34 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
we not encourage the retail distributing nurserymen? 
All of these hundreds of retail distributers, advertising 
agressively and continually throughout the year in one 
way or another, exhorting the consuming public to plant 
more fruits, trees, shrubs and flowers. This would in¬ 
crease the business of every other retailer, as well as 
the grower and the wholesaler. 
Undoubtedly, the largest retail distributers of nursery 
products today are the firms who employ agents. These 
firms carry a multitude of agents. Let us consider that 
the plate books carried by these agents are the display 
windows of the retail distributer. The agents should be 
encouraged in their work and every effort should be made 
to protect the nurserymen back of this army of retail dis¬ 
tribution of our products. 
Demoralized Markets 
It is all very well for us to crow about the shortage of 
stock now, but how about the future with over produc¬ 
tion and smashed prices? I think the nurserymen ought 
to be divided into classes—the grower who sells to the 
wholesaler—the wholesailer who sells to the retailer- 
and the retailer who sells to the consuming public. 
Should these divisions of the trade be made, there would 
be co-operation in the nursery industry. What smashes 
the market and kills our trade is the cutting of prices. 
If a retailer is long on an article he sells to the consumer 
at wholesale or sometimes less. Retailers also sometimes 
have a little extra stock on hand and quote other retail¬ 
ers at lower prices than standard wholesale. This prac¬ 
tice hurts the wholesaler and should be discontinued. 
The wholesaler sees this and he goes in to take some of 
this cheap trade to lower his stock. Well, about that time 
the poor grower says, ‘‘I will be left to hold the bag if I 
do not get busy,” and he slashes prices to a still lower 
level and goes after the consuming public with the profit 
all knocked out. The result is demoralized markets and 
a general failure of good business practice, and the nur¬ 
serymen generally are classed as bad business men, and 
are even called crooked. They are not crooked—they 
have cut their own throats by trying to undersell each 
other, on account of lack of proper distribution. This 
can easily be remedied. Let the grower sell to the whole¬ 
saler—the wholesaler sell to the retailer, and the retail¬ 
er deals with the public or the planter. It should then 
be the business of both grower and wholesaler to help 
the retailer unload. If this method is carried out the 
whole nursery industry will be satisfied and everybody 
will be happy. 
The country will be made better because of the added 
fruits and flowers and the planting public will have con¬ 
fidence in the nurseryman. There may be a few rogue 3 
in the nursery business, but this method will soon get 
rid of them. 
There is no objection to one nurseryman being a grow¬ 
er, a wholesaler and a retailer. He must, however, know 
in which class he is doing business. He must not quote 
wholesale prices to planters in whatever division. The 
wholesaler should have the support of the retailer and 
the wholesaler should support the retailer by helping to 
move the goods off the counters of the retailer, not by 
hindering him with cheap prices. Look around the coun¬ 
try today and see what the wholesalers are doing. They 
not only sell to the retailer but advertise in papers offer¬ 
ing grape vines, and other fruits, at even a lower price 
than wholesalers direct to growers. This undoubtedly 
hinders the retailer in his efforts to dispose of the goods 
which he has purchased from the wholesaler. It creates 
dissatisfaction and disposes of all co-operation. Again 
the growlers ought not to go over the wholesaler and sell 
goods to retailers at growers prices. Perhaps one way of 
correcting this evil is to appoint a fair price commit¬ 
tee, and have them publish a fair price at retail. 
Tree Planting Week 
I am told that Missouri started tree planting week. 
Under “Plan to Plant Another Tree,” this has been suc¬ 
cessful all over the country. Spring tree planting week 
must be supported by all our nurseries. We cannot ex¬ 
pect Chambers of Commerce and agricultural clubs to 
put this over for us. Each one of us must do our share. 
Co-operation with Florists 
Do we really try to co-operate with florists or do we 
merely try to get a little business from them. There are 
thousands of florists in Illinois who will make splendid 
distributers of our products and increase their own 
profits. We need to help them in a substantial way. Let 
us all aim at better nursery stock to supply an anxious 
public. The florists will help us put our goods out on 
home grounds and in orchards. Co-operate with the flor¬ 
ist in your neighborhood and get him to help you solve 
the problem of making your community better by plant¬ 
ing more trees, shrubs and flowers. 
Has any nurseryman ever tried the experiment of 
calling together all nurserymen, tree agents, landscape 
gardeners, tree dealers, florists and seedsmen for a con¬ 
ference on how they can help the women’s and other civic 
and agricultural clubs make the country better by plant¬ 
ing trees, shrubs and flowers? Gentlemen, we know 
these things ought to be done. We should be the lead¬ 
ers in these movements and help to get results by the 
clubs, etc. Do not raise the cry that you will be asked 
to donate. If you show the right spirit you can get your 
regular retail price and folks will like you because you 
helped in a public benefit. Try it out. 
The nursery business is a great calling. It is a privi¬ 
lege to be a nurseryman, to deal with living plants, to 
help build our notion into a real garden. In this connec¬ 
tion it seems to me that the place for activities to be 
started and sent out is right here in Chicago, because of 
its fine central location. 
As suggested by Mr. V. D. Hill, of Dundee, Illinois, 
there ought to be in this city, and as a part of Chicago’s 
city plan, a splendid temple to horticulture, built at a 
cost of several million dollars, and located in one of the 
beautiful parks on Chicago’s lake front. The nurserymen 
ought to lead off in this constructive work, and I feel 
sure that if we nurserymen here in Illinois will take the 
lead that the Chicago Association of Commerce will help 
with this project, and that wealthy men of this great 
city will come forward with funds and build at least a 
.$3,000,000 temple to horticulture to be used for the ad¬ 
vancement of all branches of this wonderful and useful 
science. 
