106 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



JUNE 21, 190O. 



market for good red roses which 

 pleases a few who are cutting some 

 fairly good outdoor Jacks. 



Monday morning opened with a 

 brisk movement on firecrackers, tor- 

 pedoes and soda water, and the mag- 

 netic needle pointing straight at Bun- 

 ker Hill monument did not affect traf- 

 fic in flowers much except that the 

 street man rose to the hook a little 

 better. Biit he was easily frightened 

 away. 



Notes. 



Sunday was the day J. M. Tuohy 

 took a ride on the boulevard, with wife 

 and baby on board, to get the full 

 benefit of the balmy air. But the 

 horse excusably took offense at the re- 

 marks of an automobile, put up its 

 fists and backed up for a good start, 

 never minding the smithering of a 

 wheel and other minor incidents, put- 

 ting Floral Jim in an interesting atti- 

 tude. He took the horse by the jaw, 

 the better to whisper in his ear, and 

 an opportune policeman came along 

 and adopted the whole outfit, so that 

 the Tuohys electricked home. A no- 

 ticeable feature is that the policeman 

 took the number of the auto and told 

 Tuohy to pay no attention to demands 

 for damages from the owner of the 

 hired team, holding the auto entirely 

 responsible. B. T. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



The glut, especially of carnations, 

 continued until Tuesday of this week, 

 when there was rather a scarcity, par- 

 ticularly of good roses. The cool 

 weather has considerably improved the 

 quality, especially of carnations. Prices 

 have stiffened some and conditions are 

 better all around. The majority of 

 the school closings take place this 

 week and next and shipping trade is 

 first-class. Local demand keeps up 

 well, too, and all the wholesalers are 

 busy. At date prices range from $3 to 

 $6 on roses and from 50 cents to $2 on 

 carnations. 



Outside grown sweet peas are com- 

 ing in and the color is very noticeably 

 better than that of indoor grown 

 blooms. The season has been unus- 

 ually favorable and we never saw 

 Blanche Ferry of a richer hue. They 

 sell very well, but the price is not very 

 high. 



Other outdoor flowers, such as dai- 

 sies, campanulas, cornflowers, etc., go 

 very slowly at low figures and fre- 

 quently won't sell at all. 



Good paeonies are, however, right in 

 it, the shortage of roses and fancy car- 

 nations materially increasing the call 

 for them. They will no doubt be pretty 

 well cleaned up the latter part of this 

 week. 



Armazindy carnation is showing it- 

 self to be a very poor keeper, the poor- 

 est in the bunch. And Scott and Hill 

 are not much better. They go to sleep 



so quickly that unless moved in a few 

 hours they are worthless. 



Mr. E. E. Pieser, of Kennicott Bros. 

 Co., says the newer carnations don't 

 keep as well as the older sorts, any- 

 way. The old McGowan is by far the 

 best keeper now. Wonder if chemical 

 fertilizers haven't something to do 

 with this. 



E. C. Amling says that his experi- 

 ence with Armazindy is that it stands 

 at the foot of the list as a keeper. 



Bassett & Washburn are doing an 

 enormous shipping business and say 

 trade generally is immense. 



Archie Spencer, at Peter Reinberg's. 

 says things are moving finely and that 

 he hasn't the smallest kind of a kick 

 to register. 



McKellar & Winterson report an un- 

 usually large shipping trade in general 

 supplies, as well as cut flowers. 



Club Meeting. 



At the meeting of the Florists' Club 

 last Friday evening Chairman Rudd. 

 of the committee on co-operative pur- 

 chase of coal, made a report showing 

 the committee had gone very exhaust- 

 ively into the matter. The growers 

 reporting to the committee used 24,000 

 tons of coal, and Mr. Rudd estimated 

 that the florists of Chicago and imme- 

 diate vicinity used no less than 100,- 

 000 tons of coal annually. 



He had interviewed a great many 

 coal dealers and had obtained all the 

 information possible. Coal prices just 

 now are held quite firmly and he 

 thought the chances were 3 to 1 that a 

 break would come soon and that it 

 would be well to defer ordering. The 

 committee was continued and will be 

 prepared to act when conditions are 

 favorable. 



During the discussion of the report 

 many interesting points regarding 

 coal were brought out. Mr. Rudd said 

 he was convinced that florists could 

 get the most value for the money from 

 lower vein Brazil block, and though 

 there was a difference of only 10 

 cents per ton in the prices of lower 

 vein and upper vein, he felt that there 

 was a real difference of 25 cents a ton 

 in value. But the difficulty is to get 

 the lower vein. He had reason to be- 

 lieve there were only two mines in 

 Brazil that produced the lower vein 

 block, and that what is generally sold 

 for lower vein is from one-third to 

 two-thirds upper vein. 



Several growers had reported that 

 they used Hocking and he thought 

 they were losing money by so doing. 

 His experience was that it took more 

 tons of Hocking to carry him through 

 than of the Brazil block, and the 

 Hocking cost more money per ton. 



He wouldn't use a coal that con- 

 tained much sulphur, no matter how 

 low the price. The sulphur is what 

 makes clinkers, and in poking the 

 clinkers out of the fire more fuel is 

 lost than the value of the difference in 

 cost. 



The height and area of the stack 



were mentioned by Mr. Broadbeck as 

 factors to consider in the use of any 

 coal, and all agreed that it was im- 

 portant. With a stack both tall and 

 large and abundant boiler capacity, 

 some coals can be used to advantage 

 when they can not be if these condi- 

 tions are lacking. 



And the fireman is even more im- 

 ])ortant. This subject developed in 

 importance during the discussion until 

 hearers were led to believe that a fire- 

 man who understood his business 

 thoroughly could save a large per- 

 centage of coal that is now wasted. 

 Mr. Rudd said he made it a point tO' 

 examine his ash heap frequently and 

 from that could quickly tell whether 

 his fireman was getting full value out 

 of the coal used. 



It was shown that freight rates 

 largely determine the price of coal. 

 The roads are now holding rates up 

 stiffly. If the combination breaks and 

 rates fall, the price of coal will drop. 

 The railroads are now having one of 

 their peiiodical fits of bracing up 

 freight rates. They have done this 

 many times before, iuit have generally 

 broken away when freight shipments 

 began to fall oft in midsummer. Such 

 a reaction is looked for soon. 



The transportation committee re- 

 ported that indications were favorable 

 to securing a very satisfactory i-ate to 

 the New York convention, and in view 

 of the fact that the club had invited 

 the S. A. F. to meet in Chicago next 

 year, urged the importance of having 

 a large delegation at New York. 



What the entertainment committee 

 had up its sleeve proved to be a lunch 

 accompanied by malt extract. Judg- 

 ing from the size of the lunch and its 

 accessories, the committee has a very 

 large sleeve. 



While the lunch was being disposed 

 of Mr. J. Austin Shaw, who was pres- 

 ent, read some of his characteristic 

 verses and told in rhyme what he- 

 thought of Chicago and what the New 

 York club would do in the way of en- 

 tertainments next August. He was 

 greeted with large chunks of enthusi- 

 asm and invited to take a Turkish 

 bath, which invitation he declined 

 with great promptness. Nothing can 

 disturb the equanimity of this gentle- 

 man, and in spite of irrelevant inter- 

 ruptions he gave the boys a pointed 

 sermon on the necessity of being good 

 and, above all. being present at the 

 great convention to be held in New 

 York this summer. 



Other visitors at the meeting were: 

 J. C. Rennison, Sioux City, la., and 

 Jos. Heinl, Jacksonville, 111. 



This was the last regular meeting of 

 the club for the winter season and the 

 summer vacation will now be enjoyed. 



■Various Items. 



The rose garden on the wooded is- 

 land at Jackson Park was visited by 

 over 40,000 people last Sunday. The 

 display of bloom was immense. This 

 garden was planted at the time of the 



