58 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
said Article be stricken from the constiution, and 1 am 
wondering, furthermore, if any man has the right to op¬ 
erate his business in conflict with this Article ot the con¬ 
stitution. 
I believe I have read every word that has been written 
in criticism of the Association’s trade mark and, while it 
may he attributed to my inherent dullness, I am unable 
to see anything worth while in any criticism that has 
ever been made. My personal opinion is that the Market 
Development Committee, with our very efficient secretary, 
Mr. Watson, have placed the Association under lasting 
obligations to them by the splendid constructive work 
that has been done thus far, and 1 believe, furthermore, 
that fully ninety per cent, of the membership of the 
American Association of Nurserymen are in accord with 
this position. This whole question resolves itself into a 
broad progressive policy benefiting the nursery interests 
of America against the reactionary thought of a few who 
feel able to take care of themselves. We see the same 
thought expressed in our political, religious, and social 
life, and for my part I want to throw my influence on the 
side of progress. I am unwilling to see the splendid 
work that has been accomplished during the past five 
years junked, and I do not believe it will be junked. No 
one would regret more than I to see any member with¬ 
draw from the Association, but the majority must rule, 
and the majority stands square for the policies which are 
now the approved policies of the Association. I do not 
believe the editorial in the National Nurseryman, under 
the heading of “Trustworthy Trees,” reflects the opinion 
of the majority of the members of A. A. N., and until the 
membership speaks for itself 1 shall continue to believe 
that it stands for progress. 1 do believe that we have 
done a great work during the past five years, and while 
1 am cognizant of the fact that there is yet much to do, 
I believe that as the years go by we will meet and solve 
the problems which confront us, and solve them for the 
good of the whole. For my own part, and 1 would not 
refer to this were it not for another article appearing in 
the National Nurseryman, “The Passing of the Old 
Guard,” in my humble way I have done w hat I could as 
well as jny limited ability permitted, and I have the con¬ 
sciousness that I have done this in an unselfish manner. 
I do not mind particularly being referred to in a sarcastic 
way as a “Moses, Etc.,” or as a dreamer, and in all of 
this I have had the consolation of having seen a large part 
of my dream come true, and 1 again say I do not believe I 
misunderstand the temper of the rank and file of the As¬ 
sociation. They are not going to stand for the scrapping 
of the w ork that has been done during the past five years, 
and, if I read aright the mind of the membership, it will 
approve of the constructive work accomplished thus far, 
endorse in the heartiest possible manner, “Trustworthy 
Trees and Plants,” and direct their officers, as they have 
in the past, to prosecute the work along lines outlined. I 
am not satisfied with Article YII of the constitution as it 
relates to membership fees and dues because this basis 
is a compromise and is unfair to the smaller nurseryman. 
1 want to see this wrong corrected and I want to see it 
corrected at the next meeting of the Association. The 
basis of dues and fees is not equitable, and because it is 
not equitable it should be adjusted. 
There may be and there will be many changes which 
we shall make from year to year, but I believe all of these 
changes will be made in line with progress. There must 
be and there will be no backward step. The Association 
is going to live and render the highest possible type of 
service to its members, and any man, I care not who he 
is or where he hails from, w ill find himself exceedingly 
embarrased if he gets in the way. Our work as an Asso¬ 
ciation for the past five years will not be scrapped. 
J. R. Mayhew, 
Waxahachie, Texas, February 19, 1921. 
COST OF PRODUCTION 
Read at the Annual Meeting of Pacific Coast Association 
of Nurserymen, by Charles T. Trotter, Sardis, B. C. 
In figuring costs you must bear in mind that you want 
to find out how much it costs you to re¬ 
produce your last season’s trees, and divide that by the 
number of trees that you may reasonably expect to sell, 
ship and collect for. And to arrive at this, there is no 
set form and no patent device that will give you a re¬ 
liable result. You must keep books, and from these 
books find out how much money you spend in your bus¬ 
iness; not how much you should spend, but how many 
dollars in total get away from you. Then when you have 
arrived at the number of trees that sell and ship, and the 
cost of selling and shipping them, which is the other side 
of your calculation, you w ill find that all the preliminary 
items as suggested in a uniform cost finding system is 
probably less than half your total cost, and that you will 
not be getting rich very fast. 
One of the evils from which Nurserymen have suffered 
in the past is the pernicious practice of taking inventories 
of their stock on July 1st, valuing the number of trees 
shown in such inventories at approximately a wholesale 
price, and then making up a Profit and Loss statement 
based upon the result so obtained. Do nurserymen pro¬ 
pose to pay Income Tax upon such figures this year with¬ 
out making any provision for the inevitable loss that will 
result at some future date when their precious inven¬ 
tories have to be revalued upon an entirely new and 
lower basis? 
The cost of your trees is the amount of money you 
have actually spent, and until that has been covered you 
have made no profit, for until you have replaced and paid 
for the replacement of the trees you shipped, and the 
culls, and the ones that never grow, you have accom¬ 
plished nothing. So my suggestion is that, since cost 
finding should be the important factor in price-making 
deal with total expenditure in dealing with your costs, 
and then see that your prices are adequate to cover those 
expenditures and leave a little over for profit. 
In past years there has been little or no attempt to ar¬ 
rive at the actual cost of producing a tree and as a con¬ 
sequence the price has been set mainly by underselling 
the “other fellow,” and buyers, getting accustomed to 
such methods w ould go the rounds for lowest quotations, 
with the result that some one would supply the stock at 
a price that would not cover the cost of production, but 
the vendor, being in blissful ignorance of this fact, would 
