Cbe ffiatfonal finrser^anan. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated 
Vol. XXXII 
HATBORO, PENN A.. MARCH 1924 
No. 3 
The Field for Market Development 
It is a good tiling to size up the held for market devel¬ 
opment. to measure, if only approximately, the potential 
possibilities. 
The advertising men have all the data down in aetual 
tigures, and claim to know just what proportion of the 
population and so forth will buy the nurseryman’s pro¬ 
ducts, if they are jiroperly stimulated and educated by 
an advertising campaign. 
They will draw comjiarisons with other trades and 
(jiiote what has been done in other lines, hut still what¬ 
ever may he each one’s personal o|)inion, nurserymen 
refuse to act as a body on wdiat is so confidently (‘x- 
pressed by the advertising men. 
Perhaps the nurseryman’s intuitive conservatism is 
the result of the teachings of his business. This has 
taught him that most things develop slowly and in due 
time, and too much forcing fails to aeeomjilish the re¬ 
sults desired. 
As nurserymen and jilantsmen we perhaps have a 
larger vision than even the advertising men, who of 
course are primarily after immediate business. The one 
big vital difference in comparing nursery stock with 
other kinds of merchandise is that the supply is limited 
by a time process; all the power in the world cannot 
produce a two-year-old tree in less than two years, and 
when it is ready for the market it either goes there or 
to the dunip. So, the nurseryman likes to see the de- 
foand a little larger than the su|)ply. A steady, increas¬ 
ing demand could be am])ly taken care of, hut a sudden 
(honand with short supply would be more apt to create 
a false boom if brought about by advertising processes. 
Our factories don’t shut down easy. 
The nurseryman’s vision of the field is a big one. He 
s('es every little town converted into a veritable Eden. 
The streets lined with choice trees, instead of anything 
that may be picked up out of the woods. He sees ugly 
hoard fences either covered with roses or other vines or 
H'lnoved and replaced with hedges, not all California 
privet hedges, but flowering hedges, evergreen ones and 
things that will add charm and variety. Ib' s('es enclos¬ 
ures surrounding the homes filled with choice plants, 
indicating every home owner a connoisseur of plants and 
considering them as necessary to his standard of living 
as a well furnished home. He sees the fruit industry 
so highly developed that fruit in its many forms is a 
staple diet of the people. 
He sees natural beauty take the ])lac(! of utilitarian 
ugliness wherever possible. He sees all this and a lot 
more, but knows that such things, if they ever come, 
will be a developinent or a growth like his plants. 
That the field for market development is unlimited is 
loo obvious to be questioned. How to develop by a steady 
growth is the big problem, so that the nursery industry 
will keep pace. 
There is always danger in being satisfied, but tbe nur¬ 
sery business may be congratulated on the fact that it 
is more concerned at the present in organizing, house 
cleaning and bringing the trade up to a high state of 
efficiency than worrying about its market. 
It is to be hoped, however, next wnnter wdll see a little 
strongei’ organized effort through the various nursery¬ 
men’s associations to interest the people in more beauti¬ 
ful surroundings. 
There is one phase of market development that has 
only been lightly considered and that is community plant¬ 
ing in the shape of organized effort through the Rotary 
Clubs or other influential bodies. 
A traveller through the country passes through town 
after town, all alike from a horticultural ])oint of view , 
nothing lo distinguish one from the other. 
Each has the same ])oor class of trees and tin' same 
monotonous planting. 
How different it would b(^ if the various communities 
could be taught and encouraged to plant those trees and 
])lants in the majority that w ould be most suitable. Thus 
we would have towns famed for their roses, others for 
their lilacs, others for their cre])e myrtles, others lor 
their evergreens and so on. 
Such a scheme would recpiire a consulting committee 
of nurserymen working with the Rotary Clubs. 
What Portland has done with roses is })ossihle with 
any community w ith other kinds of ])lants. 
