QUESTION BOX. DT 



Mr. Dole: Often on a Sunday morning I have rolled up six or eight 

 packages of roses or carnations and taken them around before church 

 time, leaving a bunch at each church. I have never put a card in with 

 them, we being the only florists in Beatrice. They know where they 

 come from, and we generally hear of it. Someone calls us up and 

 thanks us for it afterwards and we know it has been appreciated, ana 

 it is a good advertisement. 



Another way we have of disposing of surplus stock: We have our 

 store down town, the greenhouses are out three-fourths of a mile, and 

 we advertise that we will give a carnation or a rose to every lady 

 coming to the greenhouse. We never mention children, because if we did 

 we will have a thousand children out there after them. We give them 

 to every lady or gentleman calling at the greenhouse. Oftentimes we 

 take some to the stores and hand them to the clerks; perhaps we 

 have some every few days and we take down some this week, and in 

 two or three days we take down some more to another store and hand 

 them to the clerks, and it is a good advertisement, We have found, 

 or at least I have thought it did not pay to make special sales, unless 

 once in a great while a special sale on carnations. 



Mr. Ayres: This talk on how to get rid of your surplus flowers 

 does not answer Mr. Atkinson's question. These gentlemen all live 

 in towns of 5,000 or better, but what are we going to do in the little 

 towns of 1,500 to 2,000? We haven't any daily papers, and no depart- 

 ment stores, and we want a demand for the flowers we raise and grow 

 right there at home. The question is how to advertise and get results. 

 That is what we want. 



Mr. Green: If there is no surplus you don't need a demand created. 

 The idea in having a demand is to use the surplus. 



Mr. Atkinson: I understand that, but In a small town you will be 

 getting, say, 300 carnations a day; if you have a large funeral or two 

 a week you haven't enough, but if a week comes that you have no 

 funerals you will have a surplus. I don't believe we have received 

 any extra orders on account of advertising, but the idea I am trying 

 to get at is to create a steady demand, and we must have a surplus, 

 too. The demand hinges largely on funerals or receptions, and to have 

 enough for these in ordinary times you must have a surplus. 



"Mr. Simanton: I think the person that gets up an absolute answer to 

 the advertising question can get a better job than the president of the 

 New York Life Insurance Company. I think that is a business problem 

 with men in any other line and while some are getting better results than 

 others, it is a problem with the best of them. 



Mr. Green: I want to ask Mr. Atkinson if he caters to a shipping 

 trade to any extent? 



Mr. Atkinfeon: In what way do you mean? 



Mr. Green: If he advertises out of town, if he sends any advertis- 

 ing matter to surrounding towns? 



