82 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
DER is concerned, I took you at your word and give my cus¬ 
tomers to understand that it is your way of doing business, and 
under the liberal Premium I am able to offer, I find it compara 
tively easy to get payment with order. So far I have averaged 
pretty close to 70 or 75%, but didn’t suppose that was unusual. 
I’m glad to know that I am holding my own with the rest of the 
boys.” (Walker, Mo.) 
“Wish to state that I’m in happy accord with your 10% Prem¬ 
ium plan, recently received. I’ll certainly do my best to make 
it win. Have had several talks with Bankers and millers here 
and they agree it is the way the nursery business ought to be 
run. I feel the same “way about it and am sure we can make a 
success of it.” (Lincoln, Kan.) 
“The CASH WITH ORDER plan is undoubtedly a good thing 
for the agent as well as the nurseryman, so you can depend on 
me to use my best efforts to induce customers to pay cash and 
get the extra 10% in stock. It is a sudden change, of course, 
and may take time to educate the people up to it, but I’ll do all 
I can along that line and to put my business on the cash basis.” 
(Todd, Ky.) 
“I am heartily in favor of the new plan you have presented 
and don’t see why it can’t be put across. If other retail nursery¬ 
men will adopt it I believe it will be comparatively easy. I don’t 
think perishable goods like yours should be sold any other way. 
Personally I’m for it stronger than horse radish.” (Abilene, Kan¬ 
sas.) 
“I enclose additional orders for last week to the amount of 
$139.00, making my total $340.00. Please notice the amount of 
cash collected, $115.00 out of $139.00. I don’t believe it will be 
very long until I will be able to get all cash. It’s too bad yoa 
didn’t adopt this plan 10 years ago, for if you had it would have 
saved the both of us a good many dollars. Of course it doesn't 
make so much difference on small orders, fiut when some of the 
larger buyers get cold feet along about shipping time, and try 
to cancel their orders, it is going to give me a whole lot of sat¬ 
isfaction to know that it is going to be a case of “we should 
worry.” Honestly, Mr. Jones, it makes me mad when I think of 
the commission I have lost on countermanded orders, which I 
could have saved if this scheme had been put into effect several 
years ago. You don’t need to preach it to me longer, because 
I’m converted heart and soul.” (Dodge City, Kansas.) 
“I find the average customer is glad to take advantage of 
your liberal proposition to cash buyers. You are right, a cash 
customer is entitled to a better deal than one buying on credit 
and 1 haven’t had any trouble getting them to see it that way. I 
have been in business for myself and therefore appreciate your 
efforts to put yours on a sound and safe basis. Even if we get 
only a part payment I feel that it is a step in the right direct 
ion. As long as I do not get my commission until orders have 
been collected, I am interested myself in seeing them cash up 
100%. Of course it is only a question of time until all other 
nurserymen will follow your lead, but until they do I feel that 
we have an advantage over them. I wrote 5 orders today and 
collected a substantial payment on every one of them, so you 
can see that I’m holding my own.” (Kansas City, Kansas.) 
The next one, which was written us January 9th, and was 
from a new man who had just started, was a surprise to us, as 
it probably will be to you. It simply goes to show the extent to 
which some men will figure the proposition out for themselves, 
and the different ways in which they will attempt to make it 
work: 
“Enclosed herewith my first lot of orders. These parties did 
not care to pay cash, so I am sending you my own check in 
settlement of their orders and I presume this will entitle me to 
the 10% premium stock. If this isn’t regular you can return my 
check and let the orders come the usual way.” (Woodward, 
Okla.) 
I am wondering if some of you who are growers and whole¬ 
salers exclusively, have, by this time, commenced to say to 
yourselves that all this is no funeral of yours. Can you be so 
sure of that? Is the nursery business so different from others 
that the men engaged in one branch are able to succeed and 
prosper regardless of how their brethren in another may be 
getting on? Did you ever stop to think, Mr. Wholesaler, that 
very often the necessity of reporting to The Trade Protective 
Associations that your dealings with Mr. A, B, or C were un¬ 
satisfactory, or that he was slow in meeting payment of his 
account did not necessarily grow out of any lack of desire on 
his part to make prompt settlement, but rather, an inability to 
do so because of “bad collections” in his own business? Again, 
do you appreciate the fact that such a condition does not al¬ 
ways indicate a lack of efficiency in management, that what 
looked like safe and satisfactory business in April and May 
(which marks the opening of a selling season for the retail 
nurseryman) might easily have turned out to be something 
quite different by October or November, at which time he offer¬ 
ed his orders for delivery and payment, this because of a na¬ 
tion-wide strike among this, that, or some other class (or class¬ 
es) of wage earners, or for the reason, perhaps, what promised 
to be BUMRER crops over his territory at the time his orders 
were booked, turned out to be something quite the opposite by 
harvest time? 
After all, isn’t there going to be some degree of satisfaction 
and surety for you in seeing the retail firms put their business 
on a basis which will safeguard same against that proverbial 
“slip between the cup and lip” a slip with a double kick to it, 
one of which might chance to catch you in the solar plexus? In 
my own mind I am not so sure that as time goes on, and the 
wisdom of the ADVANCE PAYMENT PLAN induces more and 
more firms to adopt it that you wholesalers are not going to 
find yourselves making a mental note (if not a file record) of 
the retail fellows who have grown tired of building on the 
shifting sands of crop and industrial uncertainties, and who, 
with a spirit of confidence and determination, have set about 
putting a foundation under their business as strong and lasting 
as Gibraltar—the policy of selling for CASH WITH ORDER. 1 
wonder where there is among us the firm or individual who 
would be likely to blame you for the practice of such self-pres¬ 
ervation. 
In the face of the facts presented and letters which I have 
read, I think, gentlemen, you will be able to appreciate why we 
feel extremely optimistic over the prospects and chances of 
reaching our goal—putting the retail (or agency) branch of the 
business on a self-sustaining basis. Our only regret is that we 
didn’t have the nerve to tackle the plan years ago. Our success 
with it during a year when business and financial conditions 
have been about as near low-ebb as it would be possible for 
them to get has been such that we feel most confident of what 
we will be able to accomplish when the dawn of President Hard 
ing’s day of normalcy spreads out before us. We invite and 
sincerely hope that you, who have not yet given the thing a 
trial, will go back home from this meeting, as we did from the 
one of a year ago, determined to cast your lot with those firms 
who are already paving the way for easier going in the nursery 
business during the years that are ahead of us. How truthful 
the adage that “In Union There is Strength,” and why shouldn’t 
we unite on this simple, sane and satisfactory means of putting 
into our respective tills the thousands of dollars that have got¬ 
ten away from us in the form of “Accounts receivable”? In this 
day of modernized and improved business methods, what justi¬ 
fication have we for our unwillingness or failure to break 
away from the old system, a system as precarious as it is out- 
of-date? You may have a satisfactory answer to my question, 
but I’m frank to acknowledge that I have been unable to find 
one. 
THE AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
The American Horticultural Society, with headquar¬ 
ters at Washington, D. C. is conducting a campaign to in¬ 
crease its membership. This society deserves the hearty 
support of the nursery trade. Its purpose is to promote 
horticulture in all of its branches in hearty co-operation 
with other agencies. 
As funds become available they will hold flower, fruit 
and vegetable exhibitions, will issue publications and 
will maintain test gardens. It will encourage children’s 
and school gardens and the establishment of Horticultural 
Scholarships. In fact it is a close co-worker with our 
own Market Development and “Plan to Plant Another 
Tree” movements. 
