

:rlllllilllllllllJl!'Milll| IPMIII.l,-- 



THE HIGH COST 



<^ OF BUILDING 



The phase of the florists' trade that is most subject to the influence of 

 conditions in other industries is that of greenhouse building. How the pres- 

 ent industrial situation affects the interests of the grower who wishes to add to 

 his glass is a matter of vital importance. 



FTER a prosperous season 

 that has put money into 

 the pocket of every florist, 

 and in anticipation of a 

 year that promises good 

 returns for all the stock 

 w-^, ^ tliat can be produced, 

 i-^**®^ growers have been placing 



their orders for additions 



to their present glass area 

 in the praiseworthy desire to increase 

 their capacity in response to the de- 

 mand. During the war everyone econo- 

 mized, for more reasons than one. Now 

 that restraint is off and prospects seem 

 excellent for the coming year's business, 

 the natural result is that everyone who 

 can, seeks to make up for lost time. 



But the difficulty is that the manu- 

 facturing industries of the country can- 

 not keep pace with the calls made upon 

 them. Every trade feels the handicap. 

 Ihe greenhouseman who wants to in- 

 crease his capacity has felt the effects 

 ot the industrial situation in two ways 

 lu ^^} ^^^* "^ building materials and 

 the difficulty of procuring them even 

 at high prices. When he writes to the 

 construction companies for estimates he 

 finds the figures far differ- 

 ent from those of two or 

 three years ago, when he 

 ^^ his last building. 

 When he has placed an or- 

 "Pr for construction or for 

 materials, the delivery is 

 quite a different matter 

 from that of other days. 



Back to the Source. 



Yet the 



Familiar himself with labor difficul- 

 ties, the greenhouseman realizes to some 

 extent what other industries are up 

 against in the matter of help. And that 

 problem is perhaps the biggest of all 

 in the industrial fields. Raw labor is 

 scarce, and skilled labor is scarcer. The 

 men who left their occupations during 

 the war did not all go back to them; 

 many, many did not. The workmen 

 who have been hired to replace them 

 have not had time in the few months 

 since the armistice and the beginning 

 of demobilization to acquire the skill 

 of the men who left. Moreover, in many 

 cases men cannot be obtained to take 

 the places of those who left. Factories 

 and mills are simply short-handed, and 

 cannot work at their full capacity, even 

 though orders pile up at prices which 

 make it worth while to pay high for 

 labor if it could be obtained. The coun- 

 try lacks nearly 7,000,000 men in the 

 labor market, according to government 

 statistics. If, out of a population of 

 110,000,000 people, one places the num- 

 ber of workers as high as 40,000,000, the 

 ])ereentage of loss is an exceedingly 

 licavy one. Mills and factories cannot 



— concerns of 

 ^■hich the greenhousemen 

 ""■'lor are the same as in 

 former years. The men 

 )v>th whom they deal are 

 '" Roneral the same. One 

 '■•■'""Ot find the reason for 

 '"(' change in them. The. 

 cause lies farther on; it 



los in the industries upon 

 \^l"ch they are dependent 

 [;"■ the materials of con- 

 s' ruction. 



If one goes beyond 

 ^"^m, to the sources from 

 H iich their supplies come, 



y<>?pts nearer to the root 

 [•[ <ho difficulties. There 

 •'l^ in each of the indus- 



ri',? J^'"'''' furnish mate- 



' IS for greenhouse build- 



; 1^'. conditions that ex- 



thn ^ situation which 

 ', , ^'•ower faces when he 



•'"'•'^ to his glass area. 



THE CONTRAST 

 IN COST 



1916 



Pecky Cypress, per 1000 feet $18 00 



No 2 Common Bench lumber 22 00 



Tank Cypress 49.00 



Steel, basic price 1.10 



Glass, per box 2.50 



Pipe, per ton 39.00 



Cement, per barrel 2.00 



Paint, per gallon 1 .70 



work at full capacity because they are 

 short-handed; and when they can obtain 

 sufficient help the work is much slower 

 because the present workmen are lack- 

 ing in the skill the old ones possessed.^ 



Especially are these conditions felt in 

 the lumber industry. And .that is the 

 one which is the chief source of diffi- 

 culty for greenhouse builders just now. 

 The mills have more business than they 

 can possibly take care of. Those who 

 have the largest and easiest orders are 

 served first. If there is any difficulty, 

 one's order is not filled at all. Big in- 

 terests pay cash at the mills for their 

 orders. Special orders for greenhouse 

 material must wait. The construction 

 company which gets a few carloads of 

 random lots is lucky. And the prices; 

 compare them with those of 1916. In 

 bench lumber, pecky cypress is $38 per 

 thousand feet as against $18 tbteeVears 

 ago. No. 2 common bench lumWr which 

 cost in 1916 $22 is today $50. And 11/2- 

 inch tank cypress which was then $49 

 has gone to $97.50. 



A similar set of conditions obtains in 



the steel industry also. The biggest 



source of annoyance to the greenhouse 



trade is not the rise in 



price from $1.10 to $2.45. 



The steel mills prefer to 

 turn out the easiest sorts 

 of work, especially in 

 larg? quantities. In that 

 way can they get the most 

 out of their unskilled or 

 little trained help. Now 

 that general construction 

 work is being resumed, 

 the mills are not particu- 

 larly anxious to roll the 

 special sizes that green- 

 house builders require. In 

 comparison with other 

 kinds of orders, such jobs 

 are too small and too diffi- 

 cult to be attractive when 

 there arc plenty of the 

 other kind. Dates of or- 

 ders sometimes give prece- 

 dence, but not always. 



The G-lass Market. 



1919 



$38.00 



50 00 



97.50 



2 45 



6.25 



77.00 



390 



350 



Complications enter into 

 the glass market. The 

 cost, again, is only part 

 of the tale; $6.25 is a stiff 

 advance over $2.50 per 

 box, but one would be 

 glad to get it at that price 

 if it were up to require- 

 ments. Lack of skilled 

 labor and rush orders for 



