HOW TO BECOME A FLORIST. 11 



and instruction as my long experience, together with my 

 intercourse and correspondence with hundreds engaged 

 in the various branches of gardening, enable me to offer. 

 I find that the persons who desire to begin gardening as 

 a business, are generally such as have had their tastes 

 turned in that direction by being amateur cultivators. 

 Their gratuitous distributions of slips, seeds, or roots, to 

 sometimes not over-grateful recipients, starts the idea 

 that " what is not worth paying for is not worth having" 

 is as true of garden products as of other things, and that 

 they had better sell than give. As selling means busi- 

 ness, the question then is, how to best begin the business 

 to make it pay. My advice to all such inquirers is, to 

 keep away from large cities, unless they have a large 

 capital and a thorough practical knowledge of the busi- 

 ness. The beginner with limited means, and more limited 

 knowledge of the business, would be quite unable to 

 compete with those who have been long established, and 

 such are to be found in nearly all cities of 100,000 in- 

 habitants, or over. On the other hand, in cities of 5,000, 

 10,000, 15,000, or 20,000 inhabitants, the business may 

 be begun, and profitably carried on, with but little capital 

 and a moderate amount of knowledge at starting. How 

 to start is the all important question. In my work on 

 commercial gardening " Gardening for Profit" I have 

 given advice on the culture of vegetables and fruits as a sep- 

 arate and distinct branch of the business. Further experi- 

 ence has led me to believe that it would often be of great 

 advantage to the beginner in small towns to undertake the 

 cultivation of small fruits, flowers, and vegetables com- 

 bined. In a town of, say, 5,000 inhabitants, the profits 

 from the sale of flowers alone would hardly be enough to 

 warrant a beginning, while an acre or two of well-grown 

 fruits or vegetables in addition would make quite a re- 

 spectable business. We will suppose, then, that a frugal 

 man, able and willing to work hard, has a capital of 



