190 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
of the marketing of our products. This Committee came into 
existence at a time when nursery products were selling below 
cost of production and, in the minds of some of us, their work is 
finished before begun, for, reason some of us, “why spend 
good money advertising a product already oversold.” If the pres¬ 
ent reflected normal conditions, this might be sound reasoning, 
but the present reflects a rather abnormal condition. Rising to 
the popular and patriotic demand of the government, the nur¬ 
serymen everywhere released their labor for war work and 
planted their lands previously employed in growing nursery stock 
to agricultural products. Instead of fields of trees, we have great 
fields of wheat, corn, cotton, and all the rest. The present, there¬ 
fore, finds us with magnificent crops of other products but no 
nursery stock. As I have already suggested, this condition will 
not last. Already the nurserymen are planning to reestablish 
their growing depai'tments, and within two or three years the 
surplus list will supercede the want list, and then the Market De¬ 
velopment boys will become exceedingly popular. To be sure, 
this work so auspiciously begun should be continued. A full 
half day’s program has been arranged for the report of this 
Committee, which, you will find, is thoroughly capable of speak¬ 
ing for itself. In considering the splendid work which this Com¬ 
mittee can and will accomplish, I want to warn you that after all 
the Market Development will not prove a panacea for all our ills. 
When the most that this Committee can do has been done, it is 
only one cog in the wheel of our organization and most certainly 
should not be expected to perform the functions of the whole 
wheel. If, to illustrate, the normal demand is for 10,000,000 peach 
trees per annum and 20,000,000 trees are grown, we might spend 
every dollar of our assets in the promotion of Market Develop¬ 
ment with the result that 10,000,000 peach trees would go on 
the brush pile and the 10,000,000 sold would not bring the cost of 
production. Supply and demand will, therefore, govern prices. 
Is there a possibility that we can keep supply and demand within 
correct relations, I do not know. If you say no, you demolish at 
once and forever the beautiful theory of cooperative effort, with¬ 
out which there is no hope. I am not ready to say it cannot be 
done, and because I believe in your good sense, because I believe 
that within the heart and conscience of every man there is a 
strong spirit of cooperation and brotherhood, because I believe 
the future is bright with possibilities of good, I believe it can be 
done, not in a day or in a decade, but when we are ready to test 
to the limit the spirit of cooperative effort. 
HOW CAN IT BE DONE? 
(1) As'nearly as possible, bring every grower of nursery stock 
in the United States under the influence of this Association, if 
not through direct membership, then through some plan of af¬ 
filiation with state and district organizations which will at least 
influence the grower in policies that we, as a National Associa¬ 
tion, have adopted. It matters not how small the business of this 
grower, he is a link in the chain, and the chain is no stronger 
than its weakest link. Go after new members under the slogan, 
“We can and will help you make your business more profitable.” 
This, in the truest sense, is market development, for the man 
doing a $5,000.00 or $10,000.00 business may be helped to do a 
$10,000.00 or $20,000.00 business, and in adding to the volume of 
business of the retailer we are, in the truest sense of the word, 
developing our markets. 
(2) Determine as nearly as possible the annual normal need 
in all lines of our products, together with the supply, present and 
contemplated, and endeavor through educational campaign to 
keep supply well within demand. Here is the crux of the whole 
situation, and if it is possible to accomplish this, even in degree, 
we shall be greatly benefitted. It cannot be done in a day, in a 
year, or in many years, but it can be done, and it will be done. 
How to accomplish this is a matter of detail to be left to a com¬ 
petent organization under the direction of the Executive Com¬ 
mittee, but I would have you remember that you are the Com¬ 
mittee’s “boss.” If you desire this service, direct your Commit¬ 
tee to go forward, and in the faith of your confidence and co¬ 
operation anything within the bounds of reason is possible. It 
all depends upon the character of your orders. 
OUR FUTURE 
Representing a great industry whose weal or woe is wrapped 
up in the prosperity or adversity of the agricultural ebb and 
flow of the United States, one has only to traverse this great 
country from east to west and from north to south to be con¬ 
vinced that the present crop of wheat and corn, oats and cotton, 
cattle and oil, and all the rest, is the greatest in the history of 
our country, therefore our future is bidght with promise. With 
the harvest of our present crop we will be richer by billions of 
dollars than ever before. For the past several years we have, 
through necessities of war, been forced to invest our earnings in 
war activities, but with the return of peace, monies from these 
vast crops will be spent in reconstruction. The country from 
ocean to ocean and from lakes to gulf will, within the next few 
years, experience the greatest era of prosperity ever before 
known, (unless it acts the fool and goes republican in 1920). We 
will build more beautiful homes, and surround these homes with 
the choicest in fruits and flowers. In this prosperity you, gentle¬ 
men, are sharing and will continue to share, for you have a com¬ 
modity as indispensible in home building as brick or lumber. 
We have had nothing in all the past to equal this, but even this 
prosperity may prove our undoing unless we build well the foun¬ 
dation of an organization equal to the emergency which is sure 
to overtake us. 
I would not blot the picture I have drawn, but I Would warn 
you to be careful, to prepare to-day to make the prosperity of the 
present permanent through effort of stabilizing the nursery bus¬ 
iness. If you will do this, and from the point of view of good 
sense, you should, I will liken you to the wise man who built his 
house on a rock, and “when the rain came and the winds blew 
and fell upon that house, it fell not, for it was founded upon a 
rock.” That “rock,” gentlemen, is organization, builded through 
cooperative effort. 
EXHIBITS AT THE CONVENTION 
Tlie most notable exhibit at the Convention was a Bee- 
inan traetor in the lobby of the hotel. A four horse-power 
engine that will take the place of a single horse in plow¬ 
ing, harrowing, lawn mowing, etc. 
It ereatecl a good deal of interest, many wondering 
which would be the best investment, that or a good mule. 
The J. Horace MeEarland Co., Harrisburg, Pa., had 
their customary fine display of catalogues and color work. 
Mrs. Nathan B. Greaves, Rochester, N. Y., had a fine 
lot of horticultural jihotographs. 
A. T. De La Mau' Co., 438 West 37th street, New York, 
exhibited printing and borticultural books. 
The Llm City Nursery Co., New Haven, Conn., were 
the only exhibitors of living plants, with their novelties, 
Ibolium Privet and Box Barberry, and Cotoneaster aeuti- 
folia for which they were given a eeidifieate of merit. 
Thomas B. Meehan & Co., of Dresher, Pa., exhibited 
raffia, showing this material had once more got back into 
eommeree. 
J. E. Gilson Co., Port Washington, Wisconsin, made an 
interesting display of garden tools. 
The nitrogen Co., Waterloo, Iowa, cultures of Nitrogen. 
A. B. Morse Co., St. Joseph, Michigan, their usual dis- 
])lay of catalogue work. The Eeeny Mfg. Co., Munice, 
Ind., the Eeeny Dust Gun. 
