32 



The Florists^ Review 



DICIHBKR 16, 1920 



EstabllHlied 1H97. 

 by G. L Qrant 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Floiusts' Pubushincj Co., 



600-560 Caxton Bulldlnif, 



808 South Dearborn St., ChlcaifO. 



Tel., Wabash 8195. 



Resrlstored cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entorod as second class matter 

 Dec. 3, 1897. at the post-office at Olil- 

 caffo. 111., under the Act of March 

 3.1879. 



Subscription price, $2.00 a year. 

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



Advertislnnr rat^s quoted oa 

 request. Only strictly tnide ad> 

 Terttslng accepted. 



m 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Wk can sell all the good stock we can 

 grow. 



R. Vincent, Jr., White Marsh, Md., 

 is 77 years of age. He was born in Eng- 

 land, December 1-6, 1843. 



It is tlie irony of fat.i', after sweating 

 over the accumulation of a l)ig coal pile 

 for winter, to have the ])recious stuff 

 set itself afire in the slied. 



Uncertainty is the greatest business 

 obstacle at present. The consensus is 

 that underlying conditions augur improve- 

 ment when confidence in the price level 

 is restored. 



No florist should attempt to do busi- 

 ness without a printed letterhead. To 

 send orders on plain paper at once sug- 

 gests to the wholesale dealer that here is 

 a small buyer who should pay retail 

 prices. 



Bradstkeet's index of wholesale prices 

 indicates a drop of one-third from the 

 top notch figure of a year ago, or to the 

 level of December, 1916. But the com- 

 modities listed do not include florists' 

 requirements. 



Anonymoi's contributions are not 

 heeded by The Review. Readers should 

 sign their names to correspondence to 

 the editor, wlio will respect valid rea- 

 sons for their omission in the publication 

 of communications. 



Materi.\l for both tlie editorial and 

 the advertising columns of The Review 

 should reach this oflice not later than 

 Monday to appear in the current week's 

 issue. Nothing is to be lost, moreover, 

 by getting it in earlier than that. 



From all parts of the United States 

 comes the report that the shortage of 

 greenhouse labor has passed, but it is 

 manual labor only which is in surplus; 

 experienced help still is scarce and prob- 

 ably the supply never can be increased 

 except by training young men who show 

 aptitude for the work. 



It is believed by some that the present 

 surplus on the labor market is due more 

 to a desire of large industrial establish- 

 ments to lower their labor costs than to 

 a slackening in demand for workers. 

 When readjustment is accomplished, all 

 will enjoy business prosperity again on 

 lower price and wage scales. 



Ali. danger of a fuel famine has 

 jiassed in the widesj)road decrease in in- 

 dustrial activity. Prices are falling. 



Florists as a whole are to be congratu- 

 lated on continued good business in com- 

 parison with the lack of it in most other 

 lines just now. 



CHICAGK) TO WASHINGTON. 



The- transportation committee of the 

 Chicago Florists' Club has selected the 

 Pennsylvania railroad for tlie trip to 

 the convention of the American Carna- 

 tion Society and the meeting of the 

 National Flower Growers' Association, 

 to be held at Washington, D. C, Janu- 

 ary 26 and 27. The party will leave the 

 Union station, Canal and Adams streets, 

 on the Manhattan Limited, Tuesday, 

 January 25, at 10:30 a. m., and arrive 

 in Washington the following morning 

 at 9:28. 



The fare one way, tax included, is 

 $30.97. Pullman fares are: Lower berth, 

 $8.91; upper, $7.13; compartment, $25.11; 

 drawing room, $32.40. 



Other Pennsylvania trains include the 

 Broadway Limited, leaving the Union 

 station at 12:40 p. m. and arriving in 

 Washington at 9:28 the following morn- 

 ing. On this train, an extra fare of 

 $7.78 is added to the regular ticket rate 

 named above. The Pennsylvania Lim- 

 ited, leaving the Union station at 5:30 

 p. m., arrives at Washington at 4:30 

 p. m. 



On the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, 

 trains leave Chicago at 8:40 a. m. and 

 10:45 a. m. and arrive at Washington 

 respectively at 7:30 a. m. and 9:00 a. m. 



The fare one way via the Baltimore 

 & Ohio, tax included, is $29.97. Sleeping 

 car rates are the same as given above. 



For reservations address W. E. Blach- 

 ley, division passenger agent, Pennsyl- 

 vania System, room 858, Insurance Ex- 

 change building, Chicago. Telephone, 

 Wabash 4660. 



WHAT CONTROLS PRICES? 



Growers are discussing a suggestion 

 that meetings of large middle-western 

 and eastern producers be held to see 

 what can be done in the direction of 

 maintaining prices commensurate with 

 the cost of production, some of those 

 interested having decided that all the 

 signs point to an overproduction of 

 young stock, particularly rose plants, 

 and cut flowers in the first half of 1921. 



It is true, of course, that a knowledge 

 of what it costs to produce good stock 

 has some influence on the determination 

 of the seller to demand and maintain 

 profitable prices, but cost of jiroduction 

 never has, and probably never will, con- 

 trol our prices. In this trade prices are 

 controlled almost solely by supply and 

 demand. We had a good demonstration 

 of that in the first half of 1920, when 

 for a time demand so exceeded supply 

 that prices were forced upward to the 

 point that the public sharply curtailed 

 its purchases, whereupon the pendulum 

 swung the other way and supply so ex- 

 ceeded demand that prices fell far be- 

 low cost of production and much cut 

 stock and some plants were sold through 

 department stores, drug stores, etc. 

 Eventually the public learned prices had 

 fallen and resumed buying, restoring 

 equilibrium. It will be ever thus. We 

 cannot regulate prices; it will be folly 

 to try. Nor can we regulate supply; it 

 will fluctuate with the seasons and will 

 increase when profits rise and decrease 

 as profits fall. But we can regulate de- 



mand by stimulating it. That is our 

 best chance. 



The Review does not see reason to be- 

 lieve that there will be overproduction 

 in any line of our business in 1921. 

 There will be seasonal gluts more or less 

 as in the past, but production has not 

 recently increased so fast as demand 

 has grown and if there is some decrease 

 in the demand in the next few months, 

 due to general business conditions, it 

 scarcely can do so much as to restore the 

 balance. But if the public should de- 

 cide the prices of plants and flowers are 

 too high, it would be folly to try to de- 

 feat the working of the old law of sup- 

 ply and demand. Any ,attempt to main- 

 tain prices by artificial means could 

 only bring disaster. 



SHORTEN LIGHT TO HASTEN CROP I 



To get poinsettias ready for the mar- 

 ket by Christmas is a problem that has 

 worried florists ever since the bright 

 red, flower-like leaves of this beautiful 

 plant took their place as a favorite holi- 

 day decoration, says the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, although it does 

 not state where it got its information. 



"The problem has been reduced to a 

 practical solution through the work of 

 Dr. W. . W. Garner, tobacco specialist, 

 and H. H. Allard, plant physiologist, 

 who discovered the possibility of ad- 

 vancing or retarding the growth of 

 plants by controlling the period of light 

 each day," says the department's 

 weekly paper. ' * Where the light period 

 is shortened the plants reach maturity 

 much sooner than where they are given 

 the natural length of day. In the 

 greenhouses on the department's ex- 

 perimental farm at Arlington, Va., it 

 has been found possible to bring poin- 

 settias into full form as early as Au- 

 gust by shortening the daily exposure to 

 light. 



"In fact, department specialists are 

 confident that there is' practically no 

 limit to the extent to which the Garner- 

 Allard discovery may be applied in the 

 ordinary florists' establishments in 

 bringing various flowers into bloom out- 

 side of the customary season. Iris in 

 December and chrysanthemums in the 

 spring are among the accomplishments 

 already attained, and it is the intention 

 of these specialists to bring together a 

 group of flowers, all of different natural 

 seasons, into bloom at the same time. 

 One value of the discovery lies in the 

 fact that it can be applied with only 

 simple and inexpensive additions to the 

 facilities of any greenhouse." 



THESE HELP SOME. 



Publishers, like other people, have 

 their off days, but sometimes on one of 

 these a letter comes to help a little, like 

 this: 



Wp ooiiUl not think of running a greenhouse 

 without The Review. Have taken It continuouslv 

 sin<e the start and note with pleasure it is now 

 iihoiit live times the size of Its first issue.— W. J. 

 Miller, Pontiac, 111., December C, 1920. 



And then comes this: 



We are all sold out. sixty days ahead of last 

 .yeiir, when we advertised in all the florist papers. 

 We take particular note that your splendid pa- 

 per brings us orders from territory In which we 

 never have been able to sell by any other means. 

 May The Review in the coming year equal the 

 great work It has arcoraplished for the trade In 

 past years; we are boosting for The Review.— 

 .loseph II. Cunningham Greenhouses, Delaware. 

 0., December 8, 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. 



