American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-10-16
NURSERY AGENTS AND TREE pEDDLERs.
By Truett Sons 4 Morgan, Proprietors of
| Rosebank Nurseries, Nashville, Tenn.

II We notice the remarks in you
August number concerning nurser
:. agents and tree peddlerS. w
!. fully agree with yOn that " tn
j, purchaser should have some assur
ance that the trees, when received
> did really come from said nursery
and that the prOprietOrs of that nur
, sery are responsible for their BEN.
the trees ordered, and that. wheI
they left the nursery they were cor
rectly labelled"
You then ask, what provision is
made to secure the purchaser in
this respect,
We have a system which was
adopted by us in the beginning OF
our business, and which we have
elaborated, as the necessities of the
business brought the LOiUts before
us from time to time.
Taking in view, first our own
relation to the purchaser, and our
responsibility to him, with Il firm
determination to do an honest, fair
and square business, that might be
open to the world !; then the stand
point CT the purchaser, and the pos
sible representation of an agent
! eager to swell his sales. TheOrizing
thus, we originated a system which
we believe to be unique, and a
"new DEPARTURE" as concerning
nursery prOprietors.
YOu describe how the thing is
managed at nurseries where yOu
have been. How that Smith, the
peddler, calling himself an agent,
gets orders for trees from Jones'
nursery. AT the digging season he
goes to Jones and buys certain
blocks or odd rows of trees he has
his own men to dig them he takes
them to some vacant place, and
labels them as may be; packs them
in lots to suit his orders, and all
that Jones has to do with the mats
ter is, the trees grew on his ground
and he sold them.
Now our plan is this. No man
acts as agent for the Rosebank
Nurseries without our printed form
of orders and our uniform series of
plate books. We allow 10 man to
fill part of his orders with us and
another part of his orders with
somebody else; we fill all and every
part of his orders or none. We sell
no stOchjn bulb that is, we sell no
"certain blocks or odd rows OF
trees to anybody. We have arti-
cles of agreement with every agel
our nurseries, in which
.H NstnuAted that he shall sell by
bur catalogue list, our order-books
and plate-bOOks; no other variety
or speciality of fruit to be sold und,
any circl stances with our per-
mission. The agent, in addition,
binds himself to send us his order
books as fast as filed. Now, in or
der to See if any eager salesman has
exceeded his authority, OF been too
in his representations
to the purchaser, we take the order
books as fast as they come in from
the beginning of the season and dis.
sect them piecemeal. In this way ::
We have a set of printed abstract
sheets or blanks, uniform with the
order-bOok, and upon these alb
stracts or blanks we tally every
item that every order calls for the
number. the variety. the size, and
description of every thing sold, is
noted. Oar Hlnks for the seasons
work become as vOluminous as
those of tuartermaster in an ac-
tive campaign, and il takes the EN-
tire time of one first class man to
attend to these abstracts.
From the start, then, we know
l.,
too heavily on any particular Vi
riety of stock, and we are enabled
by prompt notification to the men
at work taking orders, to regulate
the sale OF varieties, completely and
absolutely Care being taken first,
TO catalogue nothing but the best,
the agent will not go astray in SELL
ing anything in forms.
In this dissecting of orders and
the tallying of each variety, we ar
rive at a perfect knowledge of
what the agent is doing, the repre-
sensations or promises he makes,
and any irregularity is promptly
discovered and corrected, if per-
chance any agent new to the bust
ness bluuders into an error. After
the orders have been tailed, and
every item "varietised" upon our
abstract sheets, they are then writ
ten up, that is all the labels and adj
dress tags are written by one of our
own clerks in our own office. The
labels and address tagf for each order
are then twisted together into a
bunch and strung upon wire, each
delivery by itself, ready for the
packing-shed in the fall. Tie Or
ders or bundles of orders as con-
tanned in the different punches of
labels, are then taken by our own
men, and packed under supervision
of one of the proprietors. Our va
riety schedule or abstract sheet is
closely watched and kept posted up
and at the end of the season, serves
as digging list, by which our stock
may be placed In the trenches. The
digging and placing of stock in
trenches, is also done by our own
men, under the supervision of an.
other one of the proprietors. There
are no agents about our grounds
while packing is going on. They
are not forbidden, but they prefer
to stay in the canvassing field, until
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