THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
277 
and for these reasons refuses to pay more than 50% of the 
amount agreed or possibly nothing whatever and then 
seeks new pastures and a new firm the following year. 
We can improve by using more care in the selection of our 
salesmen, absolutely refusing to furnish outfits unless we 
know salesmen are reliable, of the class who will follow 
directions, refusing to misrepresent, selling only to responsi¬ 
ble purchasers. 
Again, we can improve by keeping out of bad territory. 
This is an inexcusable mistake to which all of us retailers 
must plead guilty. There is no greater country on the face 
of the earth than the United States and each state is a jewel 
in the crown; however it is no treason to admit the fact that 
there are spots where it does not pay to push the retail nur¬ 
sery business through salesmen. I expect no contradiction 
when I say there is not a retail nurseryman in this room but 
has sent outfits where his better judgment told him a scald¬ 
ing was in prospect before he got through. The way to 
avoid this is—don’t send the outfit. There is too much 
good territory in this great country of ours to waste time, 
trees and cash besides, on bad territory. 
Cancel risky orders as soon as received. We all know 
this should be done, but do we do it? No. We think this 
one case may prove an exception and we will take chances 
on it anyway. The result is we are sadder but wiser, and 
then it is too late. 
We can improve our business and our profits especially 
by eliminating entirely the practice of replacing all trees 
that fail to live either free or at one-half price. There is no 
trouble about cutting it out if all will agree. Many times it 
is right and proper that trees should be replaced, this for the 
reason they are delayed enroute, have been too long on the 
road, reaching customer in slightly damaged condition, etc. 
In this case, report should be made at once and whatever 
replacing is done should be done then and there. The prac¬ 
tice of allowing customers to report loss six months or a year 
later means practically that the nurseryman is assuming 
planter’s risk; this is unfair, unjust, unless we base our 
prices on the start so as to afford it. We all know that 75% 
of all loss is occasioned by improper handling, planting, lack 
of protection, as well as cultivation on the part of planter. 
In short, the way a large percent of customers plant trees the 
wonder is that any of them live. 
Now as stated in the start none of these points are new; 
we all know about them but the trouble is we do not follow 
them. 
STOCKS FOR JAPANESE WEEPING CHERRY. 
We quote from the Florist's Exchange, the following 
interesting item: 
“One of the chief attractions of the lawn in early Spring 
is the Japanese weeping cherry, Cerasus japonica rosea 
plena. Grafted on tall stocks, as it should be, its branches, 
while vigorous, droop gracefully, and in the earliest of 
Spring days are clothed with a mantle of lovely flowers. 
These flowers are of a rosy pink in the bud, but when fully 
expanded change to white, looking like a mantle of snow, 
as some have described it. 
As sometimes seen, this beautiful weeper is grafted' too 
low. The stocks should never be lower than six feet and 8 
to io feet Would often suit positions better, as the tree is 
such a strong grower. 
The best Stock for this cherry is the common Mazzard, 
one of those greatly used for stocks for fruiting cherries. If 
these stocks are set out and grown on for a year or two and 
then Cut down to the ground in Spring, they push up a 
shoot which will make a height of six to eight feet by 
Autumn, ready for grafting or budding the season following. 
When budded, care is required to regulate the growth as it is 
made. The bud is inserted on the side* and unless watched 
and the shoots pinched off or trained as they grow there will 
be a one-sided specimen. Better to place two buds, one on 
the side opposite to the other.” 
THE POLICY OF SENDING OUT CHEAP LISTS. 
James Pitkin, Newark, N. J. 
Speaking on the matter of cheap price lists, I desire to 
say, that when you distribute a cheap price list you are very 
apt to make future trouble for yourself. That trouble 
could be avoided if you adopt the plan of the brothers who 
lived in one of the southern states. When they first started 
in business, about the first week there happened to be a 
revival in town. The brothers attended and one of them 
went forward that night, got religion and joined the church. 
Well, it was only about a week after that when one of the 
other brothers said, “Now, Jeremiah, I think that tonight at 
revival meeting I shall go forward and also join the church.” 
Jeremiah turned around and said, surprised, “Why, Moses 
if you join the church too, who is going to label the trees?” 
If you put a cheap price list in circulation you can not 
withdraw it, because once it is put out, it is out for months, 
and there is going to be a future influence from those cheap 
prices. If you could quote a cheap price at the beginning of 
the selling season, the dealer or the jobber might be induced 
to create a demand for certain cheap lines and he would have 
time to do it. But cheap prices at the end of the season 
shut out the retailer or the jobber from creating a demand 
for the cheap things by reason of the lateness. In place of 
putting out the cheap list, I would favor the plan of talking 
with people, if you have a bargain to offer them; that can do 
no harm. The best method of using the cheap list, is to be 
very careful what you bud or graft or what you plant. 
Then go ahead, sell all that you can at the prevailing market 
price and thus make a profit on what you actually move. 
If you have an opportunity to talk a cheap price on some 
special kinds, that is all right, move all you can in that way, 
and when you have done all that, then to reduce the balance 
of the surplus I would recommend that you take two parts of 
kerosene, one part of match and have a bonfire. 
“The man who sits by the stove with cold feet never 
saws much wood.” 
Aimlessness spends its time going nowhere and coming 
back. 
“The hardest kind of advertising is to create a desire.”— 
Star Solicitor. 
