r28 



HORTICULTURE 



May 27. 191G 



Obituary 



George W. C.trdwell. 

 Gcorgf \V. rarilvvfll. Ioiik engiiBeil 

 as a florist in I'oUTsbiirt;, Vu., difd on 

 May 6, aged 75 years. 



Robert Haentze. 

 Robert Hacnl/.r. lifuil of the lla- 

 entie Co.. florisls, Kond du I..ttc. Wis., 

 died on May 5. aurd 48 years. 



Mrs. M. Ullenbruch. 

 Gertrude M. rili'Mbrucli, wife of 

 Math. I'lleMbrnch. died at lier home in 

 Port Huron. .Mich., on .May 13. 



U. B. Wakeman. 



I'rinli 13. WaVceman died in the Har- 

 per Hospital. Detroit. Mich., on May 

 1. at the age of 70 years. He was the 

 head of the Detroit Cut I'-lower Sup- 

 ply Co. 



John Wright. 



We learu from the columns of our 

 British exchanses of the death on 

 Tuesday .May 2, of John Wright, V. M. 

 H.. one of the veterans of horticulture 

 and for many years editor of the Jour- 

 nal of Hoiliculture. succeeding Dr. 

 Hogg. Mr. Wright was eighty years 



of age. 



John Krai. 



It is -with deep sorrow that we 

 record the death of one of the best- 

 liked men in the wholesale cut flower 

 trade of New York City. John Krai 

 was in the employ of Moore, Hentz 

 & Xash in their salesroom at 55 and 

 57 West 26th street. Genial, manly 

 and attentive always to business, 

 "Johnnie" Krai made a friend of 

 every one with whom he came in con- 

 tact. He passed away on Sunday 

 morning. May 21, in Greenwich, 

 Conn., after a few days' illness. His 

 age was 41 years. 



Alfred Ross. 

 Alfred Ross, pioneer seedsman of 

 Wichita. Kas., died on Sunday morn- 

 ing. May 14, at his home on North 

 Market street, aged 67 years. Mr. 

 Ro.^s was knov n to seed and commis- 

 sion men all over the country, and 

 bore a reputation as a fine business 

 man with the traveline; men of all the 

 large eastern and northern wholesale 

 seed firms. He was born at Mill 

 Creek. Va. In the year 1884 he, with 

 his brother, J. M. Ross, went to 

 Wichita and embarked in the seed 

 business under the title of Ross 

 Brothers, and since that time the firm 

 has been a leading factor in the de- 

 velopment of the farming and garden 

 industry of that section, and Mr. Ross 

 is said to have accumulated a fortune 

 from his seed and commission houses. 

 He was kindly and philanthropic in a 

 quiet way and will be greatly missed. 

 Of the eight pall bearers at his funeral 

 all. with one exception, were em- 

 ployees of the firm, and two of these 

 had been with the firm more than 

 twenty years. 



CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



August Rolker & Sons, New York — 

 Prices of Holland and American Bulbs 

 and Roses for Fall 1916 Delivery. 

 Wholesale. 



Schaum & Van Tol. Boskoop, Hol- 

 land. McHutchison & Co., American 

 Agents. — Wholesale Trade List of Nur- 

 sery Stock, Fall 1916-Spring 1917. 



LOOKING BACKWARD AND LOOK 

 ING FORWARD. 



The above was the title of a paper 

 read before the Lancaster (I'a.) Flor- 

 ists' Club at Its last mi>etlng by A. M. 

 Herr. .\lr. Herr reverted Ilrsl to the 

 time when as a 15-year-old youngster 

 he worked with the firm of A. U. 

 Uohrer & Bro. in the days when gera- 

 niums in 5-inch pots sold readily at 

 $2..'iO a dozen. He could see no reason 

 why with proper working up. a market 

 at equal prices could not be attained. 

 He averred that entirely too much 

 second-class stock is grown and sold. 

 He spoke of the possibility of 12-inch 

 pot and tub specimen geraniums for 

 porch decoration and which might be 

 sold at from $2.50 to $10.00 each, add- 

 ing, "never sell one of these specimen 

 geraniums where you as an educated 

 florist know that it will not give satis- 

 factory results and the customer the 

 best of satisfaction. Better to lose 

 twenty sales than to have one dissatis- 

 fied customer, who can truly attribute 

 his dissatisfaction to you." 



He compared the pansies sold now 

 with those sold formerly at two or 

 three times the price obtainable now, 

 saying that "the florists are the los- 

 ers, as they always are when they pur- 

 chase cheap stock. There is no fortune 

 awaiting the man who tackles this 

 problem, but a young man who would 

 undertake the improvement and se- 

 lection of pansies to-day would, I be- 

 lieve, find the market ripe before 

 many years for pansies of quality at 

 a reasonably fair price." 



Speaking of the formal Ijeds of 

 (oleuses, alternantheras, petunias, 

 salvias and similar stock once so popu- 

 lar lor the city yards he attributed 

 the abandonment of these to "the 

 persistent efforts of our landscape 

 gardeners and 'artistic decorators,' 

 who have trees, shrubbery and hardy 

 stock to sell, but without business in- 

 stinct enough to know that the ordi- 

 nary city yard is not their field of en- 

 deavor, the sale being as far as they 

 can see. Our retail plant men should 

 exercise their selling powers to count- 

 eract this planting of shrubbery and 

 get the people back to the beauty of 

 a real fiower bed or two." 



"In the matter of hardy stock the 

 advance depends entirely on the men 

 who handle it as to what the future will 

 bring forth. Many city yards are large 

 enough to stand a bit of this planting 

 but the most of them are too small 

 and had better be left religiously alone. 

 I can go to any part of this city and 

 pick out yard after yard where the 

 planting of shrubbery is ridiculous 

 and an offence to any one with an ar- 

 tistic sense. A lecturer here recently 

 told us that a bed of red geraniums 

 was a slap in the face to any one with 

 an artistic sense; some of these hardy 

 plantings are enough to give any one 

 with just a love for the beautiful, ar- 

 tistic paralysis. 



"Window boxes and porch decora- 

 tions are coming to be more of a feat- 

 ure and should be made the special 

 study of every retail florist. When 

 you sell material for boxes and cus- 

 tomers want something that will not 

 last the season through educate them 

 to throw it out and replace it once or 

 twice during the summer. This may 

 be a bit hard to do but a little person- 

 al work on your part will give results 

 that will make of them a permanent 

 customer." 



.Mr. Herr called attenliuu to the great- 

 'V Increased price of coal and labor now 

 and Hiiid tluil "the man who dues not 

 seriously set himself to the task of 

 getting a lltllo more money for 

 his stock is not going to win out. The 

 retailer does not feel this qiiilo as 

 keenly as we wholcMalers who have 

 been working on a narrow mnrgin of 

 profll right along. I'ersonally. I know 

 that it is not possible for wholesaler 

 to sell stock at last season's prici' tli' 

 coming winter and continue in busi- 

 ness, unless the quality of the stock 

 is cheapened consldcralile and in this 

 case the buyer will not get full sati- 

 faction for his money. 



"If we want Lancaster County to be 

 looked up to as a safe place to send 

 orders we must not consider how 

 cheap we can grow stock but how- 

 near right we can grow it and make 

 the price accordingly. Estimate costs 

 carefully and you will be surprised to 

 find out how little you are making on 

 some lines of stock, then figure an in- 

 crease on the cost of your next win- 

 ter's coal and everything else you 

 buy — even a fifty per cent increase on 

 the envelopes you use to send out let- 

 ters, and see what It means. 



"You retail men should go through 

 the same line of cost estimating and 

 for goodness sake stop cutting prices. 

 You do no good to yourself and very 

 little harm to the other fellow, but a 

 lot of harm to the trade in general. 

 In a town like this a uniform price is 

 an impossibility as one man can sell a 

 plant at a profit for a nickel that an- 

 other man would have to sell at seven 

 or eight cents. Rather than sell at a 

 loss cut out some lines and co-operate 

 with the other fellow. Co-operation 

 means much more than we as a Club 

 seem to realize. Where would Sam 

 Pennock's tug-of-war men have been 

 last summer at our picnic if they had 

 not all pulled together? Let us pull 

 together and upbuild this business of 

 ours." 



Albert M. Hebs. 



Washington, May 22. — The Agricul- 

 tural appropriation liill was reported 

 by the Senate committee today carry- 

 ing $2.'),900,000, a reduction of nearly 

 $750,000 from the total as passed by 

 the House. 



The committee eliminated entirely 

 $200,000 allowed for free distribution 

 of seeds. If the bill passes as report- 

 ed there will be a fight in conference, 

 as the House always insists upon Its 

 free seeds. 



TO 



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HUDSON NAVIGATION CO. 



Pier 32, North River New York 



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