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24 



The Rorists' Review 



JON« 17, 1920. 



ft 



Established, 1897. hj G. L. GRANT. 



Pabllshed every Tharsday by 

 The Fu)eists' Pcblishinq Co„ 



620-660 Oaxton Baildlnnr. 



008 Soatb Dear burn St., Ohlcagro. 



Tele., Wabash 8195. 



Ret^stered cable address, 



FloiTlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 8. 1897, at the poet-office at Ohl- 

 flligo. 111,, under the Act of March 

 8, 1879. 



Subscription price, fl.80 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.60; to Europe. $3.00. 



Advertlsinir rates quoted npon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 Tertlslnff accepted. 



n 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



What you give for it is as important 

 as the money you get. 



Not for a long while haa business held 

 on into the warm weather so long as this 

 year. 



No one, in nineteen centuries, has im- 

 proved upon the Golden Rule as a busi- 

 ness maxim. 



EvER\ONE would like to see help more 

 plentiful, though not so plentiful that the 

 old bread-lines form. 



Cleveland is another city to try co- 

 operative advertising on the Milwaukee 

 plan. Let the number grow. 



Satisfaction produced by plant ship- 

 ments this year will bring orders when 

 they are wanted much more than they are 

 now. 



Can the public keep on spending when 

 all the war savings have V)een drawn out 

 of the bank and the Liberty bonds have 

 been sold? 



These first few days of summer 

 weather are hot, but it will be a cold day 

 when you get your money from accounts 

 that are not cleaned up before vacation 

 time. 



The season of hectic general business 

 activity is at an end, with the probability 

 that there will be no shortage of stock in 

 this trade until after the election and the 

 mums are out of the way. 



The recent rapid rise of foreign cut- 

 rencieg h.Ts complicated the j)roblems of 

 those wlio buy abroad. A dollar will buy 

 only half as many German marks as it 

 did a while ago and only three-quarters 

 as many francs. 



"Save more and produce more," is 

 not a l)ad slogan just now. The day will 

 come when the 50-cent dollar you save 

 now will buy 100 cents' worth, or some- 

 where near it. And increased production 

 will bring that day the closer. 



Whether you figure in comparison 

 with what advertisers pay other trades' 

 papers, or according to the size of circu- 

 lation, or according to results obtained, 

 the rates for space in The Review are 

 exceedingly low. And advertisers know- 

 it as well as the publishers. 



Collections are slowing down; money 

 will not be easy to get this summer. Do 



it DOW. 



Lightening of the traffic congestion 

 on the railroads is reported, but it is still 

 a long ways to normal conditions. 



Skeptics cannot point out where the 

 trade has lost through its publicity cam- 

 paigns, local and national, but advocates 

 can show where it has gained much. 



Aside from the S. A. F. convention 

 itself, Cleveland offers much inducement 

 to the trade to visit that city in August. 

 The Sixth— or is it Fourth?— City is as 

 live a trade center as there is. 



S. A. F. HALL NEABLY READY. 



Actual reports from Cleveland refute 

 the rumors to the effect that the build- 

 ing in which the S. A. F. will hold its 

 meeting in August will not be completed 

 in time for the convention. The prog- 

 ress of erection is fully up to schedule, 

 which provides for completion July 15. 

 The ground floor is already occupied, 

 the second floor is done and the third 

 floor, which is that to be occupied by 

 the convention exhibits, is three-quarters 

 completed. Since 400 men are working 

 daily on the structure, there seems no 

 doubt that the convention hall will be 

 ready in ample time. These facts should 

 set at rest all uncertainties in regard 

 to convention quarters. Vice-president 

 F. C. W. Brown, who is in close touch 

 with the builders, states in positive tones 

 that the building will be ready in ample 

 time. 



ACKNOWLEDGE OBDEBS. 



The shortage of help and the rush of 

 business have been acute in the green- 

 houses this spring. Everyone makes al- 

 lowances for these conditiens. The man 

 who places an order for stock waits a 

 considerable length of time in patience, 

 but when months pass without a re- 

 sponse, who will deny his just reason in 

 making more than ordinary complaint? 

 The cases causing such complaint are 

 numerous enough to merit the earnest 

 attention of shippers of stock. 



Even in a rush season, total disre- 

 gard of a customer's communication 

 is not excusable. The customer does not 

 demand a lengthy reply nor always im- 

 mediate shipment. But he is entitled 

 to an acknowledgment of his order in 

 case immediate shipment is not made. 

 It is easy to have printed on a postcard 

 a few lines, such as, "Your order of 



the has been received and will be 



given our prompt attention. Jones 

 Greenhouses, Smithville." Even that 

 and nothing more will satisfy the cus- 

 tomer better than silence. He is, at 

 least, certain that his letter has reached 

 its destination. The slight cost of 1 

 cent per order is not too much for such 

 an acknowledgment. Shippers will find 

 it paj'S, in the long run, on a highly 

 profitable basis. They should use some 

 such simple, invariable method to ac- 

 knowledge all orders. 



SELT-OBGANIZATION, 



"We need much more organization in 

 both the nursery and the florists' busi- 

 ness," remarked a prominent nursery- 

 man recently. 



At first thought that sounded a bit 

 startling. For the nurserymen already 

 have both their national organization 

 and a goodly number of state associa- 

 tions. The florists' business as a whole 



has the S. A. F,, with the aew National 

 Flower Growers ' Association for tho 

 growers, the F. T. D. for the retailers 

 and eighty or more local organizations, 

 either state or city. There are coopera 

 tive publicity committees in an increas- 

 ing number of cities and in some cities 

 there are from three to five separate so- 

 cieties, each representing a different 

 branch of the industry. The seedsmen 

 have their A. S. T, A. and various local 

 associations. In addition, there are 

 those national societies, of cultural 

 rather than business interest, which are 

 devoted to the rose, the carnation, the 

 chrysanthemum, the dahlia, the peony, 

 the sweet pea, the gladiolus, the iris 

 and the orchid. Doubtless this hasty 

 survey has omitted some associations, 

 but it at least indicates that, geograph- 

 ically, functionally and culturally, the 

 business has a fair degree of integra- 

 tion, though there is still room for de- 

 velopment. 



But this is not what was meant by 

 the remark quoted. The great need is 

 definite business organization, so that 

 each concern can know where it stands. 

 We need business analysis, to replace 

 business ignorance; accounting, to re- 

 place any-old-way bookkeeping. Not 

 long ago The Review pointed out the 

 way in which the income tax require- 

 ments had been and might further be 

 a help to the trade in forcing its mem- 

 bers to keep at least simple records of 

 sales and purchases and to be able to 

 furnish some slight analysis of the 

 year's business. At other times, also. 

 The Review has stressed the impor- 

 tance of cost accounting for both re- 

 tailer and grower. More and more of 

 such records and analysis are needed. 



In the aftermath of Mothers' day 

 and, to a less extent, of other holidays, 

 there has been a more or less good- 

 natured interchange of opinions among 

 growers, wholesalers and retailers as 

 to the cause of holiday high prices. No 

 one can speak effectively on this sub- 

 ject unless he knows in some detail 

 what his own costs are; he must know 

 where he stands before he is ready to 

 discuss the standing of others. And 

 if the business as a whole is to become 

 thoroughly organized, all the separate 

 units must be sufficiently self-organized 

 to be able to give the information nec- 

 essary for the larger analysis. 



LABGE SUPPLIES ASSUBED. 



It is apparent that there will be an 

 abundance of cut flowers during the 

 chrysanthemum season next autumn. 

 Numerous growers report that they arc 

 planting to mums more bench space than 

 ever before and those who offer young 

 stock in the Classified Section of The 

 Review make reports regarding the de- 

 mand, like this: 



Yoii may stop our chrysanthemum ad. Wo 

 had more stock than we had any Idea of selling, 

 hut they are all Kone. — Uird Forrest, Waxahachle, 

 Tex., June 5, 1920. 



If you hear a man complain of the 

 cost of advertising you can be pretty 

 certain he spends a good bit of money 

 elsewhere than in The Review. 



BBIEF ANSWEBS. 



W. M. T., Ind.— We do not know the 

 article you mention; ask the manufac- 

 turer what it contains. 



B. F. C, Ind. — Paunch manure would 

 be valuable only when nothing better 

 could be procured. Stack it up and let 

 it rot before using. \ 



