THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
9 
Many of the members of 
THE NATIONAL the National Association 
ASSOCIATION AS A are just beginning to real- 
BUSINESS PROPOSITION ize the tremendous power 
it can wield for the benefit 
of the nursery business. 
Of course, there is the usual number of members as 
well as outsiders who are indifferent and whom it is 
difficult to inspire with enthusiasm so necessary to its 
success. From a purely business point of view, is it 
needed? One may as well ask if the Government of the 
United States is needed. While we are yearning to be 
made a law unto ourselves, or at least not be amenable 
to the laws made for the other fellow, we know a lawless 
state only produces a chaotic mess. 
The Association is needed to formulate and adopt a 
standard or code of doing business, to protect its mem¬ 
bers and to accomplish en masse what the individual can 
not do. The larger the mass it controls the greater the 
power it has to accomplish for the good of the trade. 
Those who are familiar with the personnel of the As¬ 
sociation know it represents the best in the Nursery bus¬ 
iness and they also know the majority of those composing 
this body of men are in earnest in desiring to establish a 
code of doing business that will elevate the trade to the 
position it belongs. 
The biggest job the Association has on hand at present 
is to create a market for its own ideas. Attract attention 
to itself, show it can make money for its members by giv¬ 
ing them a prestige and standing that it would be difficult 
to obtain outside the membership. This cannot be done 
exdept by strict discipline and adherence to the code it 
establishes. 
A business association has to be business like and give 
some very tangible value for the amount it assesses its 
members. To create this value, no half measures are 
possible. 
The transition from a semi-social organization to an 
unsentimental business one is naturally proving some¬ 
what slow and before it can create a desire for member¬ 
ship from outsiders or make the insiders value theirs 
more, it will have to hang very close together and he very 
just and perhaps somewhat ruthless in enforcing its 
rulings. 
An association which no nurseryman can afford to 
ignore in his business transactions is the one that is 
needed to put the trade on its feet. 
It may be paradoxical to say so but the first considera¬ 
tion of the Association should be, the protection of the 
buying public to see that its members give the very best 
value and service. The Association’s value to the buying 
public, will decide the value to its members. Unless this 
is the dominant idea in all its rulings it will fail to win 
the public confidence. After the Association has once 
become recognized by the public as the big factor that 
stands between it and the unscrupulous nurserymen, in¬ 
sures them a square deal when doing business with one 
of its members, its prestige will be such there will be no 
need to worry about membership or money to carry out 
its objects. 
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. 
I WARDED 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 
of 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, Flourtown, Fa„ 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 
Hathoro. Pennsi/Jrania. under the Act of March S, 1879. 
Hatboro, Pa., January 1920 
Subscribers to “Nurserymen's Fund for 
Market Development’ 
% 
A trappy Nnu fpar 
& 
& 
& 
Happiness cannot possibly come except through k 
I 
Let us put our New Years Wishes in active op- it 
unselfishness 
| Let us put 
% eration and reap a f ull harvest in 1920. % 
% & 
Price fixing for next Spring sales 
has to be attended to soon and it 
FIXING PRICES 
FOR 
NEXT SEASON 
will be no easy matter to decide just 
what price to fix. 
One trade or commodity is waiting 
on the other to set the pace. 
The general tendency of prices still seems to be sky¬ 
ward at least there are very few lowering prices to be 
noted. Yet every one knows the upward movement must 
stop somewhere. Will the prices come down with a 
crash like a “busted” stock market, or will there be a 
slow adjustment to meet actual conditions? 
Every sane man and woman wants the latter, and it 
follows that the nurseryman who prints his spring price 
list with this in mind will be as conservative as possible 
and not be stampeded into taking advantage of the un¬ 
usual conditions to boost prices beyond what sound bus¬ 
iness practice would warrant, or to lower them without 
a good reason for doing so. 
There are three factors to be considered, The Nursery¬ 
man, the Stock and the Public? The nurseryman wants 
all he can get. The stock is short, these two will com¬ 
bine to put prices up. 
The public is the unknown factor. There is a point 
