THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
*51 
Ol 
Pa. Members of the Legislative and the Executive com¬ 
mittees were also elected. 
A resolution was offered and adopted by a rising vote, 
thanking Mr. Klugli, the Elk’s Club, and the Y. M. C. A. 
for courtesies extended to the Association. 
At the close of the executive session, the doors were 
opened and many visitors as well as the nurserymen 
listened to a talk by Adolf Muller, Norristown, Pa., on an 
extended hunting trip which he made in the late summer 
to Alaska, including the Yukon. 
Trustworthy Trees and Plants 
A questionaire sent to members of the American Asso¬ 
ciation of Nurserymen by the Market Development Com¬ 
mittee asking if they use the trademark on their litera¬ 
ture or stationery, indicates sentiment in favor of the 
trademark is not by any means established. 
It is no easy matter to get a large body of men with 
many diversified interests such as make up the Amer¬ 
ican Association to agree on any proposition and differ¬ 
ences of opinion must be expected. 
Let us look into the the reason for the trademark and 
the causes which led to its adoption. 
Some might say it was in the place of a slogan to 
which the national advertising might be tied so as to par¬ 
ticularly benefit those furnishing the funds, namely to 
the members of the American Association. There was, 
however, another cause, the charge of untrustworthiness 
against nurserymen in general, by the press, perhaps 
some minor government officials, and individuals. 
Did not the prodding of these noisy individuals throw 
us off our balance and bring forth something that as a 
body the nurserymen do not feel like supporting? 
We make no exception to any trade or profession, 
whether it be the ministry, law, medicine, manufactur¬ 
ing, building, or any other craft. The nursery business 
is as clean and honest as any, and a good deal more 
beneficial to human society than many. 
When a few noisy individuals charged dishonesty, we 
should have realized how ridiculous it would have been 
for them to have accused the nursery business of being 
entirely composed of honest men who could do no wrong. 
The muckrakers, narrow minds, and biased interests 
were not to blame, as much as that sober, deliberate body 
of men in convention assembled for being rushed off 
their base into a scheme to standardize the members of 
the Association, as well as the products they grow and 
sell. 
It would not be so bad if absolute standards could be 
fixed or if there was even a clearly defined code of ethics 
for the nurserymen and a properly functioning court to 
sit in judgment on all offenders. 
Each member is a law unto himself as to the policy 
under which he will run his business. 
If there is one thing a business house is jealous of it is 
its reputation. It may have been guilty of shady trans¬ 
actions that would have no bearing on the matter; the 
last thing they want to do is to feel even morally respon¬ 
sible for someone else. It is bad psychology to expect 
them to do it. We never have quite the same confidence 
in others as we have in ourselves in such matters. 
Every nursery firm that has been in business for any 
length of time has in its own correspondence files proof 
of the impracticability of being responsible lor any 
other firm. The most any one one could do would be to 
say “I have every confidence in Messrs. Tree and Shrub 
as being honest.” 
While all merchandising is governed by the same 
laws, the products of the nursery cannot be brought 
under them for obvious reasons. 
When they are sold they have to have an operation 
which endangers their life, in which three parties act a 
part and are mutually responsible, the grower who digs 
and packs, the transporter, and the planter, any one of 
which can queer the transaction. How are we going to 
apply the trademark to them all? 
Then again, nursery products cannot be standardized 
to the degree understood by the lay mind. Even when 
size, caliper, number of stems, parentage, age, number 
of times transplanted, correct botanical name, common 
name, how propagated, etc., be given, there may still be 
room for complaint the nurseryman is a crook, because 
they were not as good as the ones bought last year or 
from some other source, or because they died. 
The retail purchaser will only have one test of Trust- 
worthyness and that will be “Did the plants and trees 
live and thrive?” 
There is only one standard of action for a nurseryman 
and that is for the individual firm to win the confidence 
of his customer and deserve it. 
An association trademark will not do this. 
When you come to think of it all trees and plants are 
trustworthy. 
Whoever planted a Seckel Pear and got anything but 
Seckel Pears from it, or a Festiva Maxima Paeonia and 
got anything else but those large white flowers occasion¬ 
ally flecked with crimson? 
These scientific advertising men who are so fond of 
using the word psycology tell us that suggestion is a 
great force in advertising. 
Our trademark was born under unfortunate circum¬ 
stances, and perhaps carries with it a suggestion of 
crooked dealings that inspired its birth. It looks perfectly 
innocent, but to talk honestly, suggests dishonesty. 
We all feel a little dubious about a person who volun¬ 
tarily tells us he is honest and one group of nurserymen 
advertising they are honest implies there are some who 
are not. 
Is it good ad/ertising to raise a doubt in the customer’s 
mind? 
We acted in good faith; we were anxious to allay the 
fears that were already there, and maybe are succeeding 
in keeping them alive. 
That is what we get by being so selfish, trying to ad¬ 
vertise only those trees and plants grown and sold by 
members of the National Association. 
Would it not be better to suggest to the whole country 
through our national advertising that 
WE MAKE THE DESERT SMILF 
rather than try to develope a market by telling the people 
of an association whose members supply trustworthy 
trees and plants? 
