18 



The Florists^ Review 



OUTOBBB 30, 1919. 



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TATE'S TIPS 



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MICE IN MONET BAQS. 



Prosperity, Profits and the C. P. A. 



Recently a story was told in my pres- 

 ence of a retail florist who does a large 

 business of what might be considered 

 the better class, a business that has 

 been often envied by those wha were 

 less fortunate or who, at least, supposed 

 themselves to be so. But never was the 

 old adage more true that "all is not 

 gold that glitters." The story, as told 

 by the man referred to, is as follows: 

 That, aside from the six weeks or two 

 months during the epidemic of flu last 

 year, his sales this year were fifty per 

 cent mure than last year's and yet, when 

 a trial balance was struck, he just about 

 broke even. There is no one that real- 

 izes more fully than this man himself 

 that a serious leak exists somewhere in 

 his system of bookkeeping and at the 

 present time his books are in the hands 

 of expert accountants, whose business it 

 will be to find out where the trouble is. 

 When we are doing a large volume of 

 business is the time that most care 

 should be given to every detail, but at 

 such times we are prone to grow lax. 



Need of Cost Accounting. 



In a great many instances, the retail 

 florist establishments of this country 

 have grown from humble beginnings. 

 Many cases could be enumerated of a 

 man and his wife opening a small store, 

 where they did all of the work them- 

 selves, and when a funeral design was 

 finished, the man would deliver it him- 

 self by street car. Every penny was 

 saved and, as the business grew, there 

 were often children growing with it, 

 who devoted most of their time out of 

 school to helping in the business. Yes, 

 and let us be honest with ourselves, how 

 often was not school neglected for this 

 purpose? The result of this was that 

 these stores from beginnings of the 

 humblest kind have grown into enter- 

 prises that have, in too many cases, 

 gone beyond the business grasp of 

 their owners. In the last decade the 

 retail florists' business has progressed 

 by leaps and bounds and, owing to the 

 perishable nature of its commodities, it 

 needs more careful cost accounting than 

 any other of which I can think. Take, 

 for instance, the business of the man re- 

 fer red to above. Does it not seem nat- 

 ural to expect, if his business increased 

 nfty per cent over last year, that his 

 profits should have increased by a like 

 amount f 



Making Sure of Maintenance. 



Now let us get down to a simple ex- 

 ample in arithmetic: Say a retailer puts 

 in a stock of one dozen roses, for which 

 he pays $1; that is the cost to him in 

 the wholesale house. These roses are 

 now his goods; he makes his living by 

 disposing of them at a profit over and 

 above what they have cost him. To do 

 this, he is obliged to maintain an or- 

 ganization great or small depending 

 upon the volume and the class of busi- 

 ness he does. To the cost price of this 

 dozen roses must be added 100 per cent, 



or another $1, and the question every 

 retailer has to be sure of is, will this 

 dollar maintain his organization and 

 leave him a fair margin of profit! 



Hunting for the Mice. 



Now I can hear my readers saying, 

 this is a most simple proposition. All 

 you have to do is compute your over- 

 head expenses and the result is simple. 

 True, there is nothing else to it but 

 this. This, however, is just the point 

 that prompted this article. In comput- 

 ing overhead charges, do we go far 

 enough f There was a time when rent, 

 heat, light, insurance and perhaps a 

 horse and wagon constituted the bur- 

 den of overhead expense, but in these 

 days of modern business, with the many 

 new devices for transacting business, we 

 are obliged to go farther. Let us sup- 

 pose the retailer owns his own prop- 

 erty; interest on the value of that prop- 

 erty should be charged just as faithfully 

 as if the landlord called once a month 

 to collect his rent. Or again, we will 

 say that the dozen roses we a^e consid- 

 ering have to be delivered in the sub- 

 urbs; is the depreciation on the truck, 

 the gasoline and the chauffeur's salary 

 considered f There are any number of 

 such items, which, like mice, are gnawing 

 at that $1 margin and every cent which 

 is taken from that dollar is just so 

 much out of the pocket of the one who 

 has to stand the brunt and worry of the 

 business. I could write like this in- 



definitely, but I am an optimist and I 

 am just as sure that the man referred 

 to in the beginning of this article is 

 going to find where the trouble is and 

 rectify it, as I am that every flower 

 store throughout the country is going to 

 go along with the reconstruction that 

 every business in the world, I might 

 fiay, is undergoing and place the florists' 

 business on the high plane where it be- 

 longs. 



Auditing and Advancement. 



Now, assuming that our gross profits 

 will not maintain our organizations, 

 what is to be donef Again the solution 

 is simple. We must either increase our 

 profits or reduce our overhead. If we 

 can do neither of these and are wise, 

 we will close our business. The time 

 is now here when every florist should 

 make it a point to see that he has a 

 system of bookkeeping installed that is 

 as near perfect as it is possible for him 

 to get and then have his books audit- 

 ed from time to time by outsiders. They 

 may be quick to pick up items that fa- 

 miliarity will cause those who are con- 

 stantly working on them to overlook. 

 Some of the largest concerns in our 

 country have done this at regular inter- 

 vals. As I write this, I am reminded of 

 one of the largest ocean transportation 

 companies of this country, whose busi- 

 ness runs into the millions. Each month 

 it has expert accountants audit its 

 books. If such a corporation is so par- 

 ticular, how much more important is it 

 that the florist, no matter how humble 

 his business, should be particular! The 

 principle will apply to the smallest flo- 

 rist in the country as well as to the 

 largest. Take the dozen roses referred 

 to, multiply them b^ any number you see 

 fit and my point will still hold true. 



Tate. 



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FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 



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MANTTBE BETTER FOR LETTUCE. 



What kind of commercial fertilizer 

 would you recommend for growing let- 

 tuce under glass? We have used a 

 heavy coat of manure, but would like 

 to add a good fertilizer. 



W. D. & S.— Ind. 



I do not know of any fertilizer which 

 will in any respect take the place of 

 manure for lettuce under glass. The 

 most successful growers of head lettuce 

 depend on manure entirely. Possibly 

 leaf lettuces of the Curled Simpson type 

 might do fairly well with fertilizer, but 

 even in their case manure would be 

 likely to give much . superior results, 

 particularly where the soil is heavy. 

 The soil that lettuces do best in is a 

 light one, inclined to be sandy, to which 

 liberal applications of manure are made 

 before planting each crop. In such a 

 soft soil the roots will penetrate deeply 

 and the surface will dry out quickly 

 after watering, thus preventing leaf- 

 rot. I would strongly advise you to 

 stick to manure and not to try fer- 

 tilizers at all. Lettuce roots penetrate 

 deeply and usually a watering of the 

 soil before planting will carry a crop 

 through, with the possible exception of 

 one or two light sprayings. The humus 



in manure and the fact that it holds 

 moisture so long make it far superior 

 to any chemical fertilizer that can be 

 used. C. W. 



STORING SWEET POTATOES. 



I would like advice as to the keeping 

 of sweet potatoes for seed. Is it advis- 

 able to use the building over a boiler 

 for such storage, or would the heat from 

 below cause trouble? How many thick- 

 nesses of patent siding should be used in 

 the floor and wall? I shall appreciate 

 any information you can give me on this 

 subject. C. R. K.— O. 



It would seem unwise to store sweet 

 potatoes over a boiler pit. It might be 

 done, but it would caJl for careful con- 

 struction to exclude the heat, which 

 otherwise would come through the floor 

 and also flow up along the sides of the 

 storage house. 



The storage houses in most general 

 use both in the north and the south are 

 frame structures built entirely above 

 ground, although there are a few houses 

 in the north that possess a basement or 

 semi-basement story used for the storage 

 of sweet potatoes. L. C. Corbett says 

 that these frame structures are so built 

 that their contents are exposed in the 



