208 
THE NATIONAL NUKSERYMAN 
Every time you guess you gauil)le. 
Every time you gamble' you wony. 
Every time you worry you lose. 
Modern business is not guessing, gamleling or worry¬ 
ing. It is a s(*ienee in wbieli you must know all tbe 
rub's and conditions and face tliem sejuarely to win. 
I have lieard many of you say "Our business is differ¬ 
ent.” Of course it is. Every business is different but 
tlu're are certain fundamental rules tbat govern tbem all. 
You say your product is at tbe mercy of tbe weather. 
Is tbat any reason why you should not have all tbe facts 
before you? 
Insurance com|)anies take every conceivable risk and 
still keep in business. How long do you suppose they 
would last if they did not know tbe facts? Could they 
stay in business without an actuarial department to give 
tbem tbe average ])ossibility of their risks? Does your 
insurance agent come around to you and say: “Bill, you 
haven’t bad a fire in ten years. Guess I’ll reduce your 
j)remium.’' 
What do \OU do? You have a good stand this year 
so you go around peddling your stuff in a contract for 
future delivery at a low price. What facts are you fac¬ 
ing? None but what are directly before you, those of 
your last crop. 
You say your selliny price is controlled by the mar¬ 
ket, supjjty and demand. 
Please tell me whose selling pi ice isn t. You may 
think tbe large concerns tbat a])parently control their 
markets have no comjietition. Sujipose they do control 
their markets, can they put their prices up to any figure? 
As soon as their selling price becomes high enough it 
attracts competition from new small concerns. You 
know that yourself from experienee with fence corner 
growers. 
The best medium made to give the facts—ACTUAL 
PACTS—about your business is cost accounting. 
Like tbe young man registered for the soldiers’ draft, 
you have a choice. 
Draft Story 
Your choice first is to each go to your local account¬ 
ant and have him put in an individual system. The al¬ 
ternative is to employ a firm of experts in accounting 
to make a coinjilete survey of your individual iiroblems 
in each class of the nursery trade, wholesale, mail order, 
agency, etc. The aecounting jilan should be combined 
into a complete unified system. Tbe individual installa¬ 
tions would be made to include only tbe units needed. 
Tbe advantages of tbe Unified Plan are these: 
1. When you discuss exj)enses, profits, etc., you talk 
a common language. 
2. Where each member knows the facts it dulls tbe 
('dg(' of the price eutter’s knife. To be sure you cannot 
eliminate j)riee cutting in any groiq) of business meji, 
but when you i)ut tbe facts S(iuarely up to a business 
man he at least thinks twice before be slashes bis priees 
below cost. 
3. Tbe “little fellows” wbo do not install tbe associa¬ 
tion system are in tbe minority in volume of sales. They 
also eitber realize that the others know the facts and 
follow their lead as to prices, or else go out of business 
for lack of profits. 
4 . The Unified Plan is by far cheaper. With twenty- 
five imstallations you save almost two-thirds of the cost 
of individual installations. 
The benefits to tbe individual wbo is a member of the 
unified jilan are these: 
1. It gives him the facts about bis business. 
2. It cuts out or puts on a ])rofitable basis jiresent un- 
jirofitable lines. 
3. It gives bim just that much more guts to stand out 
for his legitimate profit and not cut prices. 
Do you realize that you can ask anything reasonable 
from tbe consumer for nursery stock of known and abso¬ 
lute quality. Where you fall down is in the internal 
mechanism of producer to retailer. Each one of you 
know little or nothing of his costs to pass on to the next 
man plus a reasonable profit. 
Let us tell you of a little assoeiation plan we just 
worked out. It is tbe association made up of private 
school teachers in the east. They could get any reason¬ 
able price they wuinted for their services because they, 
like you, were, in a measure, artists. Tbe trouble was 
they didn’t know^ bow" much to ask. We gave them a 
unified accounting and cost system and now" they know 
how" much it costs them for their French Department, 
Boarding Pupil, Bus to Station, etc., and they get their 
})roi)er profit. 
Representatives of tw o hundred or more National Trade 
Associations met in New" York last March to discuss the 
results and future plans for just this work. The U. S. 
Department of Commerce recommends that EVERYONE 
Keep their costs, and the American Bankers’ Associa¬ 
tion is taking more confidence in firms w ith good general 
and cost accounting systems. The Banker is more sure 
of the facts about your business. 
Last \veek tbe American Seed Trade Association ac¬ 
cepted a proposition from us for a unified system for 
Ibeir association. If it can be applied to tbe seed trade, 
with its very diversified interests, it could be applied to 
llie nursery trade. 
No doubt some of you would like to ask some ques¬ 
tions. I understand tbat Earl May w"anls to know why 
Jackson and Perkins Company does not have cost ac¬ 
counting. Do you know my father very well, Earl? 
To say he was from Missouri w ould be putting it mildly. 
Go and talk to him about it. 
I sball be glad to answer any pertinent questions you 
may have in mind. 
ALABAMA NOT TO QUARANTINE AGAINST 
ORIENTAL PEACH MOTHS 
Tbe Alabama State Board of Agriculture recently held 
a bearing at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to consider an em¬ 
bargo or quarantine w hicb tliey were contemjilating plac¬ 
ing on shipments of stock from the Oriental Peach Moth 
district. After a complete hearing and the presenting of 
a considerable amount of information gathered by cor¬ 
respondence and an interview" with Dr. Headlee, in M- 
lantic City, they voted unanimously to take no such 
action, finding the moth now" so widely spread that quar¬ 
antine or embargo measures would be ineffective. 
