THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
67 
Market Development 
statement by F. F. Rockwell, Manager of the Nurserymen’s Association 
Addressed to the Members of the Western Nurserymen’s National Service Bureau, 
I regret that it is not possible for me to be with you in person 
today. My work for many years has kept me in close touch with 
people who plant things, the people who form the potential mar¬ 
ket for the things you grow to sell, and unless the signs and in¬ 
dications are all wrong, there is going to be a very great revival 
of interest in planting of all kinds. In fact, it is more than a re¬ 
vival. It is a tremendous increase; due to many causes. First: 
a natural revival of interest in planting, after the artificial re¬ 
strictions of the war. Second: a result of the “grow your own 
food” and the “Eat more Fruit” publicity campaigns which the 
Government and other organizations have been pushing, publicity 
which could not have been bought for tens of thousands of dol¬ 
lars. Third: and I think, most important of all, the fact that far¬ 
mers, small town folks, and the better classes of labor living in 
suburbs, have had more money to spend, have come to buy things 
they never bought before, and will be ready to spend money to 
improve their homes outside as well as in, to make them more 
beautiful and more fruitful, if they are educated to invest some 
of their increased spending power in fruits and flowers and orna¬ 
mentals. They have been and are constantly being educated to 
buy better talking machines, better wall paper, more paint, bet¬ 
ter automobiles, better house furnishings, electric lighting plants 
instead of kerosene lamps, and a hundred and one other things 
which tend to raise their standard of living. 
Why is it that the average farmer or suburban home owner will 
invest from $25 to $250 in concrete fence posts, or a new water 
system, or any of the things mentioned above before he ever 
thinks of setting out shade trees, or ornamentals, or enough fruit 
for his own needs? Because it is a better investment? No. I 
don’t think any of you would dispute the fact that for the money 
involved, trees, shrubs, and fruits will add more to the value of 
a place than any of these things. Because it means more pleas¬ 
ure? No! 
The average man or woman has a born-in-the-blood hankerin’ 
for “growing things” that is as powerful as it is universal. What 
then, is the reason that your products, trees and shrubs and flow¬ 
ers and fruits, command such a small share of the money that is 
spent, in proportion to their intrinsic merits. 
The reason is simply that those who have the money to spend 
are constantly reminded, and re-minded, and re-reminded of the 
merits of all these other articles; and urged, directly through 
advertising, and indirectly through publicity, to spend money for 
them. When you men, through co-operative effort, learn to pre¬ 
sent your goods to the possible buying public as attractively as 
other classes of goods are presented, and not until then, will the 
sale of the things you have to offer be what it should be. 
But along with more business will have to be developed better 
business, better business for you, and better business for the use 
of your products. 
Let me take the last point first: better business for the user 
of your products. It is not the practice of modern successful 
business-getting concerns to let the customer drop when they 
have succeeded in selling him an order. They stick by him until 
they have made sure of his success with their particular product, 
if it is humanly possible to make him succeed wfth it. Undoubt 
edly you are all familiar with the work of the Soil Improvement 
Committee of the fertilizer people; and the splendid educational 
bulletins of the cement manufacturers association; and the wide 
range of work to stimulate better farming carried on by the In¬ 
ternational Harvester Co., to mention only three out of a great 
many. Summed up in a word, all this expense and energy spells. 
Customer’s Service. I am not a nurseryman; but I do know the 
customer-s side of the nursery business, and you can rest assured 
that the one thing more than all others which has kept logical 
users of nursery products from buying has been the needless 
failures of the people who have bought but haven’t been educat¬ 
ed how to successfully care for the things they did buy. And it 
is your job to educate the customer. It’s a hard job, I admit. 
But it can be done; it has been done in other lines. The point 
that most nurserymen haven’t realized yet is that the customer 
will pay for it. Yes, he’ll pay for it with a smile and ask for 
more, because he will be satisfied with the results from what he 
buys, whereas a failure makes a sorehead and a business-killer 
no matter how cheaply he may have bought his stuff. 
And that brings us back to the first point: better business for 
nurserymen. Now, I realize that it’s my job, as your representa¬ 
tive, to educate the customer, “to create a bigger demand for 
nursery stock of all kinds” as the announced purpose of this 
campaign for Market Development states. But I want to say to 
you men right now that nobody can do that to any worthwhile 
extent unless you growers of trees, shrubs, and plants learn to 
find some way of getting enough for your products to pay for the 
service you have got to sell with your plants. Unlimited, blind, 
cut-throat competition is never going to get you anywhere. They 
used to have that kind of competition in the farm-implement in¬ 
dustry, and in the fertilizer business, and in the cement industry. 
And let me tell you that in those days they didn’t have any 
money to spend on educating the customer, and market develop¬ 
ment. I know there are some folks that say that the nursery¬ 
men are so doggone hungry for unlimited competition that they 
never will cut it out; that “you can’t revolutionize the nursery 
business;” “that it always has been so, and always will,” etc. 
Gentlemen: I hope they are wrong. If they are right—then 
anyone can have my job that wants it. I think they are wrong: 
I knew an Old Wise Guy who was one of the Original Contend¬ 
ers that the aeroplane could never be made to work;—last fall 
he broke his neck looking up when the first New York-Washing- 
ton mail boat flew over bis house. Friends, I know they are 
wrong, because in any industry as big and as absolutely essential 
to the nursery business, when conditions become sufficiently bad, 
there is bound to be a change, and they have become sufficiently 
bad! If you want to develop a bigger market of satisfied cus¬ 
tomers, let competition among yourselves be on the basis of 
quality and service, not on cheap prices, and, consequently, 
cheap stock. You cannot afford to have dissatisfied customers 
even for the pleasure of doing business below cost! 
And now, just a few words about some of the things of the 
Nurserymen’s Service Bureau (in other words, the Subscriber’s 
Organization for Market Development) has planned, and is going 
ahead with, just as fast as the funds come in. First of all, is get¬ 
ting the editors of the various garden and farm papers, and mag¬ 
azines, which reach the farmer and the amateur gardener, to 
take a bigger interest in and devote more space to fruits and 
ornamentals, to help us to help make America more Fruitful and 
more Beautiful. Considerable progress has already been made 
in this direction: The American Agriculturist will, for the first 
time, have a special Nursery Number in the last February issue, 
as a result of our suggestion and co-operation. The Field Illus¬ 
trated one of the highest class farm and stock papers of nation¬ 
al circulation, is going to run a series of articles covering shade 
trees, fruits, shrubs, hardy perennials, etc.,—a new line of ma¬ 
terial for this magazine. Country Life in America, and the Gar¬ 
den Magazine have promised their active co-operation in every 
possible way; the latter is going to give us an America more 
Fruitful and more Beautiful cover on one of the spring numbers, 
and is planning to have a special annual Nursery number (prob¬ 
ably February) after this year; and increased emphasis on fruit 
and shrubs during this year. Other arrangements are under 
way. Publicity already achieved would be worth several hun¬ 
dred dollars but could not be bought at any price. 
In this connection we are establishing a magazine service of 
good photos, and general information. I would be glad to receive 
prints of any suitable photos, especially those showing attractive 
middle class homes, home orchards, etc. The Bureau can make 
good use of these right off now; send along anything you may 
have, with bill. 
And next is a series of short articles to be supplied to some 
four hundred or more papers covering the ground as far west as 
the Rockies. 
These will be supplied to the best paper for the purpose we 
can find in each section, but to only one in a section. Let me 
know at once of any paper in your section you would have to sug¬ 
gest. We will get in touch with them and try to arrange for the 
publication of the entire series. A little later we will publish 
in the trade papers a map showing the distribution of the pa; ers 
using these articles. 
Although our work is barely started, several requests for lec¬ 
tures have already come in. As much as possible will be attend¬ 
ed to personally. In addition to covering all the ground that can 
be covered in this way; we are arranging two illustrated lectures 
to be sent out to societies, clubs, etc. These, of course, will be 
rather general in nature; as funds permit, special subjects will 
