68 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
N. J. nurseries. Arrange to eonie early and take this 
trip in as it will be a sight well worth your while. Lots 
more news later. 
THE ROADSIDE MARKET 
It has been the histoiy of many inventions and new 
ideas that they have exerted a profound infUienee along 
lines that were least expected. We all know how the 
automobile has changed our way of living, yet it is very 
doubtful if we are fully alive to the opportunities the 
changed conditions present. 
Shipping and deliveries were always the one big 
absorbing problem for tbe nurseryman, especially those 
who did a retail business. The nurseryman’s ability to 
deliver greatly influenced tbe amount of business he 
did. The ])lanting season is so brief. 
The automobile greatly enlarged his capacity in this 
respect, but he is still at a disadvantage when compared 
with the store keeper who does a counter trade. 
The automobile bas so changed conditions that it has 
made possible the development of a counter trade if the 
nurseryman will lay himself out to cater to it. 
The essentials are local advertising, quick service, 
and a discount allowance to those who carry aAvay their 
purchases. 
Some nurseries located near cities already do much 
of this kind of trade, but it is capable of development 
to a much larger extent. 
Unless the nurserymen prepare for it, customers at 
the nurseries are apt to be time wasters and so 
unprofitable. 
The application of store salesmanship is required to 
have everything attractive, and convenient, goods ready 
packed when possible, or at least everything ready for 
tying up. 
Many plants such as evergreens in popular sizes could 
be dug with ball and burlapped, assembled and priced, 
others with moss tied around their roots or healed, ready 
to hand to the customer with the least loss of time. 
Making it easy to buy is really one of the first principles 
of success in merchandising. 
Perhaps the nursery of the future will have open 
sheds along the much travelled highways with their 
goods on display during the planting season. 
The farmer and fruit grower are already beginning 
to offer and dispose of their goods in this way and it 
would seem as if the roadside market had great possi¬ 
bilities for the nurseryman. 
Tlie highways of today are recognized as fine adver¬ 
tising locations as evidenced by the signs that are be¬ 
coming so numerous as to shut out views of the country. 
They will suggest themselves as eijually profitable for 
the nurseryman’s store. 
BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS 
“This plant,” said the caretaker, whose hobby was botany, 
“belongs to the begonia family.” “I see,” said the lady who 
was looking over the flat. “How kind of you to look after it 
while they’re away.” 
THE CRAMPTON RILL 
There is a bill IT. R. 760. known as the Crampton Rill, 
before the House of lUqiresentatives and if it is passed 
will be a severe blow to the Nursery trade. 
If this Bill becomes Law it will be unlawful to sell 
and ship a ])lant interstate, which does not bear upon it 
a tag bearing its accepted correct name, name of person 
who grew it and where. 
To the casual reader this bill is harmless and is os¬ 
tensibly meant to protect the innocent person from the 
unscru])ulous nurserymen, as such its object is worthy 
but the practical working out would be something en¬ 
tirely different, not only to the nurserymen but to the 
would be planter and the country at large. The very 
proposal of such a law places the nursery businesss with 
the Rum Industry, a business that should be legislated 
out of existence. , 
As nurserymen we resent being put in that class. If 
the majority of nurserymen were crooks such a law 
perhaps would be necessary but tbe reverse is true and 
the Bill would entail untold hardship on them. Laws 
that constrict and re])ress a business that is among the 
few which develop the resources of the country and add 
to human happiness are not good ones. 
If the author of the bill would have taken the trouble 
to have spent a few days in a large nursery establish¬ 
ment during the shipping season and become familiar 
with the subject he pould readily have seen how un¬ 
necessary such a law" w"ould be and how impractical, of 
carrying out, w ould be its provisions. 
It would put every honest nurseryman in a criminal 
class and liable to a fine of $200.00 or imprisonment of 
six months. It w"ould add tremenduously to the cost 
of nursery stock, w"hich is already thought to be high 
enough by the consumer. It w"ould demoralize, if not 
actually ruin a large industry that has been built up by 
honesty, integrity and hard work with the futile object 
of trying to prevent an occasional crook of misbranding 
his goods. It w ould make every plant growler liable to 
a law" suit w"hether innocent or guilty owing to the chaos 
in nomenclature that now" exists and upon w"hich even 
experts do not agree. 
Nurserymen have just taken the initiative of standard¬ 
izing plant names, which will do more than a dozen 
Crampton Bills in insuring correct nomenclature, which 
of itself is evidence of the needlessness of such a law. 
There is no one more anxious for correct names and 
integrity of their goods than the nurserymen and no one 
more anxious that the purchaser should get full value 
and results from his purchases than the nurseryman. 
Upon such conditions is the business built. Who may 
grow" the plant and where it is grow n is information 
of little value to the purchaser and is generally available 
w"hen asked for but to make it a misdemeanor to not 
attach it to the jilant is an unnecessary hardship. 
It would be equally justifiable to cause eveiy store 
keeper to state the origin and source of all his goods. 
Few" nurseries can possibly grow" all they sell, crops fail, 
items become short for many reasons and unless he has 
the same privilege of trading as other merchants he 
is militated against and his business is classified with 
