1 V 



FIBBUABT 17, 1921 



The Florists^ Review 



19 



N YEARS past, though not 

 many, the homes of great 

 productive industries were 

 big square boxes of 

 masonry, into which the 

 sun's rays penetrated so 

 dimly through the few 

 small windows that the 

 light thus obtained was 

 not deemed of sufficient 

 importance to warrant frequent wash- 

 ing of the panes of glass through which 

 it came. The interiors, therefore, were 

 gloomy; the ventilation was poor, and 

 conditions were far from conducive to 

 the best work on the part of those who 

 spent their days in such places. But 

 those were the days when human labor 

 was cheap, when the emj)loyees con- 

 stituted so many "hands" and heads 

 counted little, when sweatshops were 

 general and sanitation was not, when 

 the word "efficiency" had not yet been 

 uttered, and when the effect of sur- 

 roundings on workers' productiveness 

 had not yet been suggested as worthy of 

 thought and study. Those were the 

 days when the term "factory" was 

 synonymous with what is humanly de- 

 pressing, obstructive of effort and in- 

 hibitive of spirit. 



Superseded. 



But that type of factory is gone. In 

 its place rise today structures designed 

 to admit the sun's rays as freely as pos- 

 sible. Their occupants are given plenty 

 of fresh air to breathe and plenty of 

 daylight by which to sec. From the 

 outside these buildings seem to be more 

 glass than concrete or brick. The great 

 automobile factories are of this type. 

 The vast war-time industrial communi- 

 ties were composed of structures of this 

 sort. It has been demonstrated that in 

 them production is greater because the 



Paul E. Weiss and 

 One of His Modem Bose Factories. 



efficiency of the workers is higher. The 

 brightness of the surroundings stimu- 

 lates where the former darkness de- 

 pressed. The twentieth-century pro- 

 ducer, keen to reduce costs and increase 

 output, has fi)und the new type of struc- 

 ture, though more expensive to erect, 

 the cheapest in the long run. Hence the 

 transformation of the old to the modern 

 factory. 



For Flowers Too. 



"If the heads of these great indus- 

 trial enterprises find it worth while to 

 spend greater sums of money in build- 

 ing factories that are roomy and bright 

 instead of the old, dark, depressing 

 type, why shouldn't florists do the same 

 thing?" asked Paul E. Weiss, of May- 

 wood, 111., whose activities as promoter 

 and manager of greenhouse enterprises 

 in the vicinity of the Chicago market 

 have already won him more than local 

 note in the trade. "Flowers thrive on 

 light and air, just as human beings do, 

 and even to a greater extent. So if 

 such principles of construction have 

 come to govern buildings to house 

 human producers, why shouldn't they 

 apply to greenhouses also? 



"You and I," he added, "though 

 neither of us is gray-headed, have seen 

 plenty of greenhouses where the plants 



had as adverse conditions to struggle 

 against as did the workers in the old- 

 time factories. Low roofs and heavy 

 framework overhead cast shadows con- 

 tinually on the plants below. Venti- 

 lators were so low that the cold out- 

 door air blew directly on the plants. 

 No wonder that disease got an easy 

 hold and the flowers were of low qual- 

 ity. It could scarcely have been other- 

 wise. 



"Aside from the low profit because 

 of unfavorable conditions and poor 

 blooms, structures of such antiquated 

 type are not to be considered today. A 

 corporation organized to carry on a 

 greenhouse business now is not going 

 to put up anything that can be con- 

 sidered a temporary affair. It must 

 build, to satisfy its stockholders, who 

 arc making a permanent investment, 

 greenhouses of the most durable and 

 lasting sort. The stockholders are as 

 much concerned with the return from 

 their investment ten or twenty years 

 from now as with that next year. 



Real Industry. 



"The greenhouse industry today is a 

 real industry. The grower of flowers 

 for market is not now an elevated truck 

 gardener or a farmer with a side line. 

 The florists' trade has achieved a rank 

 of its own and is making a place for 

 itself as a repository for bankers' and 

 investors' money. To be such it must 

 necessarily be up-to-date. It must be 

 as progressive and as forward-looking 

 as other industries. Its equipment must 

 be modern and its methods must be the 

 latest. 



"An individual owner of a range of 

 greenhouses may be satisfied when his 

 income is so much a year and disregard 

 its proportion to the size of his invest- 

 ment. The general manager of a cor- 



