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THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
A FEW POINTS ON IMPROVEMENTS. 
Eugene W. Stark. 
Nurserymen can improve the condition of their business 
by attending the annual meetings, thereby learning much 
from each other. All of us know something, none of us 
know it all; and it is an impossibility to attend the meetings 
without going home benefited, with new ideas gained, and 
with new methods learned, some of which can be employed 
with profit. We get acquainted with our brother Nursery¬ 
men, find out what we have to meet in the way of competi¬ 
tion, and also the caliber of the men we are up against. 
We can improve by holding our business down to the 
volume that we have the facilities to handle and handle well. 
Many of us make the mistake of trying to do too much — 
more than we have the facilities to handle. A smaller busi¬ 
ness managed rightly with all the corners watched closely 
will yield a much larger profit balance at the close of the 
year. 
We can improve by using only first-class land, and the 
character of soil particularly adapted to the kind of nursery 
stock we wish to grow. How many of us have used second- 
class land for the reason that we have had a held or block of 
ground which was nearer, more convenient for our labor, 
than go to work and spend several hundred dollars per acre 
on it in the way of stocks, labor, cultivation, etc., to mature 
the trees, harvesting about one-half the value from it in the 
way of second and third-class trees when we might have 
grown nearly all top sizes by going a little further, and pay¬ 
ing a few dollars more per acre for the right kind of land. I 
frankly admit we have made this mistake, I suspect there 
are others. 
We can get better results by using more first-class stocks; 
the best are always the cheapest. You know we tell 
planters a few cents difference in price of trees on the start is 
a bagatelle when growing a commercial orchard, as com¬ 
pared with the results that are to come later on. That he 
cannot afford to plant inferior trees simply because he can 
buy them cheaper. Now this advice that is good for the 
planter is also good for the nurseryman. 
Another important item is the employment of competent 
help. Many of us make the mistake of trying to oversee every¬ 
thing ourselves, having to rely upon incompetent help to 
carry out orders. This is indeed a serious blunder. I ven¬ 
ture to say there is not a nursery in the country of any size 
that cannot afford to employ a first-class competent fore¬ 
man, one who understands the business and can properly 
oversee it, giving it the necessary time and attention, so as 
to see that work is properly done and at the right time. Such 
a man will command a good salary but you can afford to pay 
it; he will make you dollars where he costs you cents. 
Encourage Inventions and Exhibits .—I wish .to call 
special attention to inventions and exhibits. We can im¬ 
prove our business by giving more encouragement to exhib¬ 
its of nursery tools and appliances at our annual meetings. 
Every one of you will concede that the cost of producing 
nursery stock has increased materially in the past few years. 
Labor alone costs 40% to 50% more than it did seven or 
eight years ago, consequently the invention of every tool 
that will save labor and save hand-work is of great interest 
and value to nurserymen. Some of us are too busy, besides 
being minus the ideas and mechanical genius to figure out 
these things. We, however, have foremen and boys in the 
ranks of our employees who will figure them out if properly 
encouraged. I speak from personal experience along this 
line, as some of you know, and as evidenced by the Stripping 
Machine which was invented by our foreman. Our foreman 
in working out this invention used Stark Brother’s time, 
material, and when through said the Stripper was our prop¬ 
erty. Wetold him,“No,” to him belonged the credit and he 
deserved the benefit. Our advice to you is to follow the 
same course and you will be the gainer in the end. 
The exhibit feature of our meetings has made great 
strides in the past few years due largely to the untiring 
efforts of the Exhibit Committee. I firmly believe this 
association should hang up a list of prizes every year for new 
inventions, new exhibits, which will stimulate these boys in 
the ranks to go to work in earnest. I offer this suggestion 
for your consideration and trust some action will be taken 
along that line before the meeting closes. 
We can improve our business by making better and more 
uniform grades; in short, if possible for it to be done, should 
adopt a system of standard grades so this question will be 
settled once for all. 
Plant One Year Trees .—We can increase our profits by 
advocating the planting of more one-year trees, less two-and 
three-year trees thereby avoiding risk and expense of matur¬ 
ing trees above this age, decreasing materially our brush 
pile. As we all know the majority of root-knot, crown-gall, 
aphis, etc., is found in trees above this age, to say nothing 
about the better stand customers would get from trans¬ 
planting. 
By discarding second-class varieties as soon as we find 
better ones to take their place, growing fewer varieties, 
selling to customers only such as we know will give them 
satisfactory results, we can improve still further. In 
adopting such a plan it would be much better for customers, 
much less detail for the nurseryman. 
We can better our business by making our own prices 
instead of allowing buyers to do so; by agreeing among our¬ 
selves to ask a fair price that will give us a fair and legitimate 
profit over and above expense necessary to place trees in 
buyer’s hands. By going to the brush pile with our surplus 
if necessary instead of demoralizing the market all along the 
line in order for each of us to dispose of our surplus in some 
particular line. 
Speaking more directly to the retail nurseryman, we can 
make a great improvement by raising the general plane of 
the nursery business, eliminating entirely the nursery 
dealer—in using this term I refer to the old-timer, the 
unscrupulous dealer who buys his trees wherever he can buy 
them the cheapest using your name to impose upon his cus¬ 
tomers, promising them anything and everything necessary 
to secure the orders, labels the trees you furnish him to suit 
himself and to suit the orders, makes his deliveries and col¬ 
lections and then pays you for the trees he has purchased 
-maybe; pays you if you have the deadwood on him, if not, 
he puts it down in his pocket and tells you the stock was not 
satisfactory, that you did not make shipment on time, etc., 
