August 31, 1918 



HORTICULTURE 



219 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS 



AND 



ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURISTS 



Closing Hours at St» Louis 



The visit to Shaw's Garden ou 

 Thursday, 22nd in the evening was a 

 very enjoyable one. The trip through 

 the garden, the splendid refreshments 

 furnished and last but not least the 

 presentation to the retiring president 

 Charles H. Totty, were long to be re- 

 membered. A splendid speech was 

 delivered by President-elect J. Fred 

 Ammann in presenting the same and 

 the remarks in thanks by the retiring 

 president were very touching. A vote 

 of thanl;s was tendered to Dr. George 

 T. Moore for his splendid reception of 

 the members at the garden. 



Friday, the last day, was spent In 

 an automobile ride visiting the An- 

 heuser-Busch Brev^'ery, Forest Park, 

 and ended with a banquet at the Cen- 

 tury Boat Club. All the visitors were 

 loud in their praise of the hospitality 

 of the St. Louis Florists Club. All 

 along the route of the automobile pa- 

 rade were the traffic police holding 

 gladioli in their hands directing the 

 traffic. 



REPORT OF THE PUBLICITY FI- 

 NANCE COMMITTEE 

 By George Asmus 



At the Convention of our Society in 

 New York last August, all doubt was 

 removed as to whether this Society 

 could launch and maintain a campaign 

 for publicity for flowers. The en- 

 thusiasm provoked by Mr. Therkild- 

 son's report as chairman of the Public- 

 ity Committee was sufficient to ca'Ty 

 the campaign to a starting point, and 

 his motion that a special committee 

 be created to guarantee the financing 

 of the campaign for the Sociely, to 

 work in co-operation with the Publicity 

 Committee, that committee being em- 

 powered to act upon the authoriza- 

 tion of this special committee, was 

 carried unanimously. 



It was ordered that this special com- 

 mittee should have in charge the work 

 of raising the fund, soliciting subscrip- 

 tions, and also should make the nec- 

 essary appropriations upon the recom- 

 mendations of the Publicity Committee 

 after being approved by the special 

 committee. 



The Special Committee referred to 

 has been known as the Publicity Fi- 

 nance Committee, and I have the hon- 

 or to be its chairman. 



The Convention voted a subscription 

 of $5,ono, and other subscriptions, 

 amounting to $6,320 (approximately) 

 were made from the floor, the major- 

 ity of these subscriptions to be paid 

 annually for periods of four and flve 

 years. At a meeting of the Florists' 

 Telegrapli Delivery Association held in 

 Detroit, October 2 and 3. the amount 

 of $1,500 was subscribed from their 

 treasur.y fund, and in addition the or- 

 ganization voted the returns to our 



Society of $1,000 which the Society 

 had donated to it for publicity pur- 

 poses, making $2,500 in all. S. A. F. 

 President Kerr was present at this 

 meeting, and, by invitation of the 

 chair, made an appeal for subscrip- 

 tions, the result being a very consider- 

 able addition to the fund through in- 

 dividual subscriptions, the amount 

 approximating something like $4,000. 



On December 7 last, our committee 

 sat in joint session with the Publicity 

 Committee, the result of their delib- 

 erations being the engagement of the 

 P. F. O'Keefe Advertising Agency of 

 Boston to prepare and place a series 

 of advertisments in certain national 

 magazines, according to a specifica- 

 tion prepared by the Agency and ap- 

 proved by the Committees. This ad- 

 vertising entailed a cost, altogether, of 

 $16,854.34, irrespective of the cost of 

 drawings, plates and the other neces- 

 sary items for the production of ad- 

 vertisments possessing good drawing 

 power. At this meeting also, the es- 

 tablishment of our Promotion Bureau, 

 in charge of Secretary Young was de- 

 cided upon, which Bureau was needed 

 to take care of the executive and aux- 

 iliary work attached to the campaign. 



On March 16 another joint meeting 

 of the committee was held at the So- 

 ciety's administration office in New 

 York, when the details of the cam- 

 paign were thoroughly discussed. From 

 the efforts of sub-committees, which 

 this committee had appointed to take 

 charge of the collection of subscrip- 

 tions locally in various territories, and 

 through a series of broadsides which 

 had been mailed out by the O'Keefe 

 Advertising Agency, as well as through 

 a vast amount of correspondence on 

 the part of our Promotion Bureau, 

 there was available at this time a sub- 

 scription fund amounting to $30,244. 

 Your chairman pointed out at the 

 meeting that practically two-thirds of 

 this amount was secured by personal 

 solicitation and other means, without 

 the aid of literature, and therefore 

 that we 'Should consider sending .nut 

 a traveling representative who should 

 make a tour of the country in an effort 

 to complete the fund through personal 

 solicitations, the expense of such a 

 tour amounting to probably from $12 

 to $15 per day, an outlay not greatly 

 out of proportion to the cost of pro- 

 ducing and mailing literature. 



This recommendation, approved by 

 your committee, was concurred in by 

 the Publicity Committee, so that its 

 adoption was unanimous. Secretary 

 Young was considered to be the best 

 representative available to make such 

 a trip, and, being consulted in the 

 matter, agreed to take the trip. 



The results of this trip as far as sub- 

 scriptions are concerned, have been 



made public weekly in the trade pa- 

 pers, but the direct results in the in- 

 terests of the Society it is my privi- 

 lege to announce In this report. 



It was after a test made in the city 

 of Chicago, where I blocked off six- 

 teen florists, irrespective of their size, 

 nationality or kind of business they 

 are doing, and made a personal visit 

 to them and explained the project In 

 detail, and came away with fifteen 

 subscriptions. I felt convinced that 

 this plan was the only one that would 

 give us the desired results, and also 

 put a stamp of fairness upon this cam- 

 paign. Up to this time we had ap- 

 proximately 675 individual subscrlb- 

 tions to the fund. This, in my esti- 

 mation, was approximately between 

 four and five per cent of the florists 

 or those in the allied trades who 

 ought to subscribe. 



Then again, it did not seem fair to 

 me that the big-hearted and broad- 

 thinking men of the trade who always 

 respond for the good of horticulture 

 should shoulder the bulk of the ex- 

 pense of this campaign, which right- 

 fully belong to everyone connected 

 with the trade. 



The secretary's report of what he 

 had accomplished on this trip shows 

 that this was being rapidly offset by 

 the results obtained. The subscrip- 

 tion secured from florists in towns 

 visited ranged anywhere from 75 to 

 90 per cent of those engaged in the 

 trade. The cost relative to the amount 

 secured, it expenses are as proven by 

 the trip, on an average of from $10 

 to $15 per day, we have but to secure 

 subscription for $15 for four years 

 and we will come out considerably to 

 the good. 



The results have been that in some 

 instances we have received subscrip- 

 tions amounting to as high as $400 or 

 $500 in one day, which multiplied by 

 four, amounts to about $2,000 for a 

 day's work. 



Take the state of California for in- 

 stance. Although committees had 

 been appointed by myself throughout 

 the state and literature had been 

 mailed, including broadsides of all 

 kinds and appeals had been made 

 through the trade press, yet there was 

 practically no response. The results 

 of the secretary's trip through the 

 state of California was in securing 

 subscriptions for the fund, totalling 

 about $800 per year, and multiplied 

 by four, makes $3,200; this is in addi- 

 tion 6o the new members secured by 

 him and the good will and friendly 

 feeling made toward the society by 

 this personal visit of an executive of 

 the organization, are results that the 

 society will receive the beneflt of for 

 a great many years. 



There undoubtedly will be criti- 



