306 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



August 7. 1902. 



$2,000 to $3,000 in profits where last 

 season he met with a loss. 



What is true of soil is also true of 

 fertilizers. Many growers still consider 

 well rotted cow manure the best fertilizer 

 in existence. The best crop of roses or 

 succession of crops, I might say, I ever 

 knew was grown by an inexperienced 

 man with a most liberal supply of the 

 green and half-rotten article applied as 

 a surface dressing. It wasn't appetizing 

 to mortals, but was life and vigor to the 

 roses, feome growers use bone meal and 

 phosphates liberally, others consider ni- 

 trate of soda invaluable, while blood and 

 bone, pure blood and other products of 

 the abattoir are highly recommended by 

 many. The use or disuse of any one of 

 the hundreds of commercial fertilizers is 

 not recommended by me, because what 

 suits one soil may not another. But i 

 would strongly urge each and every 

 grower to ascertain what will bring hirii 

 best results and not be afraid to expend 

 a few dollars for good fertilizers, as the 

 result in increased quality and quantity 

 of blooms will justify the expense. The 

 fancy stock grown by our best growers 

 is not altogether the result of skill in 

 cultivation. A careful study of all con- 

 ditions of climate, soil, watering, air, 

 light, heat, fertilizers, etc., go to make 

 up that skill which after all is only good 



Pots form quite an item of expense in 

 each grower's establishment. Thousands 

 of dollars are annually expended for 

 these alone which might be saved. Hav- 

 ing a place for everything and having 

 everything in its place is of most bene- 

 licial importance when it comes to the 

 potting shed, for here a careless, unsys- 

 tematic man can daily break and destroy 

 more than his wages amount to. Have a 

 bin or rack in the potting shed for each 

 size of pots you use, and insist on all pots 

 ueing put in their proper place as soon 

 as emptied. Broken pieces of pots are 

 excellent for drainage and can be used 

 up in that manner to good advantage, 

 but do not purposely break them for that 

 use. 



The best pots are always the cheapest 

 and should always be bought in prefer- 

 ence to the inferior grades. I well re- 

 member a lot of pots that I purchased at 

 one time on account of their being cheap. 

 They were so soft and jioorly burned that 

 fully 2.5 per cent fell to pieces when 

 handled and the balance lasted through 

 one potting. Although the manufacturer 

 made a liberal discount tn the bill, I am 

 confident that they cost in the end twice 

 as much as good red ones. If you don't 

 believe my remarks, buy 1,000 cheap ones 

 and the same number of good ones and 

 at the end of twelve months' see how 



M 





l-^'^^H. 





u <<^ 



Emptying the Old Soil From a Rose House. 



common sense and careful observation, 

 which cannot be imparted in books or 

 otherwise, but must be evolved from your 

 own thinking cap. 



The matter of insecticides and their 

 application is worthy of serious consid- 

 eration. As a rule tobacco stems are the 

 least expensive, but where it is not prac- 

 ticable to use them some of the many 

 preparations on the market should be 

 used. I have known of serious injury to 

 tender blossoms from fumigating with 

 tobacco stems which were used to save 

 expense. It is the old ' ' penny wise and 

 pound foolish" system of "conducting 

 business to curtail expense at the loss or 

 ruin of production. By systematic rec- 

 ords for each month and year of all your 

 different items of expense and compar- 

 isons year by year you will form a pretty 

 good idea of what is the best and most 

 economical in the different lines. 



many or each you have left. That will 

 prove the thing to you as it has to me. 

 At the end of each fiscal year you should 

 know what your pot bill has been, and 

 each succeeding year you should endeavor 

 to make it less. 



Taxes are one of the permanent ex- 

 pense items which cannot be avoided and 

 must be met. In some states and locali- 

 ties growing stock in the houses is taxed. 

 This doesn 't seem right, nor do I believe 

 it would stand the test of law in any 

 isupreme Court in the land. I think the 

 matter should receive the attention of 

 the Society of American Florists at its 

 annual meeting. Each state is the mas- 

 ter of its own tax laws and in each state 

 where there is unjust discrimination 

 against our craft the matter should be 

 properly laid before the state board of 

 equalization for proper adjustment. The 

 evil, I think, is due more to local igno- 



rance on the part of assessors than to 

 general laws or customs, and where the 

 injustice finds practice it should be erad- 

 icated. 



If your real estate is assessed too high 

 an efl'ort to have it reduced may prove 

 of benefit and will certainly cost nothing 

 but the effort. A close record of your 

 taxes and assessed valuation will at all 

 times be interesting and show where your 

 money goes. At the same time it will 

 furnish a check on the assessors that may 

 prove beneficial to you. 



Your bam and team expense should be 

 carefully tabulated. Your feed bill, har- 

 ness bill, wagon repairs, shoeing, etc., 

 should all be separately recorded, so that 

 you may readily detect leakages wherever 

 and whenever they occur. If you do not 

 grow your own hay and oats you should 

 have sufBcient storage to enable you to 

 buy when prices are low. 



A word here in regard to help will not 

 be amiss. A good, careful driver and 

 barn man at $12 per week is far cheaper 

 than two careless, ignorant ones at $6 

 each, or even one at $8 or $9. If your 

 business is extensive you should have a 

 barn man as well as a teamster. If your 

 business only requires one horse, you 

 should have one person attend to it. Good 

 drivers are scarce, but when you find a 

 good one do not pinch a dollar or two a 

 week on his salary, for he will'more than 

 save it on your expenses. 



There are numerous minor expenses in 

 conducting a business which vary with 

 the nature and location of it. such as 

 telephone, telegrams, tools, labels, etc. 

 They are each of small amount, but in 

 the aggregate amount to hundreds of 

 dollars. Each item should be scrutinized 

 and a careful record kept for compar- 

 ison from year to year. 



I have not dwelt upon office expenses 

 at all. as the services of a bookkeeper or 

 stenographer would be included in the 

 weekly payroll. Books, letter heads and 

 office supplies will amount to quite a 

 relative sum each year and should be 

 scrutinized the same as other expenses. 

 Postage will grow into dollars and dol- 

 lars into hundreds before you are aware 

 of it. Stamps should be in charge of 

 the cashier and help not allowed to help 

 themselves out of them. 



System. 



THE EMBELLISHMENT OF A 

 DWELLING. 



My attention was called to an article 

 in a contemporary over the initials "C. 

 B. W. " bearing the above title. As 

 the dwelling, as he calls it, is one of the 

 finest on our matchless Delaware avenue, 

 and is the home of one of the sweetest 

 women in North America, and the writer 

 is responsible for the tubs of the sever- 

 al bays not being sunk in the ground 

 and much else there, he can not help feel- 

 ing some interest in the illustration and 

 description being correct. If the gen- 

 tleman's "Seasonable Notes" are as un- 

 reliable as his description and infer- 

 ences, I pity those who follow; but, for- 

 tunately. I have never heard of anyone 

 who read them. 



Delaware avenue, Buffalo, has but one 

 street or avenue in the country compara- 

 ble to it, and that is Euclid avenue, 

 Cleveland. I well remember the late la- 

 mented and much traveled Peter Hender- 

 son telling me one day in his own house 

 the following: "Yes, Delaware avenue 

 and Euclid avenue are the two most 



