242 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
ket conditions render of no value, and base our selling 
on figures which include at least approximately all 
known items. 
We talk about the laws of supply and demand, and, 
of course, it is true, that they control prices to a large 
extent, and it is equally true, that a large part of our 
stock is sold at a lower price than the law demands. 
Take an item or two from a few handy lists. Amer¬ 
ican Elms. 1% to 2 in.. 35c. 60c. 65c. -$1.00. Silver 
Maple. 10 to 12 ft.. U /2 to 1% in. in the East we use 144 
to 1U in., largely for this grade. 12c. 40c, 20c. 60c. 65c. 
These are all printed trade price lists of good, responsible 
firms for fall of 1915. Is it any wonder that business 
men who get such tremendously varying quotations on 
what is supposed to be exactly the same stock, think 
“there is something rotten in the State of Denmark?” 
Does the making of low quotations move stock? 
Would there not be for instance, just as manv Elms and 
Maples sold and planted at a living profitable price as 
there will be at prices below cost of producing and hand¬ 
ling? Even if we have a surplus, would it not be bet¬ 
ter to get a fair rate for what we sell and consign the 
balance of our too heavy plantings to the brush pile? 
When you commence sending your lists out freely to 
poor farms, city parks, hospitals, and so on. you have 
opened the gates. These lists are in the possession of 
everybody and when a man wants stock he gets it at 
pratically wholesale prices. Wholesalers are selling 
retail to the schools, and to the large cities at practically 
wholesale cost prices, because the trade lists are out. 
I believe that is the starting point, because we open the 
gates and there is no stopping it when once opened. 
When bad business principles are started, we have to 
stand by and see the destruction of good business. 
If letting down the bars and selling our surplus at 
any price to secure some of our competitor’s trade ef¬ 
fected only our own pockets, it would not make so much 
difference, but what hurts one to a greater or less ex¬ 
tent hurts all. The fellow who loses an order from 
your cut prices this time, cuts still lower at the next op¬ 
portunity. No one knows what goods can be bought or 
sold for. We are training our customers and ourselves 
to know the only way to buy is to send around lists for 
prices with reliance on the fact that most of the quota¬ 
tions will be at cut rates. The man who in summer or 
early fall, buys car load lots to store for his spring 
trade finds his customers deluded in the spring, offering 
stock in any quantity, at less than he bought of the same 
parties in car load lots. Little dealers who buy from 
$25.00 to $100.00 at a time, walk into your office with a 
pocketful of surplus lists, offering them stock at the 
same price you have to pay. Park and Cemetery super¬ 
intendents and city buyers all name lowest trade prices 
and get special quotations if they want to buy in quan¬ 
tity. Orchardists and planters are nearly all educated 
up to the fact that sending in a list for quotations means 
cut prices from the retail list. Even the Southern 
Darkey, who wants one-fourth pound Gumbo and four 
Red Geraniums, and the small lot owner who wants 
$1.00 to $3.00 worth every spring are in ever-increasing 
numbers sending in their lists of wants, expecting a cut 
from regular catalog rates. Can you wonder or blame 
them, if we have no faith in the quality and worth of 
our own products? If we dare not fix a profitable 
price on our goods and hold to them, can we expect that 
buyers will not take advantage of the opportunities 
thrust upon them? 
What do we find? Why, if the large growers co¬ 
operate to lift prices only to a fair basis and endeavor to 
eliminate cut-throat competition, it means that we are 
simply digging our own graves and making a market 
for the outside grower. That instead of being backed 
up by the trade, the cheap man is patronized. One of 
the leading nurserymen wrote me in response to quota¬ 
tions on a long list “You ornamental growers are all 
about alike in prices, but I have bought from others at 
about half your prices.” Our talk is all right, but 
when we get down to business we forget our conversa¬ 
tion. We hear at conventions and read in trade papers 
of the poor growers, the fence corner nurserymen, etc., 
who buy their stock, build up their business, keep them¬ 
selves going ahead as long as their capital and creidt 
lasts, and then hunt up their successors. The large ma¬ 
jority of this class would never get a start or be off in the 
trade, if some of our large handlers of stock did not buy 
his products and in order to save a lew dollars on his pur¬ 
chase for that season, deliberately help along another 
competitor for his own and otherts trade. 
THE W. N. T. P. A. 
.4 Husky Young Organization Fertilized With Welch’s 
Grape Juice. 
The third annual dinner of the Wholesale Nursery¬ 
men’s Traveler’s Protective Association was held in the 
“Badger Room” of the Hotel Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 
Wednesday evening. June 28th. 
In the centre of the table was placed a magnificent 
bunch of one hundred Ophelia roses, kindly loaned for 
the occasion by the J. & P. Co. which, alas, for reasons 
which the reader will later surmise, were never returned 
to the rightful owners. 
The Secretary called the roll. Not a soul was miss¬ 
ing. Not a glass turned down. A spirit of expectancy, 
of something thrilling yet to come, pervaded the atmos¬ 
phere. 
Furtive glances were constantly cast towards the diaz. 
upon which the orchestra was already seated, but. alas, 
screened from view by an exquisite curtain of royal 
purple. The duty of engaging the orchestra had been 
left to “Sunny Jim” Fraser and he had promised some 
surprises. 
The members were standing back of their chairs, wait¬ 
ing. waiting, when lo, as the hour of ten chimed forth, 
the curtains were swept aside, and behold, on the diaz 
sat nine lovely, smiling maidens, “nine, count ’em” “Miss 
Rito Mario’s Ladies Orchestra.” 
Like a Japanese golden-banded lily, bending before the 
wind. Miss Mario bowed gracefully to President “Bob 
Chase” then, as she lightly waved her baton, the orchestra 
played that touching lullaby.—“Welcome to Milwaukee, 
the Home of Lager Beer.” 
The menu had been prepared by C. R. Burr, who is 
