THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
127 
HORTICULTURE AS KING 
Editor “National Nurseryman”:— 
I have enjoyed extensively each and every issue of the 
National Nurseryman for the past live or six years. Ar¬ 
ticles pertaining to the growing, shipping and planting of 
nursery stock, legislation relative to inspection, quaran¬ 
tines, etc., reports of conventions, including addresses by 
our foremost American nurserymen, various discussions 
touching on all phases of nursery work, all have been 
very interesting as well as educational. 
Not until now have I ever offered anything, nor entered 
into a discussion of any kind in this or any other trade 
paper, hut the reply to “Horticulture as king” in the 
March number, asserting “That no man labors harder 
with his head and his hands than the nurseryman; also, 
that there is no business in which there is so little actual 
profit,” compels me to take issue. I have yet to see a 
nursery establishment in which the employees, or even 
the employer, show any ill effect from overwork, either 
physically or mentally. Ordinarily, they are perfect 
specimens ot health and vigor, due, 1 presume, to fresh 
air and plenty to eat. 
I assume actual profit means net profit. I have heard 
many times that the nurseryman’s large margin of profit 
is responsible for the slip-shod manner in which a good 
many do business. (One wouldn’t suspect much truth 
in this if he takes a slant at the wages paid in most nur¬ 
series.) 
With the large margin of profit, the nurserymen have 
not felt the need of scientific management until recently, 
due to the many new concerns entering the business each 
years, thus making competition a little sharper. As 
competition grows, and in order that the nurserymen 
maintain the present good profit, they will have to adopt 
more of the business principles employed by other indus¬ 
tries under the head of scientific management. Did 
you ever send an order, with instructions to ship at once, 
to a concern whose advertisements appear in the trade 
papers and receive acknowledgement two or three weeks 
later, stating it was unable to supply? Is this scheme 
a business getter? Is it enterprising? 
Having the business spells profit, providing it is prop¬ 
erly managed. One shouldn’t hamper the profits by 
spreading his plant or growing extensively unless he has 
assurances of increased business. An established bus¬ 
iness, employing twenty-five or fifty men, or more, not 
enjoying a handsome profit, is clear evidence of poor 
management. Not long ago, a foreman on a compara¬ 
tively small nursery, who had between forty and fifty 
men most of the year, claimed more work, consequently 
more profit, could be turned over with thirty or thirty- 
five men of the right stripe. An efficient nursery force, 
like an engine, must operate with a minimum loss of 
energy. 
Why permit a man to make twenty trips a day to the 
pot shed for as many strings of pots when one or two 
trips with a wheel-barrow will furnish enough for the 
day? Why start a couple of men around the nursery 
to fill a five dollar order, when they can conveniently 
handle twenty or thirty dollars worth of business? Cost 
of production in this business is rather hard to determine, 
hut there are plenty of ways that can be shortened con¬ 
siderably. Standardize what can be, and require the 
standard. When a man falls below the standard, place 
him where he will be of most value. 
One thing I see a great deal among our nurserymen, is 
their boast of acreage. Does this swell your buisness? 
Does it indicate in any way the superiority of stock, or 
does it mean you will likely have more for the fire in the 
spring ? 
You know, to follow the reports of some concerns, 
burning of stock seems to be the principal occupation. 
I have been associated with a concern that hasn’t set fire 
to $100 worth of stock in ten years. Why spread over 
a hundred acres what can be grown on fifty or sixty? 
Most herbaceous plants, for example, and a good many 
small growing deciduous shrubs, will grow just as well 
planted ten to twelve inches apart for a couple of years 
as they will at eighteen or twenty-four inches, unless you 
are growing in quantities, expecting to burn twenty-five 
or fifty per cent, in three or four years, why grow ten 
thousand of a thing when five thousand will take care 
of the demand? In my opinion, it is far better and de- 
cicedly more profitable to sell your five thousand and 
have to buy, rather than grow ten thousand and have to 
burn. 
With proper office records, good outdoor management, 
close buying and selling, the nursery business will pay 
just as much profit for every dollar in business as any 
other legitimate business. 
I must add that live wires in the work do not seem as 
plentiful as in other lines of work. Any beginner in 
the business manifesting an interest in your work, 
studies hard, follows the other man and looks as though 
he will be of value in the future, do not fail to do all in 
your power to retain him. I am young in the business 
but I can recall at least six live wires that gave up the 
nursery business because their employers failed to re¬ 
cognize their ability. Other industries are constantly 
on the lookout for such men, why shouldn’t our business 
be doing it? G. II. Sample. 
A GOOD CATALOGUE 
There are many good nurserymen’s retail catalogues 
published annually in the United States. Among those 
especially worthy of note is that of Holm & Olsen, Inc., 
St. Paul, Minn. “Creating Your Landscape. It is ex¬ 
tremely attractive and hardly likely to find its way into 
the waste basket even by an uninterested recipient. 
Its strongest feature is its being built to the needs of 
the customer rather than an offering of what the firm 
has to sell, yet it presents its goods to the customer in the 
most interesting way. 
It should prove an honest, capable salesman. 
