402 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
ANNUAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT MAYHEW OF THE 
TEXAS NURSERYMEN’S ASSOCIATION 
Ladies and Gentlemen: 
At this, the twelfth annual meeting of Texas Nurserymen’s 
Association, I hope you may every one receive inspiration, 
one from the other, that you will carry home with you and 
coin into golden eagles. One of the best results of our 
association meetings is touching elbows, one with the other, 
meeting in a social way our competitors, and studying each 
other from other angles than selfish business. 
A Glance Into Our Past 
Twelve years ago certain progressive nurserymen organ¬ 
ized this association, not because of selfish ends sought, but 
with a desire to further the interests of all through co-opera¬ 
tion. It has been our custom, each year at least since, to 
meet together for counsel, for social benefits derived, and for 
business. I do not believe there exists a more unselfish 
organization of business men than those who form this asso¬ 
ciation and, having been your president for three successive 
years, I believe I am in position to know whereof I speak. 
Covering this period, I cannot call to mind a single instance 
of petty jealousy or selfishness on the part of any member, 
which is a statement I rejoice to make. During the twelve 
years of your organization you have from time to time 
inaugurated policies in keeping with continually changing 
conditions, and I believe that from any point of view mem¬ 
bers of this association compare favorably with other business 
organizations of the country. Your efforts of the past have 
been to serve efficiently your patrons, and if you have a hope 
of the future that is above every other hope, it is that you 
may be able to produce better trees, trees that will produce 
better fruits, flowers that will bloom more profusely and of 
more becoming hues and tints, more pleasing to the senses, 
than has been possible in the past. I tell you, sirs, with no 
intent or desire to flatter, that the man who makes it possible 
for the poorest of his fellows to have the best in fruits and 
flowers at a nominal cost is not a bad citizen. There are 
men before me grown gray in the service of their fellows, and 
if just appreciation of all the blessings they have given 
humanity found expression in marble shaft, it would reach 
skyward. 
Prices—Policies 
As I have just noted, you are giving to the world the best 
in your particular line that brain and brawn can produce, and 
you are giving this at a remarkably cheap price. The 
laborer is worthy of his hire, a fact the nurserymen are slow 
to learn. I believe, my friends, that we are doing ourselves 
a serious injustice, impairing our usefulness in a broad sense, 
in the foolish endeavor to market our product at prices that 
in the end mean loss rather than profit. This, very naturally, 
is a problem that must be solved severally, a condition that 
must be met individually, but it must be met. If stock is 
sold at a loss there is one thing certain—prices are too low or 
policies of making sales are wrong. We all realize that it is 
possible to sell a product at its worth, or even above its 
worth, and lose money in the transaction, due to the exorbi¬ 
tant expense of marketing, which has been demonstrated 
during the past season in handling the fruit crop of Texas. 
In this instance the producer gets less than the worth of 
his product and the consumer pays an exorbitant price 
comparable to the price received by the producer. Quoting 
from an article appearing in the press of the state some days 
since from the pen of a chairman of one of the sub-committees 
of Texas Welfare Commission, “Texas cantaloupes, which 
bring the farmer cents per crate and on which the 
freight from Texas to Denver common points is 28 cents, cost 
the consumer on the Denver market $4.50 per crate.’’ And 
again, “Texas peaches which brought the grower 60 cents per 
bushel cost the consumer at Denver common points $3.75, 
and that these prices reflect their results upon Texas pro¬ 
ducers in that they lessen the consumption of the quantity.’’ 
Not only in the above instance does the Texas producer 
receive less than the worth of his product, but, through 
manipulation of the middleman, his market is curtailed and, 
as a consequence, thousands of cars of fruit rot for want of a 
market. I believe, as has been suggested before, that a 
committee from the State Horticultural Society and a like 
committee from this association should work together to 
correct, if possible, this condition. 
Furthermore, and as this question is related to our 
own marketing, are we not paying more in agents’ com¬ 
missions, freight and express charges, delivery expenses, 
etc., than is good for either ourselves or patrons? We 
are face to face with a condition here, as is true with all 
other lines of business, and this condition must be met 
and solved. Before the Texas Farmers’ Congress in igii, 
Col. B. F. Yoakum, in a paper regarding the high cost of 
marketing our products, gave these astounding figures: “Last 
year’s agricultural products were worth $9,000,000,000.00. 
Assuming that the farmer kept one-third for his own use, the 
consumer paid $13,000,000,000.00 for what the producer 
received $6,000,000,000.00.’’ Col. Yoakum, in this splendid 
paper, estimated that by a proper system of marketing, the 
farmer ought to save at least $2,000,000,000.00 of the 
$7,000,000,000.00 which, under present system of handling, 
now goes to middlemen, the average worth per year’s agri¬ 
cultural crop being used. Quoting further from his paper, 
“The $ 2 , 000 , 000 , 900.00 we would save by a system of going 
more direct from the farm to the consumer nearly equals the 
factory values of all the steel, lumber, oil, sugar, and tobacco 
sold in the United States last year. It is more than the 
combined revenues of France, Italy and Germany. It is 
more than double the cost of running our government.’’ 
My friends, listen! Somewhere between the prices paid by 
customer for trees and plants and the net price you receive 
for same, there is an expense account that must be reduced. 
It is costing too much to market our products and that con¬ 
cern that first solves this complex question will be the first 
