THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
347 
The Betterment and Uplift of Our Profession 
Read at the Atlanta Meeting of the Southern Nurserymen's Association, August 20 — 30, 1916, 
By W. A. Easterly . 
T 1IE betterment and uplift of our profession is no 
doubt the chief object of every real nurseryman 
of today, the nurseryman who is not striving to 
better his condition is not worthy to he called a nur¬ 
seryman, and will by and by make a failure and have to 
step aside for the man who puts energy integrity and ad¬ 
vancement, the chief factors, in his business. Our bus¬ 
iness is like the community in which we live; they are 
such men put character, hope and promise into worthless 
sticks of wood.” This quotation in my opinion contains 
one of the most important essentials to the betterment 
and uplift of our profession. 
We cannot hope to better our profession or get it on a 
a higher plane without putting our whole energy togeth¬ 
er with conscientious integrity into it. 
I believe a Nurseryman’s creed should he, in order to 
The way they grow Hydrangeas P. G., atPainesville, Ohio. 
just what we make them, good or bad. 
There are so many ways in which we can better our 
profession, that I could not undertake to discuss them 
all in this short paper, therefore I shall only discuss a few 
brief points that in my opinion would better our pro¬ 
fession. 
Mr. Welsh, in his address to the American Association, 
at Milwaukee, said, “The work of nurserymen will not 
grow less as time goes on, for ours is one of expansion, 
not contraction, the needs of humanity will not decrease 
with time, and to the tillers of the soil will fall the in¬ 
heritance of supplying the needs of the world. The 
sooner we realize it all, just so soon will we, as nursery¬ 
men become more effective.” And If. W. Collingwood, has 
said, “It seems to me that the honest and conscientious 
nurseryman who is true to his business, comes closest to 
what I call the spiritual side of the nursery business, 
uplift and better his profession, the following resolutions, 
with a firm determination to carry them out and keep 
them in effect. 
First. I believe in my business. 
I believe in growing the best. 
I believe in good stock and living prices. 
I believe in cultivating the ground thoroughly and 
rotating my tree crops. 
I believe in good strains, rigid selections and thorough 
training. 
I believe the best a thousand miles away, may not he 
the best in my locality. 
I believe that apart from all other considerations, hon¬ 
esty is the best policy. 
I believe in always handling trees as if they were to be 
planted on my own grounds. 
I believe we should not sell a tree that we would not 
