42 



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The Florists^ Review 



<?rn';»<S"r.'-^>i • 





May 11, 1922 



fl 



Esteblished 1897. 

 by a. L. arant. 



PablUbed erery Thoradar br 

 The Florists' Poblishinq Co., 



B00-S60 Oazton BalldlnK, 



BOe Soatb Dearborn St., Ohloa«ro. 



Tel., Wabash 8196. 



Registered cable addreM, 



iTlorTiew. Ohlcaco. 



Entered as second class matter 

 Dec. 8. 1897. at the post-ofBce at Ohl- 

 caso. 111., nnder the Act of Uarcb 

 8. 1879. 



Snbscrlption price, 12.00 a year. 

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



AdTertisinff rates quoted on 

 request. Only strictly trade ad' 

 vertlslnc accepted. 



(I 



RESULTS. 



We give them. You get them. 



We both have them. 



Send the Editor a copy of your Moth- 

 ers ' day advertising. Thank you ! 



The popularity and sale of any article 

 is governed by its quality and price. 

 Flowers are no exception to the rule. They 

 must be good to be desirable; then the 

 lower the price the more numerous the 

 sales. 



Nearly any florist can keep a sound 

 financial footing by declining the busi- 

 ness of those who do not pay as bills 

 are due. Limiting credits and overhead 

 expense usually mean slow growth, but 

 it will be substantial. 



Those florists who, at the suggestion 

 of The Review, have provided postcards 

 to acknowledge all plant orders from 

 brother tradesmen are well pleased with 

 the results. Expressions of satisfaction 

 are frequent. If you haven't such a 

 printed card, get one now. 



Bi'SH rose plants continue in strong 

 demand. In the old days, when rose 

 houses were replanted every year, the 

 year old plants went to the brush heap. 

 Now, with better varieties and replant- 

 ing being done only every second to 

 fourth year, the jdants have ready market- 

 ability. 



Among the florists who complain of 

 diminished profits are cons])icuously those 

 who greatly enlarged their organization 

 and amjilifiod their facilities during the 

 boom jtcriod. Now they do not know 

 how to reduce their heavy overhead ex- 

 pense in order to make a profit on the 

 lower prices obtained for flowers. 



''Many of the letters received in re 

 sjlonse to IIclii Want('(l advertisements 

 In The Review at first reading strike a 

 business man as funny,'' wrote a recent 

 user of such advertising, "but a second 

 thought shows they are mildly tragic, espe- 

 cially the replies from old men. Some of 

 them boast of forty years' exjierience and 

 some frankly confess they are more inter- 

 ested in peace and quiet than in money. 

 The wonder to me is why they do not cul- 

 tivate an acre of truck and hardy flowers 

 for themselves, just where they happen 

 to lie. It would take little to start it and 

 after the first year a real living could 

 easily be made. It must V)e so easy to 

 lean on others tUat after a time any sort 

 of initiiitivc becomes impossible.'' 



Worrying about a dull yesterday will 

 not make a busy today. Thinking about 

 the present and the future, not the past, 

 is what makes the florists' business good. 



Make it a point to clean up the ac- 

 counts receivable before customers go 

 away for the summer. You'll have to 

 start now and keep closely at it to get the 

 job done. 



Nurserymen and seedsmen, in their 

 respective efforts to secure wider pub- 

 licity and greater sales, are searching for 

 a slogan as good as "Say It with Flow- 

 ers. ' ' Since we have this, let us make 

 the most of it. Keep the slogan alive. 



THAT QUAKANTINB. 



Ever since quarantine 37 was put into 

 effect, large quantities of printers ' ink 

 have been devoted to its denunciation 

 or defense and, now that the date, May 

 15, is approaching for the conference on 

 the subject called by the federal horti- 

 cultural board, the "arguments" for 

 and against have increased to a point 

 which has made it impossible to find 

 place for all. 



Viewing the quarantine from the an- 

 gle of its avowed purpose of protecting 

 America against insects and plant dis- 

 eases not present or widely distributed 

 in this country. The Review never has 

 been able to see the need for an em- 

 bargo or to believe that such need as 

 may exist could not effectively be sup- 

 plied by other means. No one who has 

 read any considerable part of the matter 

 published can have failed to note that 

 the economic effects of the quarantine 

 are the ones which influence the opin- 

 ions of most of the writers, deny it as 

 they may. Those whose business has 

 been injured by the quarantine, and 

 those who fear an extension of it may 

 have that result, are vehement in de- 

 nunciation of such curtailment of their 

 liberty of action, while those who find 

 themselves benefited financially by the 

 prevention of European competition are 

 becoming whole-hearted in their support 

 of the quarantine. Thus the real merit 

 of the case seems to be l>uried under its 

 economic aspects. 



The hearing at Washington May l.T 

 can not fail to be of great interest, but 

 it seems that more value may attach to 

 the development of the present purposes 

 of Dr. Marlatt and his associates than 

 to the further exposition of the diver- 

 gent views of those whose business has 

 been or may be hiirt or bettered. 



EFFECT OF THE STRIKE. 



After a month of strike, the coal 

 miners and operators are still as stub- 

 bornly at odds as when the month be- 

 gan. The efforts of the mine workers' 

 union to extend its power into non-union 

 fields is meeting with powerful resist- 

 ance, and the campaign scorns to have 

 been checked, temporarily at any rate. 

 The strongest restriction on production 

 of bituminous coal in non-union fields 

 has been the lack of demand. Domestic 

 movement is at a low ebb and what de- 

 mand there is centers upon the steam 

 sizes. The result of this has been a 

 sharper advance of the general level of 

 prices on slack and mine run, and de- 

 creases in the top figures upon sizes 

 prepared for the domestic trade. A com- 

 parison of top quotations, high and low, 

 for the last week in April with the pre- 

 ceding week showed that forty three 

 and one third per cent of the ytrices were 

 unchanged, that seven and one third per 



cent showed reductions and^forty-nine 

 and one-third per cent showed advances. 



At the present estimated rate of con- 

 sumption, it is stated, reserves are be- 

 ing eaten into at the rate of 4,000,000 

 tons per week. On this basis, with no 

 increase in the output from non-union 

 fields, the stocks on hand would last un- 

 til about the middle of August before 

 they were reduced to a danger point. 

 The total stock of coal on hand April 1 

 was given as 68,650,000 net tons. The 

 report of the United States Chamber of 

 Commerce is to the effect that stocks 

 cannot drop below 20,000,000 tons with- 

 out danger of a coal famine. The quan- 

 tity which can be drawn from stocks 

 before a serious situation develops is, 

 therefore, 48,650,000 tons, sufficient to 

 hold out twelve weeks at the present 

 rate. 



Presuming that greenhouse owners 

 have on hand sufficient coal to carry 

 them until summer, it appears that they 

 may sit tight until July or August be- 

 fore worrying as to next winter's sup- 

 ply of coal. By that time, in all likeli- 

 hood, some agreement will have been 

 reached by the operators and unions. 



DO WE WANT ■WILD FLOWERS? 



In the spring and the fall of the 

 year a few florists make use of wild 

 flowers in basket arrangements and dec- 

 orations for the sake of variety. They 

 buy them from persons who bring in an 

 armful or several basketfuls they have 

 gathered. While some customers may 

 appreciate the variety, a different sen- 

 timent moves others. How widespread 

 is that sentiment is evident from the 

 reprinting in newspapers in many 

 places of the following editorial, orig- 

 inally in the Chicago Tribune: 



A professional wild flower hunter, devastatlnK 

 the countryside for blossoms to sell to a florist, 

 can do more dnmnge than a dozen motor parties. 

 It must be stopped. 



The easiest and most immediate corrective 

 measure would be for the public to refuse to buy 

 wild flowers from a florist. That would kill the 

 market immediately and save the flowers. 



Even better — and perhaps this may follow — 

 would be legislation making It as much a crime 

 to offer wild flowers fsr sale as to offer wild 

 game for sale. Our flowers are confronted by 

 the same unorganized but devastating danger 

 as our wild ducks and prairie chickens and 

 partridges. Preservation of floral life is as Im- 

 portant to many as preservation of bird life. 

 Since its destruction is becoming commercialized 

 drastic steps are needed to save It. 



YES, IT EVIDENTLY PAYS. 



There is a frequently repeated saying 

 that ''it pays to lul-yertise. " Of 

 course, it makes some difference where 

 and how one advertises, but when the 

 advertisement is of a seasonable article 

 at a fair price and ajipears in the Classi- 

 fied section of The Review it not only 

 pays to advertise, but it frequently pays 

 handsomely; yes, even splendidly. Like 

 this: 



Please discontinue our petunia ad in The Re- 

 view, as the one Insertion sold 10.000 plants. — J. 

 Sylvester, Oconto, Wis., May 4, 1922. 



To get the full force of the above, it 

 is necessary to consider that the plants 

 were advertised at 6 cents each, so that 

 the 10,000 sold brought $600. The ad- 

 vertisement cost $1.08. 



BRIEF ANSWERS. 



A. F. C, N. Y. — Madeira vine is not 

 hardy in your state. 



N. R., Del. — Tulips cannot be forced 

 a second season. 



W. C. K., Kan. — Package arrived in 

 extremely bad condition. Send another 

 specimen well packed, attaching your 

 name and address. 



