24 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
ILLINOIS STATE NURSERYMEN S ASSOCIATION 
Hold Their Annual Meeting at the Congress Hotel, Chi¬ 
cago, III., January 19 th and 20th 
President A. M. Augustine, Normal, III., in his opening 
address stated “there was no set program” and he wanted 
every one to take part in the discussions. 
Among the problems to he talked over were—what 
procedure to follow, in accepting or rejecting shipments 
that had gone had through being delayed enroute? 
lie spoke of the relief and satisfaction he had per¬ 
sonally received from joining the local Traffic Depart¬ 
ment at Rloomington. 
Besides collecting $800 in claims it had been of ines¬ 
timable value in preventing overcharges and routing 
shipments. 
He urged co-operative effort wih the State Horticul¬ 
tural Society and the University of Illinois to establish a 
sort of laboratory for research work, to do experimental 
work for the nursery trade. 
Freight and Express rates while being a little better 
than they were, are still prohibitive. The cost of express¬ 
ing often exceeds the value of the shipments. 
The President then introduced Mr. W. F. Therkildson 
who chose for his subject, “Tell It to the City Folks*.” 
The following are the salient points of his very in¬ 
teresting address: 
Create a demand for anything that you have to sell 
and you can sell it. It doesn’t make a difference what you 
have to sell. I don’t know a more crowded market than 
the confection market, yet just recently they have put on 
the market a confection known as the Eskimo Pie. I 
bought it in Louisville and I bought it in Omaha, and I 
am told by a man that speaks authoritatively that 112,000 
dealers have purchased the right to manufacture Es¬ 
kimo Pie—and a concern that a few months ago came on 
the market, in four months reached a business volume of 
$2,000,000—it certainly is a tribute to advertising, and 
telling the public what you have to sell. He gave an 
outline of co-operative advertising done by Rice Growers 
and Rice Millers. 
Skookum xApples is one of the big mistake successes, if 
there can be such an extreme. In the first place the idea 
of advertising apples was good, but they were talking 
about section and apples in general. The campaign in a 
general way has not been a success as the right kind for 
those particular apples. 
Suggestions for trademarking. 
You can create in the minds of the people a desire to 
beautify the city home—there is a small amount of fruit 
that can be grown in the back yard. City folks are exact¬ 
ly the same as anybody else—there is hardly one of us 
that does not trace back to the farm—that gives them the 
desire to have something growing around the place. 
When a man has made a lot of money, he invariably 
wants to go buy a farm and grow things himself, if there 
is anything that can be done in advertising to stimulate 
that thing, that is the thing that will create the demand. 
The way to tell it to the city folk is to create in their 
minds the thought that it is easy for them to get shrub- 
ery and trees, and all of the things to plant and fix up 
their properties. 
A. M. AUGUSTINE. Normal. III. 
President , Illinois State Nurserymen's Association 
Most of the people in the city think there is some sort 
of a mystery. It’s been done in catalogs—you can sell the 
city trade, if you will tell them how easy it is to have 
shrubbery and trees and how easy it can be done. There 
isn’t any great problem for these people to think about. 
The ignorance of these people reminds me of a story of a 
young couple who moved into a house and began to tell 
their friends what a splendid garden they were going to 
have. 
When one of their friends called, he said, “Rill, I want 
you to see this great garden we are going to have.” When 
they went out there wan’t anything visible—"I do not 
see anything,” said his friend. “Well, nothing has come 
up yet, it hasn’t had time—but right here we are going 
to have tomatoes, and here we are going to have beans, 
and here is going to be corn. I planted two cans of 
tomatoes and two cans of beans and two cans of corn— 
yes, we are going to have a great garden.” 
The greatest advertising agency these days which is 
giving the greatest service is the one that is planning 
the selling campaign—it is no longer just a matter of 
preparation of copy. They all do that. The advertising 
campaign must of necessity tie up and link with the 
selling. So many campaigns have fallen down because 
the people have felt that advertising was some cure-all 
for business sickness. Telling it to the city folk is a 
matter of making the city folk want the things you have 
to sell. There are few of them who know shrubs by 
their varietal name. Call things by their common name, 
describe them so that people can understand what they 
really are. 
Where you are located in a community use your local 
newspapers—do something really constructive. 
Use newspapers consistently with the right kind of 
copy. Again, a series of advertising, a real advertising 
campaign could be built—“telling it to the city folk.” 
After Mr. Therkildson’s address, Mr. E. B. White fol¬ 
lowed with “Tell It to the Farmer.” He called attention 
to the fact that all the beauty lovers did not live in the 
