342 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
PLAN TO PLANT ANOTHER TREE 
Ry J. A. Young 
Before the Northern Illinois Horticultural Society, Ster¬ 
ling, Illinois, November 21, 1922 
America is a great nation. Not great in one endeavor, 
but in many, and diversified industries. The United 
States is the greatest in wealth of any nation in the 
world. We are a nation of money makers, of workers, 
schools, artists, writers and organizers. 
The industrial life of America has no peer among the 
nations of the world. The funnels of smoke belching 
from the stacks all over our country, hut indicate the 
activities of the thousands of busy workers in our fac¬ 
tories engaged in producing the multitude of articles 
necessary for our own consumption, and carried to every 
part of our country by the thousands of miles of steam 
and electric roads; while the great ships hearing the 
American flag carry Ihese American made articles to the 
four corners of the globe. 
America believes in education. Since the day that the 
first public school hell was rung on the rock-hound coast 
of Maine, we have been making progress in education 
Until today, from the little red school house in our rural 
district, up to our great universities, Ihere is an ever 
increasing stream of student life, each trying to excel 
himself in those Ihinffs that go to make a better brain 
power for a nation. We are not stingv about our expen¬ 
ditures in educational endeavors. We realize that the 
better education eouips our American citizenship for bet¬ 
ter scrv'oe to home and country. 
The old world has produced some great artists. Ameri¬ 
ca has discovered and brought to light thousands of ar¬ 
tists who are producing pictures of beauty and value, to 
decorate our homes and embellish our galleries. So much 
is this true that even now, in most every town there is 
some sort of an art club whose purpose it is to encour¬ 
age the production of rare and more valuable paintings. 
Tn literature America has produced great writers of 
both prose and poetrv. Trving, Emerson, Roosevelt, 
Longfellow. Whittier, .Tames Whitcomb Riley and others 
equally as famous have only to he mentioned to prove to 
any right thinking man that America is not lacking in 
great essayists or song writers. 
Force of circumstances compelled men to organize 
themselves into groups for the conduct of business. 
Whether we like it or not. our great organizers who 
formed commercial trusts, have brought, about, in this 
country a program of organization. This is true, not only 
in our factories, hut in our wholesale and retail estab¬ 
lishments. We have come to believe that a business not 
organized cannot successfully compete in our great busi¬ 
ness world. We are not only organized in business, hut 
socially as well. Our clubs, churches, fraternities and 
other social organizations are as much a part of our 
American life, as is the home. 
We are great in agriculture. No nation stands higher. 
Our American farmer is the best farmer in the world. 
He does his work better and easier, he is better educated 
than the tillers of the soil in other countries, and has a 
better home life than most of his city neighbors. He 
may not make as much money as the banker who carries 
his paper but he has less worry and lives happier and 
longer because he keeps closer to Nature. 
All these indicate the strength and power of a Nation. 
But there is one industry to which I call your attention 
and to which I believe to be the greatest industry in 
America. Horticulture is less advertised, less talked 
about and less known about it, than any other industry. 
It is my belief that combined horticulture has more capi¬ 
tal, more workers, and does annually a greater business 
than any other one endeavor in America. 
When I speak of horticulture, I do not expect to sep¬ 
arate commercial horticulture from the amateur. Ama¬ 
teur horticulture is the great body of American planters, 
the farm owner, and the property owner in our cities. 
Some one has tried to make us believe that an amateur 
is a plant hobbiest. This is not true. Every man who 
plants a tree, a shrub, or a flower is an amateur. He 
may be a plant hobbiest. 
I repeat, we cannot separate commercial horticulture 
from any other division of horticulture. The florists, 
nurserymen, seedsmen, landscape gardeners and tree 
dealers combined with the hundreds of thousands of tree, 
shrubs and flower planters, make up our American hor¬ 
ticultural army, and without any division or cliques. 
Commercial bortieulture consists of: 
25 000 Florists 
8 000 Seedsmen 
. 4.000 Nurserymen 
2 500 Landseape Gardeners 
10 000 Tree Dealers. 
The combined wealth of these firms is, we believe, 
greater than the invested capital of any other commer¬ 
cial industry. This does not take into consideration the 
thousands of orchardists or fruit growers whose invested 
capital in land, trees and equipment exceed the commer¬ 
cial organizations listed above. 
The help employed in all these industries, including 
the orchardists or commercial fruit growers will, we be¬ 
lieve. far exceed the help emploved by all the railroads 
combined, the steel trust, the Standard Oil company or 
any other industry, unless it may be, in the manufacture 
of automobiles and trucks. 
“Plan to Plant Another Tree”’ is organized for the pur¬ 
pose of creating an interest in the planting of more trees 
and the care of trees after planting, and to encourage 
public spirited citizens, civic clubs, farm biireaus, far¬ 
mers’ clubs, to make each community a better place in 
which to live. 
Commercial horticulture and (commercial fruit grow¬ 
ers are a part, of commercial horticulture) cannot do this 
alone. It requires the combined efforts of all horticul¬ 
ture, which includes the planter, to create in America a 
tree planting habit. America is less active and less in¬ 
terested in this great combined industry, than she is in 
most anv other of her activities. Who is to blame for 
this? The nurserymen, florists, seedsmen, landscape 
gardeners and tree dealers have failed in their part, for 
lack of organization and co-operation. 
