August 20, 1921 



The Florists^ Review 



21 



more, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, 

 St. Louis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, 

 Washington, Beading, Tri-City, Cincin- 

 nati, Lancaster, Hartford and Boston 

 florists' clubs; American Carnation, 

 Chrysanthemum, Ohio Gladiolus, Knox- 

 ville, Maine State and Portland florists ' 

 societies; Indiana, Michigan, Minne- 

 sota, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Kansas, 

 Texas, Pittsburgh, Tri-State and Illi- 

 nois state florists' associations. 



Your committee has, from checkipg 

 over these various organization mem- 

 bership lists with the S. A. F. member- 

 ship list, been able to get some inter- 

 esting data. For instance, we found 

 from the thirty-three lists checked that 

 there are a total of 4,399 members be- 

 longing to these organizations. Of this 

 number 1,827 are also S. A. F. members 

 and 2,572 are not. 



It does seem from these figures that 

 there is yet a lot of missionary work 

 to be done within the branch organiza- 

 tions. Of course, we must remember 

 that a large number of the membership 

 of every florists' club are employees; 

 then, too, the checking on the above 

 lists was done during May. Just why 

 more did not respond we do not know; 

 we only hope they may yet get in line 

 and help this worthy cause. 



To the request for the appointment of 

 local committees, the response was much 

 less. Tet we did succeed in getting 

 committees appointed from the follow- 

 ing organizations: New York, Chicago, 

 Cleveland, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Balti- 

 more, Washington, D. C; Kansas City, 

 Milwaukee and Tri-City florists' clubs 

 and the Minnesota and Indiana state as- 

 sociations. Almost all of these did fair- 

 ly good work, but, like ourselves, might 

 have done better. 



Record Workers. 



We next went after our vice-presi- 

 dents and many of them surely showed 

 the metal they were made of. Here 

 are just a few of their records: D. C. 

 Horgan, of Georgia, turned in to date 

 forty new members, some of them life 

 members. Oklahoma to date has reached 

 the peak, A. S. Gray, president of the 

 state association, having turned in for- 

 ty-five members. We know not what 

 part George L. Stiles, the vice-presi- 

 dent, played in this, but no doubt he 

 was on the firing line. 



We are glad to report that we had 

 the hearty cooperation of the trade 

 press. All told, we received over 2,000 

 lines of free reading space during this 

 drive, besides several strong editorials 

 urging florists to join the S. A. F. In 

 addition to the trade press publicity 

 over 100,000 pieces of mail matter, in- 

 cluding letters, circulars and applica- 

 tion blanks, were sent out. When we 

 stop to think how much advertising it 

 takes to sell a florist a $5 membership 

 in the S. A. F., it is no wonder we 

 must spend so much in advertising to 

 get the public to purchase all our flow- 

 ers. But it is the same old story; we 

 have to sell the florist first, and that's 

 some job, we say. 



The total money spent by the com- 

 mittee to date is as follows: 



Printing $210.50 



Stenographer 138.00 



Postage 177.22 



Telegrams 4.14 



Express 2.03 



Typewriter ribbons, notebooks 1.60 



Carbon paper 1.40 



Total $534.89 



All of this was raised by individual 

 members and not paid out of the S. A. 



Pommert's Ne^v Gladiolus, Purity. 



F. treasury. The total results of our 

 work can only be checked from the sec- 

 retary's books, as all applications were 

 ordered sent directly to his office. If 

 this does not show an increase of at 

 least 1,000 members, we shall be dis- 

 appointed, indeed, but not discouraged. 



We wish, in closing, to thank heartily 

 all individuals and organizations who 

 have taken an active part in this com- 

 paign, and the trade journals especially 

 for their hearty cooperation. 



We welcome those new members who 

 have joined our ranks. May they ever 

 keep in mind the one fact, that an or- 

 ganization is like a business or a bank 

 account — you can only draw out of it 

 in proportion to the amount you put in, 

 be it time, money or service. And let 

 this be our motto, "He who serves 

 most, serves best." 



To those members, state vice-presi- 

 dents and local organizations that have 

 not yet entered into this struggle for 

 the future welfare and progress of our 

 dear old society, we extend a hearty 

 welcome to join us and lielp make this 



a banner year in securing membership 

 for the S. A. F. 



GLAX>IOLUS PURITY. 



Gladiolus growers expressed much in- 

 terest in the new variety shown by 

 Charles Pommert, of Amelia, O., at the 

 S. A. F. convention at Washington, 

 those expert in growing gladioli for cut 

 flowers declaring its arrangement of the 

 foliage especially adapted for that pur- 

 pose. Mr. Pommert had worked with 

 America and had obtained an improved 

 strain that has been much valued in the 

 Cincinnati market. The sport from that 

 strain, of which he has been working 

 up stock for seven years, has been even 

 better welcomed there. The color of 

 the bloom is pure white, with faint 

 flesh markings. It is shown in the ac- 

 companying illustration. Mr. Pommert 

 plans to put the variety on the market 

 shortly. 



Charles Pommert himself is not now 

 active in the business he built up at 

 Amelia. His son, John Pommert, is 

 manager of the Glen Mary Fish Farm 

 and likewise of the growing operations. 



