150 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



has put the manure box out of commission. It is empty, never to 

 be refilled, and with it has disappeared to a great extent the house 



fly. 



While stable manure will keep on getting less and less, the 

 demand for fertilizer will keep on increasing from year to year and 

 there is the best of chances for the florist of a town or city to work 

 up a paying side line in the handling of it. There may at this time 

 be no one in particular handling fertilizer in your town, but there 

 is bound to be some one who will, sooner or later. You may at 

 first object to the idea of a florist with a nice retail establishment 

 handling fertilizer, but there is nothing in that; all you need is a 

 shed or storehouse, to keep the bags dry; and during early Spring, 

 if orders are taken in time, you can haul direct from the freight 

 car to your customers' grounds and save extra handling. No 

 store is too good to take orders for fertilizer in, as long as you haven't 

 got to handle it there, and the very fact that you use it yourself 

 in the growing of your plants is the best recommendation for others 

 to do the same. It should be as easy again for you as for a feed or 

 hardware store to land an order for fertilizer. Let me here give the 

 contents of a good letter to send out about the middle of February 

 to those who have a lawn or a garden. 



Mr. J. JONES, 

 Lake View Place, 

 Chicago, 111. 



Dear Sir: 



Every lawn, in order to maintain a healthy growth and good color, 

 requires food of some kind. Stable manure is not only unsightly and always 

 contains a lot of weed seeds, but also is almost prohibitive in price. Prac- 

 tically every golf club uses so-called commercial fertilizer for best results, for 

 it is clean and contains more actual, available plant food than most manure, 

 besides being far less expensive. 



Our first car will be in about ten days from now and as the hauling 

 direct from the car to your grounds will save handling, we would be glad 

 to make you a special price. We will be pleased to give you an estimate 

 on your requirements including the spreading of the fertilizer. We might 

 further state that the sooner this fertilizer is put on the lawn after the snow 

 has gone, the more effective it will be. May we hear from you ? 



Yours truly, 



You can have fertilizer put up in almost any size bags and 

 you should go after the small orders, calling for 25-lb. bags, as well 

 as big ones requiring ton lots. There is good money in both. 



STORING PLANTS FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS 



VOU will always find it best to take thorough care of the plants 

 ^ intrusted to you and no plants should be accepted in the Fall so 

 far gone as to be hopeless. If plants received at the greenhouses 

 don't look good, make it your business to let the owner know about 

 it at once. It is not unusual for a customer to send almost any old 



