March 8, 1917. 



The Florists' Review 



25 



ANOTHER HEAVY TAX. 



The so-called excess profits tax pro- 

 vided for by act of Congress last woek 

 will bear heavily on many comparatively 

 small partnerships and corporations 

 throughout the country and will be a 

 penalty of success in the florists' trade. 

 In this business none of the partnerships 

 or corporations employ large capital, the 

 earnings being the result of individual 

 effort rather than the use of money. 

 Consequently the profits of most success- 

 ful concerns in this line are considerably 

 in excess of the exemptions and there- 

 fore largely subject to the special tax of 

 eight per cent. 



This is the way it will figure out in 

 the case of a corporation with $25,000 

 capital stock which has accumulated and 

 is using a surplus of $10,000, doing a 

 general florists' business of approximate- 

 ly $100,000 and making a net profit of 

 $12,500 per year: 



Net annual Income $12,500 



Amount exempt — 



Specific exemption $5,000 



8 per cent of $35,000 2,800 



7.800 



Balance subject to tax $ 4,700 



Amount of tax at 8 per cent 376 



The excess profits tax is in addition to 

 the income tax of two per cent on the 

 total net profit and is additional to 

 state, county, city, school and other 

 local taxes on real and personal property 

 and the capital stock taxes levied in 

 many states. 



OBITUARY 



LACHENALIA TBICOLOS. 



Can you tell me the name of the en- 

 closed flower? It is a bulb and blooms 

 annually. Do you believe it would 

 be a good thing to work up a stock of? 



H. B.— Wis. 



It is Lachenalia tricolor Nelsoni, a 

 variety of bulb from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, requiring treatment similar to that 

 of freesias. Half a dozen bulbs suffice 

 for a 6-inch pan, or twelve to sixteen for 

 an 8-inch pan, Lachenalias succeed best 

 in an ordinary greenhouse, kept at not 

 over 50 degrees at night, and should be 

 kept well up to the glass. The flowers 

 keep fresh for a number of weeks. It 

 is increased by bulblets, which are freely 

 produced, a majority of which will flower 

 the following season. Small ones can be 

 sown in pans and grown for a season. 

 They will flower a year later. Seed, if 

 sown in early spring in pans or flats of 

 sandy soil, will produce a few flowers 

 the first year. Gradually dry off after 

 flowering and repot in August or Sep- 

 tember. Lachenalias are rarely seen 

 commercially, but should prove a desir- 

 able novelty if nicely flowered. 



C. W. 



West Grove, Pa. — Robert Pyle recent- 

 ly returned from Detroit, where he 

 spoke on roses before several clubs and 

 named the varieties best suited for De- 

 troit's bare spots. 



Terre Haute, Ind, — Material has be- 

 gun to arrive for the five new green- 

 houses which are to be added this spring 

 to the establishment of the J. W. Davis 

 Co. These houses are to be even larger 

 than the ones previously erected, each 

 being 80x600. Like the other houses 

 in the range, these are to be built by 

 the Lord & Burliham Co., the material 

 coming from the factory at Des Plaines, 

 Hi. While the original houses are de- 

 voted exclusively to cucumbers, plans 

 are being made for using some of the 

 new space for cut flowers. 



A. A. Seed. 



A. A. Reed, of Whitman, Mass., who 

 died February 26 in his seventy-eighth 

 year, was one of the best known and 

 most highly respected florists in Massa- 

 chusetts. He was a Civil war veteran 

 and lost a leg in that great struggle. He 

 attended many of the grand army en- 

 campments, going to California only a 

 few years ago, and always visited places 

 of horticultural interest while on these 

 visits. At Whitman he had an excellent 

 local trade, for which he grew a gen- 

 eral line of stock. He was fond of or- 

 chids, which he grew particularly well, 

 including not only cattleyas, but also 

 zygopetalums, phalajnopsis and other 

 species. The deceased was a well in- 

 formed and most genial man and was 

 highly popular in the community where 

 he resided so many years. A. Roy Reed, 

 his son, who has been associated with 

 him in business for some years, will con- 

 tinue the Whitman business. W. N. C. 



David W. Duncan. 



David W. Duncan died at Arlington, 

 Mass., February 22. He was 50 years 

 old. He came from Glasgow, Scotland, 

 and had resided in Arlington about 

 twenty-five years, being most of the time 

 in business as a florist. Part of his prod- 

 uce was sold at the Boston Cooperative 

 Market, where he was for some years a 



stall-holder. The interment was at 

 Arlington, February 25. W. N. C. 



Otto Schucht. 



Otto Schucht, aged 89 years, of She- 

 boygan, Wis., died February 26, of senile 

 debility. 



For years Mr. Schucht conducted a 

 greenhouse business at Sheboygan. He 

 was born May 20, 1837, in Mecklenburg- 

 Schwerin, Germany. He immigrated to 

 New York in 1849 and came to Sheboy- 

 gan to make his home. In 1852 the de- 

 cedent moved to San Francisco, then to 

 Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, only to 

 return to Wisconsin in 1864. Mr. 

 Schucht suffered severe business re- 

 verses, but in 1890 he conducted a suc- 

 cessful florists' business at Sheboygan. 



The decedent is survived by his aged 

 wife and eight children. One son, Wil- 

 liam G., is a florist at Chilton, Wis, 



August Luther. 



August Luther, Sr., one of the pioneer 

 florists of Kansas City, Mo., passed away 

 last week. He had been a florist for 

 thirty-nine years and was well known 

 in the middle west. Taken with illness 

 several years ago, the decedent sold 

 most of his interest in the business to 

 liis son, August, who successfully man- 

 ages it today. 



Mr. Luther's love of flowers is shown 

 in a provision of his will. The sum of 

 $1,000 is left in trust, the interest of 

 which is to pay for the upkeep of his own 

 and wife's grave in Forest Hill ceme- 

 tery. The will specifies that cut fiowers 

 be placed on the graves Memorial and 

 other days. 



Slllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll^ 



I MOTT-LY MUSINGS f 



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Commenting on the evolution of 

 events, Charles Loveridge compared his 

 condition when he first landed in Chi- 

 cago, in 1886, with exactly $1.35 in his 

 pocket, with his present prosperity as 

 proprietor of a flourishing business at 

 Peoria, 111. "Opportunity, good for- 

 tune and 'pep' have made things lovely 

 and placed us on the ridge-plate of suc- 

 cess," was the decision of our worthy 

 confrere. 



A. Washburn & Sons, of Bloomington, 

 111., have decided to refrain from adding 

 more glass at present, but they have 

 splendid facilities, including a switch 

 from the electric railroad into their 

 place. The shortage in the supply of 

 flowers no doubt will be a factor in fur- 

 ther expansion. The store is a model of 

 cleanliness and arrangement. 



"Our experience this season," ob- 

 served J. M. Imlay, of the Imlay Co., 

 of Zanesville, O., "is that the call for 

 roses exceeds that for carnations. While 

 we sold all the carnations we produced, 

 our grower's record shows a yield of 

 twenty-four blooms by each carnation 

 plant and a yield of twenty-seven blooms 

 by each rose plant. This proves that, at 

 the present time, the rose is the most 

 profitable. We shall not change, how- 

 ever, when replanting. Alice is the best 

 cropping carnation we have. It is also 

 a splendid keeper. Killarney is' our most 

 profitable rose. We planted Mrs. Bayard 

 Thayer in place of Russell, but it is not 

 a success, as you see. Hoosier Beauty 

 we consider too thin in foliage — so much 



space between breaks. This batch of 

 tomato plants is to be planted between 

 the carnations about the end of this 

 month, two rows on the 5-foot bench. 

 The plants, when above the wires, are 

 run up on a single string. They are kept 

 as bushy as possible, and at that time 

 benefit the carnations by their shading. 

 Last season we received $900 for 1,700 

 plants, netting about 40 cents per bush. 

 Each plant produced a cluster of from 

 seven to nine fruits, and these were 

 easily disposed of to one local grocery. 

 We are not vegetable growers, but think 

 it a profitable side line. The variety is 

 Comet and invariably comes perfect. 

 Radishes and lettuce follow chrysanthe- 

 mums, and in turn are followed by sweet 

 peas," concluded Mr. Imlay, A first- 

 class line of Dutch bulbous stock was 

 noted. Couronne d'Or and Murillo tu- 

 lips, in bloom February 1, were partic- 

 ularly fine; also miniatures, violets, prim- 

 roses and pansies. About 15,000 pansies 

 are grown outdoors for the retail trade. 

 An additional house for storage, 30x100, 

 of concrete or tile, will be built this sum- 

 mer. Pointing to a herd of Holstein cat- 

 tle, Mr. Imlay remarked that the an- 

 imals were a valuable accessory. 



As an instance of the condition of the 

 flower pot industry, I learned that the 

 Peters & Reed Pottery Co., of South 

 Zanesville, O., is filling an order for 

 twenty-one cars and one for six cars, 

 for two eastern houses, to be sent to the 

 buyers' western customers. 



IW. M. 



