!. 80299 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
11 
Pertaining to Petaluma 
The very latest National Publicity Campaign is one to 
sell more—you’d never guess what—well, eggs, of all 
things. Petaluma, California, grows or produces,—or 
whatever the right word is,—more eggs than any other 
place in the world. And the Chamber of Commerce there 
are going to spend r‘p50,000 to advance the interests of the 
egg industry. Here is something to think about. Can 
we not derive some profit from a serious consideration of 
the situation, the action and the probable results? Here— 
or there, rather—is a town that proposes to spend quite a 
bunch of money to advertise eggs. Of course, Petaluma’s 
eggs—or Petaluma’s hens’ eggs, I should say to be exact 
—are the particular eggs that they are interested in. 
But eggs are universal. Will there not be danger of 
some other eggs somewhere else getting some of the bene¬ 
fit from that advertising? Just consider a minute: The 
American hen, next to the American Eagle, is our most 
peculiarly American institution; she is not local nor sec¬ 
tional; she is truly National. In eveiy state and in every 
part of every state,—at every home that is a home,—in 
every barn-yard and in most front-yards, (when you’re 
not watching mighty carefully), the universal hen will 
be found, industriouslly digging up tbe tulip-beds. Still, 
she is the greatest wealth-producer in our entire popula¬ 
tion; the biggest dividend-payer on invested capital. And 
she believes in publicity; sbe produces a good thing—and 
tells about it. None of Emerson’s mouse-trap stuff for 
her! She is the best advertiser that I know of;'she ad¬ 
vertises regularly and persistently; she believes in her 
line and her copy and she sticks to her story. She ad¬ 
vertises fresh eggs—and delivers the goods. She is one 
advertiser that is always believed. No Federal Trade 
Commission order will ever direct her to “cease and de¬ 
sist.” She is honest; she never misrepresents; when she 
tells you about that egg, you know it’s there. 
The only weak point in her advertising, as I criticjtlly 
view it, is this: that it is too purely local; it is confined 
to the “home paper,” so to speak;—the copy never gets 
farther than the barn-yard fence. But the story must 
go farther than that; so* must the eggs. If not, what 
could Old Speck do with them?—“keep them and sit on 
them?” 
Right at this point is where the Chamber of Commerce, 
of Petaluma, California, come in. They are going to spend 
-‘fi50,000 to put the story of eggs across the map! That 
is not alone because of a very commendable local pride 
in the products of Petaluma’s White Leghorns. The 
Chamber of Commerce themselves admit that their ac¬ 
tion is based in part upon conditions arising out of the 
Great World War; it is a part of the “re-adjustment;” 
it is a matter of finance andi economics and that sort of 
thing. 
Thousands—even millions—of eggs that were drafted 
in former times to the purposes of egg-nog and Tom-and- 
Jeriy, are now released to other and soberer uses. 
I can state—on information and belief alone, however, 
—that right in my home town eggs today cost nine cents 
apiece—each one! I confess I see no immediate cause 
for alarm in Petaluma—nothing that would seem to cry 
for an increased demand with the inevitably bigher 
price, when an omelette aux champignons is already as 
far beyond reach—although for a different reason—as 
the historic egg-nog and the Tom-and-Jerry of the days 
that are gone. 
But what I especially object to, firmly and strenuously, 
is the demand of Petaluma that Food Administrator 
Hoover declare and set apart a National Egg Day. I 
trust that the flabby and spineless Administration at 
Washington will not add to its blunders by weakly yield¬ 
ing to that ap]>eal. We have too many “Days” now; 
there’s Motlier’s Day and Father’s Day and rent day and 
then movng day and Thanksgiving day (without the tur¬ 
key) and Christmas Day (without the egg-nog that erst¬ 
while marked the joyous Yuletide); and I want to pro¬ 
test right here and now against setting up a National 
Egg Day, even with eggs—unless suitably embellished, 
of course. As a People, we are patriotic, or even more so, 
especally those of us who stayed at home to farm, those 
two rows of potatoes to help feed Europe’s starving mil¬ 
lions; and we have sent our friends and our relatives 
and our wives’ kin-folks and, we hope, our creditors to 
the firing-line. We have laid upon the Altar of Liberty, 
our Bonds and our W. S. S., and our contributions to the 
Y. M. C. A., and the U. W. W., and the rest of the alpha¬ 
bet ; and now, having won the war, should we—I ask you 
candidly,—should we be asked to make further sacrifices 
for a National Egg Day and to place our remaining small 
change on the Altar of the Petaluma Hen? 
The Optimist. 
Berlin, Md., December 14, 1918. 
Mr. Ernest Hemming, Editor, 
National Nurseryman, 
• Flourtown, Pa. 
Dear Sir:— 
We must compliment you upon tbe fine photogra])h of 
the Mistletoe which you published in your December 
issue. The photograph shows the typical natural habitat 
of the Mostletoe. Mistletoe grows abundantly in the 
woods about Berlin. 
Very truly yours, 
Harrison Nurseries, 
W. Hale Harrison. 
