04 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
in the business whose regard we hold more highly,—not 
only from a personal standpoint, but from a business 
standpoint as well.) 
We are sure that I Ik* “Moses” referred to has done 
only what he considered for the “good of the order,” and 
without any pay. The same can be truthfully said of 
I he committees that have done their best for Vigilance 
and Market Development. In fact, so far as we know 
there has been no selfish work done by any one, but all 
have labored for what was considered best. 
A whole lot can he said about the “good old days” in 
their favor, but we want to call the attention to the fact 
that publicity money brings results only where there is 
enough of it to count. We want to particularly call at¬ 
tention to the fact that the M. I). committee has repeatedly 
stated that one hundred thousand dollars were needed 
to make any show. Also we want to call attention to the 
fact that time and again the statement has been made 
that publicity work should be done in fat years, when 
only an “order-taker” was needed,—no need for a sales¬ 
man,—as well as when times are “hard.” The M. D. 
committee in those balmy days craved the encourage¬ 
ment of the association as a whole, wanting to get things 
in working order against the hard times. But nay. 
We do not believe that the so-called progressive move¬ 
ment has had sufficient time to demonstrate whether or 
not it is worthwhile. On the other hand, it seems to us 
that many people want to place the blame somewhere for 
poor business, and are taking it out on the so-called 
progressives. 
There never was a time when closer co-operation was 
needed than right now; a split would be disastrous to a 
great many. Of course the old established firms would 
go ahead; no question about that. If it is only a “sur¬ 
vival of the fittest,” no need to say more, but we cannot 
believe that the feeling is general. 
Why didn’t some one bring forward a better slogan, or 
trade-mark? There was a reward offered for the best; 
there wasn’t any best! 
Now, let’s forget the mistakes of the past; many have 
been made, no doubt, but they have been honest ones; 
let’s do some constructive work; let’s find a way out of 
the wilderness, if we are in one; let’s live in peace and 
harmony; let’s get all the business we can in any hon¬ 
orable way we can; let’s stop finding fault; let’s make 
America fruitful and beautiful; let’s plant more peach 
Pits, apple seedlings, evergreens, roses, shrubs; let’s go 
to Chicago with a broad smile and a heary hand-shake. 
Truly, 0. Joe Howard. 
Rochester, New York, February 11, 1921. 
Editor The “National Nurseryman/’ 
Flourtown, Pa. 
Dear Sir:— 
That article of yours in the February issue entitled 
Trustworthy Trees and Plants” is a mighty good one 
and should start some proper thinking. 
I don’t believe—and haven’t believed—that the nur¬ 
sery trade is so d—d rotten as some people like to figure 
out and I have never thought it wise to admit any such 
thing or to admit that we were so badly in need of reform. 
\\ ith my limited experience and looking back over a 
few years, it seems to me very safe to say that the num¬ 
ber of failures among the real nursery concerns of the 
country has been very small and a mighty small percen¬ 
tage as compared with other lines of trade. That of it¬ 
self is an index. 
Another thing—almost every line of trade during the 
past two or three years has suffered seriously from “can- 
cellation-itis.” When the market was going up, manu¬ 
facturers had no hesitancy in cancelling orders that they 
had accepted for future delivery and since the market 
started down, buyers have been cancelling orders with 
equal cheerfulness. 
So far as I know, that condition has not prevailed in 
the nursery business and that is another indication that 
we are not so rotten. Perhaps somebody would say it 
might have prevailed had there not been a shortage of 
stock, but I doubt it. 
I don’t believe that we should, as an association or 
individuals, acknowledge that we are all wrong and 
that we need a campaign of reform and that we need out¬ 
siders to come in to tell us how to reform and I believe 
that is the kind of talk that we want to make and that we 
want to have more of such articles as yours and less of 
some of the stuff that we see in the opposition paper. 
Very truly yours, 
William Pitkin. 
Editor National Nurseryman, 
According to the financial statement presented at the 
last convention, the expenses for the year were classified 
as folows: president’s office $2,400; Secy’s, salary, 10 
mos. $5,000; Office Expenses, Traveling, Advertising, 
$11,060; total of $18,460.00. 
We were informed that out of the total receipts for 
the year (including cash balance carried over) of about 
$28,000, only $4500 was actually expended for publicity 
advertising, or slightly more than 15 per cent of the total. 
For the present year, we are informed that the sal¬ 
aries and expenses of the offices of the secretary and 
traffic manager are running about $1400 per month, or 
between $16,000 and $17,000 per annum; that January 
1st there was available for the work of the Market De¬ 
velopment Committee about $10,000, from which no 
doubt must be deducted a considerable amount for ex¬ 
penses, so that perhaps the amount actually available 
for advertising and publicity will not largely exceed that 
of last year, $4500, again about 15% to 20% of the total 
revenues of the Association. 
Some of us strongly advocated the ftiarket develop¬ 
ment or publicity campaign and subscribed generously 
toward a fund of $50,000 feeling that such amount was 
the least that could be expended with any hope for com¬ 
mensurate results. The amounts available for publicity 
during the last two years are small in proportion to the 
total receipts and hardly large enough to make a ripple 
on the surface. 
It is certainly disappointing and leads to the question 
in the minds of many whether the original market de¬ 
velopment subscribers*acted wisely in turning over their 
subscriptions, money and organization to the A. A. N. 
Disappointed. 
