634 



HOBTICULTUEE 



April 26, 1913 



the supply larger, which makes it 

 necessary to grow the stock and mar- 

 ket it in the best possible manner. 

 Having succeeded in growing fin?, 

 first-class flowers, it is equally, if not 

 more, important to see that they ar? 

 not spoiled by poor handling. This 

 often happens and is due to the grow- 

 ers not looking after the details and 

 appreciating that it is just as impor- 

 tant to market flowers in the very 

 best up-to-date manner as it is to pro- 

 duce the best flowers in the first place. 

 How much quicker and better will a 

 box of flowers sell that comes into 

 the market carefully graded and pack- 

 ed and put up in attractive shape? 

 That shipment commands a buye", 

 particularly on a dull market, far 

 more quickly than the shipment that 

 Is carelessly graded and packed even 

 if the stock in this shipment be well- 

 grown and some of the flowers be of 

 even better quality than the first ship- 

 ment. If this condition be allowed to 

 go on day after day from one year's 

 end to the other, it means many a dol- 

 lar out of the grower's pocket. Don't 

 be afraid to watch the details; the 

 larger things will then fall into line 

 naturally and take care of themselves. 

 Be particular about the grading; keep 

 the quality up and do not allow poor 

 stock to creep in. It is very important 

 that rubbered or wired carnations 

 should not be put in the same bunches 

 with the better blooms as a few wired 

 or rubbered blooms will spoil the sale 

 of the bunch. Some growers feel that 

 this is not important but every grower 

 who does this loses out in the end as 

 these bunches of carnations will not 

 sell except on a scarce market and al- 

 most all the time it is a buyers' and 

 not the sellers' market. Let the poor- 

 er blooms come in a lower grade. De- 

 tails carefully watched spell success 

 in any line of business. 



Better Mutual Understanding Needed. 



I believe most growers and whole- 

 salers do not keep in close enough 

 touch with each other. Advices from 

 the wholesaler as to the market con- 

 ditions, or advices from the grower as 

 to his future crops, probable quantity 

 and when these particular crops will 

 come in, are points that are too often 

 ignored and too little considered. 

 Often a crop will come in which could 

 have been marketed to much better 

 advantage had the wholesaler known 

 about it and understood what to ex- 

 pect, whether this was a new crop 

 coming on or simply an extra big cut. 

 The knowledge of this would help the 

 commission man to plan tor better 

 sales of the stock, perhaps even give 

 him an opportunity to advertise it, and 

 the results would more than offset 

 the trouble and expense of the grow- 

 er's writing or 'phoning about it. If it 

 were possible for the wholesale' s and 

 growers to visit each other ottener. 

 it would be a great help to each of 

 them and would prevent many a mis- 

 understanding, bring them closer to- 

 gether, each one helping the other, 

 pointing out when and where things 

 could be improve-1 and having many 

 things considered and talked over 

 that otherwise would never come up. 



Wholesaler's Advice Often Ignored. 



Then, again, there are times when 

 a grower thinks he knows better thaji 

 the wholesaler when he should send 



his stock in. This is a very great 

 mistake, as the commission man's 

 business is to know when the goods 

 should be sent in and when there 

 should be the best market for them. 

 Of course, sometimes his judgment is 

 at fault and things do not work out 

 just as he has expected, but on the 

 whole, he is certainly in a better posi- 

 tion to make the decision than the 

 grower. And when the grower does 

 not have confidence enough in his 

 commission man to be willing to abide 

 by his decisions in these matters and 

 persists in sending in his stock as he 

 thinks best, then he had better send 

 his stock to some other market, or 

 else try and get a little confidence 

 from some of his neighbors who do 

 back up their commission men, feeling 

 that that is the only way to do in 

 sending stock to any wholesaler. 

 More than once have we instructed 

 our growers to send in their stock on 

 a certain day or days and then have 

 had them disregard these instructions 

 and send it in when they thought best 

 and in sucli cases the flowers have 



Samuel S. Pennock 



probably arrived too late to get the 

 benefit of the best market. 



The wholesale markets are coming 

 more and more each year to do their 

 business early in the morning and 

 this brings us to another important 

 point. Get your stock in early in the 

 day for the man who has his ship- 

 ments in eaily is the man who is going 

 to have his flowers sold first. There 

 is no doubt about this. And if you 

 wish the best results you will have to 

 conform to these conditions, even if 

 it does mean starting your day's work 

 an hour or two earlier. The old say- 

 ing that- "the early bird catches the 

 worm" is only too true in this case. 



A Discredited Practice. 



I would like also to speak of the 

 tendency which some growers have to 

 hold back stock hoping for big prices, 

 particularly at holiday times, although 

 this is something which has troubled 

 us more in the past than it has tor 

 the last year or two. This is a very 

 bad practice and can never be any- 

 thing but detrimental to the sale of 

 the stock. As an illustration of this. 



I remember one Memorial Day when a 

 large shipment of carnations came to 

 us from one of our growers. Some of 

 the stock was beautiful — fresh and 

 well-grown flowers, but a large portion 

 of it was material which showed that 

 it had been pickled and this poor stock 

 condemned the whole shipment. This 

 particular grower must have lost f200 

 or $300 by holding his stock, where 

 if he had sent it in when it was good 

 and fresh, even on a lower market, he 

 would have come out far ahead of 

 the way he did. It was a lesson to 

 him, one which he never forgot, and 

 he told us afterwards that he would 

 never repeat that mistake. 



We would very much prefer to have 

 to notify our customers that we had 

 sold up clean and were not able to 

 take care of their orders or were only 

 able to send them a portion of their 

 order, rather than to send them goods 

 that we knew would not hold up for 

 them, stock that would be bound to 

 make trouble. Pickling is a thing of 

 the past and any grower who indulges 

 in it, does so at his own expense. We 

 cannot force these goods on the buyer 

 of today. 



Advantage of Well-Grown Stock. 



I have said practically nothing 

 about the growing and it would be a 

 hard matter for me to give you any 

 advice on points on which you were 

 at fault in this respect. 'When the 

 stock comes in I can tell whether it 

 has been well or poorly grown, or 

 whether it has been grown in too high 

 or too low a temperature or various 

 points of that kind, but naturally it is 

 the conditions governing the market- 

 ing of the stock with which I am most 

 familiar. But I would say that here 

 again in the growing is where details 

 count, and where good results will 

 not come without proper attention to 

 details. Well-grown stock always 

 shows that it has had the attention 

 and care that are necessary to pro- 

 duce good flowers and without such 

 attention and care it is very seldom 

 that good material is grown. Some- 

 times it is possible to get good stock 

 without attention to these details, but 

 this is more good luck than good man- 

 agement, and it is very seldom that 

 a grower is able to repeat such a 

 chance success. 



These are the points which our ex- 

 perience as wholesalers has brought 

 most forcibly to my attention, and I 

 hope you will consider them as they 

 have been given — hints and sugges- 

 tions made in a spirit of frankness 

 and helpfulness and not in the spirit 

 of fault finding. I believe that every 

 man wants to improve his business 

 whenever and wherever he can and is 

 glad to get pointers even if they are 

 in the line of criticism and not praise. 

 We, too, have our faults and are 

 glad to be told of our mistakes so 

 that we can seek a remedy for them. 

 But our interests are identical and 

 there can be no separation of our mo- 

 tives, our ambitions and our results. 

 One hinges on the other and the more 

 we try to help each other with friend- 

 ly criticism and deserved praise as 

 well as blame, the greater efforts we 

 will both be able to put forth. Give 

 us of your confidence and support, be- 

 lieve that we are working for your 

 best interests as well as our own, and 

 then there can be no question of our 

 mutual success and profit. 



