132 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
sent me. I can no longer bring goods those long distances 
and sell at a profit. 
Exchange has been of considerable importance, al¬ 
though this is gradually coining back to normal. 
One can never be sure that some strike on the rail¬ 
road or a longshoremen’s strike in some transfer city may 
not bold up your goods until they are spoiled. I lost a 
most valuable connection with a firm, the Thomas B. 
Meehan Co., through a strike that entailed unheard of ex¬ 
penses. Mr. Meehan blamed me for a condition over 
which I had no control. From bis point of view lie was 
thoroughly justified, but I was the purchasing agent for 
a large city corporation and had to do as they told me or 
lose their trade, and, from that time on, I have not bought 
a dollar in the United States. I thought that if I could 
not get on with as fine a firm as I knew the Thomas B. 
Meehan Co. to be, after nearly thirty years’ connection, 
there was no use of trying further. Simply I am “sore” 
over a condition of affairs that no individual can control. 
If times ever return to anything like normal I will be 
glad to return to the United States for although I have 
spent a great many years here in Canada, I am a born 
American, in the good old state of Pennsylvania, and my 
affection for the land of my birth has not failed. I think 
this is one of the reasons I resent the present conditions. 
It keeps me out of my natural market and is an affront 
to my sentimentality. 
I always enjoyed your bright paper and now it only ir¬ 
ritates me to know what I am losing when I read it. 
Yours truly, 
E. R. CLARKE. 
The National Nurseryman, 
Flourtown, Pa. 
Dear Sir: In recent numbers of The American Nursery 
Trade Bulletin I have read with much interest Mr. Han¬ 
son’s article, and the objections thereto of Mr. C. C. May- 
hew, of Sherman, Texas. 
Without going into a discussion of the merits and de¬ 
merits of the replace question, I do wish to say that I 
have so much respect for Mr. Mayhew’s good judgment 
that I am wondering whether he was really serious in 
proposing that the nurserymen should go to the state 
legislatures pleading for a law requiring a uniform con¬ 
tract between the nurserymen and their customers, and 
a bond guaranteeing their agreements, thus branding the 
entire trade, honest and otherwise, as either incapable or 
so dishonest as to require stringent regulations govern¬ 
ing their dealings with the public. 
The only reason so far advanced for such action seems 
to be an evident disagreement among our members as 
to the wisdom of a replace promise, and varying opinions 
as to an adequate and proper remedy, certainly a situa¬ 
tion not serious enough to warrant an appeal for outside 
determination. 
Why should contracts in our business require regulat¬ 
ing any more than in the shoe, the clothing or any other 
line? Every trade has a few sharpers and crooks and 
existing laws apply. I believe there is just as large, or 
a larger, percentage of honest, fair-dealing, straight-for¬ 
ward men in the nursery trade as in any other line and I 
most strenuously condemn these constant expressions in¬ 
dicating that we are a hunch of rotten crooks and need a 
police officer in every office and every nursery, and that 
we should give bonds conditioned on the faithful per¬ 
formance of our obligations. 
Further, I have strong doubts as to the constitutional 
value of any law attempting to interfere with the right 
of contract between citizens of a state, so long as such 
contracts are not against public policy. 
Are we not regulated enough and too much already? 
We are blessed with a Federal Horticultural Board and 
with inspection departments in every state, and every 
year those officials are adding to our burdens and making 
it more and more difficult to do a general interstate busi¬ 
ness. 
Don’t let us be so foolish as to ask deliberately for fur¬ 
ther regulations and restrictions and by so doing confess 
that we are all so crooked that no honest man should deal 
with us. I am optimistic enough to believe that the 
great big percentage of men and women are honest and 
do business on straight-forward, honest lines. 
As President Harding well said: “We want more busi¬ 
ness in Government and less Government in business.” 
Respectfully, 
WM. PITKIN. 
Rochester, N. Y., March 27, 1922. 
STABILIZING THE NURSERY BUSINESS 
Editor National Nurseryman: 
In your April issue the question of supply and de¬ 
mand of nursery stock and the problem of stabilizing 
the business are brought to attention by Mr. M. T. Nutt 
and last years cotton crop is cited to show obstacles 
confronting the policy of maintaining a fair ratio be¬ 
tween production and consumption. 
Near the close of the year 1921 The Pacific Coast 
Association of Nurserymen, after a careful survey, 
found the prospective Italian prune tree list would like¬ 
ly produce about one and a half million trees for the 
1921-22 season when the estimated normal demand re¬ 
quired but little more than half that number. In re¬ 
sponse to a call for conference, nineteen nurseries in¬ 
terested met to consider the problem. Each firm volun¬ 
teered to reduce, some a larger percent than others, the 
figures were definitely recorded and the total showed 
an average reduction of a little more than 30 per cent. 
But the actual reduction was greater as proved by a 
second survey in the fall of 1922, showing approxi¬ 
mately 850.000 Italian trees grown for the planters. 
The season is now closing with less than 10% of un¬ 
sold stock on hand. The last survey also indicated that 
nurseries in the Yakima Valley were making up lists 
on apple for next season beyond a normal demand, 
based on past selling and planting records, on probable 
