502 



HORTICULTURE 



November 10, 1906 



not disseminated class, a delicate 

 pink, seven inclies across, a lovely 

 thing of the incurved type, rather a 

 flat flower, but quite full to center. 

 Messrs. Hill entered this flower 

 for the C. S. A. committee's judgment 

 also. The name is Mile. E. Chabanne.' 

 Messrs. Hill also sent a fine six 

 of the R. E. Foerderer variety which, 

 if it didn't take first, looked to have 

 a good show for it. Sam Batchelor 

 and Gordon Smirl were among the 

 keen competitors of Mr. Hurley in the 

 specimen plant class, as were also 

 Jno. McCleary. William Kleinheinz 

 and Jno. T. Whitaker. Tom Holland 

 came in strong on a good six whites. 

 Sam Batchelor came out first iu class 

 14 among a large number of entries; 

 12 plants, 12 varieties in 6-in. pots. 



Charles Hicky, gardener to J. Wil- 

 lis Martin, took first in class 30, and 

 various other awards. A. G. Williams, 

 gardener for Samuel T. Bodine, made 

 his debut as an exhibitor and came out 

 very successfully. William Robertson 

 was the proud winner of the big prize 

 for twelve blooms of Mrs. W. B. 

 Chamberlain. Jno. Thatcher proved 

 himself once more a king among foli- 

 age plant growers. His six well 

 developed specimens deservedly got 

 first. Jno. Hobson was in evidence with 

 his great specialty, the croton, and 

 also made some of them sit up and 

 take notice in other departments. 

 Thomas Logan was as usual invincible 

 in the specimen fern section. 



The vegetable and fruit display was 

 slimmer than usual. 



NASSAU COUNTY HORTICUL- 

 TURAL SOCIETY. 

 The display of flowers, vegetables 

 and fruit at the second annual exhibi- 

 tion of this society was indeed fine. 

 Chrysanthemums are somewhat late 

 this year, so that many of the blooms 

 had to be staged before being thor- 

 oughly finished. For the best group, 

 50 sq. ft., Percy Chubb (A. Mackenzie, 

 gardener) was first; G. R. Sheldon (H. 

 F. Meyer, gardener) second. In the 

 cut bloom section A. Mackenzie cap- 

 tured five firsts, also the Piersnn sil- 

 ver cup for best 12 Glenview. Other 

 prize winners were: T. Harrison, M. 

 Shiff (W. Eccles, gardener), G. H. 

 Morgan (T. Page, gardener), J. R. 

 Maxwell (S. J. Trepess, gardener), L. 

 J. Busby (H. Matz. gardener), G. R. 

 Sheldon. Paul Dana fj. F. Johnston, 

 gardener) won first for 2.t blooms ar- 

 ranged for effect, and best collection 

 of pompons. The silver cup for best 

 50 carnations was taken by W. Eccl3S. 

 C. F. Bertanzel won the society's prize 

 for the lar,gest and best collection of 

 carnations by commercial growers. 

 The Troy silver cup for best collection 

 of outdoor roses went to R. J. Preston 

 (U S. Forbes, gardener) ; the cup for 

 indoor roses to T. Harrison. Felix 

 Mense, Boulon & Son, J. Hennessey 

 were- among the exhibitors of violets; 

 the Stumpp & Walter prize was award- 

 ed to A. Mackenzie. 



Rickards Bros.' special for best table 

 of foliage plants was won by T. Har- 

 rison, first; S. Trepess, second. 



The Pratt estate (.Tas. Holloway, 

 gardener) staged a beautiful stand of 

 fruit. There was keen competition in 

 the vegetable section. 



J. P. JOHNSTON 



BEST METHOD OF MARKETING 

 SALE PLANT AND 



The judges appointed by President 

 Kasting of the S. A. F. to make the 

 awards on the essays on the above 

 topic submitted at the Dayton con- 

 vention, have reported. First award 

 goes to J. Austin Shaw, second to 

 Charles Ingram, and third to M. B. 

 Faxon. 



First Prize Essay. Author. J. Austin 

 Shaw, 



This subject presents for our con- 

 sideration two distinct sections of the 

 wholesale florist business. First, "The 

 best method of marketing the product 

 of the wholesale plant growers." To 

 market the plants profitably, they must 

 be well known, for, to "market" 

 means to sell quickly and advantags- 

 ously. Therefore the selling of sur- 

 plus or inferior plants by any plan Is 

 hardly worthy of the name "market- 

 ing," in its highest sense. Granted 

 then that the plants to be offered are 

 perfect, it will, I think, be conceded 

 that the best method adopted up to the 

 present is to dispose of them through 

 the agency of the commercial repre- 

 sentative. Advertising in the trade 

 papers constantly, and intelligently, is 

 of great advantage. Personal letters 

 to one's customers are very effective; 

 established reputation and a long rec- 

 ord of square dealing are of vast im- 

 portance; but the gentlemanly, per- 

 sistent, magnetic "drummer" is irre- 

 sistible. His supreme value is demon- 

 strated by the fact that every success- 

 ful grower of this country and Europe, 

 in every department of the plant in- 

 dustry, has his accredited representa- 

 tive, whose yearly, or monthly, or 

 weekly visits keep his firm constantly 

 in touch with its clientage. 



Much might be said here of the 

 man required for this important work, 

 of his personality, his habits, his char- 

 acter. All these have to do with his 

 efficiency. And more might be said of 

 the firm he represents — its ability to 

 produce the perfect product — its care- 

 ful filling of orders received — its gen- 

 erous recognition of patronage — its 

 quick correction of errors — its tact — its 

 promptness — its indisputable honesty. 

 But all these must be conceded, to ar- 

 rive at the fulfillment of our conten- 

 tion — that the best method of market- 

 ing the product of the wholesale plant 

 grower is through the agency of the 

 commercial traveler. 



Here, too, it would not be out of 

 place, the fact being conceded, to con- 

 sider what manner of man the sales- 

 man should be, that he may be best 

 comi)etent to market the goods his 

 grower has to offer. 

 But this subject has been fully cov- 



THE PRODUCT OF THE WHOLE- 

 FLOWER GROWERS. 



ered in the essays of 1905 on the 

 "Ideal Salesman." 



Secondly: "The marketing of the 

 product of the wholesale flower grow- 

 er," is an entirely different propo- 

 sition. Here we have to consider a 

 perishable commodity, and at once we 

 must admit the necessity of rapid dis- 

 posal as of paramount importance. 

 Ice-box preservation is uncertain, re- 

 stricted and preservative but for a day. 

 Shipments from the grower direct to 

 the retailer have seldom proven profit- 

 able, because of the retailers' frequent 

 inability to dispose of all the product 

 daily of a greenhouse plant of any 

 dimensions, or from the limit of the 

 supply. Personal soliciting and dis- 

 tribution by the grower leaves him 

 subject to the needs or whims of the 

 retailer, and prices fluctuate down- 

 ward as the day advances, and the 

 handling of the flowers deteriorates 

 their quality. I think there is but one 

 opinion possible as to the best method 

 of disposing of, or marketing, cut flow- 

 ers, and that is through the medium of 

 the wholesale florist. 



For over a quarter of a century the 

 advantages of this system, now so 

 universally popular, have been thor- 

 oughly established. Here, centraliza- 

 tion of the market facilities for pur- 

 chase is at once apparent, and a depot 

 is established for shipments, accessi- 

 ble at any hour of the day or night. 



The grower, therefore, having as- 

 sured himself of the honesty and 

 ability, as a salesman, of his whole- 

 sale agent, can add — as prosperity 

 makes it wise — house after house to 

 his base of supply, conscious that 

 there will never come a time when a 

 fair rpcomper.se will not reward him 

 for every flower that reaches the mar- 

 ket. 



The wholesaler is always in touch 

 with his customers by telephone, and 

 is ready, early and late, to wait upon 

 the demands of the great retail public. 

 It is to his interest to maintain honest 

 values, to dispose of his stock as rap- 

 idly as he can to the mutual advantage 

 of his grower and him-self, and to 

 make such returns as have actually 

 been received, promptly and honestly. 

 The subject confines one to the find- 

 ing of "the test method" only. Hav- 

 ing demonstrated this what more can 

 be added, except to advise the grower 

 to exercise business acumen in the 

 selection of his representative, and, 

 having decided upon the best whole- 

 saler, to trust him implicitly, give him 

 not only confidence, but perfect goods 

 for disposal, and until a better method 

 i.s discovered, or a better wholesaler 



(Continued on Page 504.) 



