THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
191 
“SHADOWS’’ 
Almost everyone likes trees; but in some sections the 
prevailing opinion is that the one who buys nursery 
stock, especially of a tree agent, is very likely to be stung. 
Think what this would mean in any other line of busi¬ 
ness; the customer willing even anxious to buy because 
he likes the goods but afraid because of bis own or the 
unfortunate experience of his friends. 
Trees are considered hard to sell by many who have 
tried carrying a plate book for some agency house. I 
never understood this until recently, although years ago 
I tried selling from a plate book one summer for a well 
known agency house and for nearly twenty five years 
“ran Agents” for myself and others with varying success. 
I am surprised now to find how easy it is to sell trees. 
Agents fail because they do not inspire confidence—do 
not impress the customer that they know anything in a 
practical way about trees. Of course some buyers will 
fall for the bunk offered them by some tyro filled with 
air. Take the usual adv. for nursery salesmen. It 
reads “experience unnecessary.” This makes it very 
easy to apply and of course the applicant is sent an out¬ 
fit and starts out in twenty four hours to show the cus¬ 
tomer what should be done in the way of planting trees. 
The reason the agency houses do not want experienced 
men—that is men who have sold trees before, is because, 
such men are apt to want the largest commission and to 
have his habits fixed by the former house and prone to 
dispute the propaganda offered by the Agency Manager. 
These “experience unnecessary” men are bound to 
give the game a black eye and cause the manager him¬ 
self a lot of worry. They come up out of the woods and 
grab at the bait offered as was intended they should. 
They are out for the money. They care not a rap for the 
customer. They would go the limit and do anything or 
say anything to make a sale and collect commission of 
the house. 
It is all very different when one knows a little about 
trees and starts out in the business with the highest mo¬ 
tive, to help a person make a home out of what would 
likely be a house and lot. Such a man will soon be 
sought for, he won’t have to look for customers, his 
phone will be the usual means of getting him started on 
new orders, for successful work cannot be suppressed 
and a satisfied customer will always tell others. 
“Shadows” in the nursery business are often financial 
losses. Even when the money comes limping along time 
past due it has meant a hardship to the creditor. The 
collections are the crux of the agency business and the 
agency manager whose work shows the cleanest collec¬ 
tions or the smallest system is used in the agency busi¬ 
ness, to make clean collections. 
In my business which is mostly suburban planting or¬ 
ders, the losses are reduced to a low per cent. This sur¬ 
prises me when I realize we have almost no system of col¬ 
lections. The customer is never dunned for the money 
unless he shows unusual delinquency. Perhaps about 
one half of one per cent will cover the loss that may fin¬ 
ally result from a season’s unpaid accounts. This is the 
result of our interest being centered in the customer’s 
welfare. He seems to appreciate this fact, and our in¬ 
circumstances will permit. Most of our customers arc 
persons of small means, many of them owning a home 
for the first time. We find it pays to be liberal in our 
attitude toward our customer, even to indulge bis eccen¬ 
tricities. Most purchasers are honest at heart and soon 
discover you are trying to do something more than ordin¬ 
ary for them and appreciate the fact. 
The most serious losses we have had (and we have had 
our share) have been caused, we are sorry to say, at the 
hands of other nurserymen who have sold us stock. We 
are retailers mainly and have to buy from growers. We 
voice when finally rendered is met as promptly as his 
don’t have time to run around and inspect stock. We re¬ 
ceive the trade lists and order from them. The price 
seems reasonable. We realize the grades quoted, if well 
grown stock as advertised, will make a fine showing in 
a landscape planting we are working on. The firm is 
long established and ought to know good stock. We 
have faith and order. 
When the stock comes you send a truck down to the 
station to take out the first load. You feel sure now you 
will not be handicapped in your work for something nice 
for corners; you have just what is needed in the car. 
Those big hemlocks 6x5 are the ticket. Things don’t look 
just right when you open up. You can hardly say what 
is the matter but you know something is wrong. Some 
of the largest and finest evergreens are starting to drop 
their needles. Gan it be there is heat in the car? You 
can’t detect it. The shipment made good time. Ever¬ 
greens are supposed to be “balled” but these trees are 
actually tied with burlap around the roots; btft when you 
pick up two trees six feet high one in each hand and 
carry them a mile if you had to, you can’t say that it is 
“balled” stock. Perhaps the shippers who have been in 
this game longer than we have discovered a better way 
than we have of making trees grow. You hate to kick. 
You had planned to use that stock and couldn’t get along 
without it now. You had already paid the freight bill 
which was much larger than you felt it should be but 
the agent assured you he knew just how to get you a re¬ 
bate. To make a long story short you unloaded and used 
the stock. Eventually that season about one half of it 
went out in landscape work. The rest remained planted 
out in the nursery. The result was a complete wreck. 
It could hardly have been worse. It did not all go to 
pieces at once, but just gradually slipped away. What 
looked a little suspicious at the start kept looking worse. 
It meant weeks of worry on our part to go around and 
fill up the holes in our outside planting. 
Of course we had to make good, and right here we 
wish to mention something; EVERY LOSS OF THIS 
KIND THE RETAILER CANNOT PASS ON. Passing the 
buck may be American characteristic but it won’t work 
in the retail nursery business. We do not guarantee the 
plants to grow. The customer has paid his bill. Gan we 
let him whistle? It is good business not to wait until 
phoned about the loss. Better swallow the bitter dose 
early and forget about the bad taste. Did we not get 
some rebate from the grower? In this particular case 
when the matter was taken up with the growers they 
side stepped and told us they should have been notified 
within five days, etc. We did not make any complaint— 
just told them of the result. Just as if our notifying 
