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24 



The Florists^ Review 



SuPTBHsaB SO, 1920 



ff 



EstebllBhed 1897. 



Published every Tborsdar by 

 The Floeists* Pubushinq Co., 



600-560 Oaxton Building, 



606 South Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tel., Wabash 8196. 



Registered cable address, 



Florrlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 8. 1897. at the poet-ofBce at Chi- 

 cago, 111., under the Act of March 

 3. 1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

 To Canada, $3.00; to Europe. $4.00. 



Advertising rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



tl 



■■'■■'■' »..>^ 



EBB. 



Besults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



Lumber is the first item in the grow- 

 ■ers' lifift to begin its descent. 



Decreased demand in other lines is 

 turning greater offerings of ribbons to 

 florists. • 



How long wages can be maintained, 

 while commodity prices are descending, 

 will be an important question during com- 

 ing months. 



Predictions still are for a further rise 

 in the price of wrapping and other paper 

 used by the florists. Shortage of raw 

 material and mill equipment are given as 

 the causes. 



CJOAL may be had by those willing to 

 pay the price for it. As to a possibility 

 of lower prices dealers will say little, 

 though they declare danger of a shortage 

 has been averted. 



EviDEa^TLY no florists were present at 

 the closing session of the Sons of Vet- 

 erans' convention, at Indianapolis last 

 week, when the red poppy was adopted as 

 the Memorial day flower of the organiza- 

 tion. 



The rose midge seems to have become 

 much more prevalent this season than in 

 any recent autumn. It can be cleaned 

 out, but the grower who does not take 

 preventive measures is likely to lose one 

 crop. 



When the manufacturers' profiteering, 

 the dealers' speculating and the workers' 

 soldiering have been ended, everybody 

 will get down to business on a stable 

 basis. And all will earn enough to buy 

 flowers. 



Now that immigration is increasing, 

 the coal and railroad situations may be 

 easier in coming seasons, for, an eastern 

 professor states, ninety-six per cent of 

 the miners in the soft coal mines of our 

 country are foreign born, thirty-one per 

 cent of the meat packers and fifty per 

 cent of all railroad laborers. 



Assistance is being given to girls who 

 wish to obtain college education along 

 horticultural lines by the Woman's Na- 

 tional Farm and Garden Association, of 

 which Mrs. Francis King, of Alma, Mich., 

 is president. Funds are raised for schol- 

 arships at the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 ■College, at Amherst. 



The rose midge seems to have a spe- 

 cial fondness for Ophelia. 



All the conditions considered, it is re- 

 markable that the flower business has 

 been so good in Septeinber. 



The tardy warm weather has delayed 

 the opening of autumn business. A few 

 crisp days will accelerate the market. 



No other store has so splendid mate- 

 rial for artistic window displays as the 

 florist's. There should be more of them. 



How are the lights in your windows 

 these earlier-darkening days! Many a 

 good display has been unnoticed by eve- 

 ning passers-by because the lighting was 

 dim. 



Retailers in manufacturing centers 

 are feeling the change in industrial con- 

 ditions most keenly. Unemployment and 

 reduced wages have markedly diminished 

 their sales. 



Presidential election is supposed to 

 disturb business each four years, but 

 whatever depressing effect it is having 

 this time is about over, the election be- 

 ing only four weeks away. 



Good harvests, winter need for goods 

 and certainty concerning the outcome of 

 the political campaign are expected to 

 put business on the upgrade before an- 

 other month or so passes. 



A MONTHLY account carried for ac- 

 commodation of customers is different 

 from the extension of credit on definite 

 terms. It is a business courtesy that calls 

 for response in prompt payment each 

 month. 



The costs of doing business in the 

 florists ' trade can not come down rapidly. 

 Indeed, growing and retailing both will 

 cost more this season than ever before, 

 even if commodity prices in general show 

 some decline. 



Growers near the cities find now an 

 abundance of common labor, for which 

 there is little use at this season. There 

 still is a scarcity of trained men, al- 

 though quite a few released from other 

 fields are coming back into this trade. 



Retailers who have long-term leases 

 expiring in the next year or two face a 

 considerable problem. There is little 

 prospect of relief from high rents for 

 two or three years, with the probability 

 that space in the downtown sections of 

 the rapidly growing cities never will be 

 cheaper than now. 



To reach 12,000 trade buyers through 

 a full-page advertisement in The Review 

 costs as little as $37.50, or about three- 

 tenths of a cent per buyer. If you are 

 not certain of it yourself, any advertis- 

 ing man will assure you that is cheaper 

 than good advertising can be bought in 

 any other field. 



GET THE MONEY. 



Leading houses in the florists ' trade 

 corroborate the reports of slowed up 

 collections seen in the financial columns 

 of the general press. It is said collec- 

 tions with wholesale florists and flo- 

 rists' supply dealers have not been so 

 good in September as in August, nor so 

 good in August as in July or June. Re- 

 tailers heretofore known as prompt pay, 

 in many cases or localities, have been 

 falling behind and the consensus is col- 

 lections will not improve in October. 



One of the weakest points in this 

 trade is the too common lack of col- 



lection equipment and neglect of col- 

 lection effort. The trade's situation in 

 this respect probably never was worse 

 than it is today, for the reason that 

 during the last two or three years 

 money has been more plentiful than 

 plants or cut flowers; buyers paid be- 

 cause they had the money and because 

 they needed further supplies of stock, 

 as well as for the always good reason 

 that prompt payment is wise business. 

 But the result has been many whole- 

 salers have permitted their collection 

 departments to disintegrate until, con- 

 fronted by the new necessity of seek- 

 ing funds, they find themselves poorly 

 equipped for the work. They find, 

 moreover, that retailers are in the same 

 boat. Many retailers, pressed for 

 money, are hiring collectors for the 

 first time in several years, to make a 

 systematic effort to get possession of 

 the considerably increased sums they 

 suddenly realize are on the books. The 

 slowing up of collections has brought 

 the retailers to the appreciation of two 

 facts: The cost of living has pretty 

 well caught up with the average 

 family's earning power, so that 

 thoughtless expenditure is no longer in 

 order, and there is a considerable 

 amount of unemployment, at present 

 decreasing in some localities but rapid- 

 ly increasing in others. This has a pro- 

 nounced effect on retailers' collec- 

 tions. 



It looks like a time to get, if one can, 

 the money past due and to know who's 

 who before granting further credits. 



EXPRESS BATES UP AGAIN. 



Though costs in other businesses are 

 decreasing, those in the florists' trade 

 are climbing. Express rates have gone 

 up another notch. Further increases in 

 express rates averaging thirteen and 

 one-half per cent were approved Sep- 

 tember 24 by the interstate commerce 

 commission at Washington. The in- 

 creases, which apply to class and com 

 modity rates, make a total increase of 

 twenty-six per cent granted the express 

 companies within the last few months. 



The express companies had asked for 

 additional increases up to fifteen per 

 cent. The only exceptions made in the 

 new rates are in the case of milk and 

 cream shipments. 



For the first six months of this year 

 the express companies lost approxi- 

 mately $21,000,000, according to their 

 report to the commission. The per cent- 

 age ratio of expense to earnings in- 

 creased from 109 to 113 per cent approx- 

 imately over 1919, the report said. 



AIjMOST INDISPENSABLE. 



Beyond its function as a distributor 

 of trade news. The Review has held so 

 assiduously to that even more impor- 

 tant work of developing more business 

 and better methods in the trade it 

 serves that recognition of its achieve- 

 ment in that regard is more and more 

 general, though not often stated more 

 emphatically and never by one better 

 qualified to judge than in the following 

 case: 



The Review has been on my flesk every week 

 since Its flrst publication, and I find it almost In- 

 dispensable. Its value to the trade In general 

 Is wonderful. There is no excuse for Ignorance 

 In oiir business if a person reads and studies 

 The Review. — Arthur Newell, Kansas City, Mo.. 

 September 21, 1920. 



You can do no greater, favor to a new 



member of the trade than introducing 



him to The Review. ., 



