THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
PUBLIC PLAY 
GROUNDS. 
jortunately one that can easily be remedied. This journal 
is for nurserymen. We are not soliciting subscriptions or 
support from persons outside the trade although our mailing- 
list might be very largely extended by canvassing the fruit 
growers. The paper is for the grower and dealer in nursery 
stock. This status will be maintained. This is our firm 
purpose. On the other hand we want your support. Give 
heed to the expiration notice and be prompt with renewals. 
If you like the paper help us extend its circulation. 
We have before us a very interesting pamphlet, being the 
first annual report of the St. Paul play ground committee. 
This report is made to the Civic League, the Commercial 
Club, and the Common Council of St 
Paul. In the winter of 1904 the city coun¬ 
cil of St. Paul voted $2,500 for the pur¬ 
pose of instituting public play grounds. 
With this sum, one play ground was 
equipped and conducted during the past year. The play 
ground was graded and fitted with appliances for the com¬ 
fort and amusement of the children. In addition to the out¬ 
side gymnastic appliances, a building fitted with shower bath 
and toilet room, with divisions for boys and girls, was also 
erected. The games and exercises were carried on under the 
eye of the physical director. The attendance was excellent 
throughout the season; discipline was not difficult to main¬ 
tain; the behavior of the boys improved throughout the 
season; cigarette smoking decreased and general manly 
qualities strengthened. This is a most interesting experi¬ 
ment, and one that is likely to be copied by other cities. 
There is an inclination—and we fear a growing practice—on 
the part of some nurserymen to. yield to the avarice of cer¬ 
tain types of private gardeners who, in ordering nursery stock, 
do not demand, yet make it plain that a 
commission to them is necessary to place 
the order which they control. Are we not 
straining a point in the courtesies of the 
case when we call this a commission? 
If we^boldly designate it a tip, or even a bribe would we not be 
nearer the truth? It is possible that the private gardener may 
have an agreement with his emplover which permits him to 
act as buyer with the privilege of securing commissions from 
the sellers when possible; that is a sort of private perquisite. 
On the face of it however, this kind of agreement is not likely 
to occur frequently for it does not require an extraordinarily 
astute employer to surmise that he himself would, in the long 
run, pay the “commission” in the purchase price of the stock. 
The “tip” habit is abominably prevalent in Europe and is now 
about as bad in America. Not long ago the writer, probably 
in a streak of absent-mindedness, handed a waiter in a St. 
Louis restaurant a nickel for a small service rendered and was 
promptly reminded of the diminutive Character of his contri¬ 
bution by the lackey shoving it back with the remark that 
“You had better keep that; you may need it for your street 
car fare.” We shall soon have arrived at the time when the 
tip receiver shall specify the amount he is to receive! 
The following is interesting as giving the supposed origin 
of the tip although it has no special bearing upon this dis¬ 
cussion : 
It was the custom in the old English coffee-houses to place 
a strong box, usually of brass, with lock and key, at the door, 
COMMISSIONS 
TO PRIVATE 
GARDENERS. 
125 
with the words inscribed, “T. I. P.” meaning, “To Insure 
Promptness. Customers were in the habit of dropping a 
coin for the waiters in this box as they passed out. Such, 
Punch says, is the origin of “Tip.” 
In purchasing a bill of stock the gardener is presumably 
carrying out his employers orders. The time occupied by 
the transaction has been, or will be paid for by his employer. 
When the nurseryman offers the employee a commission on a 
bill of goods he tenders a species of bribe. The amount of 
the commission must be made up somewhere. It may take 
the form of poorer grades of stock or of advanced prices. 
In both cases the employer suffers primarily, but the nursery¬ 
man suffers secondarily; nor is the injury restricted to the 
lowering of his morals. It will in the long run re-act against 
his business. Quite apart from the moral side, which is worth 
considering, it is in our opinion a poor business policy and one 
which eventually brings discredit upon the trade. 
These are the views of one who looks upon the question 
from the side lines as it were. We do not claim infallibility. 
If in this point of view we are wrong, our columns are open to 
to those who can set us right. If we are right, can we not as 
nurserymen get together in a manly, straightforward way 
and do what we can to frown down and smother a growing 
and palpable evil? 
It is rather a remarkable thing that, notwithstanding the 
duty on fruit and the difficulties of transportation, the markets 
of Manitoba and the Canadian Northwest are largely supplied 
by the fruit growers of the Pacific Coast, 
the Canadian more particularly Oregon and Washington. 
northwest as It. is true that British Columbia is an im- 
A fruit market, portant competitor, but it is probable 
that the states to the south secure the 
major part of the trade of this region. Recently the province 
of Ontario has made a definite effort to introduce its fruits 
in that new and rapidly developing reigon. An experimental 
shipment of fruit is reported in Bulletin 139 of the Ontario 
Agricultural College. This shipment included tender fruits 
only, such as peaches, pears, plums and grapes. The trial ship¬ 
ment suggested, if it did not demonstrate, the possibility that 
fruit of this perishable character could be placed upon the 
Winnepeg market in car lots at freight rates, in from six to eight 
days from Toronto, and that fruit carried in a refrigerator car 
for this length of time was safer than in a hot unventilated ex¬ 
press car for only three days. The cost of shipping by freight 
is about one-third of that by express. The shippers found 
that their methods of grading and packing were somewhat 
inferior to those practiced by their competitors on the west 
coast, and that if the trade was to be developed more attention 
would be needed in this particular department. 
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