38 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
The National Nurseryman 
Established 1893 by C. L. YATES. Incorporated 1902 
Published monthly by 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN PUBLISHING CO., Inc. 
Hatboro, Pa. 
Editor .... 
.ERNEST HEMMING, Flourtown, 
Pa. 
The leading 
Nursery 
trade journal issued for Growers and Dealers 
Stocks of all kinds. It circulates throughout the 
United States, Canada and Europe. 
in 
.4 WARDED 
THE OR AND PRIZE AT PARIS EXPOSITION. 1900 
SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
One Year in Advance .$1.50 
Foreign Subscriptions, in advance .$2.00 
Six Months .$1.00 
Advertising- rates will be sent npon application. Advertisements 
should reach this office by the 20th of the month previous to the date 
of issue. 
Payment in advance required for foreign advertisements. Drafts 
on New York or postal orders, instead of checks, are requested by the 
Business Manager, Hatboro, Pa. 
Correspondence from all points and articles of interest to nursery¬ 
men and horticulturists are cordially solicited. 
Photographs and news notes of interest to nurserymen should be 
addressed, Editor, Flourtown, Pa., and should be mailed to arrive not 
late-r than t>>e 25th of the month. 
Entered as second-class matter June 22, 1916, at the post office at 
Hathoro, Pennsylvania, under the Act of March 6, 1879. 
Hatboro, Pa., February 1921 
On another page we publish an open 
JOHN WATSON letter from John Watson, Executive 
Secretary of the American Association 
of Nurserymen presenting his resignation from that 
office. 
Whatever he the cause or motive for his action all 
nurserymen, especially members of the Association will 
read it with deep regret. 
He accepted the position, one might say, by unanim¬ 
ous request of the members of the Association, as it was 
felt that he was the one man peculiarly equipped and 
fitted to fill it, to look after the interests of the trade as 
a whole and cany out the policies of the reorganized 
Association. 
Everyone will agree, to act for a large body of men 
of conflicting interests embarked on a new and untried 
policy is a job of extreme difficulty. Perhaps no one 
will appreciate the difficulty to quite the degree Mr. Wat¬ 
son does himself. 
What Mr. Watson has done speaks for itself. There 
will be no divided opinion as to his high standard of 
business ethics, loyalty to what he considered the best 
interests of the American Association and unselfish de¬ 
votion to the work he undertook. 
Does the trade need more learned bosses 
HIGHER or more skilled, industrious help? 
EDUCATION We know it needs both but which is the 
most important to the welfare of the 
trade? The fact of the A. A. of N. interest¬ 
ing itself in the higher education of the bosses, 
indicates a lack of collegiate degrees among our 
leaders, so much so they are not scientifically fit to as¬ 
sociate with those learned men who gravitate from the 
colleges and universities to positions under the govern¬ 
ment. 
Have we really got our correct bearings on the sub¬ 
ject, or are we being stampeded in the wrong direction 
for the betterment of the trade. 
In the recent upheaval of social order it rather appears 
that education was in abundance, so also was genius, 
brains or whatever word typifies brain over brawn was 
in surplus. The pick and shovel man and skilled work¬ 
er were paid accordingly. The college professor took off 
his cap and gown and worked at boiler rivetting. As a 
rivetter he was serving his country in her stress to bet¬ 
ter advantage and incidentally himself too. 
The pioneers in scientific horticulture meaning those 
who study the subject chemically, microscopically and 
pathologically are away ahead of the common herd of 
practitioners. The practitioners have not began to apply 
one-tenth of the facts revealed by the scientific ex¬ 
perimenters. It is lying unused in countless records, 
compiled at tremendous cost and still we agitate for more 
and more. Is not the trade’s greatest need more prac¬ 
tical workmen. Without disparaging college education 
in any way does not the young man who has graduated 
from high school lose something of vital importance 
every hour he misses from actual work in the nursery, 
field, forest, or garden. 
Somehow in spite of all the enthusiasm worked up at 
conventions and arm chair theorizing on behalf of 
higher education, when the nurseryman gets back into 
harness and business begins to press, it is loyal, practical 
skilled workmen that he looks to for help. 
There is not the slightest hesitation in putting on an 
experienced hand, but the college man’s application re¬ 
quires serious consideration when the nurseryman is 
not so busy. 
“Growing things” is peculiarly a craftsman’s profes¬ 
sion. Ability to work and practical experience are the 
essentials of success, given these, college courses are a 
help to greater success. 
In the December issue we perhaps somewhat facetious¬ 
ly commented upon a statement published by the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture under the heading of the Toll 
of Plant Diseases. 
We have been told that our comment made it appear 
as if we considered disease and crop failure a blessing. 
The thought underlying the editorial in question is not 
that plant diseases and crop failures are a blessing to the 
farmer, but they are a fact of life itself and it is childish 
to figure results based on their elimination. 
Such figuring for practical purposes is only paralleled 
by the enthusiastic novice who attempts to compute the 
progeny and profits of 12 pullets and a cockerel in a given 
number of years, or by the stock gambler’s profits if lie 
bought at the lowest and sold at the highest. 
The genus Homo is much given to looking on nature 
from the one angle, only as it affects its own interests, 
when in reality the very things he is warring with are 
perhaps just as important in the scheme of things as 
mankind itself. 
The prime object of the Division of Publications of the 
Department of Agriculture and Horticultural Papers is 
