THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



223 



SYSTEM. 



This is a plant that wants cultivating 

 in a good many smaller establishments, 

 and its introduction into some large ones 

 would not be amiss. 



I think it is a great advantage to a 

 gardener when he has been educated 

 where neatness and cleanliness were 

 strictly enforced, even if it was in a pri 

 vate garden. The worst cases of disor 

 der we see are where men have left the 

 shoemaker s bench or the machine sho]&amp;gt; 

 or the office, and we have even known 

 where they have left the pulpit for the 

 pulpit s good and made horribly bad 

 florists. When a young man is wavering 

 bctwen the church and the greenhouse 

 always take the church. There is less 

 dirt and more spirituality about the 

 church, and you would not be always 

 thinking about what you might have 

 been as you would if you had become a 

 florist, while looking for your salary in 

 the church will always prevent your pin 

 ing after the greenhouse. 



I must admit though that there are 

 instances in this country of young men, 

 total .strangers to the business), who 

 have entered it and made a marked suc 

 cess of it, setting us all a bright ex 

 ample by their systematic management 

 and orderly and business-like methods. 

 Their places are models of neatness. But 

 they are the great exception and those 

 I refer to are bright, intelligent men 

 whom nature blessed with brains, and 

 they would shine in any business. 



If order is the first law of nature, it 

 ouglit most assuredly to be carried into 

 the greenhouse, for ours are most perish 

 able goods and disorder is not only un 

 sightly but a great pecuniary loss. These 

 remarks are not intended for the bright, 

 well trained greenhouse man, for he 



fully untidy and dirty and then has a is solely the habit of not putting things 



grand clean up. People will form an in their right places at the right time, 



impression of your place as they usually Some men don t know the difference be- 



see it and perhaps won t see it just af- tween a heap of old soil that is sure to 



ter you have had the great house clean- come in handy for some purpose and a 



ing. heap composed of broken glass, wood, 



A New York Store at Christmas. 



Untidiness is not accident or press 

 of business, it is pure carelessness. Fif 

 ty dead or cut down plants standing on 

 the edge of the path are too many for 

 you to carry back to the shed at one 

 time, but if the workman who put the 



A New York Store at Christmas. 



knows the value of order and system, 

 but there are hundreds who keep their 

 places in a dirty muddle from one year s 

 end to the other. I have no patience 

 with the man who lets his place get fear- 



first one or half dozen there had carried 

 them back and dumped them and put 

 the pots away there would have been 

 none there. Untidiness does not arise 

 from want of time, not in the least ; it 



old plants and dead cats. It s all alike 

 to them, and is thrown out with the in 

 difference that you see the refuse of the 

 tenement house go out of the back win 

 dow. 



How much time is lost in the mislay 

 ing of tools, or worse still, loaning 

 them! Neither borrow nor loan tools 

 unless it be something like a steam rol 

 ler, that you are not warranted in buy 

 ing. Borrow nor loan no tools. They 

 are far worse in the country at borrow 

 ing than in the cities; and they don t 

 say, Could I have the loan of your post 

 auger?&quot; but &quot;I come up for that post 

 auger I saw you use t other day.&quot; An 

 other sample of waste of time is when 

 Jack says, Where s the monkey wrench, 

 Bill?&quot; Bill says, &quot;I guess you ll find it 

 in the stoke hole. Bob was fixin the 

 boiler yesterday. And so it goes. 



Keep your tools where they belong. 

 Keep your flats piled up neatly. Let 

 your sashes be in use or properly stood 

 up against a wall or fence. Let your 

 compost piles be neat and in order. Have 

 a proper place for your watering cans. 

 And above all have your pots always in 

 their sizes in neat rows, not under a 

 bench in many different sizes, all mixed 

 up. Some men like to buy pots before 

 they have half used up what they already 

 have. 



Here is a sample where disorder comes 

 in. The driver from a store or the de 

 livery man brings home an azalea out of 

 bloom and two or three other flowering 

 plants that are past, or perhaps a flat 

 half full of geraniums that were not 

 used at the flower-gardening job. He 



