166 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
other horticultural and agricultural interests. 
There will be presented for your consideration at this 
Convention a number of planks, out of which it is hoped 
the A. A. of N. may construct with unanimity a legisla¬ 
tive platform. Then we must go forth and use our in¬ 
fluence and our efforts to have these planks built, into the 
Laws of our States, and our Nation. Some of them may 
have to be altered a little before they will fit; some may 
even have to be forced in; but let’s get them in, in as 
nearly the shape framed as we can. 
Consider the strength this Association has when, as in 
the past winter, it goes before a Congress pledged to re¬ 
duce expenditures and which did cut $6,000,000 off the 
appropriation for the Department of Agriculture and yet 
gets $20,000 for a new item to help our industry. 
Mr. Watson’s speech in advocacy of the appropriation 
“for investigating in co-operation with States or privately 
owned nurseries, methods of propagating fruit trees, or¬ 
namentals, etc., for the purpose of providing American 
source of supply,” was convincing, and ably presented. 
But it was not his speech—it was the fact that many of 
you had written Congressman Gould you wanted this ap¬ 
propriation—a number of you had written your own Con¬ 
gressman as well—and not one single nurseryman had 
written in opposition. That is an obstacle with which 
some former Committees have been confronted. 
Later, when the item appeared on the floor of the 
House, Congressmen scrutinized it. Here was something 
new—$20,000, among other things to assist “privately 
owned nurseries?” The Congressmen could not explain 
the necessity for an appropriation for a technical work 
like this as well as a nurseryman might. Finally in their 
controversy Representative Chindblom, who represents 
some of our Illinois members, said, in effect, that he 
didn’t know much about it, but every Congressman that 
had a nurseryman in his District, knew there was a de¬ 
mand for this item, and he was going to favor it. 
Here was an example of co-operation—not a single 
member knifeing your officers in the rear,—and while 
$20,000 may be insufficient, it was a good deal to get for 
a new item from this Congress. If now we may only 
continue to show this capacity for co-operation, our influ¬ 
ence will modify the Laws of this land, so that we may 
protect the capital invested in the nursery industry, ob¬ 
tain more with which to develop it, and enter upon the 
propagation of plants, confident that the markets for them 
will be open when the product is ready. 
Know our strength and use it. Trustworthy nursery¬ 
men, if we make good the claim, will have the support of 
the Agricultural Press, a potent influence in any cam¬ 
paign. Will those papers allow our businesses to be 
shut up within a single State? Of course not, for what 
nurseryman would then advertise in a publication of na¬ 
tional circulation? 
Send out Trustworthy trees, and support the American 
Association, that the influence of our advertising will 
make us known, and give us access to every legislative 
hall. Gentlemen, unscrupulous practices on the part of 
some nurserymen have brought many of these obnoxious 
Laws upon us; our tolerance of those practices has weak¬ 
ened our ability to oppose such laws; and strength for 
the future lies alone in our capacity for co-operation and 
fidelity in living up to our standard of Trustworthy Trees 
and Plants. 
Inventory Values of Nursery Stock 
When ready for new avenues of service, this Associa¬ 
tion should seek to make the inventory of nursery stock 
the bankable asset that inventories in other businesses 
are. Banks and share-holders in nursery companies re¬ 
cognize the inventory value of our real estate. They 
know approximately whether we are right in the esti¬ 
mates we place on our horses, our hogs, and our grain. 
Yet even after tens of thousands of dollars have been in¬ 
vested in the growing stock that we have on hand, the in¬ 
ventory is of very little assistance in securing banking 
accommodations. Then, too, in these days of Income and 
Profit Taxes, the nurserymen require a very definite in¬ 
ventory that the gain or loss through this source may be 
known. Financial statements, showing substantial cash 
balances may be a source of generous taxes for our Gov¬ 
ernment, until, with all propriety, we charge off the value 
of plants killed by winter conditions, or that are destroy¬ 
ed by pests, or denied a market by Quarantines. 
If our various formulae were submitted anonymous¬ 
ly to the Association’s office, a compilation of the prac¬ 
tices now employed could be made. The Executive Sec¬ 
retary, with the assistance of an Auditor, could then, no 
doubt, prepare and submit to this Convention next year, 
a formulae for arriving at inventory values. Surely the 
very fact that our inventories were arrived at in accord¬ 
ance with a uniform and accepted method, would make 
them more convincing and valuable. We could do this 
much without crop reports, though a knowledge of supply 
and demand of any plant would be of great help in deter¬ 
mining inventory values. 
In Conclusion 
Membership in this Association has always been ne¬ 
cessary to broad-minded, progressive nurserymen, desir¬ 
ing to assist in improving and promoting the industry. In 
recent years it has rendered an increasing amount of de¬ 
finite, actual service, exclusively for members, that we 
could not dispense with. Now, in adidtion to all these 
other advantages, our National advertising makes mem¬ 
bership the hall-mark of a Trustworthy Nurseryman. 
Following the reading of various reports Mr. David 
N. Mosessohn addressed the meeting on Organization and 
brought out the point that overproduction was another 
name for lack of cooperation in distribution, also that the 
national inclination was along the line of least resistance 
and that no business could succeed unless honest in in¬ 
tent. — 
Afternoon Session, Wednesday 23 
In the lobby and outside the convention hall the feel¬ 
ing had become very pronounced that a considerable 
body of members were not in accord with the executives 
of the association or as one member described it the air 
seemed full of electricity threatening a storm. 
The question of dues, the Vigilance Committee, the 
question of Guarantee were among the things that were 
causing the reaction from the forward movement started 
when the association was reorganized. 
Every effort was used to bring the dissatisfied ones out 
in the open to express themselves in open meeting. 
A resolution requiring dues be paid before a member 
could vote was defeated on the grounds that a member 
could not be denied his vote until the close of the con- 
