34 



The Florists^ Review 



NOVKMBKB 13, 1919. 



TATE'S TIPS 



rriiTT^it7Ytit7^iffrti?rRify^iy^iff^i?y^i?y^Byrtig^^ 



perior color and more profitable for cut- 

 ting. Its light green color, it is said, 

 gives it a freshness of appearance that 

 makes it highly desirable for work of 

 the best sort. 



PUSHINa PUBLICITY. 



Wliere the Energy Goes. 



The Eeview in its issue of October 23, 

 reporting on the F. T. D. convention at 

 Buffalo, has the following: "The na- 

 tional publicity committee was in ses- 

 sion till midnight during the first day 

 of the convention, considering the mat- 

 ter of raising funds more expedi- 

 tiously." 



Aside from the results that have been 

 obtained from national advertising thus 

 far, the thing that must strike every 

 business man most forcibly is the amount 

 of effort such men as Henry Penh, John 

 Young and others on the committee are 

 obliged to exert each week in order to 

 raise funds to carry on the campaign. 

 That those composing this committee are 

 big, unselfish and broad-minded business 

 men goes without saying. If they had 

 not been men of unlimited patience, I 

 am afraid they would have thrown the 

 work over before this. The little coun- 

 try circuit rider does not have to preach 

 harder to his congregation to raise his 

 salary than do these men. Here, indeed, 

 is one of the most dignified businesses of 

 the country, whose members have to be 

 coaxed and persuaded to do their part 

 in furthering a campaign that has pro- 

 ven already that it will pay big returns 

 on the money invested. Now let us 

 look at this whole thing honestly for a 

 few minutes. 



Lost Motion. 



The energy which the committee is 

 obliged to spend in raising funds to 

 conduct this campaign might much bet- 

 ter be spent on the campaign itself. In 

 any of the large business enterprises of 

 our country this would be considered 

 lost motion and, in these days of mod- 

 ern business methods, lost motion is one 

 of the things that cause the man of 

 brains to lie awake at night seeking 

 ways to eliminate them. 



The committee should be in a position 

 to go ahead and make contracts for 

 space and not be obliged to depend on, 

 I might say, the benevolence of a small 

 percentage of the 15,000 florists of the 

 country. Might it not be possible to 

 have some discussion through these col- 

 umns as to a better way to provide the 

 "sinews of war" for this worthy cause? 



Would it not be possible to work out 

 a scheme of assessments, say, for each 

 city? This could be governed by the 

 number of inhabitants of a community. 

 The F. T. D. now has this system work- 

 ing in its guarantee feature. Let the 

 national organization look to the local 

 florists' club, whether state or city, for 

 this assessment. Let each club under- 

 take the work of securing contributions 

 from all the members of the trade ift its 

 locality and surrounding territory. 



Everybody Gives, Everybody Gains. 



If a local club were assessed a spe- 

 cific sum, how would it be raised? That 

 would have to be left to the club, but 

 there have recently appeared in these 

 columns plans that seem equitable to 

 me. I refer to those in Milwaukee, St. 



Louis and Philadelphia; that is, to tax 

 the grower one-half of one per cent on 

 his sales and the purchaser a like amount 

 on his purchases, with the wholesaler, 

 as his contribution, collecting and for- 

 warding t-he assessment to -the treasurer 

 of the local organization. This would 

 certainly add dignity to the campaign 

 and make everyone feel that he had 

 an interest in it. This is merely my 

 suggestion. Other plans for doing the 

 work that now falls on the shoulders 

 of a few men might be proposed by 

 others and might be more feasible and 

 effective than this. In these times of 

 business unrest, even thougn everything 

 is prosperous, with labor making de- 

 mands that to some of us seem absurd, 

 it behooves the business man to look 

 ahead, for history will repeat itself, the 

 slump is bound to come, and when it does 

 we shall find the gospel of "'In union 

 there is strength" to be a gospel of 

 truth. It was team-work that won the 

 war, it was team-work that financed it, 

 it was team-work that fed the world, and 

 this same kind of team-work will make 

 the florists' business one of the greatest 

 in the country, Tate. 



SMITH BUBNSIANA OPEN. 



Wm. F. Gude believes the following 

 announcement of the opening of the 

 Smith collection of Burnsiana to the pub- 

 lic in Washington, D. C, is not only of 

 interest to older members of the trade, 

 but also will be an inspiration to the 

 younger element who may not have had 

 the pleasure of kno\ying William R. 

 Smith, the father of the S. A. F. charter: 



Announcement is made through John H. Cowles, 

 secretary general, Supreme Council of the An- 

 cient and Accepted Scottish Kite, Uiat the Wil- 

 liam R. Smith Burnsiana is now accessible to the 

 general public, between the hours of 9 a. m. 

 and 5 p. m., Sundays and holidays excepted. In 

 the Burnsiana room at the House of the Temple, 

 Sixteenth and S streets, northwest. 



The Burnsiana room is located on the south 

 side of the ground floor of the temple, imme- 

 diately below the offices of the secretary general. 

 Application must be made to the librarian on the 

 main floor for access to the books In the locked 



BRIEF ANSWERS. 



I. A. T., Wis. — Turn the leaves under. 



C, F. C, Miss. — The specimen seems 

 to be a denuded stem of Asparagus 

 plumosus. There is nothing in your let- 

 ter to account for its condition. 



F. M. C, 111. — It is the snapdragon 

 rust. Send a stamped self-addressed 

 envelope for an article from The Review 

 discussing the disease. 



ADIANTUM PELICANI. 



The new fern, Adiantum Pelieani, a 

 specimen of which is shown in the ac- 

 companying illustration, has been re- 

 cently announced by Frank D. Pelicano, 

 of San Francisco, Cal., who raised it. 

 This particular plant attained a spread 

 of three feet in eighteen months. Adian- 

 tum Pelieani is said to be a marked im- 

 provement on Adiantum Roenbeckii, re- 

 sembling it in habit, but being of su- 



COST OF IMPORTING. 



There is a somewhat misused saying, 

 "Every man to his trade," which seems 

 more or less applicable to the present 

 situation in the matter of importing 

 Dutch bulbs. Here are two phases of it: 



From C. D. Otis, Lake Charles, La.: 

 "In a recent Review I noticed someone 

 complaining about a charge of $3 per 

 case for the packing boxes in which his 



Adiantum Pelieani, Announced as an Improvement on Roenbeckii. 



