OCTOBBE 18, 1917. 



The Florists^ Review 



17 



before they seek an opportunity to dem- 

 onstrate their ability in this direction. 

 " W. G. P. 



THE TBADE'S FIRST OHAUFFEUSE. 



See whom we have with us today — 

 the trade's first chauffeuse! 



The war has called women into many 

 Dew and untried vocations, and it is 

 evident that women do not shrink from 

 assuming duties which involve labor of 

 a more or less strenuous character, nor 

 : rom exposure to all kinds of weather. 

 Women are proving also that they can 

 jearn to understand machinery and they 

 are making good in positions requiring 

 nechanical skill, strength and courage. 



Miss Bernice Keeler, of Canton, O., 

 s an example of a woman who has 

 .iitered upon an occupation in which 

 women were not employed until war- 

 time stress made it expedient for wom- 

 en to take over many of the customary 

 duties of men. 



Miss Keeler has enlisted in the ranks 

 of women mobilized for war service by 

 taking the position of chauffeur for 

 A. T. Pollard, one of Canton's best 

 known florists. She is serving her 

 country by making it possible for a man 

 to enlist in the new national army 

 Uncle Sam is mustering from every vo- 

 cation throughout this broad land. She 

 is the first woman to drive a florists' 

 delivery truck and she is Canton's first 

 woman chauffeur. 



The occasion of the assumption of 

 her new duties by this wartime chauf- 

 feur was a spectacular one. Men, 

 women and children observed with in- 

 terest the progress of her initial trip 

 and many congratulations were offered 

 this plucky young recruit to the ranks 

 of women enlisted for patriotic duty. 

 She demonstrated her efficiency in the 

 management of the auto, which she 

 operates with admirable skill, and she 

 serves customers with courtesy and 

 promptness. 



A khaki suit of military design and 

 a cap similar to that worn by officers 

 of the U. S. army were worn by this 

 wartime chauffeur, and who will ques- 

 tion her right to wear the uniform? A 

 Chinese toy poodle named Reggy makes 

 the rounds with Miss Keeler, and seems 

 to appreciate the importance of the 

 mission. 



Miss Keeler believes that women 

 should volunteer for service wherever 

 possible to enable men to enlist. 

 "Women are as efficient as men in 

 many capacities and the time has come 

 when women should aid the country," 

 she says. "I like my work, chiefly be- 

 cause I am serving my country by 

 doing it." 



The idea of employing a woman as 

 chauffeur was suggested to Mr. Pol- 

 lard by a woman customer to whom he 

 spoke of his difficulty in finding a boy 

 to replace the man who, for the re- 

 cruiting camp, had left this post on the 

 car. Boys have become a scarce article, 

 so many have been called upon to take 

 men's places made vacant by enlist- 

 ment. When it became known that 

 Mr. Pollard would employ a woman 

 for this work, six applications were re- 

 ceived the first day, from women 

 anxious to assume wartime responsi- 

 bilities. 



Mr. Pollard declares his intention of 

 enlisting as soon as he can arrange for 

 the conduct of his business during his 

 absence. He says that he employed 

 Miss Keeler solely from a patriotic de- 



The Trade's First Wartime Woman Chauffeur and Her Car. 



sire to permit another man to enlist 

 and he recommends to merchants of 

 Canton and elsewhere the employment 

 of women in place of men, to this end. 

 He says that Miss Keeler will receive 

 the same compensation as that paid 

 to the man whose place she has taken. 



Bloomington, Ind. — Merle F. Morris, 

 who during the last year had managed 

 the greenhouses owned by his father, 

 Frank L. Morris, has turned the estab- 

 lishment over to his father and is now 

 working in a government aeroplane fac- 

 tory at Detroit, Mich. 



.News' from 



roQi 



Paris France. — M. Georges Truffaut, 

 widely known in the trade, has returned 

 from the Automobile section at the 

 front to superintend Les PepiniSres 

 Nationales, near Versailles. This is a 

 new organization for the purpose of sup- 

 plying trees, plants and seeds to cultiva- 

 tors in the invaded districts of France 

 which have been won back. 



LiverpoQl, England. — The old and 

 widely known business of R. P. Ker & 

 Sons recently passed through the hands 

 of a trustee, but was bid in by members 

 of the Ker family. Francis Ker got the 

 greenhouses and nursery as a going con- 

 cern, also the world-famous collection 

 of 13,000 seedling amaryllis bulbs. R. 

 B. Ker acquired the seed and bulb store. 



London, England. — The Year Book 

 for 1917, issued by the Perpetual Flow- 

 ering Carnation Society, contains a val- 

 uable article on American carnations 

 from A. F. J. Baur, secretary of the 

 American Carnation Society. Mr. Baur 

 writes: "The Enchantress group has 

 been crowded out of the exhibitions by 

 the newer sorts, which are gradually 

 supplanting them on the benches of the 

 carnation specialists. Enchantress and 

 her children have been a wonderful 

 family, but carnations, like men, must 

 give way to improvement. * ' 



Canterbury, England. — In few places 

 has the war wrought greater changes 

 in agricultural practice than in Kent, 

 and certainly no county has shown 

 greater resource in modifying its agri- 

 cultural methods. Not long after the 

 outbreak of war it became evident that 

 the hop growing industry must be cur- 

 tailed. In spite of the fact that the 

 established hop gardens represent a 

 large amount of capital, many hundreds 

 of acres of hops were grubbed up and 

 the oast houses turned into potato and 

 other stores, or left to lie idle. No- 

 where is the response to the changed 

 conditions more remarkable than in the 

 establishment of Mount & Sons. The 

 roses for which this firm is famous have 

 been in large measure replaced by mar- 

 ket garden crops, only enough roses 

 having been kept to maintain the stock 

 of varieties. Both outdoors and in the 

 houses previously devoted to roses, mar- 

 ket garden crops have been planted, 

 and the tomatoes under glass would be 

 a credit to a grower who had special- 

 ized in that crop and nothing else. In 

 the trial grounds, potatoes and other 

 crops demonstrate that men who havo 

 learned to grow roses and carnations to 

 perfection can turn their knowledge 

 swiftly to good account in the cultiva- 

 tion of any other crop. 



