"'Make-Good” Catalogues 
HE real value of a catalogue depends upon what it produces rather 
than upon its first cost. There must be a proper relation, of course, 
between cost and production. 
McFarland catalogues have completely proved their economy, 
when judged on the basis of cost and production rather than 
upon cost only. The ever-increasing number of florists, nursery¬ 
men and seedsmen who use them year after year is ample demon¬ 
stration of this fact. 
“Make-good” catalogues, of which the McFarland output 
affords so many examples, owe their superior ejficiency to the messages 
they carry and the way in which these messages are put before the 
public. The study of these specimen pages will suggest the reason why. 
For many years the catalogues made by the J. Horace McFarland Company admit¬ 
tedly have been the standard in the selling literature of the plant, nursery and seed trade. 
Such skill has been expended in making them that, whenever copy with proper selling 
ower has been supplied and the books have had the right kind of distribution, they 
ave shown maximum effectiveness. 
Layout that is pleasing and attractive, illustrations which help to create the buying 
impulse for the goods described, display that rivets attention on the most important 
items offered for the consideration of the reader, type for the text which is easify read 
and which is so arranged as to make the most economical use of space, clear and distinct 
press-work, and various other elements of carefully planned and well-done printing, 
have co-operated in giving McFarland catalogues their reputation as business builders. 
With the establishment of The McFarland Publicity Service, some five years ago, 
the application of the McFarland idea in catalogue-making was given a much wider 
range. The help in the planning of campaigns, in the preparation of copy and in atten¬ 
tion to the distribution and follow-up of catalogues on scientific lines which this organi¬ 
zation gives horticultural tradesmen, affords a selling service more comprehensive and 
more complete than is to be had in most other lines of business. 
The McFarland Publicity Service has been able to greatly reduce the editions of cat¬ 
alogues used by many of its customers, through a better handling of their advertising 
and the elimination of “dead wood” from their mailing-lists. It has been equally success¬ 
ful in cutting down the number of pages in the catalogues of several of its clients by care¬ 
ful revision and condensation of the descriptive matter, thus making possible the use 
of better illustrations and better printed books at no greater cost. It has succeeded in 
largely increasing the selling efficiency of catalogues by intelligent follow-up. 
While the first cost of McFarland catalogues is frequently higher than the prices of 
ordinary printers, when the comparison is made on the basis of a given number of pages 
and a given number of copies, each year adds to the number of McFarland clients who 
have found in actual experience that they are the cheapest in the end. With a mechanical 
equipment that is constantly undergoing sharp scrutiny and improvement, with the 
experience of years in making books that are models in form and appearance, and with 
complete facilities for supplying all forms of service which enter into productive selling 
literature, the McFarland Organizations have no hesitancy whatever in undertaking to 
get a larger return in business from the catalogue appropriation of any florist, nursery¬ 
man and seedsman than he can obtain from the same expenditure in other directions. 
The McFarland Organizations, Harrisburg, Penna. 
J. Horace McFarland Company 
Engravers, Printers and Binders 
The McFarland Publicity Service 
Practitioners of Selling Science 
