28 



The Florists^ Review 



August 21, 1919. 



what he gets out of it does not really live. He 

 existH, but existence is not the attainment. It 

 defeats its own ends. The great need of this 

 critical moment is that men should think of what 

 they can give, not what they can get. The need 

 of the hour is the extinction of seltlshness. 



Fast, Present and Future. 



And now, friends, for a brief revieV 

 of our work of the past, present and fu- 

 ture. Thirty-five years ago this society 

 was organized, as our charter reads, 

 ' ' for the development and advancement 

 of floriculture and horticulture in all 

 their branches, to increase and diffuse 

 the knowledge thereof, and for kindred 

 purposes in the interest of floriculture 

 and horticulture." 



Let us see how well we have lived up 

 to the precepts laid down for us by the 

 grand old pioneers of our organization. 

 Statistics speak for the wonderful ad- 

 vancement of both floriculture and hor- 

 ticulture and I shall not burden you 

 with figures on that at this time. 



Knowledge has certainly been spread 

 over this land, creating a love for the 

 beautiful, through the various mediums 

 of our society. It will not be amiss here 

 to name just a few. The school gardens 

 committee, under the splendid guidance 

 of the chairman, Benjamin Hammond, 

 has done and is still doing a great work 

 along this line. The American Eose So- 

 ciety, with its long list of both amateur 

 and professional members, is spreading 

 the gospel of, " A Rose for Every Home 

 and a Bush for Every Garden, ' ' through 

 the publication of the rose manual. 

 Time can only tell the results of this 

 great work. Many more active influ- 

 ences in the past, as the national flower 

 shows, the convention garden and others, 

 could be mentioned, but suffice it to say 

 that this society has truly lived up to 

 the mandate of its charter, in the 

 spreading of knowledge of floriculture 

 and horticulture, from its beginning. 



Just now we are in the midst of the 

 greatest campaign of publicity in flori- 

 culture the world has ever known. Or- 

 namental horticulture is also coming in 

 for its full share in this great campaign. 

 Aside from the paid advertisements, we 

 are getting a lot of valuable knowledge 

 before the public through the promotion 

 bureau, for which the material is got out 

 in the secretary's office at little cost to 

 the society. Of this you will hear more 

 in detail later from the secretary's re- 

 port. This is just a citation to show the 

 increase and diffusion of knowledge of 

 the various branches of floriculture and 

 horticulture. 



Kindred Organizations. 



What about the kindred purposes in 

 the interest of floriculture and horticul- 

 ture! First of all, we have the Florists' 

 Hail Association, a product of this so- 

 ciety, organized thirty-two vears ago. 

 It gives protection to over l"600 green- 

 house establishments, with over 45,000,- 

 000 feet of glass insured, has paid out to 

 date over $465,000 in losses to its mem- 

 bers and has at present a reserve fund 

 of over $47,000. Of course, ^nhen we 

 think of hail insurance we tliiiik of J. 

 G. Esler, who has faithfully steered this 

 wonderful by-product along the road to 

 success, from its installation to the pres- 

 ent date. 



Next we have the Florists' Telefrraph 

 Delivery Association, of much later 

 origin, but such a wonderful growing 

 medium that it, too, bids fair to vie 

 with the parent organization in the near 

 future for numbers in n)eriibership. Or- 

 ganized in 1909, it has iu)\v a member 

 ship of over 1,100 and transmitted hv 



telegraph last year orders to the amount 

 of approximately $1,000,000, and the 

 worthy secretary, Mr. Pochelon, informs 

 me this is bound to increase from thirty 

 to fifty per cent annually. 



This is, without a doubt, the greatest 

 medium that floriculture has through 

 which to spread the gospel of publicity. 

 We cannot think of this young giant of 

 an organization without bowing our 

 heads in sorrow for the great loss to the 

 trade and to humanity of its founder and 

 ex-president, J. A. Valentine. We are 

 every mindful, also, of the efficient sec-- 

 retary of this organization, A, Pochelon, 

 who with untiring efforts has really been 

 the bulwark of its great progress. I 

 plead with every member of our society 

 to give this wonderful offspring all the 

 support you can by assisting its officers 

 and especially the secretary in putting 

 the retail division of floriculture on a 

 higher plane than ever before through 

 efficiency and service. You cannot but 

 help in benefiting the entire trade by 

 rendering unselfish service to any one 

 branch thereof. 



In addition to the above named, we 

 have numerous other kindred organiza- 

 tions whose origin can be directly traced 

 to this parent society, such as the Amer- 

 ican Carnation Society, the Rose So- 

 ciety, the Chrysanthemum, the Sweet 

 Pea, the Peony and the Gladiolus So- 

 cieties. The latter has its annual ex- 

 hibition at this meeting and the beauti- 

 ful variety of blooms shown here, I am 

 sure, speak for the wonderful progress 

 of this popular summer flower. Each of 

 these kindred organizations has done a 

 vast amount of good and bids fair to 

 make even much greater j)rogress in the 

 future. 



Trade AfUiatlon. 



We have covered the past and touched 

 on the present briefly; now let us look 

 into the future just a bit. What this 

 society needs to boost more than 

 any other one thing, for the future suc- 

 cess, is closer trade affiliation. We have 

 in the making one of the finest retail or- 



fanizations in the world, the Florists' 

 'elegraph Delivery Association. Now 

 we need a national wholesale and com- 

 mission men's organization and in ad- 

 dition to this we need a national grow- 

 ers ' organization. These three branches 

 of our trade should be thoroughly or- 

 ganized and through their proper ac- 

 credited representatives should be rep- 

 resented in the executive body of this 

 society. 



These branches of the trade should 

 not be organized one against the other, 

 as is sometimes the narrow view; but 

 rather for the purpose of better coopera- 

 tion with one another for the mutual 

 benefit of all. This can be done and I 

 predict will be done in the near future. 



I just want to briefly call to mind a 

 few topics that even now demand such 

 cooperation. First of all, a credit sys- 

 tem is needed for each branch, a stand- 

 ard grading system for both plants and 

 cut flowers, and a knowledge of the cost 

 of doing business and the cost of produc- 

 tion is necessary for the success of 

 either. We also need more complete sta- 

 tistics of the various branches of our 

 business. I could mention numerous 

 other items that we have immediate use 

 for to carry on our business more suc- 

 cessfully, but I just name these few for 

 your earnest consideration, 



I am glad the retailers have such a 



[ConUnued on patre 71.] 



IN any sales canijjaign there are es- 

 sential points tliat must be answered: 



First. Have you a powerful product 

 to market? 



Second. Can you convince the public 

 of its necessity? 



Tliird. Is it worth its price? 



If you answer these questions in a 

 satisfactory manner, then your road is 

 fairly level. 



Let us investigate and see. 



I'dwer is a wonderful thing, whether 

 it be the power of great machinery, of 

 individual effort, or of money. The 

 most ])otential power lies back of good 

 organization, the organization of prin- 

 ci])les for the advancement and good of 

 society. Our F. T. D. represents one of 

 the best exanijjles of an organization 

 for tlie good of all mankind, because it 

 is a direct individual appeal to the 

 higher ideals of all organized society. 

 It ajipeals to the true sentiment of hu- 

 mans, til" love of home and dear ones 

 and tlie uiiselfisli i)rinciple of "doing 

 uiild otliers," the lofty ideal of repay- 

 inji (dili^atioiis by personal thought in 

 tlic selection of flowers. 



Tlic .'iddress of F. (". W. r.rown. i>f the ,1. M. 

 i;,Tsscr Co.. ('Icvclniirl. (lelivcnMl before tlie S<>- 

 lii'tv i>f Americiin Florists :it Detroit. .Viinnst 20. 



Unique Merchandise. 



Ours is the only material in com- 

 merce that conveys expression of joy, 

 sorrow, love, hope and happiness, and 

 reflects the life-giving sunshine of the 

 great outdoors. The most delicate ex- 

 pression of sentiments of love and re- 

 spect, condolence, cheer, sympathy, con- 

 gratulation, faith and personal thought 

 are possible to transmit almost instant- 

 ly to any part of the civilized world 

 through the medium of our F. T. D. 

 and flowers. And this is our organiza- 

 tion and our merchandise. 



The multimillionaire, the pauper, 

 royalty in its palace, the shop girl in the 

 factory all read the same message of 

 love and hope in a flower. The extreme, 

 cold, calculating scientist, the poor 

 laborer see in flowers a more expressive 

 message than is possible by written 

 word or through any other medium and 

 they are waiting for the message, know- 

 ing that no distance is so great but that 

 expression of their feelings can be con- 

 veyed through the* subtle eloquence of 

 flowers through the powerful agency of 

 our F. T. D. 



What Are You Doing? 



Wiiat are you doing to tell the public 

 of tlie service vou can render? What 



