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I have talked with quite a number 
of our leading customers regarding 
their catalog policy for 1944. Of 
course, we all recognize the fact that 
we have a market before us which is 
almost wholly a sellers market, and 
therefore, cut prices and bargain of- 
fers are not really necessary to en- 
able us to dispose of all the goods 
we can obtain; but most of our 
friends also realize that this same 
market is before our competitors as 
well as ourselves and is to be fol- 
lowed by a future which is also be- 
fore all of us; and while such special 
offers may not be necessary to sell 
our stock, they might aid in bringing 
in some new customers who would 
probably stay with us in years to 
come. 
Stanley Morse once told me that 
he believed that the greatest factor 
in the success of a mail order nurs- 
eryman was vision rather than op- 
portunity. This is a fact which is 
particularly pertinent at the present 
time and I believe that those who 
expect to continue in business after 
the war should think more about the 
future requirements than about 
present opportunities. 
Whatever method of presenting 
dahlias you have been following, that 
is, whether bargain collections or 
straight listings, I believe should be 
continued—that is, if past results 
were satisfactory. Personally we 
have always argued for the offering 
of dahlias in unit collections with a 
gift tuber free with two or more 
such collections. This has worked 
with all our customers who have 
tried it and if you are one of these 
I do not believe I should advise any 
change in this policy this year. 
There may be some talk about gov- 
ernmental regulations or price con- 
trol but I do not believe this need 
worry us so long as our method of 
offering our goods is legitimate and 
fair; and the gift tuber idea certainly 
is fair because the cost of the tuber 
is undoubtedly more than made up 
by the saving in postage where the 
two or more units are ordered. 
Furthermore one of the great ad- 
vantages in offering dahlias in the 
form of unit or ready made collec- 
tions, especially where you are con- 
tracting for your supply, is in the 
fact that the same quantities are 
used of each variety and, therefore, 
the total number of collections rep- 
resents the total number of each 
variety required. For instance, if 
you estimate a sale of 100, 1,000, or 
5,000 collections your contract will 
call for that number of roots of each 
variety and your orders will leave 
your stock perfectly balanced, 
whereas if you follow the individual 
listing one variety might outsell 
another to such an extent that you 
would have a lot of roots of one kind 
left over and perhaps run short on 
another. 
While we are listing more than 
two hundred varieties of dahlias as 
grown in quantity and available to 
the wholesale trade, yet this does 
not mean that we are advising you 
to make such an extended list for 
your retail trade. 
Ine fact, we) be- 
lieve best results will be obtained by 
the average dealer where his list is 
limited to a reasonable number— 
say two or three collections of four 
to six varieties each—of the standard 
varieties with a few of the newer 
dahlias added to keep the list alive 
and up to date. Where the list is 
well chosen little or no change from 
year to year will be necessary to 
build a steadily increasing demand. 
In fact, most dealers find that they 
sell more of such standard varieties 
as Jersey’s Beauty, Jane Cowl, Mrs. 
I. deVerWarner, etc., each succeed- 
ing year even with very little change 
in their list of varieties or their 
regular mailing list. 
Whatever varieties you intend to 
list in 1944 I would suggest that you 
be sure that arrangements have been 
made with your grower so that he 
may be able to hold stock to meet 
your requirements for the season. 
Remember dahlias will not be plenti- 
ful this season and if you do not con- 
tract ahead you wili probably be 
unable to obtain stock when needed 
next spring. This means dissatisfied 
customers and lost profit. 


GET YOUR RESERVATION 
ORDER IN NOW 
DAHLIAS IN THE 1943 CATALOGS 
Dealer Space 
Devoted 
Ackerman Ye page 
Alneer W% page 
Archias Ye page 
Buist 1% pages 
Bunting 3 page 
Burgess 1 page 
Burpee 2 pages 
Colorado Seed Co. 2 pages 
Condon 3% pages 
De Giorgi %4 page 
Farmer *2 page 
Field Wy page 
Garden Store Ye page 
Gurney’s 3 page 
Inter-State Nurs. 2 pages 
Kellogg 2 pages 
Krider % page 
Kunderd (catalog:) 1 page 
Kunderd (broadside) Y% page 
Magnolia %% page 
Maule % page 
May *2 page 
Mitchell 5 pages 
Montgomery Ward % page 
Naughton % page 
Olds 22 page 
Park 2 pages 
Russell-Heckle % page 
Salzer *2 page 
Satex *2 page 
Leott 35 page 
Sears, Roebuck % page 
Sherk 1% page 
Shumway 2 pages 
Simpson 38 pages 
Sonderegger *%% page 
Tait % page 
Templin-Bradley *% page 
Vaughan 22% pages 
Whitten 1 page 
Will 1% page 
Color B. & W. No. 
Illust. Tilust. Varieties 
Listed* 
10 
ae 
10 
46 
10 
34 
ees 
53 
36 
35 
36 
16 
15 
16 
— 20 
toss 4 1 
1 Sone itil 
PALL 
bee 11 
i ee iL 
Aen 33 
5 ae 13 
see 176 
16 ie 16 
= 22 
16 
79 
22 
24 
40 
Pape 
I0G/ 
6 
BPA 
50 
25 
24 
22 
86 
14 
6 
nwpew: 0: 
eb Wi PHAMWNHNHED 
Bie 
J: 
WAR NR RRrPNMwWhNe 
ae bo 
DNnwreeH: 
*Mixed and unnamed dahlias are not included in this listing. 
