\.--.>'^:-->^'-'vr'.''>v 



44 



The Florists' Review 



Adoust 17, 1916. 



three parts loam, one part cow manure, 

 well dried and screened, and one part 

 leaf-mold for plants in the 3-inch pot 

 stage. At later pottings you can leave 

 out the leaf-mold unless your soil is 

 naturally quite heavy, in which case 

 a little coarse sand might be added 

 with advantage. C. W. 



DEPRECIATION AND FAILURE. 



What do you know about the cost of 

 doing business in your place? And 

 what do you know about the cost to 

 produce each of the various items you 

 grow? How does the selling price com- 

 pare with the cost plus the overhead? 



"The subject of costs may not be 

 an entertaining one," Robert E. Belt, 

 of the Federal Trade Commission, told 

 the seedsmen at their recent Chicago 

 convention, "but it is one which 

 should be of great interest to all busi- 

 ness men because it relates to informa- 

 tion whidh is essential to the success- 

 ful conduct of a business. 



"Formerly little attention was paid 

 by business men to the question of 

 costs. The necessity for a knowledge 

 of costs and their analysis was not so 

 great, as the margins of profit were 

 larger. But today margins of profit in 

 most lines are much narrower than 

 formerly and the necessity for the most 

 efficient management and the closest 

 analysis is felt as never before." 



It exactly fits the case of the average 

 florist. 



Mr. Belt laid particular stress on the 

 necessity for including every item of 

 cost in the accounting, putting special 

 emphasis on depreciation. "The Fed- 

 eral Trade Commission," he said, "has 

 under way a study of depreciation. One 

 thing that the commission is urging 

 on every business man is the absolute 

 necessity of making proper provision 

 for depreciation and making it monthly. 



"Statistics show that the percentage 

 of business men who do not provide for 

 depreciation is large, running over fifty 

 per cent, and this is one of the causes 

 that has a great influence on our heavy 

 business death rate. Nearly every 

 business man is perfectly willing to in- 

 clude in his costs all items for which he 

 pays out actual money, but he is in- 

 clined to overlook those which do not 

 require a visible outlay, and deprecia- 

 tion is one of those. Although it un- 

 questionably exists, a great number of 

 merchants and manufacturers do not 

 charge any depreciation and give as a 



reason that they keep their property in 

 first-class condition and it does not de- 

 preciate. This is one of the most fal- 

 lacious ideas in business today. Every 

 machine, building and apparatus, like 

 every man, has a certain period of life 

 and no matter how much care you take 

 of the machine or how much medicine 

 you give the man, death is bound to 

 come. 



"It is evident that where profits are 

 divided without adequate provision 

 being made for depreciation, they are 

 really taken from capital, and when the 

 plant is finally worn out the owner is 

 forced to raise more capital, not for the 

 purpose of enlarging his plant, but ac- 

 tually to put it back in the same con- 

 dition as when he began operations. 



"Many business men hesitate to 

 charge off depreciation because of the 

 mistaken idea that by so doing they 

 are really spending money. Nothing 

 could be farther from the truth. 

 You have not lost one penny by making 

 an adequate charge for depreciation; 

 on the contrary, you have strengthened 

 your business and you are playing fair 

 with yourself and with your competitor. 



"If we can arouse the American 

 business man to the fact that deprecia- 

 tion does exist, that it is an element 

 of cost, and that he should put it in 

 cost, the time will come when our in- 

 dustries will be far stronger finan- 

 cially. ' ' 



DOUBLE OYPSOPHILA. 



Will you kindly give me some in- 

 structions regarding the growing of 

 the double perennial gypsophila? Does 

 its name, meaning "gypsum-lover" or 

 "lime-lover," indicate that the soil 

 where it is grown should be generously 

 mixed with lime? Should seed or 

 plants- be planted for best results? 

 What soil and location, and what 

 amount of sunshine and drainage should 

 be provided? I have had rather poor 

 results in attempting to raise these 

 plants. If the plants are used, should 

 they be set out in the fall or spring? 

 When should seed be sown? I have yet 

 to find a small white flower that will 

 satisfy the retail florists for design 

 work. The achilleas have dark cen- 

 ters. The Artemisia lacti^ora is, as 

 Sherman Duffy calls it, a "sick 

 astilbe. ' ' The euphorbia is poisonous 

 to some persons. The boltonia does not 

 flower symmetrically. The feverfew re- 

 verts to the green-centered type and its 



Evansville Florists and their families on an Outing. 



odor is unpleasant. The sweet alyssum 

 demands cool weather. The double 

 gypsophila is largely sent here from 

 Colorado, but I should like to grow it 

 myself. S. E. B. — Kan. 



Double gypsophila, like its single 

 companion, is an easy doer. It is not 

 at all fussy as to soil, but if your land 

 is at all acid it would be well to 

 sweeten it with lime. It likes a deep, 

 well drained and well manured soil, 

 with full sunshine. If it is to be in 

 the shade it will do less satisfactorily. 

 It is usually propagated by grafting 

 in greenhouses and for this reason it is 

 still a comparatively scarce plant. The 

 largest stocks of it are held in Hol- 

 land and England. I would suggest 

 that you try raising some from seed. 

 You can purchase seeds which are guar- 

 anteed to give a fair proportion of 

 double flowers. Two years ago I was 

 fortunate enough to get about forty per 

 "ent of all seedlings raised to come 

 double. 



A useful plant for you to grow would 

 be Gypsophila elegans, an annual va- 

 riety. This succeeds well in flats on 

 shelves in a carnation temperature for 

 early crops, and it can be sown several 

 times outdoors during the season. 

 Euphorbia corollata is a good peren- 

 nial. I think you cannot have tried 

 the best form of Achillea Ptarmica! If 

 you will secure plants, not seeds, of 

 the form Perry's White, your custom- 

 ers will not be able to complain of any 

 dark centers. The disagreeable smell 

 of feverfew should be enough to con- 

 demn it as a flower for any sort of 

 design. 



A few useful white-flowering peren- 

 nials for you to grow, in addition to 

 those already named, would be: Del- 

 phinium Chinensis alba. Clematis recta, 

 Pyrethrum uliginosum; Chrysanthemum 

 maximum King Edward VII and Polar 

 Star; Lysimachia clethroides, Physo- 

 stegia Virginiana alba; such phloxes 

 as F. G. Von Lassburg, Le Cygne and 

 Mrs. Jenkins, and the climbing ever- 

 lasting pea, Lathyrus latifolius aJbus. 

 C. W. 



ALTERNANTHERAS DYING. 



I am enclosing a few alternanthera 

 plants, so as to ascertain, if possible, 

 the cause of the trouble which I haver 

 had with them during the last two 

 weeks. These plants were set out May 

 20 and made a satisfactory growth at 

 the start. Two weeks ago I noticed a 

 few had wilted. As they are planted 

 in a mill yard and close to a pickling 

 plant, where acids are used in baths 

 for the purpose of cleaning sheet iron, 

 I was inclined to think that perhaps 

 some of this deleterious material had 

 been scattered on the bed, causing all 

 the trouble. So I gave no further at- 

 tention to the matter except to replace 

 the affected plants with new ones, but 

 I still flnd the same condition in dif- 

 ferent parts of the bed. At first the 

 plants were looked after by the la- 

 borers at the mill, but I took over the 

 care of them July 10, when I found 

 that the bed had been cultivated only 

 twice during the season, instead of re- 

 ceiving such attention at least as often 

 as once a week. Then I thought that 

 this neglect might be the cause, or at 

 least a contributory cause. 



The plants wilt and die in ones and 

 twos at different places in the bed. I 

 hardly think the cause is a fungous 

 disease, as it would affect more of the 



