May 22, 1902. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



913 



has been auditor of the board for some 

 twelve years, a position made for him, 

 and which any .$50 a month bookkeeper 

 could fUl better than it has been. He is 

 as devoid of any knowledge of park 

 work, either construction or maintenance, 

 as a collie dog is of his grandfather. 

 This is all disgusting and discouraging 

 and I can scarcely keep cool over it. 



There are many political and official 

 positions, from keeper of the morgue to 

 his honor the mayor inclusive, that do 

 not require nor call for technical or pro- 

 fessional knowledge. They want men 

 simply of good character, good executive 

 business men with a backbone, but would 

 you appoint a hotelkeeper to be district 

 attorney or a pawnbroker to be city en- 

 gineer? Then why, sir, should this greaf 

 and beautiful city be disgraced by hand- 

 ing over the care of the parks to a no- 

 body? Politics, favoritism and brotherly 

 love. Hang the partisan politics in our 

 municipal affairs. A Republican will 

 vote for a yellow dog if he belongs to 

 the party and a Democrat will vote for 

 a Democrat if his character is as dark as 

 the cloud that rests over the crater of Mt. 

 Pelee and an eruption would do some 

 good here. TV. S. 



BOSTON. 



The Market, 



May 11 to 17 included a changeable 

 week. For the most part of it the vol- 

 canic eruptions of the \<est Indies 

 seemed to have blown about 1,500 feet 

 off the top of the traffic as well as from 

 Mont Pelee, and devastated all New 

 England as far as business was con- 

 cerned, much as both animal and vege- 

 table life was afflicted in Martinique. 



Monday seemed fairly good because 

 the cool weather of the preceding week 

 had affected the quantity of material 

 very much, and all that came in went 

 out very gracefully. Saturday was a 

 very fair da}', too, for some reason or 

 other, and was not distinguished by any 

 scarcity of bloom, except that a few 

 more good red roses could have been 

 moved,, and violets, while scarce, prob- 

 ably 'filled all demands. Double tulips 

 seem to be trying to maintain something 

 of a bulb goods season yet. Prices grad- 

 ually grow smaller on everything as 

 nearly as I can judge, unless it be violets 

 and lilies. 



The trend of traffic now at the auction 

 sales is rather more in the line of bed- 

 ding material than in hardy plants, but 

 the rush upon the former is not on yet. 



Paul Richwagen. 



Like the frog in the pan of milk Paul 

 keeps kicking and striking out bravely. 

 The frog at last made a wad of butter, 

 quality hereby not vouched for, from 

 which he jumped to safety. Paul 's lucky 

 twenty-acre Highlandville purchase acts 

 likely to be his lump of butter and its 

 quality is O. K. He has been churning 

 away very assiduously all winter, and 

 admits success. He still brings in a 

 daily cut of about 5,000 good pinks, 

 which he locates very deftly. Being a 

 general favorite among both buyers and 

 sellers all hands are much pleased to 

 see him sailing along so smoothly. He 

 plans costly improvements upon his 

 houses this summer because they "Need- 

 ham. ' ' , 



Items. 



H. M. Robinson, the compactly con- 

 structed greengoodS man of Court 



Square, has been supplying a fine brand 

 of new Alabama fern now for some few 

 days, and it takes a big order for any- 

 thing in his line to make him blush. He 

 is just now oft' on a still hunt for 3,000 

 spruce trees for the Harvard affair next 

 month. P. L. Carbone superintends this 

 decoration as usual. 



H. N. Eaton is marketing a huge sup- 

 ply of material from his SO.OOO feet. An 

 item in connection therewith is an enor- 

 mous lot of bedding ' ' stuff, " as we 

 grossly call everything; 50,000 gerani- 

 ums and the same number of coleus help 

 to swell the chorus. 



The loss of a half inch piece of a 

 needle does not always cause concern 

 out to Salesman Manter's house, but it 

 did a few days since. His four-year- 

 old girl dropped it down her throat. All 

 danger is safely passed, however. 



Sim, of Cliftondale, has a fine growth 

 of his mammoth candytuft just coming 

 on, which will work up into Memorial 

 bouquets very nicely. It is surely a 

 distinct variety and he is going to make 

 something from it later on in its history. 

 J. S. Maxter. 



BUSINESS METHODS FOR BUSY 

 FLORISTS. 



IV. 



We now come to the most important 

 branch of the florist business, the one 

 that needs looking after most carefully 

 and that should be conducted in the most 

 systematic manner, viz., the expense 

 items. Scrutinize your expense account 

 dail.v, weekly, monthly, and all the time. 

 Study its details carefully and plan to 

 reduce it to the minimum without im- 

 pairing the efficiency of your service. 

 Right here let me say it is " penny wise 

 and pound foolish" to employ "cheap" 

 help. The more intelligent help you se- 

 cure the larger your output will be. And 

 if you employ intelligent, experienced 

 help you will have to pay them more 

 than you will an ordinary "cheap" la- 

 borer. But I will discuss this more fully 

 in some future paper. 



The two big items of expense with a 

 grower are labor and fuel. Without the 

 first you cannot grow anything all the 

 year round and without the second your 

 labor would be in vain seven or eight 

 months in the year. Keep an accurate 

 record of your pay-roll weekly, monthly, 

 and yearly. If it is larger this year than 

 it was last there should be a good reason 

 for its being so. If you do not know 

 that reason you should find it out. If it 

 is larger in proportion to your sales than 

 it was a year ago, there is something 

 wrong which you should endeavor to 

 remedy at once. 



Now in regard to fuel, if you are a 

 practical florist you will soon determine 

 which is the most economical for you to 

 burn. If you live in the east it is safe 

 to say coal is the cheaper, but if you live 

 west of Chicago wood may be cheaper. 

 So much depends upon location, proximi- 

 ty to saw mills, coal mines, etc., that 

 each individual must be the judge for his 

 place. The probability of crude oil be- 

 ing used very largely for fuel in the near 

 future is worth serious consideration by 

 those building new places or putting in 

 new heating plants. But whatever your 

 system of heating may be or whatever 

 fuel you may use keep an accurate rec- 

 ord of weights, cost, etc., by the week, 

 month, and year. This gives you a basis 

 for future work and future estimates 

 when purchasing the season's supply. If 



you are located in a small town you may 

 be at the mercy of some fuel dealer. Oft- 

 entimes when thus located you can save 

 money by purchasing by the car load 

 from the mines or docks. 



Eight here I want to say another word 

 about cheap labor. If your place is 20,- 

 000 square feet or more you should have 

 one competent fireman at least. A proper 

 knowledge of firing may save jon hun- 

 dreds of dollars in fuel. If you are for- 

 tunate enough to secure a man familiar 

 with steamfitting he will be worth several 

 dollars a week more than if he had no 

 knowledge of it, and if he still further 

 is a natural mechanic and can do odd 

 jobs of carpenter work you have a very 

 valuable assistant who is worth twice as 

 much as the stoker who can only shovel 

 coal and keep the flues clean. InteUig- 

 once rightly applied in any line of busi- 

 ness will always command better wages 

 than mere brute strength or maclmie 

 work. 



In addition to labor and fuel, repairs 

 to building and heating apparatus al- 

 ways figure prominently in the expense 

 account. If your houses are of modern 

 steel frame, iron gutter, butted glass 

 construction, your repair account will be 

 correspondingly less. In the average 

 range of houses the lumber bill for re- 

 pairs is annually a very large and im- 

 portant item. Broken glass has to be 

 replaced, entailing another item of no 

 small proportions. Keep an accurate rec- 

 ord of each of these items by the month 

 and year. 



Pots are another item of expense that 

 always has to be considered. If you do 

 a shipping business box lumber is an- 

 other important item ; with this same 

 item may be included moss, excelsior, 

 straw paper, nails, etc., used for packing 

 purposes. If you have never kept a rec- 

 ord of these individual items you will be 

 surprised at the aggregate sum of them 

 during the year, and this very surprise . 

 will lead you to devise cheaper methods, 

 cheaper materials, etc., for this branch. 

 Figures are dry things at all times, but 

 they are the most convincing arguments 

 of the success or failure of a business 

 that can be produced. 



In addition to the items before enu- 

 merated there are the following to be 

 recorded: oil, gas or electricity for light- 

 ing, water, taxes, insurance, tools, in- 

 secticides and fertilizers, depreciation of 

 buildings, advertising, etc., which vary 

 according to the nature and extent of the 

 business, location, etc. Most of them 

 are what may be termed fixed charges, 

 which are necessary in conducting the 

 business and which do not vary much 

 from year to year. But whatever name 

 or heading they go under they have to 

 be paid and constitute the expense ac- 

 count of the business. A systematic rec- 

 ord of these expenses will enable you at 

 all times to analyze your business and 

 know where your money goes. 



In this article I have dealt more par- 

 ticularly with the grower. At some fu- 

 ture time I hope to offer some sugges- 

 tions in this Une to the store men which 

 may prove of interest to them. I shall 

 also endeavor to suggest some style of 

 books and bookkeeping to set you right 

 and keep you right in the matter. 



System. 



Sheldon, Ia. — ^A heavy hail and wind 



storm did serious damage to the green- 

 houses of John Christiany, May 2. Over 

 2,000 feet of glass was broken and much 

 damage was done to plants also. 



