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The Horists' Review 



April 15. 1920 



fl 



Estebllabed. 1897, by O. L. ORANT. 



Pabllsbed every Tharsdar br 

 The Florists' Publishinq Ck)^ 



620-660 Oaxtoa Building:, 



608 South Dearborn St., OhicaffO. 



Tele.. Wabash 8196. 



Registered cable address. 



Florrlew, Ohlcaco. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec 3, 1897. at the post-offlce at Ohi- 

 tfigo. 111., under the Act of Much 

 8, 1879. 



Snbocrlptlon price, tlJBO a year. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Europe. 13.00. 



Advertlslntf rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlslnff accepted. 



I» 



Results bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



The 1919-20 year book of the New 

 York Florists' Club shows a membership 

 of 562 and an average attendance at meet- 

 ings during the last year of 116. 



The latest state to promulgate a quar- 

 antine against the corn borer is South 

 Dakota, through H. C. Severin, state 

 •entomologist. It was put in effect April 1. 



A FLORIST wishes to know where he can 

 ■purchase brass vases and such ware, which 

 the old makers no longer supply. Perhaps 

 some reader can furnish an address. 



If you want your letter to get to The 

 Review office or somewhere else by a set 

 time, better mail it a day earlier than you 

 have been, to allow for delay in the mail. 



The condition of the trade as regards 

 labor needs is reflected in the Want Ad 

 department of The Review this week. It 

 never before carried so many requests for 

 help. 



The wage expectations of the average 

 employee astound many a florist. Not in- 

 frequently the wages asked are more than 

 the owner ever has d^a^^'n out of the busi- 

 ness for his own living expenses. 



Those who send telegraph orders 

 should give consideration to the probable 

 prices prevailing where the order is to 

 be filled. The price should be sufficiently 

 high to buy the best grade of stock. 



In connection with an article on col- 

 lecting native plants for the garden, the 

 Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin for 

 March presents a list of eleven pages of 

 native plants suitable for the gardens of 

 Missouri and adjoining states. 



The bulletin of the American Dahlia 

 Society, grown to the distinction of appli- 

 cation for second class postage rates April 

 1, is full of experiences interesting to the 

 amateur growers of this flower and 

 affords a means of encouragement for 

 florists to suggest to their customers de- 

 voted to the dahlia. 



Many a florist made large preparations 

 for Easter and failed to realize his ex- 

 pectations. It is sure to react on the 

 preparations for Mothers' day, in spite of 

 the evident fact that the unexpected fea- 

 tures of the Easter situation may all be 

 traced to a general failure to guess the 

 •weather and its effects. 



Save paper! Use as little as you can. 

 The price not only still is going up but 

 is rising faster than ever before. 



Some of the medical men have doped 

 it out that there will be no epidemic of 

 flu next winter, but that one is due in 

 the late autumn of 1921. If this is cor- 

 rect, where will the growers go to get 

 their gravy next winter? 



It costs twice as much today as it did 

 five years ago to start a florists ' business. 

 The capital required is twice as great, 

 for original investment and for operating 

 expenses; also, the risk is double, but is 

 the likelihood of profit increased! 



How quickly things change in this 

 trade! Only a couple of months ago the 

 talk was all of the need for greater pro- 

 duction; today it is of overproduction 

 and the need for curtailment to keep the 

 , prices above the cost of growing. 



Under present conditions the florists' 

 business can grow only by the develop- 

 ment of existing units. No one starts 

 anything new; in times such as these it 

 is all anyone can do to maintain existing 

 enterprises, without trying to start any- 

 thing new. 



Opportunities never were more nu- 

 merous than now, in this trade. Note 

 the Wanted and For Sale ads in this 

 issue of The Review. They offer splen- 

 did openings in greater number than 

 ever before, something for everybody. 

 Read them; they're full of interest, il- 

 lustrating trade tendencies. 



EXPRESS EMBARGOES. 



Embargoes in the principal cities have 

 disorganized the usual shipping facili- 

 ties during the last week. They have 

 varied in effect from day to day and in 

 different centers, so that no general 

 statement of the situation can be ex- 

 pressed. There seems, however, to be a 

 gradual waning of the difficulties in the 

 west caused by the railroad strikes, as 

 the wave passed in force to the east- 

 ward. Since the radical element, and 

 not the regular organization, of the 

 laborers is responsible, it is expected 

 that the insurgent movement will speed- 

 ily subside as the recognized leaders 

 exert their authority. 



Shipments, both in and out of the 

 large cities, have been difficult. Grow- 

 ers have in some places been compelled 

 to carry in their cuts as hand baggage 

 on passenger trains. The usual means 

 of getting around emergencies of this 

 kind, which have become common of 

 late, has enabled wholesalers to make 

 many shipments to out-of-town custom- 

 ers, but the service has been far from 

 regular. 



Return of the express companies to 

 private from government hands has not 

 proved an unmixed blessing. In fact, 

 many find preference for Uncle Sam's 

 control. March and April have seen 

 some of the worst express service ever 

 given to the trade. 



THE OUTLOOK FOR BUSINESS. 



After Easter is past and preparations 

 for Mothers' day and Memorial day 

 are well in hand, the approach of sum- 

 mer causes florists, both greenhouse men 

 and store proprietors, to form their 

 judgment as to the outlook of business, 

 upon which will depend their activities 

 during the warm weather in anticipa- 

 tion of next season's demands. In for- 



mulating their opinion, they . will find 

 valuable the survey of the New York 

 Journal of Commerce, the leading busi- 

 ness paper of the country. It says in 

 part: 



"Taken in th^e aggregate, the testi- 

 mony as to our economic outlook for the 

 spring and summer of 1920 is bright. 

 Crop prospects are satisfactory, so far 

 as they can be judged at this early date, 

 while industrially speaking, the produc- 

 tive machinery of the country is prob- 

 ably as fully occupied as it ever has 

 been. Labor is fully employed at high 

 wages and the output of American fac- 

 tories is decidedly larger than it has 

 been in past months. There is little ac- 

 cumulation of goods in the country as 

 a whole and during the war we fell so 

 far behind in our investment in produc- 

 tive capital that it will be a good whDe 

 before we can catch up. It would be al- 

 most absurd to suppose that overproduc- 

 tion in any general sense could occur, 

 except perhaps locally. We need all 

 that we can manufacture and if we do 

 not dispose of it abroad we shall use 

 it at home in enlarging our capital in- 

 vestment and in adding to the consum- 

 able goods of the community. 



"The genuine prosperity which is in 

 sight all over the country should not be 

 allowed to blind us to some dangers in 

 the outlook. Money rates are high and 

 banking accommodation is relatively 

 scanty. There is no use in pretending 

 that credit facilities are ample, for they 

 are not. The whole world has been de- 

 stroying capital for several years past, 

 and the processes of accumulation have 

 reasserted themselves but slowly. It is 

 an encouraging fact that some advance 

 in the degree of thrift exhibited 

 by various sections of the country is 

 now noted, and there is a lessening of 

 popular extravagance. There must be 

 a still further revision of consumptive 

 tendencies and more rapid accumula- 

 tion of real wealth must be relied upon 

 in order to fill the gap in capital for- 

 mation caused by the war interruptions. 



"During the time that capital accu- 

 mulation is proceeding and until it is 

 I. ore nearly equal to the demand, money 

 rates will continue high, and there will 

 be urgent need for efficiency on the part 

 of every dollar of productive plant. 



"Our business outlook is excellent, 

 and we have, with our new banking or- 

 ganization, every reason to hope for 

 successful readjustment to the new post- 

 war conditions without the extreme de- 

 pression or violent break which has usu- 

 ally come after former wars. To attain 

 these desirable results, however, skill 

 and moderation in banking, avoidance 

 of overcommitments and a large devel- 

 opment of individual thrift wiU be req- 

 uisite." 



FIRST TIME, BUT NOT LAST. 



There still are a few florists, partic- 

 ularly in the east, who do not realize 

 how useful the Classified section of The 

 Review would be to them. It works like 

 this: 



Just a line to thank yon for the results from 

 njy delphinium adv. It was the first time I ad- 

 vertised in The Review. I sold all my stock 

 and had to return checks. You know it means 

 work harder to grow more stock when you havp 

 such results.— Jos. Haupt, Glenrlew, 111., April 

 6. 1920. 



Mr. Haupt sold out on an expenditure 

 oiJl%S.60. If you hear a man complain 

 6{ the cost of advertising you can be 

 pretty certain he spends a good bit of 

 monev elsewhere than in The Review. 



