BUNCHING. 151 



bunching is an important one so important in 

 fact that it often makes a big difference in the 

 price obtained for the flowers. A little time spent 

 in any of our wholesale markets shows this fact 

 strikingly. Good flowers will come in poorly 

 bunched and with a few little straggling yellow 

 leaves sticking out from the center. Such flowers, 

 although good in themselves, are apt to bring fifty 

 per cent less than those from another source 

 tastefully and attractively put up and properly 

 packed. Once in a while, too, in careless bunch- 

 ing a faded or dirty flower is put in. This invari- 

 ably spoils the bunch and is very apt to knock off 

 profits on the whole shipment. It would pay 

 many growers who complain of poor prices to 

 make weekly visits to their markets, and if they 

 are at all alert they will soon learn that the 

 trouble is not all with the much-abused commis- 

 sion man. So important is the matter of bunch- 

 ing that the grower himself ought to person- 

 ally attend to it, or at least see that every bunch 

 receives his rigid inspection before it goes out of 

 his hands. 



It is customary in shipping to pack either in 

 return or gift boxes. Here also great care must 

 be exercised to make the packages attractive, both 

 on the outside and inside. The more common 

 practice is to use return wooden boxes with 

 hinged lids, each box holding from a thousand to 

 one thousand five hundred flowers. The bunches 



