104 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
SPECIALIZINO 
In the nurs('rv trade tln're seems to be a general drift 
amon^^ growers towards speeializing. It is not easy to 
forc'east how tin' trade w ill devc'lop. hut everything eon- 
sid('r('d it does seem as if the old fashioned nurseric's. 
espeeially those whieh grc'w ornamentals and eatered to 
a trad(' ov('r a large territory, will not he the models of 
future eoneerns. 
The eountry is heeoming more thiekly populated and 
eenters of population will have their own nurserymen to 
supply their needs. Other intluenees, at work, are the 
Federal and State laws, whieh hamper interstate ship¬ 
ments w ith (luarantines and regulations. Cost of transpor¬ 
tation has also an important hearing as it naturally han- 
dica])s the nurseryman at a distanee from his customer. 
He cannot compete w ith the local man in his home tow n. 
Of course in the early days it was only the large nurser¬ 
ies that attem])ted to cany a full line and had proj)agat- 
ing i)lants of sutlieient extent to insure stock being in 
good supply. 
There is every indication that numerous small nur¬ 
series all over the eountry will be the channels through 
w hieh distribution w ill be made to the consumer. These, 
of course, will grow limited lines and depend on large 
wholesale growers for ])roi)agating their stock of lines 
they do not find it profitable to produce themselves and 
even the large growers w ill confine themselves to a more 
limited variety, due to the necessary economy of produe- 
tion which will enable them to compete with other 
growlers. 
It has been the history in the production of all lines 
of merehandise that sooner or later the trend is to quan¬ 
tity ])roduetion to enable to reduce tbe cost of the article 
to the consumer, depending rather on small jirofits and 
a large volume of business rather than on small volume 
of business and bigh prices. 
In other lines of merehandise the aim of big business 
is to increase the demand and lower the price, bringing 
their goods within the reach of the many to increase con¬ 
sumption. avoiding an over-supply that will tend to make 
a surplus and break prices. 
With the nursery business, it will take years to stabil¬ 
ize it. develop ehaimels and regulate production to meet 
the demand. Nursery stock differs so much from manu¬ 
factured articles, that can be produced witbin a compar¬ 
atively .short space of time, enabling tbe supply to be 
regulated aeeoj’ding to the demand. Nursery stock takes 
from one to five years to become marketable. This of 
itself almost insures the trade developing along the lines 
suggested, namely: numerous small nurseries as dis¬ 
tributing agencies with large wholesale growers of spe¬ 
cialties supplying their need with either partly grown 
stock, foi' re-planting in tlu'ir own nurseries, or market¬ 
able stock ready for distribution. 
The local nurseryman can not. and w ill not, grow all 
the stock he uses -there must be an interebange or some 
source of sup])ly from w hieb he may draw. 
Before (|uarantin(' o7 went into etfeet the Furopean 
nurseries were drawn upon very largely to till in tin' 
shortage of stock in this country. But now that Amei iea 
is thrown on her own resources it seems very natural 
that the trade will develop along the line suggested 
above. One can even see the tc'inleney already as nur- 
sei'ies are confining themselves to larger (juantities of 
things that are best adaihed to tbeir particular locality 
and soils. Tbe large grower of certain lines has certain 
advantages in cost production over those nurseries that 
attempt to carry a full line, and attempting to distribut(' 
to the consumer all over the eountry. 
Small nurseries are springing up in every direction to 
compete with them especially in the East or around cen¬ 
ters of Population. 
BLUEBERRIES 
It is interesting to note what might be termed the de¬ 
but of the blueberries into the horticultural wmrld. Of 
course blueberries have been know n and used for ages, 
but it is only recently an organized attempt has been 
made to grow and improve them so they w ill take rank 
w ith other cultivated fruits. 
A folder illustrating the fruit in colors and offering 
named varieties comes from Joseph J. White, Inc., 
Whitesbog, New' Jersey. It gives tbe history of the gen¬ 
esis of W'hat is hoped will develoj) into an important fruit 
industry. 
Miss Elizabeth C. White, daughter of the head of the 
company, secured the co-oi)eration of the Department of 
Agriculture, which established a government blueberry 
experiment station in connection with Miss White's 
Whitesbog plantation, where Dr. Coville is conducting 
experiments for the U. S. I), of A. 
Seven named varieties are described and offered in tlu' 
folder, including early, midseason and late. 
ATTENDANCE AT KEW GARDENS 
According to the Kew' Guild Journal, published by an 
association of Kew' gardeners, the follow ing number of 
visitors to the Kew Gardens during 1923 were recorded, 
1.186.662—Sunday total. 520.876. and w eek-day visitors. 
665.786. 
This record speaks for itself of the interest of the Eng- 
li.sh ])eo])le in these beautiful gardens. 
The circular letter from the Southern Nurserymen's 
Association, issued under date of March 4th, written by 
0. Joe Howard, in his characteristic style, contains this 
statement w Inch is pertinent to nurserymen all over the 
country: 
■‘But right ahead of us is the National (American) cou- 
vc'iition, at Atlantic City, in June. At the convention is 
a mighty fine time to get together and get all the old 
scores wiped off the slate; and who is it that can go a 
whole year and not get something on his hip‘.^ At the 
convention you .just naturally absorb a lot of informa¬ 
tion. and we wish our Soutbern folks would go. I don’t 
believe you can spend the same amount of money in 
any other w av to bettt'r advantage.” 
"He made a lot of money by grafting." 
“Gi’cat Scott. Did be gel away with il‘.^” 
"Certainly. He's a nurseryman.” 
