20 



The Rorists^ Review 



Jo 





6, 1919. 



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Established, 1897. by O. L. GRANT. 



Pablished every Thursday by 

 Thk Florists' Publishing Co., 



620-B60Oaxton Balldinir, 



BOB Sooth Dearborn St., Ohlcagro. 



Tele., Wabash 8195. 



Registered cable address, 



Florrlew. Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 3. 1897, at the post-offlce at Ohl- 

 cago. 111., under the Act of March 

 8.1879. 



Subscription price, n.SO a year. 

 To Canada, $2.S0; to Europe. $3.00. 



Adverttalntr rates quoted npoD 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



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Results bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



A KICK may be received as a stimulus 

 or as a blow. 



In selling flowers, as in anything else, a 

 smile is worth a million dollars, and 

 doesn't cost a cent. 



Somebody has started the question, 

 "Who buys the most flowers, bachelors 

 or benedicts f" We pass. Ask the girls. 



Sometimes the acknowledgment of an 

 order saves a customer much anxiety. He 

 is likely to remember the fact favorably 

 at a later time. 



ABOUT the only consolation for the 

 florist who gets caught in a coal shortage 

 next winter will be the knowledge that 

 there are many others in the same boat. 



IJNrAVORABLE weather and scarcity of 

 labor have been the causes of so much 

 complaint by the extensive bulb growers 

 of southern France that the autumn crop 

 of Roman hyacinths is likely to be high- 

 priced, at least in the better grades. 



A Glasgow florist received, through 

 the American consul, orders for 700 laurel 

 wreaths to be placed on the. graves of 

 700 American soldiers who died in hospi- 

 tals or were drowned off the Scottish 

 «oast. He is a staunch supporter of the 

 American F. T. D, service. 



August Poehlmann suggests that 

 •every greenhouse owner in the country 

 «rect a signboard at his range bearing the 

 slogan, "Say It with Flowers." That 

 imould reach an enormous number of rail- 

 road and automobile tourists this sum- 

 mer. Most ranges are near railroad Imes 

 and automobile highways. 



High rises in the quotations of Hol- 

 land firms on hyacinth and tulip bulbs in 

 comparison with the moderate increases on 

 Guernsey daffodils and narcissi have 

 caused some British buyers to advocate 

 continuing the embargo on Dutch bulbs 

 until the bulb-growing industry is well re- 

 established in their own country, 



AlTER the interruption of its work by 

 the war, the French Chrysanthemum 

 Growers ' Society is planning to reorganize 

 and resume activities. There are some 

 regretted vacancies in its ranks, but most 

 of the old members are expected to as- 

 semble at a meeting in connection with 

 the chrysanthemum exhibition in Paris 

 next November. 



The enthusiasm of the Texas florists 

 in behalf of their convention promises 

 well for the trade in the south. 



What the Detroit Florists' Club did 

 for the American Peony Society last week 

 makes one look forward to the S. A. F. 

 meeting there with more than usual an- 

 ticipation. 



FEAST OE FAMINE. 



In the flower business it usually is 

 feast or famine: There are too many 

 orders or not enough; there is too much 

 stock or not enough. For eight consec- 

 utive months the trade enjoyed an un- 

 precedented demand, the chief difficulty 

 being to supply the stock. But it has 

 been a different story in June: There 

 has been a good business, but too much 

 stock, with the result that the trade, in 

 the larger cities at least, has suffered a 

 quick relapse to the ill conditions of a 

 year ago. 



There always has been a glut in the 

 spring; there probably always will be. 

 This year it came later than usual and 

 seemed worse than ever, perhaps by con- 

 trast with the excellent prices of the 

 preceding months. The glut has been 

 general all over the country, from the 

 Bockies to the Atlantic, probably due to 

 an unusually hot June following an ex- 

 ceptionally cool May. 



But the more severe a gflut, the 

 sharper the contraction when it ends, 

 usually. 



The rebound is due. Look out for it 

 and be ready to profit by it when it 

 comes, instead of getting stung. , 



INCREASE EMPLOYEE'S OUTPUT. 



Congressmen and other orators, when 

 they soar aloft in flights of rhetoric, 

 refer to the florist as the man who ' ' has 

 made two blades of grass grow where 

 one grew before." With this record 

 behind him, it looks as though the flo- 

 rist faces another such job in training 

 one pair of hands to do what two did 

 before. 



Only by securing more and better 

 work from his employees can the florist 

 keep up profitably with present prices. 

 That does not mean he must work his 

 help harder or longer. No, the tendency 

 in this trade is toward shorter hours, 

 just as in other occupations. But by 

 combining' hands and head — in other 

 words, by the use of careful thought and 

 planning — the actual results of one 

 man's labor may be increased consid- 

 erably. 



If one must pay nearly twice as much 

 for help as he paid a few years ago, the 

 obvious course is to train help to be 

 worth twice as much as it was before. 

 The most successful man today is the 

 man who can get the most out of his 

 employees, not by the methods of the 

 old-time slave-driver, but by the devel- 

 opment of hand, mind and judgment, by 

 increasing all the faculties that aid 

 their output. 



COURSES AT CORNELL. 



Now that conditions are again becom- 

 ing normal, there is a large call for ex- 

 perienced men in commercial floricul- 

 ture, and for gardeners on private es- 

 states. To meet this demand, the de- 

 partment of floriculture at the state 

 college of agriculture, at Cornell Uni- 

 versity, Ithaca, N. Y., is making plans 

 for unusually complete and attractive 

 short courses next winter. The course 



will begin November 5 and close with 

 Farmers' week, which comes about the 

 middle of February. 



It is thought that young men who 

 have had some practical experience, es- 

 pecially the sons of florists, will be 

 likely to take advantage of this oppor- 

 tunity to obtain scientific training at a 

 small cost. Among the subjects to be 

 taught will be greenhouse construction 

 and heating, general principles of green- 

 house practice, and the best cultural 

 practices in growing florists' crops. 



Persons interested in outdoor garden- 

 ing will be able to take courses in gar- 

 den flowers and other subjects needed 

 for proficiency in work in parks or on 

 private estates. 



Any who may contemplate taking 

 these courses will do well to get in 

 touch with the secretary of the college 

 of agriculture at Cornell University, 

 Ithaca, N. Y., or with the department 

 of floriculture at the same address. 



"DOING GREAT WORK." 



Everybody knows that the Classified 

 advertisements in The Review always 

 have met a real need in the trade, but 

 nevertheless it is pleasant to note that 

 they are increasing in value to buyers 

 and sellers. Like this: 



stock sold up. ClasBlfled ads have been doing 

 great work for us this spring. — C. L. Humphrey, 

 Zanesville, O., June 22, 1919. 



If you hear a man complain of the 

 cost of advertising you can be pretty 

 certain he spends a good bit of money 

 elsewhere than in The Review. 



THROWS AWAY EARNINGS, 



"I'm too old to take care of the busi- 

 ness myself, and I can 't get anyone to 

 run the place for me. So I am going to 

 sell out." 



Not just one man has said that, but 

 year after year a number of florists ex- 

 plain their situation in such words. And 

 after trying for months, or perhaps sev- 

 eral years, to make a profitable sale of 

 the business as a going concern, they 

 sell their equipment and take down the 

 sign when the lease runs out, or sacrifice 

 the entire business to get rid of it at the 

 only price offered. 



These florists could, they say, make 

 a comfortable living if they had the 

 youth and strength to conduct the busi- 

 ness. They could, too, derive an ade- 

 quate income if they could hire someone 

 to conduct it for them. The point is, 

 the trade is there. The capital, repre- 

 sented by the good-will and activity of 

 the concern, is able to pay dividends. 

 But all this the florist throws away — all 

 this that he has earned in his years of 

 business in that locality. His acquired 

 capital and his possible dividends there- 

 on he throws away for lack of able 

 help. He cannot find an experienced 

 man to run the business for him. 



The fatal error was made years be- 

 fore old age compelled such sacrifice. 

 When the florist was able to handle the 

 business himself, without hiring more 

 than occasional help, he failed to look 

 ahead. Instead of training an assistant, 

 who could in time have stepped into his 

 shoes, he went along content with the 

 satisfaction he found in the way things 

 were. A little foresightedness would 

 have given this florist in his old age an 

 income on the capital he was forced to 

 sacrifice when he closed out his busi- 

 ness. It seems too bad that he had to 

 throw those years' earnings away. 



