



Janoabt 15, 1920. 



The Rorists^ Review 



21 



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LIVE FLOWERS MAKE GROWERS' ^LIVINGI 



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SHOULD SELL FSESK FLOWERS. 



Grower Needs Reciprocity. 



Eose growing — with the cost of coal 

 two to three times pre-war prices; help 

 and fertilizer double those prices; boxes, 

 express, glass and lumber three times 

 their former cost; repairs and steam 

 pipe more than double; boiler tubes six 

 times and brass goods four times their 

 former cost — would call for an increase 

 in price to at least three times what the 

 pre-war prices were. Money invested 

 should have a larger return of interest 

 and also a reasonable profit. The profit 

 on the capital that I have invested in 

 the business has not returned a profit 

 as high as six per cent in the last thirty 

 years. If I had invested my money in 

 anything as permanent as dwelling 

 houses it would bring at least ten per 

 cent, with much less risk. 



The retailer has laid the foundation 

 of his business on the rose, which he 

 could buy every day in the year and 

 make the greatest appeal to the public. 

 The rose is the best friend the retailer 

 ever had. But what happens now on 

 the greatest day the rose has ever 

 known, when the heart of the nation ap- 

 peals to you for something to lay on the 

 graves of the departed heroes from all 

 walks of life, that will express the truest 

 and highest sentiments? What do you 

 offer them? Some gaudy, axtificial flow- 

 ers, artistically arranged with some 

 well preserved corpses of dead magnolia 

 leaves, and why? Because the profits 

 are large and you do not have to give it 

 to the grower? 



Has Rose Orowing Declined? 



I used to grow 200,000 roses for 

 Memorial day, and 6 cents was the bot- 

 tom price a few years ago. Now I grow 

 50,000, and IVj cents has been the bot- 

 tom price. This is what the retailers 

 have done to their best friend, the rose. 

 When the day comes that we have a 

 fair chance to get back some of these 

 losses, the whole retail trade gets to- 

 gether to block their best friend, the 

 rose. Why? Because there has grown 

 up in the minds of the retailers a most 

 unfair, unreasonable, diabolical idea 

 that they have something to gain by 

 taking away from the grower what 

 really belongs to him. This unfair at- 

 titude of the retailer to the grower is 

 doing more harm to the business than all 

 the advertising campaigns can do good. 



The growers need, just now, high- 

 grade stores which will advertise real 

 live flowers and plants that the people 

 really want to buy, and not so much dry 

 and artificial goods. "Say It with 

 Flowers" does not mean "Say It with 

 Artificial Flowers and Dead Stuff." We 

 are asked to pay to advertise the retail 

 business. Why should we pay if they 

 switch the business to some other line 

 as soon as there is a chance to make a 

 profit? 



Will Retailers Give Support? 



What encouragement or guarantee of 

 even fair dealing have the retailers to 

 offer the grower to build new glass and 



At the meetinsr of the Boston Florists' Asso- 

 ciation January 6, William H. Elliott, chairman 

 of the growers' committee, presented the stand- 

 point of that branch of the trade In the force- 

 ful words below. At next month's meeting the 

 retailers will voice their attitude. Mr. Elliott 

 presents vigorously one side of the case; readers 

 of The Review perhaps will wish to carry the 

 discussion farther in these columns and are In- 

 vited to do so. In the aim of securing better 

 coSperation and increased prosperity for all. 



grow more stock and better grades of 

 stock? We all know there is a short 

 supply in the market now. What are 

 the retailers doing to increase it? What 

 encouragement do they give the violet 

 grower? That line has been advertised 

 more than any other, and the retailers 

 seem to take all the profit. The unfair- 

 ness of the retailers shows itself when 

 they call a meeting of this association 

 to plan ways of better carrying on 

 Christmas business and the growers are 

 left out. I do not care what they did or 

 did not do; the condition of the mind 



William H. Elliott. 



that led to it is the vital defect. It was 

 a great time for a heart-to-heart talk 

 with the growers. It looks as if cut 

 flowers were no longer needed to do 

 Christmas business, at least in the minds 

 of the retailers. 



What are we going to do about it? 

 We are going to get together and have 

 a better understanding. Such meetings 

 as these, representing all the branches 

 of the business, ought to help. These 

 misunderstandings are the .stuff that 

 strikes and unreasonable demands and 

 exterminating conflicts are made of. 



Wliat Can Be Done? 



A few things that can be done: 

 Allow the grower to make the price, 

 and do not think that dickering and 

 haggling are going to get you anything. 

 It is an unfair mind that wants to buy 

 lower than others. This is the only. busi- 

 ness where this method is practiced, 

 where the buyer expects to make the 

 price. The grower or salesman cannot 

 put his price too high. If he does, he 



does not sell his stock and it comes down 

 mighty quick. He has a right to all his 

 stock will bring, properly handled. 

 Could you expect to do business with 

 your employees on any such basis as 

 making a new rate of pay every morn- 

 ing? 



When the price goes up, the retailer 

 puts the extra price on to his goods and 

 gets his money back from the customer. 

 When the price goes down, the grower 

 has to stand the loss. There is no one he 

 can put it on to. If we have a commit- 

 tee to act on this matter, there are many 

 things that can be brought up. 



If there are any stores taking two per 

 cent off the grower's account, I think 

 it should stop, as it is an unfair hold-up 

 for the smaller growers. 



I hope we can find a way to stop the 

 slipshod method of signing sales slips. 

 It would take no longer to sign a name 

 in full than to make some kind of hen's 

 tracks and call it a signature. The er- 

 rand boys get wise to this plan and sign 

 in the same way. It takes time and a 

 lot of abuse to get a slip properly signed. 

 Not one signature in ten, as they , are 

 now made, could prove anything in a 

 court of law. 



There are many other smaller matters 

 which might be brought up before a 

 committee, but that we do not need to 

 talk over here. 



BELaiAIf GLASS OUTPXTT. 



Greenhousemen who, viewing the pres- 

 ent high prices of domestic glass, cast 

 an eye at the situation in Belgium, see 

 little prospect of relief from that quar- 

 ter. The present output of window glass 

 in Belgium is estimated at fifty per cent 

 of the production prior to the war and 

 amounts to between 16,000,000 and 19,- 

 000,000 square feet per month. The cost 

 of production is exceedingly high; the 

 average advance in labor cost is esti- 

 mated at about 150 per cent, and fur- 

 ther advances are anticipated. Good 

 window-glass blowers are said to make 

 up to 2,000 francs per month. The de- 

 mand, however, is enormous and the 

 prices are extraordinarily high, so that 

 producers are not offering much re- 

 sistance to requests for higher wagea 

 Most of the window glass made in Bel- 

 gium at present is being sold on the 

 home market; smaller quantities are go- 

 ing to France, Netherlands and Great 

 Britain. Practically nothing is being 

 shipped to the United States, but the 

 manufacturers expect to become active 

 in this market as soon as increased pro- 

 duction permits. In the first nine 

 months of 1913 the exports of ordinary 

 window glass from Belgium were 150,- 

 813,351 kilograms, with a value of 33,- 

 178,981 francs. During the same period 

 in 1919 were exported 13,249,033 kilo- 

 grams, which was valued at 19,474,146 

 francs. 



B^EF ANSWERS. 



T. E. M., Ore. — Address Charles E. 

 Mueller, Wichita, Kan. 



C. W. P., N. Y.— Send a sample of 

 the water to your state experiment sta- 

 tion at Geneva for analysis and opinion. 



