December 29, 1917 



HORTICULTURE 



677 



On a visit the other day to a brother florist, I did not 

 find hini in and while maldng the round of the green- 

 houses, I ran against a man, down on his knees in one 

 of the wet walks. He .was swearing fearfully about 

 something or other. "Wliat ails you, my friend," I said 

 to him. "You count the mends in this hose and you'll 

 see," said he. I counted and found nineteen in the .5(1- 

 foot hose. He finished mending the 30th and turned 

 on the water and promptly sprung another leak. I did 

 not stop to investigate the new kinds of profanity which 

 that man was then unreeling; I cleared out and ran 

 up against the boss in the jx)tting shed. "How much 

 do you pay that man in there?" I asked him. "Three 

 bones a day and glad to get him. He is not a florist, but 

 he does quite well,"" said lie. 



"How is it that you do not give him a new hose and 

 save a lot of that $3 time, instead of letting him waste 

 it on a rotten hose?" "Oh, I have a new hose in the 

 office and am only waiting till the old one is played out," 

 said he. "Good night," said I and made myself scarce. 



Ever since that day, I have been thinking; how will 

 this work out in the end? A $3 man wasting liis time 

 on a rotten hose, while a new hose is on the place ; coal 

 double the price of a year ago and. hard to get at that; 

 everything else from 50 to 300% higher and the de- 

 mand for and use of flowers reduced, while the price 

 paid the grower for his flowers and plants, is not, at 

 wholesale or retail, any more than a year ago but rather 

 tending downward. 



How will it work out with the little fellow, whose lee- 

 way, as far as money and credit is concerned, does not 

 amount to i inch? Something is bound to crack and 

 no mistake about it. Will the little fellow have to dis- 

 appear nolens volen^, and will only the large concerns 

 stay on deck? And these, for how long? Why is it, 

 that in the growers' line we do find such slack business 

 methods? Why are there so many of the growers who 

 could not, for love or money, tell and prove ho\v iii'ich 

 it costs them to ])roduce a rose, a carnation nr any other 

 of their flowers or plants? What show of an assured 

 measure of success can a man have, if he is, by tlio con- 

 ditions of flic market, bound to sell his goods at a cer- 

 tain price and he not knowing for certain what price he 

 must get, so as to be able to continue in his business? 

 How many growers can tell at the end of the sea-son 

 how much they spent for coal, labor, etc., to ])roduce 

 one of their flowers or plants? Or how much tlie net 

 profit has been per flower or plant. 



I have tried to find out how many of my friends 

 among the growers could tell me and I found not one 

 who had it figured out. Only a few took the trouble to 

 keep tab of varieties of flowers as to productiveness, etc, 

 so as to have a basis in getting at tangible results and 



then the thing had not been worked out so as to be of 

 any use. 



"I don't know how to go at it," "I have not the time," 

 "I see no use in doing it," "I do not care one straw," 

 etc. ; such are the excuses. How would it work out in a 

 dry goods store, drug store or any other store, if such 

 answers were given or taken for granted? How would 

 it work out in a factory or any other old place? Doing 

 business on the plan of the average grower is not prac- 

 tised in these concerns, simply because it is not consid- 

 ered a good way of doing business and is known posi- 

 tively to work out the wrong way, — to tell the truth, 

 l<nown not to be "business" at all. 



"Wliy ! you are way behind with your disbudding, the 

 way it looks," I had occasion to mention to a camati«n 

 man the other day. Now this man had a fine lot of 

 plants in fine shape and has always been known to have 

 his place up to the minute. "Yes ! I know," said he, 

 "but what can I do ? My boss has told me to lay off my 

 helper and let the disbudding go, so I had to do it, but 

 how will it work out?" 



"That boss of mine of course is not a grower himself, 

 so he does not know any better than to try saving money 

 in this way. A great scheme and a fine outlook for me, 

 wlrat? Wiat would you call such a boss?" he said to 

 me. "Don't ask me any foolish questions," I replied. 

 He gave me one of those lingering looks when I walked 

 away. 



Maybe, and I sincerely hope, that it will be for the 

 l:)enefit of the real-to-goodness florists and growers to 

 have a lot of these amateur growers and "butters in" 

 getting it in the neck, good and plenty and hard enough 

 to make them let go of a thing they know nothing about,; 

 a thing at which they have now no chance to succeed 

 wliatsoever. How much will the public be educated to 

 a love for or appreciation of flowers by being offered un- 

 disbudded carnations? 



This very same "smart aleck" of a fancy carnation 

 grower or boss, also had the great idea that he could 

 dispense with the night fireman, and he told his grower 

 to bank the fire by 6 p. m. and it would be all right 

 until 7 a. m. ne.xt day. How would that work out on 

 some of" these "blizzard 12 below zero" evenings? It 

 would save coal, for one thing. There are certainly too 

 many irresponsible, ignorant, careless and unbusiness- 

 like men connected with the florists' industry; men that 

 iiave been the Ijane of our business in a good many direct 

 and indirect ways. These men will have very little or 

 no sh()w under the present conditions, unless they buckle 

 down to real businesslike business, and even then their 

 |)ath to glory will be strewn with more thorns than roses. 

 There is no question that the florist is "up against it" 

 at the present time and with conditions tending towards 

 l)ecoming much worse before becoming better again. 

 Every florist and grower will do well, in fact will be 

 obliged, to consider hard and long how he may prevent 

 disaster. If these conditions do force us to give up use- 

 less habits, needless expenses and foolL«h notions, we 



