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24 



The Florists' Review 



June 14, 1917. 



1 



Established, 1897, by G. L. GRANT. 



Published every Thursday by 

 The Flokists' Publishing Co., 



620-560 Oaxton BuUdlntf, 



508 South Dearborn St., Chicago. 



Tele., Wabash 8195, 



Refiristered cable address, 



Florvlew, Chicago. 



Entered as second class matter 

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

 cago. 111., under the Act of March 

 3 1879. 



Subscription price, $1.50 a year. 

 To Canada, $2.50; to Europe, $3.00. 



Advertising rates quoted upon 

 request. Only strictly trade ad- 

 vertising accepted. 



'■■■■■■" 



'•••"••• 



NOTICE. 



It is impossible to g^uarantee 



the insertion, discontinuance or 



alteration of any advertisement 



anless instructions are received 



BT 4 P. M. TUESDAY. 



SOOIETT OF AKEBIOAN FLOKISTS. 

 Incorporated by Act of Congress, March 4, 1901. 

 Officers for 1017: President, Robert O. Kerr, 

 HeuatoB, Tex.; Tlce-president, A. L. Miller, Ja- 

 Malca, N. Y.; secretary, John Young, 63 W. 28th 

 St., New York City; treaaurer, J. J. Heaa, 

 Omaha, Neb. 



Thirty-third annual conrention. New York, 

 N. Y., August 21 to 24, 1917. 



Eesults bring advertising. 

 The Review brings results. 



What is there that could take the 

 place of chrysanthemums in the grow- 

 ers' scheme of crop rotation? 



There are many who will approve the 

 action of the New York Florists' Club 

 in deciding to cancel the outing with 

 which the S. A. F. convention usually 

 has closed. 



This is the season of the year when 

 Mrs. Russell is an especially satisfactory 

 rose for grower, retailer and the public. 

 It should be cut more fully developed 

 than any other rose. 



The man who loses out on a good order 

 should console himself that "tl\ere are 

 in the sea as big fish as ever were 

 caught," examine his tackle for defects 

 and bait a fresh hook. 



Plan to plant a house of cucumbers 

 and use vacant space in a cool house for 

 lettuce whe;n the season arrives; you not 

 only will be doing your "bit," but 

 unless all signs fail there will be money 

 in it. 



For the florist who is retailing 4-inch 

 geraniums at $1.50, or even $1.75 per 

 dozen, it may be said that at least he is 

 not losing any sleep because the income 

 tax has been boosted; it would not affect 

 him if the exemption were still further 

 redueed. 



The man who goes into the florists' 

 business without experience in it rarely 

 finds it as profitable as he supposed, but 

 the young man who makes a start for 

 himself after a sufficient training as rare- 

 ly scores a failure, and in those rare cases 

 faihire usually is due to insufficient ex- 

 perience in handling money. 



CROPS AND PRICES. 



Florists who do business in the com- 

 munities dependent on agriculture 

 know that good crops mean good busi- 

 ness for them, and that good crops and 

 good prices are a combination that can 

 not be beaten as an assurance of pros- 

 perity. Consequently, the government 

 crop report issued June 9 is of much in- 

 terest to many in the trade. It shows 

 the condition of the various crops June 

 1, expressed in percentage of their ten- 

 year averages (not the normal), was as 

 follows: 



Pears 116.5 Spring wlieat 98.1 



Apples 112.3 Alfalfa 98.1 



Field beans 109.0 Watermelons 98.1 



Sugar beets 104.5 Clover 96.6 



Peaches 102.4 Hay 96.3 



Cabbages 100.9 Oranges 94.4 



Onions 100.9 Rye 93.8 



Cantaloupes 100.7 Pasture 93.6 



Oats 100.1 Cotton 87.9 



Field peas 99.9 Winter wlieat 87.1 



Barley 99.2 



Blackberries and Average all 94.2 



raspberries 98.3 



June 1 the index figure of prices was 

 about 99.8 per cent higher than a year 

 ago, 97.8 per cent higher than two years 

 ago, and 107.2 per cent higher than the 

 average of the last nine years June 1. 



and plants during the war, but it may 



come, just as it has in other countries. 



The possibility is worth considering. 



PUT YOUR CITY ON TRADE MAP. 



The Review aims to publish weekly 

 or biweekly news-letters from every 

 important trade center and this is a call 

 for volunteers. Correspondents are 

 wanted to put the following cities on 

 the trade map: 



Washington, D. C. 



New Orleans, La. 



Albany, N. Y. 



St. Paul, Minn. 



Louisville, Ky. 



Syracuse, N. Y. 



Utica, N. Y. 



Memphis, Tenn. 



Anyone who gets around among flo- 

 rists in these or any other city not reg- 

 ularly represented in the news columns 

 is invited to write to the editor about it. 



WILL UNCLE SAM FOLLOW SXHT? 



Thoughtful men in the trade are 

 watching the development of the gov- 

 ernment's policies with special interest 

 because all the other great nations at 

 war have seen fit to restrict interna- 

 tional commerce in bulbs, seeds and 

 plants; the question is, will the United 

 States follow suit? 



England has prohibited the importa- 

 tion of bulbs, not only from neutral 

 countries, but also from the allied coun- 

 tries of Japan and France. Imports of 

 plants and nursery stock also are re- 

 stricted. France has stopped the im- 

 portation of bulbs from Holland. So 

 has Germany. All the countries of 

 western Europe have prohibited exports 

 of certain classes of seeds and license 

 the shipment of others only when cer- 

 tain conditions are complied with. The 

 international plant trade, as well as the 

 bulb trade, is almost at a standstill in 

 Europe, by reason of official embargo. 



Will the government of the United 

 States ever say to a free people that 

 they shall not buy bulbs from Holland 

 or Japan? A few months ago it seemed 

 unlikely, but no one then supposed the 

 people of this country ever would face 

 government control of our food or our 

 fuel, both of which are being studied 

 by recently appointed federal commis- 

 sions. There may as yet be no commit- 

 tee on the restriction of the expenditure 

 of money for the importation of bulbs 



MAY WE DO AS MUCH FOR YOU? 



P.uffing up one 's own work i^ a grand 

 little indoor pastime. But the big 

 thing is what others have to say. 



Hence, to convince non-advertisers 

 of The Review's economy and efficiency 

 as a ' * silent salesman ' ' we now and 

 then print expressions from those who 

 pay the bills for Review advertising. 

 Note how the following letters were all 

 written during one week: 



I am enclosing check to balance my advertising 

 account, and I wish to say that the ads have 

 kept me so busy during the last two months that 

 now it is necessary to discontinue then), for I 

 have had to return money orders unfilled on ac- 

 count of the lack of stock. — Evergreen Farm, 

 C. M. Grossman, proprietor, Petoskey, Mich.. 

 May 31, 1917. 



Accept my thanks for your valuable service 

 during the years my ads have been running in 

 The Review. The large returns and the shortage 

 of color supplies have made this stop order es- 

 sential — C. R. Cranston, Newark, N. J., June 2, 

 1017. 



The classified ad, which was inserted oniy 

 once, sold about 30,000 tomato plants for me, so 

 please change it as follows. — A. A. Winegard, 

 Spengerport, N. Y., June 4, 1917. 



Enclosed find my check for $1.50 in payment of 

 one year's subscription to The Review. I can- 

 not do business without The Review. — Baxter 

 Greenhouses, S. Morgan, manager, Le Roy, 

 N. Y., June 1, 1917. 



When 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 



PLEASANT NEWS HERE. 



Florists who have expressed alarm 

 over the economy crusade launched by 

 the government probably will find some 

 consolation in the knowledge that this 

 war measure now is meeting with power- 

 ful opposition. The cry is raised in 

 many quarters that any change in the 

 buying habits of the nation is fraught 

 with grave danger. A member of the 

 National Council of Defense is quoted 

 in the papers as saying that "extrava- 

 gance is bad, but an indiscriminating 

 economy is worse. . . . We want more 

 business, not less." Furthermore, econ- 

 omists are wont to point out that eco- 

 nomic conditions, not sentiment, make 

 business, and ev.«ry merchant knows 

 that a spirit of economy, under present 

 conditions, is largely a matter of senti- 

 ment. When talk goes around about 

 economy, or about a scare, or a panic, 

 there is a short time during which the 

 consumer holds back his money. After 

 that brief period of emotionalism he 

 goes ahead and spends his money as he 

 gets it. And everybody seems to be 

 "getting it" now, or how is one to ex- 

 plajin tlie good business nearly all florists 

 are^ doing? 



CHICAGO. 



Tke Market. 



The condition of the market remains 

 unchanged in its essential factors. 

 Stock of nearly all kinds is plentiful, 

 while trading is slow, with prices on 

 the whole unsatisfactory. June 8 the 

 market, however, was considerably im- 

 proved and this bettered condition 

 lasted over the end of the week, but 

 by June 11 lethargy again prevailed. 

 Shipping business has held up a little 

 more consistently than the city trade, 

 but average prices have been low, 

 partly due to the low quality of much 

 of the stock on the market. 



American Beauties are in short sup- 



