only perishable but require distinct knowledge and 
cooperation by the buyer to make them of value to him, 
too often the buyer loses sight of this. 
A uniform custom and standard of practice based on 
service to the consumer would do more than anything 
else to educate him to his responsibilities when buying 
nursery stock and be of inestimable benefit to the trade. 
NURSERYMEN’S Nurserymen’s Associations are good 
ASSOCIATIONS things to have. Very good. They are 
the one thing that bring widely sep¬ 
arated nurseries in touch with each other, and are the 
only means enabling the trade to act in groups or as a 
body on matters requiring collective action. There are 
other good and sufficient reasons for their existance too 
numerous and obvious to mention. Unfortunately they 
are not taken as seriously as they should be. Speaking 
of them collectively they produce minimum results for 
their cost in time, money and effort expended on them by 
their members. 
They represent a tax, voluntary perhaps, collected 
from the trade, that is not spent as to produce maximum 
results. Many of tbe results of the meetings unfortun¬ 
ately parallel New Years resolutions. The efforts are 
worth while because they show a desire to better con¬ 
ditions but are largely negative in their results. 
Some of the associations barely bang together while 
in others the social features predominate and still 
others are a power towards the betterment of the trade. 
In some localities the nursery industry is not highly de¬ 
veloped; the nurserymen are far removed from each 
other and have little opportunity to get together to work 
for their mutual benefit with the result that its par- 
