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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. 
Hatboro, Pa. 
Editor .ERNEST HEMMING, Flourtown, 
Pa. 
The leading trade journal issued for Growers and Dealers 
Nursery Stocks of all kinds. It circulates throughout the 
United States, Canada and Europe. 
in 
AWARDED THE GRAND PRIZE AT PARIS EXPOSITION, 1900 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
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, Hatboro, Pa. 
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, Editor, Flourtown, Pa., and should be mailed to arrive not 
later than the 25th of the month. 
Entered as second-class matter June 22, 1916, at the post office at 
Hatboro, Pennsylvania, under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Hatboro, Pa., October 1916 
There is undoubtedly a growing feel- 
A RETAIL ing among retail nurserymen in favor 
ASSOCIATION of the formation of a National Retail 
Nurserymen’s Association, due largely 
to the feeling that the wholesaler encroaches on the re¬ 
tailer’s market by selling direct to the consumer. 
Whether such an association would relieve the situa¬ 
tion it is difficult to conclude. 
The argument is advanced that other trades have 
separate associations, but this proves nothing, as what 
other trade parallels the nursery business, by being man¬ 
ufacturer, wholesaler and retailer combined, as do many 
of the leading establishments in the nursery business? 
The ideal, of course, is the manufacturer or grower, the 
jobber or wholesaler and the bona fide retailer each con¬ 
fining himself to his own particular branch. In 
the nursery business the grower and wholesaler is com¬ 
bined in one to a large extent and there is no good reason 
why he should not be, each keeping very strictly to their 
own particular line. 
The ideal is seldom attained and the formation of an 
association is not certain to improve conditions to a very 
great extent, due to the fact so many nurserymen are 
growers, wholesalers and retailers. 
On the face of it, it does seem as if a retail association 
could best look after the interests of the retail men, but 
after all the entire object of such an association, in so 
far as it has been expressed, would be to force the whole¬ 
sales by boycott or otherwise to confine themselves to 
their own legitimate customers. 
As association founded on such a basis would lose more 
than it would gain by separating itself from the present 
organization as their interests are inextricably inter¬ 
woven. 
Reform should come from within and when the per- 
sonel of the association is considered, this does not appear 
to be such a monumental impossibility. 
Everyone recognizes that there has 
PREPAREDNESS been a complete revolution in prac¬ 
tically all lines of trade say in the 
past ten years. Old methods and old ideas have been 
completely changed. The great war in Europe has per¬ 
haps been the cause of disturbing the main channels and 
thinkers and business men are studying how they are 
going to affect the future. 
Even in the nursery business radical changes are tak¬ 
ing place and one has to be very much alive to keep up 
with the times. The nurseryman perhaps is more handi¬ 
capped than any other line of business in increasing pro¬ 
duction on short notice. It may be possible to raise an 
army in a given time, feed, clothe and arm them, or even 
build up battleships in half the time it has heretofore 
taken, but it is beyond the ability of a nation just as much 
as a single individual to shorten the period of production 
of nursery stock to any appreciable extent. The seasons 
have to roll by before age and caliper can be put in a 
tree and for this reason the nurseryman is called on to 
exercise more foresight than almost any other line of 
business. 
If we look back over the past ten years, how many of 
us wish that instead of being panic-stricken by hard 
times, depression and all the other bogies that put the 
brakes on enterprise, we had adopted a policy of a steady 
increase in production and laid better plans for improv¬ 
ing the quality and doing a higher class business. We 
should now be in a better position to meet the undoubted 
demand that will come within the next year or so. As 
far as the nurseryman is concerned those items that take 
more than one or two years to produce, especially in orna¬ 
mentals, are going to be short and there is every evidence 
that possible restrictions will be passed against their im¬ 
portation, so that we cannot call upon a foreign supply. 
So much being said about preparedness that it is becom¬ 
ing almost trite. At the same time it is very vital to the 
nurseryman, in fact absolutely essential, that he be pre¬ 
pared and this means planning several years in advance 
and that he adhere to his program regardless of fluctu¬ 
ations in the stock market. 
Shipping and planting seasons are 
FALL PLANTING too short for the nurseryman and 
every means by which they may be 
lengthened should be taken full advantage of. 
Very wisely there is an incraesed tendency to begin 
the fall planting and shipping much earlier than in the 
past, but the movement has not nearly attained the atten¬ 
tion or impetus it should. 
The nurseryman may do much of his own transplanting 
on the nursery as early as August and September when 
weather conditions permit, but he has not yet begun to 
systematically educate his customers that this is a good 
season for transplanting evergreens, many kinds of trees, 
