THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
2 54 
tacked on to the end, viz., the paragraph at the bottom of 
page 218 commencing “The annual loss to the fruit grower 
and to the country at large, etc.,” and the paragraph on 
page 226, “Coating the trunk of the tree with Carbolineum 
will prevent borers, etc.” Kindly have this corrected, as 
our experience with Carbolineum has been anything but 
satisfactory. 
Several years since, we coated the shelving in two of our 
green houses with Carbolineum and the fumes from this 
caused us to lose over two thousand dollars worth of palms 
and other plants. There was no way to remedy the evil 
except to tear out the benches and use the wood for nursery 
stakes and other purposes. 
Carbolineum is an excellent thing for preserving wood; 
but I wquld not dare recommend it for living plants. 
Yours faithfully, 
Augusta, Ga. L. A. Berckmans. 
Note: — We regret the “shuffle” which resulted in sup¬ 
plementing Mr. Berckman’s excellent paper with a para¬ 
graph for which he very naturally disclaims responsibility. 
The best we can say is that it was a mistake which we regret. 
— Editor. 
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE GROWER AND THE 
RELIABLE RETAIL NURSERYMAN 
C. S. Osborne 
The subject which has been assigned to me by your 
Committee on Program is of sufficient range to permit one 
to talk on indefinitely. I shall not, however, take up a 
great deal of your time, as I know you are anxious to hear 
the reports of your Committees, attend the other meetings 
that are scheduled for this afternoon, and also to get in 
training for the Smoker which is to be held this evening. 
It has been my pleasure to attend a number of Conven¬ 
tions of your Association, but in all the papers which have 
been read and addresses made, little attention has been 
oaid to the retail end of the nursery business, yet we count 
among our membership a great many firms, the bulk of 
whose business is retail, the wholesale department being 
used more to dispose of the surplus stock which any firm 
doing any growing at all is bound to have. 
With all due respect to our wholesale brethren I believe 
the time has come when something of interest to the retail 
Nurseryman should come up at alb of our meetings, and I 
hope that in the future the Committee on Program will 
arrange for papers that will treat the nursery business from 
the retail standpoint. 
I confess I do not know why the Committee on Program 
used the words “Reliable Retailer” in naming my subject, 
for all retail nurserymen are supposed to be reliable. 
The relations between the grower and the retailer 
should be of the pleasantest character, and each should 
strive to do his best to assist the other, and to protect him; 
for the very reason that the success of each is dependent 
upon the success of the other. It is true the grower could 
say that he could get along very well without the retailer, 
that he could market his trees at perhaps a bigger price 
than he is getting for them now, but is he fitted by ex¬ 
perience and ability to go ahead and do so ? On the other 
hand the retailer might say that he could go ahead and 
grow stock and be independent of the grower, but the 
same question arises again, is he experienced and has he the 
ability to go ahead and do so ? I think you will agree with 
me that in the majority of cases neither one is fitted or 
experienced for the duties of the other. Such being the case 
then both are helpless without the assistance and good will 
of the other. 
It therefore behooves the grower to protect and assist the 
retailer and the retailer to do likewise. The grower should 
be careful in the propagation of his stock, should see that 
his varieties are not mixed, and above all that the stock is 
absolutely true to name. 
Care should also be exercised in grading so that the 
most exact retailer will have no cause for complaint when 
stock is delivered to him, for there is nothing more exasper¬ 
ating when you feel that you have a fine lot of stock coming 
from some one to find on delivery, that it is not up to grade 
either in height, caliper or quality, and delivery of this kind 
only means loss to both parties and an added additional 
expense not only in money, but a bunch of cuss words as 
well. On the other hand the retailer should remember 
that nature is not as good to some varieties as to others all 
of which should be taken into account when trees are being 
sorted. 
There is another point I wish to draw the attention of 
the grower to and that is the practice of sending wholesale 
price lists and surplus lists to the consumer. If there is any¬ 
thing that is unfair or unjust to the retail nurseryman it is 
this unfair practice. There is no reason under the sun why 
a consumer should be able to buy trees and shrubs at 
wholesale. AYu would not expect to go into a wholesale 
clothing house and buy a suit of clothes at the same price as 
the retail clothing merchant, and I can see no reason why 
the consumer in our line should be accorded this privilege. 
Do not understand me as saying that anyone here makes 
this a practice, but I have had a number of wholesale lists 
sent into our office by our agents which have been picked up 
by them from prospective customers. If you are in the 
wholesale business be satisfied to dispose of your products 
to the retailer and I am sure that if the stock is good and 
prices are right you will have no trouble on this score. 
Before closing there is just one question I wish to call to 
your attention and that is, whether the professional lands- 
scape gardener is entitled to receive the wholesale price list 
of the grower? I would answer this question in two ways: 
Yes, provided he would resell the stock to those for whom he 
is employed at an advance, taking a reasonable profit and 
there is no reason that I can see wffiy he should not take this 
profit. 
On the other hand if professional etiquette will not 
permit him to do this, then I cannot see w r hy he should be 
allowed to buy stock at wholesale and turn the bills over to 
his employer the consumer, permitting him to buy a small 
quantity of stock for home consumption at the same price 
as the retailer who buys in large quantities. 
