THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
23 
will introduce at this meeting a resolution to that effect, to 
which I promise not to speak; but, my friends, there are 
some other things we must do. We must eliminate the 
shyster salesman if he takes with him the good ones also. 
We must spy out and mark the “dead beat” who buys trees 
wholesale with no intention of paying for them, and in this 
matter our association is doing a fine work. We must keep 
pace with twentieth century methods all along the line. 
But what will this profit us if we continue to sell our porduct 
at less than the cost of production? 
Advance Prices 
We must raise prices. On no other commodity under the 
sun is the margin of profits so dangerously small, and it is 
also true that on no other commodity produced are the risks 
so great. The past few years of drouth over the South-West 
have fully convinced me of that fact. We are at the mercy 
of the elements even before stock is planted, and each day 
thereafter is one of anxious care. If the cost of production 
on a suit of clothes that you buy in the market to-day for 
$5.00 was as great as the cost of production on $50.00 worth 
of nursery stock, and your only chance of obtaining raiment 
was from the proceeds of your business, the nurser^nnan’s 
garb the year around would resemble that of the picaninny 
of the South in August. 
I again say we must revise our prices, and the revision 
must have something of the Republican Tariff revision ring 
about it. I know what obstacles are here in the many 
farmer-nurserymen over the country, in that same shyster 
salesnian spoken of a few moments since who buys as a 
dealer from said farmer-nurseryman, and who, by giving 
customer receipted stock for his board bill which is never 
delivered is able to sell cheap trees, and they are cheap; 
who continues to guarantee all trees to live for five years, 
etc., but whatever the obstacles they must be overcome. 
Prices of nursery stock must advance. 
One other thing I want to mention, and I close. We 
must take the business management out of salesmen’s hands. 
What do I mean? Simply this. We are being dictated 
to by the salesman who is often a dealer, and who buys stock 
at less than wholesale prices. You lend him your good name 
to do business on, borrow the money from your bank to 
finance his business, allow him to name practically the terms 
of contract, even to the price of your stock, for what? The 
infinite pleasure of being his humble and obedient servant 
during the life of contract, and less than a gambler’s chance 
for the money he owes you for stock and advances. “He 
who steals my purse steals trash, but he who filches from me 
my good name robs me of that which enriches him not but 
leaves me poor indeed!” Our poverty in money is not 
serious, but our poverty in good name among the very 
people we are trying to serve is serious. Our good name has 
been and is being embezzled by this same unworthy salesman 
who cares not a penny whether you succeed or fail. If he 
fails to rewrite a contract with me for another year he knows 
you will take him, and he goes back over the territory and 
explains the changed relations to the people who ]:)atronized 
him because he was operating under my name in a way 
calculated to destroy the customer’s confidence in me. I 
wish every nurseryman in the land would take a solemn 
oath to wage a united war of extcnnination on this character 
of salesmanship. 
But I must close! Already I have presumed on your 
goodness and have taken more of your time than I should. 
My remarks have something of the ring of pessimism, but 
in the matters discussed, as well as all other matters, I am an 
optimist. I believe with all my heart that your work and 
mine is blessing humanity, that the world is better and more 
beautiful because of your efforts in the world, but I also 
believe we'should not stop short of our best. If a thing is 
not right it is wrong, and if wrong it is your business and 
mine to right it. I believe, furthermore, that the nursery 
business over the entire country, and over the great West 
and South-West particularly, is destined to grow by leaps 
and bounds. To-day, as never before in the history of our 
country, it seems to me that opportunity knocks at our 
door. 
I have talked plainly to you of certain conditions that 
should not exist in our special line of business if we are to 
make use of this opportunity, have endeavored to point out 
some weak places in our methods, not because I derive any 
pleasure in fault-finding but because it is only after we recog¬ 
nize a weakness that there is hope for strength. These 
breaches in the walls of our business have become a reproach. 
“Then said I unto them, ye see the distress that we are in 
. come, let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that 
we be no more a reproach.” 
VIRGINIA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
The sixteenth annual session of this organization will 
take place in the Assembly Hall, Harrisonburg, Va., on 
January loth and nth, 1912. For its list of speakers, the 
Society has drawn largely upon the staff of the Virginia 
Experiment Station at Blacksburg, and several men from 
other states are expected to deliver addresses. This com¬ 
paratively young society now has over one thousand mem¬ 
bers, and its ambition is to double this number at once. 
The fruit exhibit fonns an important part of the annual 
meeting'. 
ADAMS COUNTY, PA., HORTICULTURAL MEETING 
One of the attractive announcements issued by the 
Fruit Growers’ Association of Adams County, Pennsylvania, 
has been received at this office. The seventh annual con¬ 
vention was held at Bendersville, December 13, 14, and 15. 
Besides giving the program, this pamphlet ]3rints the consti¬ 
tution and by-laws of the organization. A long list of ques¬ 
tions for discussion follows the general program. Among 
the speakers were fruit growers of the state, and members 
of the staff of the state agricultural college, as well as a few 
speakers from out of the state. 
In December .Stark Bros. Nurseries & Orchards Co. of Louisiana, 
Mo., again remembered the business office of The N.a.tion.ai. Nur¬ 
seryman with a box of delicious apples. This time the variety 
comprises, Delicicjus, Black Ben, and Stayman’s Winesap. These 
apples, are very large, and have a beautiful reddish ct>lor, they 
have excellent keeping qualities, and are delightful to the taste. 
