276 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



AUGUST 9, 1900. 



lator, he uses you, fails and you suffer 

 most. 



There is of couise the professional 

 fraud whose duty on earth seems to 

 be to live on the best, and illustrate 

 how foolish a business man can be 

 when relying on appearances as an in- 

 dication of honesty. You will find 

 that as a rule a person who never in- 

 tends to pay for what he orders usu- 

 ally sneers at the average grades of 

 goods. He demands the finest pro- 

 curable, and your highest talent must 

 be engaged to arrange the order; price 

 is of course no object, in fact they 

 show annoyance if the price is even 

 mentioned, in consequence you go to 

 your best chum in the wholesale busi- 

 ness, you coax or threaten him with 

 the importance of the order, he 

 charges extra, but you must have 

 them, and the case is responsible for 

 swelled heads out in the greenhouse, 

 and more money out of your pocket, 

 besides frequently being the cause of 

 a general rise in that class of goods. 



There is again the "unfortunate" or 

 "never was anything" poor relative or 

 acquaintance of the rich and power- 

 ful. They come to you, order so and 

 so to be sent to their rich friend. They 

 caution you with bated breath on the 

 Importance of sending nothing but 

 the finest, they either chew down the 

 price or settle with you after they re- 

 turn from Europe or the country, per- 

 haps a year from then. 



It is, we feel, quite unnecessary to 

 any further describe the greatest 

 troubles to be met with in the retail 

 trade. Every one. more or less, has had 

 his own sad experience. The cure is 

 the most desiral^le thing to know, but 

 the hardest to prescribe. The ut- 

 most care must be used in selecting a 

 charge customer. It would not do for 

 those doing a high class trade to de- 

 mand cash for the majority of orders 

 they get. Social registers, telephone 

 lists and such may be good, but they- 

 are not reliable. It a well dressed per- 

 son comes into your store and asks 

 for a box of choice flowers, and when 

 they are put up they find themselves 

 short of cash, you cannot but let them 

 take it cheerfully. Any person, how- 

 ever, should not be permitted to run 

 a regular account unless you satisfy 

 yourself as to their financial stand- 

 ing. 



References are nearly always given 

 by honest intentioned people. In 

 most cases a few well chosen polite 

 words will induce many to settle at 

 reasonable periods. There is no set 

 rule, no remedy other than heaps of 

 care and diplomacy. If you are justified 

 In doubting a customer it is easy for 

 you after the first order to put them 

 off with poor grade stock, by saying 

 the ones they select are all sold. Many 

 poor payers are good for their con- 

 nections and you can often use them 

 to further your business. It is very 

 desirable to have some people open 

 accounts with you for they spend 



more, and send most of their trade 

 to the store where they have such ac- 

 count. People who pay every month 

 are now classed as ca.sh customers; the 

 tendency, however, is leading to the 

 sixty, ninety and unlimited days, and 

 this means ruin or embarressment to 

 many. And so long as these people 

 can go into any store and get all they 

 want you cannot change it. Flowers 

 are not a lasting commodity, they are 

 a perishable luxury, almost every or- 

 der is greedily filled on the principle 

 that if I don't do it, he will, and the 

 outcome is seldom considered. 



There are retail florists in New 

 York today who carry long standing 

 accounts of from five to fifteen thou- 

 sand dollars. They dare not use col- 

 lecting agencies on many of them for 

 that would drive trade away. Some 

 form of a protective organization is 

 necessary, every line of business is 

 adopting this method, and some day 

 we hope the florist will realize its 

 importance. Some strong effort should 

 be made to get the business on at 

 least a 30 day limit: this should be 

 good enough for all branches and 

 would enable all to enjoy some pleas- 

 ure in the struggle of life. IVERA. 



OLD-TIME FLORAL DESIGNS. 



An Arrangement of 1870. 



We present herewith an engraving 

 from a photograph kindly loaned us 

 by Mr. J. J. Beneke, St. Louis, of a 

 floral design arranged at Jordan's es- 

 tablishment, St. Louis, in the year 

 1S70, the artist being Mr. John Davis. 

 The design was presented to Clara 

 Louise Kellogg, the opera singer, by 

 citizens of St. Loui.s, and the price 

 paid for it was $100. Mr, Beneke 

 was then in the employ of Mr. Jor- 

 dan and he delivered the design to 

 the opera house. 



The picture shows quite plainly the 

 material used, and it is surely most 

 interesting as illustrating the changes 

 that have taken place during the last 

 30 years, '^''ill the progress during 

 the next 30 years be as great? It is 

 startling to contemplate such a pos- 

 sibility. 



HEATING PROBLEMS. 



In order that 1 may make my replies to cor- 

 respondents complete and definite. I would ask 

 that, with their letters of inquiry, they also sub- 

 mit a diagram showing the heights and shapes of 

 the houses to be heated, stating what parts are 



f:lass, also show location and depth of boiler cel- 

 ar, arrangement of benches ana grades of fioor 

 lines, also state the lowest night temperature de- 

 sired. Such diagrams need not be to scale nor 

 very elaborate, and would enable me to make my 

 replies more definite and of vastly more value to 

 correspondents. 



HENRY W. GIBBONS. 



Heating Engineer. 



In answer to J. H. O.'s inquiry, the 

 20 H. P. boiler he has. if of conserva- 

 tive rating, will heat the four houses 

 he describes as two three-quarter 

 span 300x20 feet, and two even span. 

 64x10 feet, very nicely. The arrange- 

 ment of the heating surface should 



be as follows: In each of the three- 

 quarter span houses you will require, 

 in order to maintain a night tempera- 

 ture of 60 deg. in zero weather, four 

 hundred square feet of heating surface, 

 in the eastern even span house 150 

 feet of surface, and in the western 

 even span house 180 feet of heating 

 surface. 



For feeding the two three-quarter 

 span houses a steam main of three 

 inches diameter will be required, re- 

 ducing to two inches after the first 

 house is taken off. For the even span 

 houses a two-inch steam main will 

 leave the boiler, reducing to one and 

 one-half inch after the first house is 

 taken off. For return mains run a 

 l^/^-inch pipe from the southern three- 

 quarter span house, increasing it to at 

 least two-inch when taking off the 

 northern house, and so continuing to 

 the boiler, and for the western even 

 span house a I'i-inch pipe, increas- 

 ing to 1%-inch when the eastern house 

 is taken off. and so continuing back 

 to the boiler. For use in ari-anging 

 the distribution of the heating sur- 

 face in the several houses I submit 

 the following: 



To equal one square foot of heat- 

 ing surface it requires in practice 3 

 lineal feet of 1-inch pipe, 2 1-3 feet of 

 1%-inch pipe, and 2 feet of 1%-inch 

 pipe. 



There are two methods of circula- 

 tion by which these houses may be 

 heated; namel.v, by carrying the steam 

 or flow pipe direct up from the boiler 

 to the highest point, then grading 

 downward at least one inch in twenty 

 feet and running through each house 

 suspended from the ridge to the 

 farther end, then branching and con- 

 necting to the heating pipes below the 

 benches, these pipes all grading down- 

 ward back toward the boiler end of 

 the houses, where they will enter the 

 returns; the other plan is to carry 

 the main as above stated to the boiler 

 end of the houses, then dropping 

 to circulating coils below the benches, 

 these coils grading downward 

 throughout their entire length back 

 to the return mains. The return 

 mains should be kept as low as pos- 

 sible and at the first opportunity drop 

 below the water line of the boiler. 



The boiler should be fltted with a 

 reliable self-regulating damper at- 

 tachment in order to minimize the 

 labor of attention and at the same 

 time to insure a more imiform pres- 

 sure or temperature than is possible 

 by any other means. 



Replying to A. L. H., I would say: 

 A 10 H. P. steam boiler can readily 

 be used for hot water heating, pro- 

 vided the flow and return connec- 

 tion are increased to the requisite ca- 

 pacity. If a single flow and return 

 connection only is contemplated, they 

 should be not less than 4-inch pipe, 

 or if a connection is to be provided 

 for each of the two houses they should 

 be not less than 2i^-inch pipe, and 1 

 would be inclined to make them 

 3-inch, on account of friction in the 



