THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
155 
The National Nurseryman 
Established 1893 by C. L. YATES. Incorporated 1902 
Published monthly by 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN PUBLISHING CO., Inc. 
Hatboro, Pa. 
Editor .ERNEST HEMMING, Easton, Md. 
The leading trade journal issued for Growers and Dealers in 
Nursery Stocks of all kinds. It circulates throughout the 
United States, Canada and Europe. 
AWARDED THE GRAND PRIZE AT PARIS EXPOSITION, 1900 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
One Year in Advance .$1.50 
Foreign Subscriptions, in advance .$2.00 
Six Months .$1.00 
Advertising rates will toe sent upon application. Advertisements 
should reach this office toy the 20tli of the month previous to the 
date of issue. 
Payment in advance required for foreign advertisements. Drafts 
on New York or postal orders, instead of checks, are requested toy 
the Business Manager, Hatboro, Pa. 
Correspondence from all points and articles of interest to nursery¬ 
men and horticulturists are cordially solicited. 
Photographs and news notes of interest to nurserymen should be 
addressed, Editor, Easton, Md., and should be mailed to arrive 
not later than the 25th of the month. 
Entered as second-class matter June 22, 1910, at the post office at 
Hatboro, Pennsylvania, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Hatboro, Pa., June 1923 
THE CONVENTION This month is convention month, 
when nurserymen will come from 
all sections of the country to talk together about the prob¬ 
lems of the nursery trade. 
Perhaps there are some who are hesitating about at¬ 
tending, thinking they have business enough and prob¬ 
lems enough at home without going to the expense of 
going to Chicago to help solve other people’s. 
To these we would say the problems to be solved at 
Chicago are your problems and if you are a nurseryman 
just as vital to you as those closer at home. 
They cannot be solved without a representative at¬ 
tendance. Your “Aye” or “Nay” is needed. 
You may think your opinion does not carry much 
weight but it does. Aside from all parliamentary quib¬ 
bles, influential interests or cliques, if there be any. The 
fact remains the preponderance of opinion on any mat¬ 
ter brought before the convention makes itself felt and 
a motion unsupported by a majority loses out. 
There are a number of problems vital to the nursery 
trade that should have deep consideration to guide nur¬ 
serymen in their plans for the future. 
The most important is that relating to production. At 
the last convention Henry IT Chase made an address 
under the title, “What’s Around the Corner?” There has 
much water run under the bridge since then and we have 
seen twelve months into the future from Mr. Chases 
outlook and we are twelve months nearer the peak of 
prosperity, if not already there. 
It would be against the natural order ol things and 
against all precedent for both production and prices to 
maintain a progressive movement, or even maintain a 
level for very long. 
When industries begin to bid against each other lor 
unskilled labor it shows the supply is scarce and ihe 
peak has been readied. Cost of production is gelling 
where it is not safe to expand or overproduce because of 
Ihe possibility of having to sell on a falling market. 
The convention is the only place where the trade can 
get together and at least influence each other against 
over-production. A policy of conservatism in prduction, 
high quality rather than quantity, would insure against 
a rapid decline, even if a depression was “just around 
the corner.” 
Come to the convention and find out for yourself if 
it is not a time for caution. 
Then there are the wonderful strides that have been 
made in nursery publicity and market development for 
your products. This perhaps is the greatest protection 
against depression in the nursery business that was ever 
conceived. Come and encourage it from any angle that 
appeals to you. Officers of the association, chairman with 
their committees, have been doing unselfish work for the 
past year. Come and tell them you appreciate it. 
MORE APPRENTICES In many trades, machinery and 
NEEDED new processes have taken the 
place of the skilled craftsman 
and there is not Ihe same necessity as in former times 
for the apprenticeship system. Rut in nursery practice 
the skilled plantsman is as necessary as ever. 
Those of us who learned our trade under the appren¬ 
ticeship system may feel that we paid a high price in 
hard labor, long hours and small pay to learn how to 
work yet seldom regretted it, and feel that its passing is 
a decided loss to the nurseryman’s craft. 
Of course in these days a bound apprenticeship would 
be an anachronism, but we should have something that 
would take its place. There is plenty of good material 
in the way of boys, better educated than ever. How 
shall they be taught to be skilled workman such as are 
needed in the nursery business? 
The agricultural and other colleges turn out executives 
and some of the graduates buckle down to work and 
become efficient in a practical way, but too often a boy 
who does not take manual work seriously before he is 
twenty-one is seldom as valuable to a nurseryman as one 
who goes to work as soon as he gets out of grammar 
school. 
It is to be conceived that there shall be devised a sys¬ 
tem of instructive employment, with a pay schedule 
graded to make an incentive for the beginner at the 
trade to learn and keep insistently at it. 
The nursery and allied trades offer a wonderfully in¬ 
teresting and promising field for boys if they could la* 
attracted to it. A boy that has acquired a familiarity 
with plants, their propagation and how to grow them 
has the broadest foundation possible for earning a live¬ 
lihood with such a foundation the lines of advancement 
for those who are ambitious arc very numerous and 
varied. 
The nursery trade for its own welfare should plan to 
draw the boys to it. 
Mr. Robert G. Chase, of Chase, Alabama, is now a 
grandfather. We hope this event will not make Robert 
lose his youthful spirit. 
