16 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



double these rates (in fact, their supply oi Tuberoses 

 is now obtained from us), while, to take the average of 

 bedding or greenhouse plants, that may average here $6 

 per 100 to the trade, are offered to us by the wholesale 

 English houses as specially low at $8 per 100. 



Owing to the unusually dry weather a few years since, 

 nearly all our stock Fuchsias were destroyed, so that we 

 had to import from London ; the price paid was $25 per 

 100, the very same quality that we sell at $12 per 100. 

 In sales at retail, particularly for new plants, the prices 

 paid in Europe are fully four times more than we charge 

 here. For example, a new Rose, when first offered, is sold 

 in London at 1 Is. (about $6) the plant ; here, the first 

 sales of the same plant are at from $2 to $3 each. New 

 Fuchsias or Geraniums are rarely sold in London at less 

 than $2 each ; here we think we are getting well paid if 

 we get one-fourth of that sum. In addition to the 

 greater price paid for the article itself, they invariably 

 saddle us with the expense of boxing and packing, often 

 no small item, which is rarely charged by our florists. 

 The wonder is, that Europe can ever sell to us at all, par- 

 ticularly when it is known that at least one-half of the 

 imported plants are lost by injury sustained in transit. 

 The question arises, how can our nurserymen and florists 

 sell so much lower, and make the business pay for that 

 they do make it pay quite as well as European grow- 

 ers do, there is but little doubt. The answer to this 

 is, the known fact that the high cost of labor has long 

 ago forced us to use our ingenuity in simplifying our 

 work. What we do with the plow, most of the English 

 gardeners still think it necessary to do with the spade. 

 What we do with our horse or hand cultivator, they still 

 do with the hoe, and often a very primitive sort of hoe 

 at that. Where we use stakes and labels that are made 

 by machinery, they, in many cases, yet make them by 

 hand, when a single one actually costs as much in labor 



