THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
423 
SHALL TIIE CONSUMER BUY IIIS NURSERY STOCK 
AT WHOLESALE PRICES? 
Agawam, Mass., November 6, 1916. 
“National Nurseryman,” 
Flourtown, Pa. 
Gentlemen : 
We have been reading with considerable interest, the 
articles that have appeared recently in the National Nur¬ 
seryman relating to the forming of a retail nurseryman's 
association and to the practice of certain wholesale nur¬ 
sery firms of sending out their wholesale lists indiscrim¬ 
inately to planters as well as to dealers. 
We wish to state that we approve most emphatically 
of the stand taken by Mr. Cashman in his address and 
with the writers of the various letters endorsing his 
ideas. It is our own practice, as far as possible, to buy 
only from firms that make a very decided difference be¬ 
tween their wholesale and retail prices and that do not 
send wholesale lists to the ordinary planter or retail cus¬ 
tomer and we intend to be still more careful in that re¬ 
spect in the future. 
In our opinion, not only should the wholesale firm re¬ 
strict its wholesale price lists to those who are in the 
nursery business, but there should also be a very sub¬ 
stantial difference in price between the wholesale and 
retail lists that they issue. 
At a meeting of the Connecticut Nurserymen’s Asso¬ 
ciation a few years ago, a member suggested that it 
would be a good plan to buy only of firms whose retail 
prices were not less than double the wholesale and, con¬ 
sidering the expense of handling, selling, and frequently 
replacing the stock so purchased, that difference is cer¬ 
tainly little enough to protect the retailer. 
We recently received what purported to be a whole¬ 
sale list from a large nursery firm with a little slip in¬ 
serted saying that we were one of a number of firms that 
had been selected to whom they would allow a 20 per 
cent, discount in the prices on that list, except on certain 
items on which they could allow but a 5 per cent, dis¬ 
count with, of course, the usual packing charges. While 
this was called a wholesale list, it was evidently sent out 
to everyone and the prices, for the most part, were re¬ 
tail catalogue prices. There were frequent notes calling 
attention to the fact that at these prices, the stock was 
packed and delivered f. o. b. at their shipping station. 
What does a 20 per cent, discount or a 5 per cent, dis¬ 
count with packing charges added, amount to in such a 
case? It is very certain that we shall not send any or¬ 
ders to that firm unless we find it impossible to obtain 
some of the items elsewhere and that is not likely to be 
the case. 
We are in favor of a retail nurseryman’s association 
which shall unite for reasonable prices, honest dealings 
and the purchase of stock only from wholesale firms 
that protect their wholesale customers. 
Yours respectfully. C. W. Atwater & Son. 
A letter from Mr. George W. Strand, of Strand’s Nur¬ 
sery, Taylor’s Falls. Minn., states that on September 30th 
fire destroyed the storage and packing house, together 
with tools and supplies. The loss was $3500.00. which 
was partially covered by insurance. 
A REVIEW OF THE TREE AND FRUIT SEED CROP 
OF 1916 
By Thomas J. Lane, Tree Seedsman, Dresher, Pa. 
For many years I have been handling tree and fruit 
seeds and while every year there are some total failures 
and shortages of certain varieties, I do not remember of 
any one year in which there were so many failures and 
shortages of so many varieties as this year. In this 
country, I believe most of the shortage and failures have 
been caused by the exceptionally dry season we have just 
passed through. Conditions were not right for seed. 
Take for instance White Pine, which usually gives a good 
crop, this year I find to be very scarce and with the ex¬ 
ception of a few localities it is an entire failure. Hem¬ 
lock Spruce seed is also almost a complete failure. There 
will be very little of this seed collected this year. Cali¬ 
fornia Douglas Spruce is very scarce and in many places 
a complete failure. Sugar Maple seed all over this 
country and Canada is a failure. No crop at all. 
American White Ash seed is also very scarce. This 
seed seems as though it did not properly mature as it 
blew off much earlier than usual which denotes a lack 
of vitality in the seed. Balsam Fir seed I have been 
unable to get at all. Abies Grandis is also very scarce. 
Pinus resinosa is exceptionally scarce and in fact, I could 
continue to name many more varieties that are either a. 
complete failure or very scarce and the difficulty of get¬ 
ting together the different seeds to fill orders is very 
great. Those who do not receive the full amount of their 
orders will know that it is on account of the poor seed 
crop. 
Taking the fruit seeds, most of which are imported 
from Europe, I would say that the crop of Mahaleb 
Cherry and Myrobolan Plum seeds were quite good and I 
received a nice lot of them, but the difficulties experienced 
in getting the seed collected and shipped together with 
the many uncertainties of shipping across the ocean at 
this time makes the seed quite expensive. Mahaleb 
seed came through in pretty good time but Myrobolan 
Plum seed was very much delayed. 
French Crah seed I understand from reports received 
from France, is very scarce and in view of the scarcity 
of the seed together with the difficulty of getting enough 
labor to collect it* owing to conditions in that country at 
the present time, the price is exceptionally high and even 
at the high price I do not believe there will be enough ob¬ 
tained to fill the orders on hand. 
My collectors tell me that the crop of French Pear seed 
is almost an entire failure and do not give me much as¬ 
surance of being able to procure any of the seed for me 
and it is also exceptionally high in price. 
Keiffer Pear seed is a good crop. There is quite a lot 
of this seed of good quality. Also. Japan Pear seed. 
