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The Florists' Review 



J 



March 11. 1920 



rangements for the dinner at the Hotel 

 Biltmore on the evening of March 17 

 as completed. Many tables had been 

 reserved for parties, and members de- 

 siring individual seats, he said, had bet- 

 ter put in their reservations promptly, 

 as there was a possibility of the limit of 

 accommodations being speedily reached. 

 Reservations for about sixty seats were 

 made that evening, which carried the 

 committoe over the guarantee mark. 

 The price of tickets, $5 each, he pointed 

 out, covered only the actual cost of the 

 menu furnished, so members would re- 

 ceive value greatly in excess of their 

 payment. Three hundred persons, at 

 the lowest estimate, would, he said, be 

 in attendance at the dinner. 



The secretary announced that the de- 

 mand for trade tickets from members was 

 not so active as it might be. President 

 Henshaw, therefore, started a drive 

 among those present, which resulted in 

 the sale of about 1,600 tickets. 



The matter of holding a * ' Say It with 

 Flowers" week during the flower show 

 was discussed, but after considerable 

 discussion the project was tabled until 

 next fall. 



New Members. 



The following were elected to mem- 

 bership in the club: C. B. Schultheis, 

 College Point, N. Y.; A. F. Kohlmann, 

 Tompkinsville, N. Y.; Samuel Salzburg, 

 New York city; Anton Ruzicka, Chat- 

 ham, N. J.; Richard Gerling, Irvington, 

 N. J.; A. M. Campbell, Philadelphia, 

 Pa.; L. Lowenthal, New York city; 

 Charles Moles, New York city. 



The following were nominated for 

 election at the next meeting: John N. 

 Champion, New Haven, Conn.; Daniel 

 A. Laird, 3014 Fulton street, Brooklyn, 

 N. Y.; K. H. Leevat, 32 Broadway, New 

 York; Herrman Berkowitz, 2188 Broad- 

 way, New York; J. Max Nitzschke, 2188 

 Broadway, Now York; Harry M. Cooke, 

 Plattsburg, N. Y.; Fred A. Hoffncr, 

 914 Washington street, Hoboken, N. J.; 

 Michael J. Watson, 43 Barclay street. 

 New York; Herman Mamitsch, Rock- 

 ville Center, N. Y.; A. H. Brown, Green- 

 wich, Conn.; H. Bergman, Far Rock- 

 away, N. Y.; S. A. Dawson, Grand Cen- 

 tral Palace, New York. 



Messrs. Salzburg, Lowenthal and 

 Ruzicka, newly elected members, were 

 present and were introduced to the 

 meeting. 



Talks and Reports. 



Charles H. Totty read an oxc?llcnt 

 paper on "The Development of Rose 

 Growing from a Cut Flower Stand- 

 point," and was given a rising vote of 

 thanks. 



Anton Schultheis, one of the club's 

 delegates to the recent meeting of the 

 New York Federation of Horticultural 

 Clubs and Societies, reported action 

 taken at that meeting and introduced 

 the following resolution, which was 

 ])assed unanimously and copies of which 

 wore ordered to be sent to the finance 

 committee and the committee on ap- 

 ]>ropriationK of the New York state as- 

 sembly: 



"Kesolvpd, Tliat tins club urties the finance 

 committee at Alban.v to report favorahl.v on tlie 

 funds demanded to create additional greenlioiises 

 and buildings to properly take care of the dif- 

 ferent new matters coming up continually in the 

 line of agriculture, floriculture and horticulture 

 as recommended by and adopted by the confer- 

 ence of farmers and horticulturists, florists, etc., 

 at Ithaca, N. Y., December 5, 1919." 



Arthur Herrington, as chairman of 

 the essay and lecture committee, an- 

 nounced that the lecturer at the next 



meeting would be J. P. Mossman, of 

 Hackensack, N. J., and his subject, 

 "Raising Orchids from Seed." At the 

 May meeting Mr. Herrington himself 

 will be lecturer, and his subject, "The 

 Iris," with lantern illustrations. For 

 the June meeting he hoped to secure a 

 lecture by J. Otto Thilow, of Henry A. 

 Dreer, Inc., Philadelphia, covering his 

 recent trip to the Pacific islands and 

 Australia. 



H. B. May, as chairman of the ex- 

 hibition committee, announced that the 

 committee hoped to stage at the next 

 meeting some splendid exhibits of 

 orchids and of bulbous flowers. 



C. Lowther, for the transportation 

 committee, reported that his committer 

 had for presentation an arrangement 

 for travel to the Cleveland convention, 

 Monday, August 16, by way of the day 

 boat to Albany and thence by train to 

 Cleveland. Anyone wishing to leave in 

 the evening by train from New York 

 could join the party at Albany, Another 

 plan was to proceed by rail to Buffalo, 

 thence by boat to Cleveland. Action in 

 the matt?r was deferred. 



A vote of thanks was passed to the 

 house and entertainment committee for 

 the enjoyable spread served in the club 's 

 refectory that evening. 



Exhibits and Awards. 



The following awards were made to 

 the exhibits shown: 



Chas. H. Totty Co., Madison, N. J.— Two 

 vases of the new rose, FraQK W. Dunlop; vote 

 uf thanks. 



H. Mamitsch, Rockville Center, N. Y. — Vase 

 of sweet peas, sport of Rose Queen; scored 92 

 points; preliminary certificate. 



Johji Canning, superintendent for Adolph Lew- 

 isohn, Ardsley, N. Y. — Vase of Leptosyne mar- 

 itima; certificate of merit. 



H. M. Robinson & Co., New York. — Vase of 

 colored freeslas; higlily commended. 



E. Fardel, Great Neck, L, I., N. Y.— Vase of 

 yellow freeslas; certificate of merit. 



A. H. Brown, Greenwich, Conn. — Vase of seed- 

 ling carnations: vote of thanks. The committee 

 would like to see it again. 



' A. Denieusy, Urooklyn, N. Y. — Vase of carna- 

 tions, sport of Enchantress; scored 86 points; 

 preliminary certificate. 



Traendly & Schenck, Rowayton, Conn.— Vase 

 of new rose. No. 83, dark pink sport of Ophelia; 

 scored 86 points; preliminary certificate. 



A. N. Plerson, Inc., Cromwell, Conn. — Vase of 

 new deep pink carnation, Hope Henshaw; scored 

 88 points; preliminary certificate. 



H. B. Marinelli, Montvale, N. J. — Two vases 

 Mulmalson carnations; vote of thanks. 



J. H. P. 



NEW METHODS OF BX7II.DINa. 



Cut Cost of Production. 



In these days of reconstruction, the 

 florists' business is entering upon a 

 new era. We hear of large corporations 

 making large investments in greenhouse 

 ranges for the purpose of growing plants 

 and cut flowers. Anyone who is watch- 

 ing the signs of the times will realize 

 that this means an entire change in the 

 methods of production. By this I mean 

 that every item in the cost of produc- 

 tion will be studied by efiiciency ex- 

 perts and both plants and cut flowers 

 will be produced and put on the market 

 and sold at a minimum cost. 



Take any of these corporations that 

 are at the present time making these 

 large investments. They have no idea 

 that the present high prices are going 

 to continue indefinitely, but they do see 

 that with modern ranges and efficient 

 methods, the cost of production can be 

 cut in proportion to the reduction in 

 prices that is bound to come. It is a 

 well known fact that in spite of the 

 present high cost of building material, 

 the greenhouse construction manufactur- 

 ers have more orders booked than was 

 ever known in their history before. If 

 all of this means anything, it means 

 that the old slipshod methods that many 

 of us are so familiar with will be a 

 thing of the past. 



Looking Backward. 



There is a generation of men in the 

 florists ' business, who, like myself, can 

 remember the time when our fathers 

 were laying the foundation of the busi- 

 ness as it exists today. These men will 

 remember the makeshift houses and the 

 waste which was connected with them. 

 For instance, if a new house was to be 

 erected, the services of the village car- 

 iier.ter were secured and all of the avail- 

 able men on the place were his helpers. 



This work was always done in the sum- 

 mer at the expense of the growing crops, 

 but fall would come and the new house 

 would be under way to fulfill the object 

 for which it was erected. Stop and 

 consider the amount of waste connected 

 with such a house. In most cases, the 

 sides were 1-inch thick 12-inch boards; 

 these were lined with felt paper. There 

 was twice as much wood in the roof 

 as there should have been, defeating the 

 primary idea of a good greenhouse, 

 namely, to get every ray of sunlight 

 possible. The ventilators were all that 

 the name implies, for in most cases they 

 ventilated in cold weather as well as in 

 warm weather, but in those days coal 

 was cheap and the florist did not mind 

 contributing some of his fuel to heat the 

 great outdoors. In a house 100 feet long, 

 the difference in the thermometer from 

 the end where the fire was to the smoke- 

 stack was anywhere from 20 to 30 de- 

 grees. 



There is many a man still in business 

 who, as he reads this, will recall many a 

 stormy night when he was afraid to go 

 to bed, when he went from one house to 

 another with hie lantern all through the 

 night and, if it was windy, he would 

 often have to tie the roof down with 

 ropes, or if the snow was heavy, get up 

 in the gutters and shovel it out. Those 

 are only a few of the obstacles we had 

 to contend with. We never stopped to 

 think of the repairs we were obliged to 

 make each fall. If a house was becom- 

 ing a little old, it would mean rebuild- 

 ing. Yet in such houses good stock was 

 produced and money was made, because 

 the margins were large and everything 

 that went into the cost of production 

 was cheap. But in those days there 

 were men who were wise beyond their 

 years, men who realized all of this waste, 

 and they studied the problem. From 

 time to time improvements were made 

 and today we have firms in this country 

 who have reduced the construction of 



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