SOME BUSINESS CONSIDERATIONS 5 



to realise this. It is as true of the nursery as of the factory that 

 " Time is Money," and if we work eight hours a day there should 

 be eight hours' work done daily, or the output will suffer and the 

 cost of production be increased. 



The prices at which we purchase or raise our briers, manetti 

 or other stocks, should be closely examined, for in some districts 

 it is cheaper to purchase than to raise, while in others every hedgerow 

 will provide material. We cannot really afford to pay more than 

 about 303. per 1000 for our dwarf stocks, as this closely approximates 

 the cost of raising our own, while standards and half-standards 

 are worth 8s. to ias. per 100. These prices are much below those 

 we have had to pay recently, but war prices must not be taken to 

 represent actual and average values. 



Supervision as to costs must apply at every stage. We do not 

 care to advocate anything in the nature of piecework in the nursery, 

 for we do not believe in it, and certainly not as applied to the 

 planting of rose stocks which needs to be carefully done ; but we 

 do insist that even this should be done expeditiously. If we can 

 plant 1000 stocks for, say, IDS., they certainly ought not to cost 153. 

 We do not mention these particular sums as actual cost, but merely 

 by way of illustration. Our responsible men have as little love 

 toward imported roses as we have ourselves, and being, generally 

 speaking, intelligent and conscientious men, will readily enlist 

 to help us fight this traffic, submitting to any necessary discipline in 

 " keeping their end up." We fear, however, as the result of many 

 years' actual experience, first as " hands," afterwards as nurserymen, 

 that there is not a sufficiently strong bond of union between masters 

 and men ; that there is a lack of frank and full confidence on the 

 one part, and failure to appreciate the " community of interests " 

 on the other. We have noticed that where there is familiarity and 

 confidence on both sides, business operations proceed with greater 

 verve, and this is what we want, for in this fight to uphold our 

 position we must draw more closely together and work for each 

 other. 



But business methods do not stop at the planting of the stocks ; 

 they apply equally at every stage of the cultivation the cleaning, 

 the suckering, the budding, the growing, the lifting and despatching. 

 Each must be set about as though the operator " meant business." 



