316 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
any nursery business, no matter how complex the arti¬ 
cles it manufactures, to get down to a cost price certainly 
within 10% and I am willing to say within 5%, and 
without this knowledge no nurseryman can do a profit¬ 
able business. If he is simply growing stock and selling 
it at the competitive market price, he is not doing busi¬ 
ness at all, hut simply growing and selling stock and tak¬ 
ing a chance. True, he may be a very good gambler and 
may love to take this kind of a chance, being willing at 
Ihe end of the season either to settle his season's accounts 
in cash, or to settle in notes if his creditors are willing to 
take them. 
I cannot believe that the average up to date nursery¬ 
man is willing to agree with this “cost finding” article. 
The more progressive nurserymen I know are striving 
year by year to get a closer figure on their growing and 
marketing costs. It is quite true that this will vary in 
almost all nurseries. The general over-head and labor, 
to say nothing of soil and weather conditions will influ¬ 
ence growing costs, hut why should one nurseryman de¬ 
cline to look to this question of costs simply because he 
knows, or thinks he knows, that a competitor is - growing 
the same line for either more or less than he is. Haven’t 
the Nurserymen enough back hone to grow the best grade 
of goods they can, know what it costs them to grow them 
and put them on the market and then ask a price that will 
insure a profit ? Or does J. W. think that the nursery 1 
men at large are such a spineless lot that they are will¬ 
ing to invest their money, their time and take a chance 
on a competitor’s price controlling his efforts? 
I am a deep believer in the fact that not only can the 
cost be ascertained, the cost of growing and cost of 
marketing, to within 10% and I believe to within 5% 
and not only that, but I most thoroughly believe that the 
nurseryman who is going to be in a profitable business 
five years from now, has got to know it and that those 
who do know it, will control the nursery trade. This 
will be more help to the man who does not care, for he 
will naturally begin to put his price on the basis with 
the nurseries that he knows are making money and this 
will help him somewhat, but he will still be taking a 
gamble that I do not think any sane business man wants 
to risk. , 
I have been in the nursery business long enough to 
know the hazards that must be taken in the growing of 
this stock and the uncertainity of the market, especially 
in ornamentals, but I liave from years of experience 
proven that stock properly grown and properly handled, 
can be made a profitable business and that the nursery¬ 
man, even in a complex retail business, can ascertain 
very closely his growing and marketing costs and have 
a. very definite basis on which to place his percentage for 
profit. 
Pardon me for writing at length in this matter, but it 
seems so utterly foolish to publish an article of this kind 
and then go to the Nurserymen and say “please give us a 
large fund to advertise a business” for we don’t know 
what our stock is costing on which we would like the 
public to get sufficiently enthusiastic that we can take a 
chance in getting our prices high enough to have the mar¬ 
ket insure us a profit and we are quite willing to wait 
until the end of the season to know whether we are go¬ 
ing to have a profit and if we do, we will go to the next 
convention and have a good time and if we don’t, we 
will at the end of the season ask our friends to take our 
notes, because we are short of cash. 
Yours very truly, 
J. H. Humphreys. 
The columns of the “National Nurseryman” are open 
to all nurserymen to express their opinions on subjects 
relating to the trade. 
Their publication does not necessarily mean our en¬ 
dorsement of the views expressed. 
Editor. 
Editor “National Nurseryman,” 
Easton, Maryland. 
J. W. laid down two propositions in his article on 
“Cost Finding” both untenantable as premises. 
To take up premise No. 2 first. Had I followed this 
advise, or had I were granted that such a word as can’t 
existed where would I now be? Surely more difficult 
problems in the world have been solved. 
As for No. 2. You ask “Should the cost of production, 
even if known, determine the selling price?” The selling 
price is determined by one factor alone—that is supply 
and demand. When sugar is plentiful and the demand 
light, the price is low, and vice versa. A high cost plan¬ 
tation continues to grow sugar and goes broke or if it 
knows its cost is too high it stops. A steel mill that finds 
the price of its products below its cost of production 
ceases operation. But it must know its cost. Otherwise 
it might continue until “The Bankers come in to cut up 
its remains.” , 
As for premise No. 1. You have hit the nail on the 
head in your sentence—“Cost finding is valuable only 
if it directs the propagating to profitable things, etc.” 
However, leave out the “only”. The difference be¬ 
tween success and failure can always be determined by 
whether you are doing a profitable tiling or an unprofit¬ 
able thing. Everything else you say is beside the point, 
as this is the final analysis. I might add, however, that 
because a tiling costs you 10 cents, there is no reason 
why you can’t sell it for $10.00 if the buyers will pay 
that for it. 
E. W. 
THE OFFICIAL CATALOGUE OF STANDARDIZED 
PLANT NAMES 
The Official Catalog of Standardized Plant Names will 
be ready for distribution this month. We have this from 
no less authority than the office of Harlan P. Kelsey, sec¬ 
retary of the American Joint Committee on Horticultural 
Nomenclature. 
George H. Liepe, proprietor of a nursery situated at 
Cologne, New Jersey, has taken his son into the business 
with him and intends to greatly enlarge his nurseries, 
having recently purchased a track of one hundred and 
two acres, which has a half-mile frontage on the high¬ 
way to Atlantic City. 
