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Mat 8, 1919. 



The Florists' Review 



25 



OBITUARY 



J. O. Orozer. 



Capt. James G. Crozer, veteran of the 

 Civil war, long-time resident of Iowa 

 and of Cedar Bapids^ and a former 

 chief of police of that city, died May 1 

 at his home, 1409 Second avenue. 



Mr. Crozer was born at New Lisbon, 

 O., July 28, 1839. When he was but a 

 small boy he removed to Iowa with his 

 parents. He grew up and attended 

 school in Iowa and married in that 

 state. In 1888 he located at Cedar 

 Rapids as agent for the United States 

 Express Co. and had lived in that city 

 ever since. 



He served through the Civil war as a 

 member of Company C, 26th Iowa in- 

 fantry. After he returned from the 

 war he was engaged in business as a 

 druggist. He was chief of the police 

 department eleven years ago and since 

 that time had been in the retail flower 

 business, building up a large trade. 



Mr. Crozer was a member of the G. A. 

 R. and of the Royal Legion of Honor. 



In addition to Mrs. Crozer, he is sur- 

 vived by three daughters, Mrs. William 

 Finn and Mrs. Robert A. Hall, both of 

 Cedar Rapids, and Mrs. George I. Abel, 

 of Philadelphia. One sister. Miss Kate 

 Crozer, lives at Omaha. 



Funeral services were held at the 

 residence. May 3, the Rev. R. J. Camp- 

 bell oflSciating, and burial was in Oak 

 Hill cemetery. There were many 

 flowers. 



Michael Naumann, Sr. 



Michael Naumann, Sr., aged 75, died 

 April 22, in his home, Sherman avenue, 

 Etna, near Pittsburgh, Pa. He was 

 born in Millvale and had been engaged 

 as a florist all his life. He was a mem- 

 ber of Stokes Lodge No. 796, Inde- 

 pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and 

 Samuel Harper council No. o03, F. P. A. 

 He leaves three sons, Charles, Michael, 

 Jr., and Conrad Naumann; one daugh- 

 ter, Mrs. Elizabeth Zigow; twenty-five 

 grandchildren and' four great-grand- 

 children. 



John Brown. 



John Brown, well known nurseryman, 

 old-time prospector and veteran of the 

 Civil war, died in Chico, Cal., April 25, 

 at the age of 77 years, having been 

 stricken with paralysis a week before. 

 Mr. Brown was born in Mobile, Ala. 

 He took part in the Civil war in a Mis- 

 souri regiment. For many years he 

 mined and prospected in the west, op- 

 erating in Nevada and many parts of 

 California, including Plumas county, 

 Cal., and the Magalia ridge. For the 

 last nine years he had been identified 

 with the Chico Nursery Co. He had no 

 immediate family, but there are rel- 

 atives in southern California and Mis- 

 souri. M. M. 



John D. Bamaley. 



John D. Ramaley, a retired florist of 

 St. Paul, Minn., died at the home of his 

 son in Wayzata, Minn., April 30. He 

 was 85 years old. Mr. Ramaley entered 

 the flower business about twenty years 

 ago, opening a store in St. Paul, in the 

 Platiron block. Seventh and St. Peter 

 streets. He was in the business until 



about three years ago, when, on account 

 of poor health, he was obliged to retire. 

 Mr. Ramaley will be kindly remembered 

 by everyone in the trade who had dealings 

 with him. He was extremely active for 

 a man of his years and took a keen in- 

 terest in all things pertaining to the 

 florists ' business. Owing to his removal 

 from St. Paul when he retired, not many 

 of his florist friends were at the funeral, 

 which was held at the Oakland cemetery 

 chapel, St. Paul, May 2. Mr. Ramaley 

 was the oldest florist, in point of age, in 

 the Twin Cities. 



DUTCH SHIPMENTS SI.0WINO UP. 



The importations of Holland nursery 



stock are decreasing more rapidly than 



expected. Last week's boat, the Am- 



steldyk, brought only the following: 



Vandlver, J. L. — 58 bags vegetable (eeda. 

 MaltUB & Ware — 338 ca plants, shrubs, etc. 

 Kuyper, P. C, & C!o. — 144 cb shrubs, trees, etc. 

 Ouwerkerk, P. — 17 ca trees and shrubs. 

 Lang, R. F. — 13 ca abrubs, 13 cs flower bulbs. 

 Richard, C. B., & Co. — 24 cs shrubs. 

 Speelman. C. J., & Sons — 4 ca bulbs. 

 Brown, W. B. — 15 cs plants and shrubs. 

 Grootendorat, F. J/, & Sons — 13 cs flower bulbs. 



The big Nieuw Amsterdam, which 

 came in May 2, had only small lots of 

 horticultural goods, as follows: 



Dreer, H, A., Inc. — 1 cse flower seed. 



Brown, W. B., account Ferry, D. M., & Co. — 

 1,416 bgs flower seeds, 1 cse do. 



Maltus & Ware — 28 cs plants, shrubs and 

 trees. 



The door will close on all Holland 



plants in three more weeks. 



WIND STORM INSUBANOE. 



Some time ago I saw an article in The 

 Review to the effect that the Society of 

 American Florists was contemplating an 

 organization for tornado insurance simi- 

 lar to the Florists' Hail Association. 

 Can you inform me if anything of the 

 kind has materialized? The cost of 

 tornado insurance on greenhouses has 

 been raised so greatly that we feel as 

 though it is almost prohibitive. A 

 policy for $2,500 once cost $18.75 for five 

 years; now the rate is $55 for one year. 

 We have three policies for that amount 

 and would like to know if it would be 

 possible to carry insurance without be- 

 ing robbed that way. Please let me 

 know, if you can do so, whatever would 

 help out in this matter. H. O. B. — la. 



The committee of th€ Society of 

 American Florists which investigated 

 wind storm insurance for greenhouses 

 could not see its way clear to action and 

 passed the matter along to the Hail As- 

 sociation. The directors of that organi- 

 zation were unable to see their way clear 

 to undertake such insurance and closed 

 the incident by the statement that the 

 charter of the Hail Association does not 

 permit it to write any other form of in- 

 surance. The State Florists' Associa- 

 tion of Indiana then undertook to or- 

 ganize an insurance company to write 

 all kinds of insurance on greenhouses, 

 but, after several months * hard work by 

 capable committees, gave it up as a bad 

 job. 



John G. Esler, who probably knows 

 more about greenhouse insurance than 

 any other man in the trade, says that 

 the risks involved are such that it ia 

 impossible to insure greenhouses against 

 wind damage except at rates which make 

 the project unattractive from all points 

 of view. F. D. Wallace, a Chicago 

 broker who has made a specialty of 

 greenhouse insurance, says it is possible 

 to insure carefully selected risks at rea- 



sonable rates, but that the writing of 

 wind storm insurance on greenhouses in 

 all localities or without consideration of 

 the type of construction can only be 

 done at rates that seem unreasonable to 

 the assured. Companies which have 

 tried it have been raising their rates 

 rapidly of late. 



TAZES ON OBOWINQ PLANTS. 



It vnll be a great favor if you, or some 

 reader of The Review, will give an inter- 

 pretation of the law of taxation, Sec- 

 tion 22, state of Indiana, which reads 

 as follows: "The stock of nurseries 

 growing or otherwise in the lands of 

 nurserymen and stock of florists in 

 greenhouses should be listed and as- 

 sessed as merchandise." 



Does this mean all stock in green- 

 houses shall be assessed, or only such 

 stock as can be thrown on the ^larket 

 at the time of assessment f 



It seems to me that a florist's grow- 

 ing crop should not be taxable any 

 more than is a farmer's growing crop. 

 Both are perishable and it is a question 

 what will be realized out of them. No 

 doubt the blooms on carnations, lilies, 

 snapdragons and other blooming plants 

 and all potted plants which could be 

 thrown upon the market should be given 

 in. C. W. M.— Ind. 



Nearly all of the states have adopted 

 some such tax law as that quoted by the 

 Indiana subscriber. In one way or an- 

 other the attempt is made to include 

 for tax purposes all the growing crops 

 of florists and nurserymen. In a gen- 

 eral way the courts uphold all such leg- 

 islation; unless it can be shown that the 

 florist or nurseryman is taxed out of 

 proportion to his neighbors he has lit- 

 tle chance for securing relief through 

 any legal process. By far the better 

 way to approach the proposition is to 

 ignore the legal aspect and go at the 

 assessor in a friendly spirit, to show 

 him that the growing stock of a nursery- 

 man or florist cannot be valued bv the 

 standards applied to other stocks of mer- 

 chandise. Assessors usually are reason- 

 able men and it is possible to show them 

 that a large part of the value of grow- 

 ing plants lies in the care which is yet 

 to be given them and that selling prices 

 are no measure of value for the simple 

 reason that it is impossible to make an 

 immediate and complete sale at any 

 price. 



It is assumed, of course, that no flo- 

 rist or nurseryman has any objection to 

 paying taxes that are not out of propor- 

 tion to what his neighbors pay. 



CHICAGO. 



The Market. 



It really is wonderful the business 

 that is being done in the Chicago whole- 

 sale cut flower market. There seems 

 to be no limit to the possibilities of sell- 

 ing flowers this season. Of course the 

 supply is nowhere near so large as it 

 has been in May of some other years, 

 but there is, nevertheless, an enormous 

 quantity of stock coming in and going 

 out every day. But it is not enough, 

 even at the prices asked. 



It takes no long memory to go back 

 to the time when growers were pleased 

 to get $5 to $6 per hundred for carna- 

 tions for Mothers' day; even at that, 

 some retailers protested they were too 

 high and frequently there was a break 



