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THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
The National Nurseryman 
Established 1893 by C. L. YATES. Incorporated 1902 
Published monthly by 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN PUBLISHING CO., Inc. 
218 Livingston Building, Rochester, N. Y. 
Editor .ERNEST HEMMING, Flourtown, Pa 
The leading trade journal issr id for Growers and Dealers in 
Nursery Stocks of all kinds. It circulates throughout the 
United States, Canada and Europe. 
Official Journal of American Association of Nurserymen 
AWARDED THE GRAND PRIZE AT PARIS EXPOSITION, 1900 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
One Year in Advance.$1.00 
Six Months .75 
Foreign Subscriptions, in advance.$1.50 
Six Months .$1.00 
Advertising rates will be sent upon application. Advertisements 
should reach this office by the 20th 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 by the 
Business Manager, Rochester, N. Y. 
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, Bditor, Flourtown, Pa., and should be mailed to arrive not 
later than the 25th of the month. 
Entered in the Post Office at Rochester , N. Y., as second-class matter. 
Rochester, N. Y., January, 1916. 
Public expression of opinions at meet- 
REPLACING ings and conventions and in the press 
FAILURES regarding replacing plants that are in¬ 
variably against the practice. In the 
words of J. R. Mayhew, 'It is a vicious and asinine prac¬ 
tice.” Doubtless this expresses the opinion of most nur¬ 
serymen, when they have grown stock, paying for the 
labor to produce it in actual cash and then sold it on a 
doubtful margin of profit, and overhead expenses boom¬ 
ing large in his mind. He naturally feels sore and re¬ 
sentful at any suggestion that he should assume the 
buyers’ risks and be responsible for failures over which 
he has absolutely no control. After the nurseryman has 
properly grown, packed and delivered his stock to the 
customer or transportation company, as the cast might 
be, in good condition, it would seem as if he was entitled 
to full compensation, and the courts, if appealed to, 
would no doubt so decide. 
Modern business, however, is becoming more intricate 
and the legality of a transaction is not quite sufficient. In 
these days of keen competition the merchant has to give 
more. Business building and business holding has 
taken the place of the old time barter and trade, when the 
wits of the buyer were pitted against those of the seller. 
The position taken by a large retail house better ex¬ 
emplifies the present attitude, namely—Should conten¬ 
tion arise the customer is always right, because they must 
be satisfied and complaints are settled on that basis. 
Satisfaction or your money back is no longer an adver¬ 
tising catch phrase, but a policy of many big merchan¬ 
dising establishments. 
Whatever we may think about the rights and wrongs 
of the replacement contention, it would be well to give 
due consideration to the purchasers’ attitude as well as 
our own particular business before deciding on a policy. 
The purchaser buys trees, does the best he can with 
them according to his knowledge, and they die. He 
naturally feels that it was not his fault. He applies to 
the nurseryman to make good, often feeling that they 
should be delivered and planted free, and that he should 
be reimbursed for lost time. The nurseryman who 
bluntly refuses, as per published statement on his bill 
heads or catalogue, most likely loses a customer and gets 
some free advertising of doubtful value. 
The nursery salesman promises to replace next year, 
but hopes he will not be doing that territory when plant¬ 
ing time comes around. The diplomatic nurseryman, 
with an eye on the future welfare of his business, per¬ 
sonally investigates the failure, assumes responsibility 
for failure if there is any or otherwise explains that the 
failure was due to weather or soil conditions and ends up 
by sharing the loss by replacing at a liberal discount. 
A general and advertised policy, offering to replace 
failures is truly asinine, as it encourages carelessness on 
tin 1 part of the buyer and fraud, and is not just to the 
nursery business. A policy which classes living trees 
with pig iron is almost equally bad, but one based on the 
newer conception of salesmanship, in which both buyer 
and seller must profit or stand an equal loss, is more 
likely to be profitable to the nurseryman in the long run 
and if such a fixed policy were adopted by all the retail 
nurserymen it would do much to raise the standing of the 
business in the mind of the public and be much fairer to 
the individual nurseryman than the present chaotic ac¬ 
tion in dealing with the subject. 
A letter from the Office of Informa- 
A LITTLE tion U. S. D. of A. has just been re- 
KNOWLEDGE ceived on the subject of “Weeds 
IS DANGEROUS Harboring Insects,” which con¬ 
tains a lot of practical common 
sense advice about weeds harboring insects and pests 
‘that damage the crops. There is a phase 
of this subject that is often overlooked and 
which deserves consideration. The letter advises 
the use of sheep to eat up the weeds and this brings to 
mind the botanical history of the Island of Juan Fernan¬ 
dez as given in a lecture by Prof. Brown at Kew Gardens. 
In the early days before the advent of steam and the re¬ 
frigerators the navigators placed goats on the 
island so that it would be possible for 
trading vessels to get fresh meat as a change 
from the salt meat of the ship’s stores. The calling ves¬ 
sels were not frequent enough and the goats multiplied 
so fast that the entire vegetation of the island was de¬ 
stroyed so that the botanical collections of the original 
flora made before the advent of the goats are the only 
ones in existence, as the entire flora of the island was 
destroyed. 
It is not intended to suggest that there is a similar dan¬ 
ger from sheep in this country, but if human beings may 
be likened to goats the parallel stands. 
The attitude of mind that only those insects, plants and 
animals of immediate use to man are necessary to the 
welfare of the country, is not altogether a scientific one. 
Man is only a part of creation. 
The writer recently heard a government lecturer state 
to the effect “that if all the birds were destroyed there 
would not be a human being on earth in twenty years 
