48 



The Florists^ Review 



March 29, 1917. 



Established, 1897, by G. L. GRANT. 



Publtslieil every Thursday by 

 TUK FlOUISK' PuiiLLSHINU Co.. 



520-560 Caxton BulldlnK, 



508 South Deal born St., Chicago. 



Tele , Wubash 81'J5. 



Regristei-ed cable address, 



Florvlew, Clilcaifo. 



KnU^rcd as second class mutter 

 Dec. 8, 1«'J7, at the post-ollice at Chi- 

 cago. III., uuder the Act of March 

 3 IHTJ. 



SubsTlptlon price, $1.50 a year. 

 To Canada. $2 60; to Kurope. $;i.OO. 



Advertising ralis quoted upon 

 request. Only slrlctiy tiado ad- 

 Tertlslu,; accepted. 



J 



m 



NOTICE. 



It !■ impoasible to ipiarantee 



the insertion, discontinnanee or 



alteration of any adTortieement 



anlesa inatrnctiona are reeeiTod 



BT 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



SOCIETY OF AMEKICAN FLORISTS. 



Incorporated by Act of ConRress March 4, 1901. 



Officers for 1917: President, Robert C Kerr, 

 Houston, Tex.; vice-president, A. L. Miller, Ja- 

 maica, N. Y.; secretary, John \oung 5.3 W. 28th 

 St., New Torli City; treasurer, J. J. Hess, 

 Omaha, Neb. ^. _ ., ,. 



Thirty-third annual convention. New \ork, 

 N. Y., August 21 to 24, 1917. 



Results bring advertisinfi;. 

 The Review brings result.s. 



No finer snapdragons over have reached 

 The Review than the two dozen spikes 

 of the unnamed bronzy red variety that 

 came this week from the Raton (Jreen 

 houses, Raton, N. M. 



Now that New York has the spring 

 show out of the way and can look back 

 with satisfaction on a successful effort, 

 the work of preparing for a record S. A. 

 F. convention in August will be turned 

 to with enthusiasm. 



When an express company tenders for 

 delivery a cut flower box with about 30 

 cents charges collect, if the editor isn 't 

 napping he declines to pay the price to 

 see what is in it, the chances being the 

 parcel contains a double-spathed calla, 

 sent by a reader who never saw one be- 

 fore. 



Rose growers who have had little suc- 

 cess with Hadley will be interested to 

 note that it was the outstanding feature 

 of the cut flower classes of the Philadel- 

 phia show of the American Rose So- 

 ciety. With Hadley the Joseph Heacock 

 Co., one of the two conspicuously suc- 

 cessful growers of that variety, took 

 sweepstakes in all three groups, best 

 100, best fifty and best twenty-five 

 blooms. 



Endless confusion is almost certain 

 to result from the unusual conditions af- 

 fecting the Dutch bulb business. The 

 travelers are out of touch with their 

 houses, because of infrequent sailings, 

 the censor and the loss of much mail. 

 Buyers are canceling orders when an- 

 other salesman quotes a lower price, as 

 is not infrequently the case, and acknowl- 

 edgment of receipt of a cancellation is 

 difficult to get, which no doubt will mean 

 the shipment of many canceled orders. 



THE DATE OF EASTEB. 



Easter Sunday falls on dates as 

 widely separated as thirty-two days dur- 

 ing, tlie present century, the earliest be- 

 ing March 24, 1940, and the latest April 

 25, 194;}. The last day of March will be 

 Easter in 1918 and April 20 will be the 

 date the following year. Here are the 

 dates of Easter for the next five years: 



1918 March 31 



1919 April 20 



1920 April 4 



1921 March 27 



1922 April 16 



IT HAS A LONG REACH. 



The long and strong arms of The Re- 

 view reach out thousands of miles to 

 bring results for its advertisers. A lit- 

 tle ad is read with as great interest in 

 California ..s in New York and in Maine 

 as in Texas. Here is the proof: 



Kindly discontin\ie o:ir clnssifted ad on orchids. 

 The ad has shown koo:1 results. Have had in- 

 quiries from (Jiilifornia to New York. — J. F. 

 Aminann Co., Edwardsville. HI., March 2.3, 1917. 



When you hear a man complain of 

 the cost of advertising you can be pret- 

 ty certain he spends a good bit of 

 »nouov elsev'licie than in The Review. 



PAPER. 



To supply the demands of the trade 

 and print last week's Spring Shows 

 Number of The Review, 10,922 pounds 

 of white paper were required. For this 

 week's Easter Number 11,750 pounds, 

 nearly six tons, will be used. 



That's nearly eleven and one-half 

 tons these two weeks. 



It would be extremely satisfactory if 

 it were not that paper now costs The 

 Review just 214 per cent of the price 

 paid before the ascension. 



Although the quality of the stock at 

 times has not been anything to brag 

 about. The Review has had no trouble 

 in procuring the four and one-half to 

 six tons per week it needs to keep 

 going. 



AIRING A TRADE ILL. 



As the custodian of the closet in 

 which abide the trade's skeletons — 

 there are several of 'em — the editor is 

 frequently called upon to serve as 

 arbiter of matters in dispute between 

 a seller and a buyer, in which the buyer 

 charges the seller with rank negligence 

 in packing liis plants; for did not the 

 goods arrive in poor condition, with 

 some of the stock damaged or frozen, 

 or useless? Being considerably removed 

 from his opponent, and — in many cases 

 — having sent cash with his order, the 

 buyer's chances for redress, providing 

 the seller, or shipper, is culpable, may 

 be decidedly slim. In rebuttal the sell- 

 er maintains that the buyer is all wrong 

 in his stand. Having sold plants for 

 twenty years, the seller says he cer- 

 tainly knows how to pack his stock 

 for shipment! The work is done care- 

 fully; his boxes are strong, if light, 

 and special attention is paid to the 

 wrapping of the plants. After deliver- 

 ing himself of this verbal defense, the 

 seller concludes with the statement that 

 either the express company is responsi- 

 ble and liable for the damage, or the 

 buyer is playing an unfair game. Fur- 

 thermore, as a last resort, the seller can 

 absolve himself from all blame by pro- 

 ducing a sort of disclaimer, printed in 

 his catalogue or on his shipping tags. 

 Here is a typical one: "Note — AH 

 plants are packed with the best care 

 within our power and are shipped en- 



tirely at the buyer's risk. Our re- 

 sponsibility ceases with delivery, in 

 good condition, to the transportation 

 company. ' ' 



The controversy may go on indefinite- 

 ly, a court may render a decision in 

 favor of the shipper or the buyer, or 

 the express company may pay the dam- 

 ages, yet the* adjustment will never be 

 satisfactory from a business point of 

 view. The two contending parties will 

 forever be business enemies; the pos- 

 sibilities for any future business trans- 

 actions between the two never will 

 exist. 



It requires a philosophical and broad 

 mind to arrive at some definite remedy 

 for this drawback of the business. 

 There perhaps is only one iron-clad rule 

 by wliich troubles and dissatisfactions 

 of this sort can be avoided, and that 

 rule at best is rather ambiguous. The 

 seller, if he is absolutely on the square, 

 does not enter the proposition as one 

 of the responsible parties. Either the 

 shipper or transportation company is 

 to blame. But whether or not the ship- 

 per is innocently or guiltily respon- 

 sible, or whether or not the transporta- 

 tion company is to blame, the power to 

 eliminate the greater part of all such 

 trouble rests in the hands of the ship- 

 per. The shipper's packing and wrap- 

 ping should be so thorough and so 

 well done that any damage to his ship- 

 ments in transit will be impossible. It 

 is not a question of fixing a blame. Pre- 

 vention is what is wanted, and the 

 shij)per is the only one who can pro- 

 vide it. 



A conscientious grower knows that 

 none of his sales are completed until 

 his stock is delivered to the buyer in 

 good condition, despite the fact that 

 the average court would sustain his 

 claim to no responsibility after the 

 stock is receipted for by a local ex- 

 press agent. Incidentally, as every- 

 body knows, proper, thorough packing 

 is essential to the grower who aims to 

 build a business, for no buyer will let 

 the "same bee sting him twice." 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



Changeable and erratic was the course 

 of the market last week. While one day 

 business was good with prices firm, the 

 next found a complete falling off of de- 

 mand. The warmer weather brought 

 in an increased supply of all kinds of 

 stock and at no time was there a scar- 

 city. Taken by and large, however, 

 business was fairly good and no real 

 cause for complaint can be found. 



The supply of American Beauties is 

 larger than it has been and especially 

 is there more longer stemmed stock. 

 The demand, however, continues strong 

 and no difficulty was found in clearing 

 stock at quotation prices. Roses were 

 easily the firmest item on the market 

 last week, the demand being fairly 

 steady at all times. The supply is ample 

 and quality good. Russell easily is the 

 leader. Carnations fluctuated from day 

 to day, but on the whole good stock 

 moved fairly well at moderate prices. 



There was a tremendous supply of 

 bulbous stock on the market last week, 

 brought on by the warm weather. Like 

 carnations, bulbous items were most 

 changeable, one day selling well at fair 

 prices, the next dragging heavily. There 

 is a much larger supply of bulbous stock 

 generally this year than in former 

 years. Jonquils and daffodils move 



