22 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
AFTER WE HAVE ABOLISHED THE PRACTICE OF 
REPLACING NURSERY STOCK-WHAT NEXT? 
Address at the Kansas City Meeting of Western Nurserymen 
By J. R. Mayhew, 
When I tell you that for two seasons no wide-awake, 
thoroughly up-to-date nurseryman in my part of the country 
has practiced replacing at less than full value, it will explain 
the liberty I have taken in changing somewhat the subject 
assigned me, but for fear some of my friends may think my 
ardor for this refonn has cooled, I will answer the question, 
“Should we not abolish the replacement of nursery stock 
on all retail orders and under all conditions?” Y-E-S, as 
emphatically, as unequivocally as I did two years ago. I 
want again to say that we of the Texas Association have, 
first by resolution and last by living up to the resolution, 
accomplished the impossible, as some of my friends termed 
it. It was an easy task after all, easy after conviction came 
upon us, and now I’ll treat if you can find a self-respecting 
nurseryman in my state who is not heartily ashamed of 
this shyster method of the past. Somehow or other I am so 
ashamed of it for myself and for such men as I could name 
(but will not, for maybe it did not come out on them as it 
did me) that I intend to quit talking about it. It is a 
character of advertisement that will do us little good for the 
practice proved us poor business men indeed. One of my 
banker friends got hold of one of our trade journals that 
hap}3ened to have one of my articles on this question, and in 
wonderment he asked the question, “Have you nurserymen 
been in the habit of guaranteeing stock to live?” I have 
wondered ever since if my credit is as good at that bank as 
it was before this question was asked and answered. 
A Foolish Policy 
My friends, this nonsensical policy is questionably the 
parent of many of our ills and the sooner we wash our hands 
of such criminally foolish methods the sooner we may expect 
the business world to respect us. As I have said on several 
occasions heretofore, the dollars and cents that we put into 
the deal was great, was a severe loss from this point of 
view, but greater still was the loss in that which goes to make 
all business great—confidence. It was destroying our 
confidence in the commodity we were producing, destroying 
the customer’s confidence in the commodity purchased. 
It was a shyster idea conceived in the iniquitous brain 
of a shyster salesman, perhaps, and you and I pennitted this 
policy to creep into our business because we thought we 
would go bankrupt if the salesman’s wishes in the matter 
were crossed. Let me tell you right here, and I have amend¬ 
ed my subject that I may pay my respects to him further on, 
if we don’t get rid of this shyster element in salesmanship, 
if we don’t get rid of this vicious salesman who is largely 
responsible for our unhealthy reputation with the retail 
buyer, we will never succeed. I am not one who would 
disparage all salesmen, a few of them are worthy and conduct 
Waxahachie, Texas 
themselves and their business along high business lines, but 
is it not true that the element I condemn loses you each 
year the money, and ofttimes more, the best ones make you ? 
AVhen we cast up accounts at the end of the season, I am 
inclined to believe this is pretty nearly true. What I plead 
for is that we may “acquit ourselves like men,” and when the 
salesman tempts us with sophistry that we may quote him 
words of eternal truth. 
But back to the original question, for a member of your 
program committee indicated to me that I was expected to 
confine my remarks largely to the subject appearing on 
program. It was my pleasure to prepare the resolution 
condemning this policy, which was adopted by the Texas 
Nurserymen’s Association in 1909, also to introduce a similar 
resolution before the American Association of Nurserymen 
at Denver, in June, 1910. Those of you who were present 
remember that this resolution was adopted unanimously, 
so it seems to me that we are making progress. I have 
received letters from nurserymen from every part of the 
United States thanking me for what I have written on the 
subject and assuring me of their cooperation. If, in my 
feeble way, I have contributed anything whatever that has 
tended to lift our business to a higher plane, I am more than 
repaid. I do not know how long it will take to outlive the 
evil results of this policy for unstable policies in business, 
like sin in the human life, leave a scar, but I do know that 
the longer continued the deeper the scar and the harder to 
heal. I am glad that we in the great state of Texas have 
two years to our credit in this matter, and while I am not 
advised to speak for the large list of nurserymen of Texas, 
I can speak for one firm and for that firm I will say, “for 
me and my house we will serve the Lord.” 
If I was confident my brethren in the trade held to a 
different view, it would make little difference, for rather 
-than be confronted daily with requisition for replace on stock 
whose failure I knew was the result of carelessness, un¬ 
favorable weather conditions, or a thousand and one con¬ 
ditions over which I had no control, I would elect to support 
my family in some other vocation. 
After We Have Abolished the Practice of Replace— 
What Next? 
There is not a man present who does not feel the absolute 
necessity of certain and perhaps radical changes if we are to 
succeed in the truest sense, who.feels, to say the least, in¬ 
disposed, and the need of a business tonic. I have received 
letters during the past month from friends over the country 
whose minds, like my own, are intent on some needed re¬ 
forms, and I believe these reforms are coming quick. We 
must abolish the practice of replace, and I hope someone 
