102 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
MORE ABOUT THE ADVANCE PAYMENT PLAN WITH 
ORDERS 
By Mr. E. H. Balco. the National Nurseries, Lawrence, Kansas 
I have just read with much interest the article by J. Frank 
Jones of the Mount Hope Nurseries of this city in regard to the 
Advance Payment Plan, or Cash With Retail Orders. 
I was fortunate enough to be present at the last meeting of 
the Western Association of Nurserymen before which Mr. Jones 
read his paper on the Advance Payment Plan. The paper ar¬ 
oused a great deal of interest among a large attendance present 
at that time. 
There seems to be quite an interest aroused in this plan on 
the part of retail nurserymen who employ salesmen. We have 
received nearly a dozen letters from different nurserymen over 
the country during the past ninety days, asking for further in¬ 
formation about the plan and what success we have had with it. 
Mr. Jones and myself happened to be on the committee of 
the Western Association of Nurserymen that worked out the 
details of this plan, so naturally we become more enthusiastic 
over it than many others and were among the first to try it 
out. 
We find that the plan is being adopted by more and more re¬ 
tail nurserymen all of the time. Here in Lawrence there are 
four retail nurserymen employing salesmen, and everyone of 
them has adopted the plan of securing cash with orders. 
After all is said, the results obtained under this plan is what 
will interest nurserymen most. 
We took up the plan about February 1, 1922, and outlined it 
in a very simple way to our men. During February and March, 
we received a large amount of cash in advance with the order. 
This encouraged us very much indeed because all of our sales 
propaganda called for cash on delivery, and at that time we 
had not revised any of our printed matter to conform to the 
new sales plan. 
Our fall selling season in this locality usually starts in earn¬ 
est about May 1st; by that time we had revised a great deal of 
our printed matter, so that we could put the proposition before 
our salesmen in a more intelligent manner. 
The following is the percentage of cash received upon all or¬ 
ders booked since May 1, 1922, up to the present time: 
July 1-2-4/10% 
Aug. 1—6-5/10% 
Sept. L—8-8/10% 
Oct. 1—10-5/10% 
Jan. 1-16-6/10% 
The above tabulation from our books shows that there has 
been a steady increase in the amount of cash that our men 
have sent in with their orders since the plan was adopted. 
During the past two weeks, we received over 40% each week 
in cash with our agents’ orders. We think when our selling 
season closes about the first of April, that we will have some¬ 
what better than 25% in cash upon our entire years business, 
(fall 1922, and spring 1923). We think this is a remarkable 
showing considering that the plan is new and has not generally 
been worked in this territory prior to this past year. 
In the last six months we have gone just a little further by 
requiring our salesmen to get cash with all the orders amount¬ 
ing to less than $5.00. We did this for two reasons: one was to 
eliminate so many of the little orders amounting to possibly a 
dollar or two in which there is usually little or no profit: the 
second was that on these small orders, if they are not paid on 
delivery it is almost impossible to collect them, because no at¬ 
torneys will handle orders for less than $5.00 and give them 
very much attention. 
We have also made another rule, that our men must secure 
an advance payment of 25% of the amount of the order upon all 
orders amounting to $50.00 or over. There is nothing quite as 
hazardous as booking a large retail order and paying an agent 
a liberal advance upon it only to find that the last minute be¬ 
fore shipment the order is perhaps countermanded by the cus¬ 
tomer. The results obtained from these two plans have been 
fairly good. Of course one can’t make an ironclad rule that 
will hold every salesman to it. However, we are selling the 
idea of this prepayment plan to our men from time to time, and 
where many of the men fought the idea a year ago, they are 
now boosting it because they realized that there will be no 
charge backs on countermanded or cancelled orders, or unpaid 
accounts after delivery. 
We have worked up a number of forms that have helped us 
to put this plan across, and if there are any brother nursery¬ 
men who are interested in adopting this plan, we will be only 
to glad to forward copies of such forms to them. We believe 
this is one of the most advanced plans for selling nursery 
stock through agents that has been adopted in the last twenty- 
five years. 
MR. REASONER AND MR. BRYANT GOING TO THE 
ANTIPODES 
E. N. Reasoner, head of the Royal Palm Nurseries, at 
Oneco, Florida, and known not only as one of the lead¬ 
ing nurserymen of the country, but also as the foremost 
introducer of plants into Florida, left recently on a 
combined business and pleasure trip that will last live 
months and which will take him to Australia and into 
the South Seas. 
The purpose of Mr. Reasoner’s trip is to study plant 
conditions and the citrus industry in Australia and to 
investigate the flora and fauna of Australia, New Zeal¬ 
and and Hawaii. He expects to spend the greater part 
of three months in the two British commonwealths across 
the Pacific, and to return home via Vancouver, R. C., 
Minneapolis and Chicago. 
The first part of Mr. Reasoner’s trip will be from Oneco 
to New Orleans. At that place he will stop over for a day 
or so, as guest of the city park commission, which is one 
of the big customers of the Royal Palm Nurseries. Paul 
Horn, superintendent of parks in New Orleans, was for¬ 
merly connected with the Royal Palm Nurseries, going 
from that institution to his position in the Crescent City. 
From New Orleans Mr. Reasoner will go to Houston, 
where he will be guest of prominent horticulturists of 
that city and section. From Houston he will go by train 
to Southern California, visiting San Diego, Los Angeles 
and other towns, and the various nurseries in that sec¬ 
tion. And from there he goes to San Francisco, where 
he will be joined by Guy A. Bryant, of Princeton, III., 
a lifelong friend. Mr. Bryant is owner of one of the larg¬ 
est nurseries in the West. They will journey together 
to the islands of the Pacific, and to Australia and New 
Zealand. 
On the way across the ocean a stop will be made at 
Honolulu. There Mr. Reasoner and Mr. Bryant will be 
met at the steamer’s dock by the director of the experi¬ 
ment station conducted by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ 
Association, and will be shown over the plantation, also 
that conducted by the United States Government. He has 
an engagement in Hawaii to identify a number of plants 
which the horticulturists there have failed to classify 
positively. 
At Guam be will make a brief stop. He has an ap¬ 
pointment with the governor of the island and will be 
shown over Guam. 
Sydney. Australia, will be the next stop. In Australia 
Mr. Reasoner will investigate the citrus industry of that 
country, and its other fruits and the problems that are 
presented to the horticulturists. The itinerary of Mr. 
Reasoner and Mr. Bryant, in Australia, will be deter¬ 
mined after their arrival at Sydney. After their visit in 
Australia they will go on to New Zealand for a stay. 
S. F. Stoughton, traveling representative of the C. R. 
Burr & Company, of Manchester, Conn., recently spent a 
week in Dansville. N. Y. He reports a big demand among 
growers for French seedlings for spring planting. Mr. 
Stoughton booked a number of large seedling orders. 
Mar. 1-23-4/10% 
Nov. 1-12-4/10% 
Dec. 1—14-2/10% 
Feb. 1-20-3/10% 
