430 



HORTICULTURE 



March 25, 1911 



JDLIDSROEHRS COMPANY 



RUTHERFORD, N.J. 



Orchids, Palms, Bays and Box Trees 

 Stove Plants, Begonia Lorraine 



Cyclamens and Easter Novelties 



THE ^^ MARKET VALUE'' OF ORCHIDS 



A Duty for Revenue Only. 



There is a duty on orchids, not 

 for protection, but for revenue. It is 

 well to start by affirming that com- 

 mercial orchids do not grow iu the 

 United States. The tariff is dry and 

 sweet. It says: "Par. 263— Orchids— 

 25 per cent." This means 25 per cent. 

 ad valorem, and here is the difficulty. 

 "It is the duty of the appraiser by all 

 reasonable ways and means in his 

 power to ascertain, estimate and ap- 

 praise the actual market value, and 

 wholesale price of the merchandise at 

 the time of exportation to the United 

 States in the principal markets of the 

 country whence the same has been im- 

 ported." 



It is natural that the market value 

 assigned to the plants under no cir- 

 cumstances shall be less than the cost 

 price. For many years a standard 

 price has been charged for cattleyas, 

 and a standard case is considered to 

 contain forty plants. Cases of cattle- 

 yas are generally of 32x20x20 inches in 

 size. 



Varying Values. 



Duty is paid on the accepted value. 

 This appears simple enough, but fre- 

 quently the appraiser finds that all 

 plants are not invoiced at the same 

 price; that two importations of labi- 

 atas, for instance, are valued differ- 

 ently, although they come from the 

 same port and on the same ship, and 

 that perhaps the plants valued at the 

 least price are the best. How can this 



be possible? Either one of the im- 

 poi-ters is a fool and puts a high value 

 on his plants for the sake of paying 

 duty, or the other is beating Uncle 

 Sam. Apparently it seems just to 

 raise the value of the plants invoiced 

 at the lower figure — much more so if 

 the plants are better. 



This difhculty shows itself to a much 

 more marked extent when the impor- 

 tations of orchids are made from Eng- 

 land. The American firms have to 

 buy in the market and pay the profit 

 of the English merchant, which is gen- 

 erally large; then the duty has to be 

 paid on this price, and in selling the 

 plants in the United States, the dealer 

 has to charge for the duty paid and 

 for the risk he has had in handling 

 such perishable goods. When he goes 

 to sell his plants he finds that he ia 

 undersold by the representatives of 

 the English firms, and his customers 

 ask him why it is that he cannot sell 

 as cheap as his foreign competitor. 

 Disadvantages of American Dealers. 



Let us do some figuring. Suppose 

 we buy a certain plant and pay four 

 shillings for it. We have to pay 

 twenty-five cents duty on every plant, 

 dead or alive. The same firm has a 

 representative in the United States and 

 makes a shipment to him, of the same 

 plants, invoicing them at what they 

 claim is the cost price to them, say 

 twenty cents. That firm pays a duty 

 of five cents, and so has an advantage 

 of twenty cents over the American 



competitor. Twenty dollars in a hun- 

 di'ed plants or two hundred in a thous- 

 and gives the foreign firm room to 

 undersell and put out of business any 

 American competitors. This also 

 seems unfair, but when the Custom 

 House officials are approached on the 

 subject, they answer, "There is no 

 remedy for it, that is the law." The 

 only protection the American firms 

 have is to put up the goods and make 

 a very small profit. 



About Collectors. 



Let us go back to the imported cat- 

 tleyas. The ways to get the plants are 

 different, and from this, the difference 

 in prices arises. Some firms have 

 their own collectors. Some collectors 

 are themselves dealers, and some Arms 

 buy from dealers or collectors. The 

 collectors do not all deal in the same 

 way. Some of them bring the plants 

 to New York and sell them arounQ, 

 while others take orders and sell their 

 plants P. O. B. at the port of ship- 

 ment. This as far as the business in 

 the United States is concerned. 



The next difficulty comes from the 

 way in which the collector collects. 

 Some collectors collect all their plants, 

 other collectors gather some them- 

 selves and buy the others from col- 

 lectors that have gone broke, or from 

 native dealers. In this way, it is rare 

 that the same price is paid for the 

 same plant by two of them. 



But by far the greatest variation In 

 the price of the plants comes from 



