38 



The Florists* Review 



Aii(;ii8T 18, 1921 



We waut better boilers. We want 

 boilers to utilize thoroughly the fuel 

 consumed, aud uot waste from forty to 

 fifty per cent of it, as the best boilers 

 now do. We want boilers that will keep 

 up the temperature all night without 

 attention and let the llorist sleep — that 

 will be long-lived, aud sold at a reason- 

 able price. 



We want better installation. We 

 want to know, once the heat is obtained 

 from the boiler, how to distribute it 

 with the least loss aud to the best effect, 

 and at the least expense. We want to 

 know how to make the heating of green- 

 houses convenient and at greatly de- 

 creased cost. 



Letting the Florist Sleep. 



Don't you want all these things? How 

 are you going to obtain them? By co- 

 oi)cration. Have the will for them and 

 the means of getting them will come. 



A florist wrote us last March, "I 

 haven't been in bed since last October." 

 He could not go to bed because his 

 boiler required attention every two or 

 three hours during the night. Better 

 boilers, better installation and better 

 operation will do away with this, and it 

 will not only let the florist sleep, but 

 will put money in his pocket. 



When Decoration day comes and 

 goes, the florist wants to call it the end 

 of a perfect year, but he gets out his 

 bills and "Lo! the coal man's name 

 leads all the rest." 



Sometimes he looks down at his ankles 

 to see if the ball and chain of coal ex- 

 pense is there. This ball and chain of 

 recent years begins to get into his flesh, 

 and every florist squirms when he sees 

 the present high price of fuel and the 

 .size tf his coal bill at the end of the 

 year. 



If, by working together, we can bet- 

 ter conditions and get rid of present 

 evils, why not do it? Everyone can 

 knock, as the expression goes. Anyone 

 can find fault, but to propose something 

 constructive is a different and a difficult 

 thing. Now, I won't knock unless I 

 make tlie knocking heard. I won't 

 complain unless 1 can show how to re- 

 move the complaints. My suggestion is 

 that more attention to greenhouse 

 heating should be given by this associa- 

 tion and its individual members. 



A Committee on Heating? 



This association should put a heating 

 man on its board of directors. It should 

 create a committee to take charge of 

 the subject of heating. This committee 

 can formulate methods for securing 

 data on heating and plan how to get the 

 cooperation of the members in solving 

 the problems outlined. It means study, 

 time and money. It means a few men 

 must work for all and persuade the all 

 to get interested and work also. 



If, in the course of the next five or 

 ten years, we can get extensive data on 

 greenhouse heating, if we can have 

 this data considered and in plan, simple 

 language tell what it proves and then by 

 publication have the information avail- 

 able to every florist, the benefit will be 

 incalculable and will be well worth all 

 we do to get it. 



If the florist is spending now for his 

 heating $1,000 per year, and the work 

 we propose to do shows he is spending 

 from $200 to $400 more than he ought, 

 and we show him how to save this waste, 

 shouldn't he be intensely interested, 

 and shouldn't lie aid us in the work? 



I feel I am safe and reasonable in say- 

 ing that from twenty to forty per cent 

 of the present total expense for heating 

 is a complete waste, and that it is pos- 

 sible to stop it. Suppose someone at the 

 end of the year would hand back to you 

 twenty to forty per cent of your whole 

 heating expense, wouldn't you be in- 

 terested and wouldn't you extend the 

 glad hand of welcome to your benefac- 

 tor? Get busy yourself, be your own 

 benefactor and accumulate an old-age 

 fund for yourself. 



Belated Economy. 



We ran our plant by steam power for 

 years. Someone suggested electric 

 power was better and cheaper. 1 called 

 in an acquaintance, an electrical en- 

 gineer, and asked how about it. He 

 said he did not think it would pay to 

 change. Ten years afterward our en- 

 gine broke down; so we got really busy 

 on the subject of electric power. We 

 had it installed and have saved at least 

 $1,500 a year in actual cost, without 

 counting the increased efficiency ob- 

 tained. We lost at least $15,000 by not 

 looking into the matter more thoroughly 

 ten years previously. This, to us, was 

 an actual, tangible money loss. 



Now, isn't it possible that similar 

 losses are being borne by you un- 

 consciously? 



There are no accurate figures, but it 

 is estimated there are in use in the 

 United States 100,000,000 square feet 

 of glass in greenhouses. It is estimated 

 that at present prices for fuel, with an 

 ordinarily good boiler, proper piping, 

 properly installed, and the whole sys- 

 tem operated properly for 200 days, 

 heating to 70 degrees all the time and 

 maintaining that temperature in zero 

 weather, the cost would be, heating by 

 steam, $100; by water, $65 per thou- 

 sand feet of glass. Let us divide the 

 cost of the two methods, and take it at 

 $80 per thousand feet of glass per sea- 

 son, and you have the enormous sum of 

 $8,000,000 annually spent by florists for 

 fuel. 



Two Extremes. 



I know of a case where the cost, at 

 jjresent prices of fuel, for heating by 

 water has been $110 per season, or $45 

 more than it ought to be. This is a 

 waste of about seventy per cent. I 

 know of a case where the cost of 'heat- 

 ing by steam has been $35 per thou- 

 sand feet of glass per season, or a sav- 

 ing over the average of sixty-five per 

 cent. Here are extremes of 135 per 

 cent in rate of cost. Who knows, there- 

 fore, how much of this $8,000,000 is be- 

 ing saved or wasted, and isn 't it impor- 

 tant that it be known? 



When a man operates a factory he 

 wants to know, and he generally does 

 know, whether his costs are right or 

 not. If he finds he has obsolete ma- 

 chines he scraps them for machines 

 producing work at less cost. He revolu- 

 tionizes whole processes and finds that 

 what he throws away generally comes 

 back in decreased costs and increased 

 profits. In the large textile, woolen and 

 cotton mills, in steel mills and foundries, 

 they are continually on the lookout for 

 improved machinery, and pay experts to 

 discover and get it. 



A greenhouse is a factory. What ap- 

 plies to a textile mill or foundry applies 

 to a greenhouse. The principle is the 

 same, and the good results of improved 

 methods will be appreciated in both 

 places. 



My contact with the florists' busines-, 

 fills me with envy, and I wonder if yon 

 appreciate all there is in your business 

 entirely outside of the financial profit in 

 it. 



In winter, when cold and frost ami 

 ice prevail outside, you live in an at 

 mosphere of comfort, beauty and pleas 

 ure. We have tingling ears and frozen 

 fingers — must buffet sleet and icy winds. 

 You have, under glass, the uplifting 

 smell of the moistened earth, the fra- 

 grance and beauty of the flowers. 



Cooperating with the Creator. 



With all reverence I say it — you aru 

 almost like the Creator. You art- 

 creators in a measure. You select the 

 seed, and by study and experiment ini 

 prove it. You plant, you propagate and 

 you bring into being all the beauty and 

 pleasure of flowers. You handle them 

 tenderly, as they are tender things. 

 Their life is short, and you guide and 

 control it, and by them make the lives 

 of men more sweet and beautiful. 



You meet every phase of life, the 

 sweetest and saddest. Birth is wel- 

 comed by your work, and as the happy 

 mother looks with a sweet smile upon 

 her new-born babe, she sees with joy 

 the flowers sent her by loving friends 

 anil cherishes to her bosom her child, 

 the sweetest flower of all. 



You are interested in the sweet girl 

 graduate (let us forget the boy), and 

 the flowers you furnish add to her charm 

 and beauty, and years afterwards she 

 will recall with pleasure the profusion 

 of flowers received. You are present at 

 marriage, because the bride must be 

 decked by your product, and so must 

 the altar, the home and friends. Birth- 

 days, anniversaries of different sorts, 

 religious festivals, all must have the 

 result of your work, and none is com- 

 plete without flowers. 



The last remembrance of our dear lost 

 ones is connected with flowers surround- 

 ing them, and the beauty of the flowers 

 softens the cold and repelling features 

 of death. The flowers thrown on the 

 coffin in the grave act as a shield, and 

 as the earth is thrown lightly there, we 

 realize that the beauty of the flowers 

 well typifies the beauty of the life just 

 ended. 



When Opportunity Knocks. 



You see you are present at every 

 act in life, and I wonder if you realize 

 and appreciate what a wonderful and 

 beautiful work you are engaged in. 



You have recognized and approved 

 cooperative work by the formation and 

 growth of this association. Now, g<> 

 further and develop all there is in green- 

 house heating, which is so important a 

 part of your business. 



Perhaps you have not heretofore given 

 the consideration such an important sub- 

 ject deserves, but now that your at- 

 tention has been called to this subject, 

 do not let the opportunity pass without 

 action. 



Do you know what opportunity is? 

 Listen! 



Master of humnn destinies am I. 



Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait. 



Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate 

 Deserts and seas remote, and passing by 



Hovel and mart and palace — soon or late 



I knock unbidden once at every gate. 

 If sleeping, wake — if feasting, rise before 



I turn away. It is the hour of fate. 



And they who follow me reach every state 

 Mortals desire, and conquer every foe 



Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate. 

 Condemned to failure, penurj- and woe. 

 Seek me in vain, and uselessly implore: 

 I answer not, and I return no more. 



