68 



The Florists^ Review 



Decembeb 25, 1919. 



\\v RETAIL STORE MANAGEMENT 



WHAT THE LEADERS IN THE TRADE ARE DOING 



nSH riLL FLORIST'S TILL. 



Helping the Hobbies at Home. 



More and more florists are realizing 

 that goldfish kept in the home, partic- 

 ularly the home where there are chil- 

 dren, are a never failing source of 

 pleasure and an inspiration to nature 

 study, and that consequently the de- 

 mand for them is sure to increase as 

 their value is more generally ap- 

 preciated. It is but natural that the 

 seller of plants and flowers for the 

 home should also be able to provide 

 fish and aquaria. Goldfish have, too, a 

 commercial value as side exhibits in 

 stores and as parts of elaborate decora- 

 tive designs. An example of the lat- 

 ter use was described in The Review 

 for August 14, in connection with an 

 illustration of a dinner decoration de- 

 signed by Albert Pochelon. It showed 

 a table encircling a tank sixteen feet 

 in diameter, containing 500 fish, to- 

 gether with a lighting display and other 

 decorative features. But such demands 

 are usually met by the fish raiser or 

 perhaps, as in this case, by a loan from 

 the city aquarium. The fish-keeping 

 florist caters above all to the home de- 

 mand. 



No Gold In Small Goldfisb. 



While there is no great profit in the 

 common, small goldfish, there is enough 

 to pay for handling them. The smallness 

 of the profit is due to the fact that 5 

 and 10-cent stores sell this kind for 10 

 cents each, making it impossible in 

 some loaalities for florists to sell such 

 fish for more than 15 or 20 cents, or per- 

 haps 25 cents in the case of especially 

 large and fine fish. At 15 or 20 cents 

 there is a profit of from 5 to 8 cents per 

 fish, where one has to buy the fish in 

 the first place. If one can raise his own 

 fish, there is a little more profit, but also 

 much more work. 



The real profit in goldfish is in the 

 fancy kinds, such as the fan tails, 

 nymphs, telescopes, ribbon tails, comet 

 tails, lion heads, etc. These bring ex- 

 cellent prices, sometimes with a profit 

 of $1 per fish, though of course such 

 sales are comparatively few. 



Fish That Are Fish Hooks. 



One florist, Charles Trauth, Newark, 

 N. J., installed a tank with goldfish in 

 his store a few years ago, principally 

 for his own pleasure in watching and 

 caring for tlicm, but he has since de- 

 veloped a considerable business in them. 

 During the fall he sells about 500 fish a 

 week; during the rest of the year the 

 number sold weekly falls somewhat 

 short of this, even as low as 200 a month 

 in the summer dull season, but still the 

 returns are enough to pay well for the 

 comparatively small time it takes to 

 care for the fish. He finds that where 

 fancy varieties of goldfish are kept, 

 some people will come in regularly for 

 them, sometimes as often as once a 

 week. Their drawing power is so great 



that he calls them "fish hooks." A 

 good profit is also to be found in the 

 sale of fish globes, fish food, water 

 plants, snails, polliwogs, etc. 



Give Him Air — or Oxygen. 



One important problem to be consid- 

 ered in the care of fish in a small aqua- 

 rium is the supply of air or of oxygen 

 for the fish. This may be solved either 

 by putting in the aquarium plants which 

 will generate oxygen or by some me- 

 chanical means for aerating the water. 

 The Eeview printed July 31 a list of 

 thirty plants suitable for aquaria and 

 referred to the way in which the oxy- 

 gen given off by the plants was utilized 

 by the fish, which in turn exhaled car- 

 bon dioxide, a plant necessity. When 



The Editor is pleased wlien 

 a Reader presents liis ideas 

 on any subject treated in 



As experience is tlie best 

 teaclier, so do we learn 

 fastest by an excliange of 

 experiences. Many valuable 

 points are brought out by 

 discussion. 



Good penmanship, spelling and 

 srammar, though desirable, are not 

 necessary. Write as you would talk 

 when doing your best. 



WE SHALL BE GLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM YOU 



the proper plants are provided, fish will 

 live even in tightly covered aquaria. 

 But some people may think the attrac- 

 tiveness of water in motion a sufficient 

 reason for using the mechanical method. 

 One example of this is provided in Mr. 

 Trauth 's aquarium, which is a glass 

 tank about three and a half feet long 

 by two and a half feet wide and twenty 

 inches deep; the bottom of the tank 

 is covered with pebbles and the water, 

 which is about a foot deep, contains 

 water-weeds. Water is supplied to the 

 tank by a pipe that runs underneath 

 and up through the center to a point 

 about ten inches above the surface of 

 the water. Two arms about eight inches 

 long run off from the main pipe. When 

 the water is turned on, it spurts down 

 from these two arms with considerable 

 force into each end of the tank. The 

 force of the falling water creates many 

 bubbles, which are forced beneath the 

 surface of the water, thus aerating it. 

 The water can be drained off, when de- 

 sired, by a small pipe from the bottom 

 of the tank. When this method of me- 



chanical aeration is not used, it is well 

 occasionally to take out a cupful or 

 dipperful of water and pour it back 

 from a height of about ten inches, re- 

 peating this several times. 



Snails, Bass and Polliwogs. 



The tank need be cleaned thoroughly 

 only once a year. If snails are kept in / 

 it, they will eat off the green growth 

 that forms on the pebbles and the sides 1 

 of the tank. Since those who keep fish 

 in their homes occasionally ask • for 

 snails for this purpose, it is well to keep 

 some on hand for sale. They can be 

 bought for a nominal sum from those 

 who catch them and sold for about 10 

 cents apiece. Small rock bass may also 

 be sold for 10 cents apiece and make a 

 pleasing variety with goldfish in a large 

 glass globe. 



In their season polliwogs are in great 

 demand. They cost wholesale $1 per 

 hundred and sell readily for 10 cents 

 each. Those which Mr. Trauth pur- 

 chases are raised on a New Jersey farm 

 which makes a specialty of raising large 

 green frogs for frogs' legs, which are 

 sold to hotels. The ordinary polliwog 

 develops his legs in a few weeks' time, 

 but this special kind remains a polliwog 

 for nearly a year. When this is ex- 

 plained to prospective customers, a sale 

 quickly follows. 



Fish for Pleasure and Profit. 



The fish which Mr. Trauth raises 

 himself are bred in tanks in his back 

 yard. For ten days after they are 

 hatched they eat no food. Then they 

 must live on live food, which is pro- 

 vided in the form of small insects which 

 are caught by the thousand in the marsh 

 meadows near the city by means of 

 small nets made of cheesecloth. When 

 the fish are older, the prepared fish food 

 is sufficient for them. 



Some florists think that the keeping 

 of goldfish lowers the tone of the store, 

 but that certainly need not be true if 

 the fish are kept in first-class condition 

 in a clean, artistically arranged aqua- 

 rium. And they act as a drawing-card 

 for many customers, besides providing 

 pleasure and real profit to the florist 

 who keeps them. K. B. M. 



DRUGGISTS EYE FLOWER TRADE. 



Perhaps the popularity of the slogan 

 has aroused their minds, or perhaps they 

 think the florists' trade is enviably pros- 

 perous; at any rate, druggists see some- 

 thing in the flower business that arouses 

 their business thoughts. An article on 

 "The Druggist as the Florist's Agent" 

 in The Druggist occupies three columns. 

 The following paragraphs from it will 

 interest florists: 



Flowers are dainty things. A drugman ought 

 to carry only dainties, you know. At any rat», 

 that U what most of us hare been educated to. 



I know one druggist who took on a florist's 

 agency three years ago. He has developed a 

 business which pays him good money. It is la 

 a town outside of Detroit where fresh flowers 

 used to be bard to get bold of. 



Folks for seTeral miles around his store rlslt 



