272 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
teen to twenty leading wholesalers’ names, stating that 
from these firms their goods can be bought at cost, what 
show has the retailer to get the business and it might be 
said further that the average retail nurseryman today is 
in a position to do j ust as good work in the way of land¬ 
scaping on the average place, as those who make an ex¬ 
clusive business of it. One large wholesale nurseryman 
said to me that a large part of his business came through 
jobbers who made a business of canvassing the Depart¬ 
ment stores. He said he knew of one man who made 
$25,000.00 a year net, this way. If this be true, it 
shows to what extent the Department stores are eating 
into the legitimate trade of the retail nurseryman. Right 
here at Milwaukee this year, Delicious apple trees, beau¬ 
tiful specimens, 6 to 7 feet, were sold at from nine to 
twelve cents each; Lilac “villosa,” twenty-five to thirty 
cents; Currants, 1 to 2 year, as good as we get from the 
wholesaler, at two and three cents each; a large assort¬ 
ment of the best flowering and foliage shrubs at from 
eleven to sixteen cents each. This stock was not 
scrubby stock, nor in any way inferior to the stock that 
the large wholesaler furnishes this and other retail nur¬ 
serymen. 
It was said at the convention that this business does 
not hurt the nurseryman. When it is considered that 
interurban lines tap the surrounding country for forty 
and fifty miles and bring hundreds of our best farmers 
to Milwaukee to trade and they see trees, shrubs, plants 
and roses offered at ridiculously low prices and then stop 
to think of what they pay the nurseryman, what do you 
think is their opinion of the retail nursery dealer and can 
you honestly say that this does not hurt the retailer? 
To make bad matters worse—nursery sock is carelessly 
handled in Department stores. People who buy early 
when stuff has just opened up probably come out all 
right, but as a rule stock is displayed on sidewalks and in 
hot, stuffy rooms and dries out quickly. The writer 
has seen nursery stock sold as late as June 20th, on the 
sidewalks of Milwaukee; the plants themselves dry as a 
bone, but at the same time, were carefully burlapped at 
the root and kept watered; the unsuspecting buyer being 
badly stung in his purchase. Getting stock like this 
does not strengthen the buyer’s confidence in nursery¬ 
men and their ways. 
The writer has made a good deal of inquiry about 
Trade Associations and does not know of one which carries 
on its rolls retail dealers and wholesale dealers, but have 
learned that Wholesale Trade Associations in other lines 
of endeavor are now and have for years fostered a policy 
of giving the retailer all of the protection it was possible 
for their association to create. Has there ever been any 
such policy followed in the American Association of 
Nurserymen? 
We must all admit that this Association and its poli¬ 
cies up to the present time have been dominated by whole¬ 
sale interests. 
To my mind the most regrettable incident of the whole 
meeting was the fact that the wholesale element were not 
big enough to come forth with a resolution similar to 
that Mr. Cashman offered, instead of letting the opportun¬ 
ity slip by and have this plea come from the retailers 
themselves. If the wholesalers had taken this step 
even as late as this year, most of the retailers would have 
gone home with a better feeling in their hearts and a 
greater degree of confidence in the wholesale ntfrserymen 
with whom they are doing business. 
I venture to make a prediction now that unless the 
wholesale nurserymen are agreeable to work with the 
retailers, co-operating with them toward eliminating the 
wholesale distribution of wholesale trade price-lists, that 
the retailers themselves being largely in the majority will 
secede from the parent organization and form an Asso¬ 
ciation of their own which shall be strictly for the retail 
nurserymen and which can then be conducted in a way 
that will work for the retailer and his interests. The 
more I think of it, the more I believe that a larger and 
better Association can now be formed if it was to be com¬ 
posed of retail nurserymen only. There are certainly 
more retail nurserymen outside of the present organiza¬ 
tion than there are in it and if an organization of this 
kind can be formed for the benefit of the retail nursery¬ 
man and him only, it would be an easy matter to treble 
the present membership of retail nurserymen. 
WHEN THE EUROPEAN WAR ENDS 
There are those who say that the loss of war orders 
after peace comes in Europe will seriously affect the in¬ 
dustries of our country. This is absurd. The percen¬ 
tage of war orders, contrasted with the entire domestic 
and foreign commerce of the United States, is insignifi¬ 
cant. When war orders cease—and God grant that the 
necessity for them may cease soon—we shall receive or¬ 
ders, even from Europe, for the restorative purposes of 
peace, for the reconstruction of ruined industries and 
cities, and for the relief of the stricken markets of Ger¬ 
many and Austria, which have been closed to us for the 
full period of the war. Our trade to Austria and Ger¬ 
many alone for the last year prior to the outbreak of the 
war amounted to $367,500,000. All this trade will be 
regained, and in addition to that, if we are in the least 
intelligent and enterprising, the great markets of South 
and Central America, which have been seeking us for the 
past two years, will more than offset any possible loss of 
war trade. The total imports of South America alone, 
exclusive of those received from the United States dur¬ 
ing the last year of available statistics prior to the out¬ 
break of the European war, were something like $700,- 
000,000. The great oriental trade is also before us. 
