12 



The Florists' Review 



July 8. 1915. 



carry on this line of direct advertising, 

 but such is not the case. If you are 

 not fortunate enough to have the use 

 of a typewriter or any of the machines 

 now on the market for this purpose, all 

 you need is pen, ink, paper, envelopes 

 and stamps. There is a druggist in our 

 city — and, by the way, one of the lead- 

 ing ones — who follows this method of 

 advertising by the following means: Be- 

 tween the days for which he intends to 

 use his letters, during all his spare time, 

 and we all have much of it, he writes 

 his letters with pen. Bear in mind he 

 has a typewriter and multigraph too, 

 but prefers a personally penned letter 

 signed by him, and he advises me it 

 brings big returns. 



Another important item to bear in 

 mind is to select some slogan suggestive 

 of your business or special line, if you 

 have one, and use it always. You will 

 find it will not be long until it is a by- 

 word with all your customers as well 

 as new customers. We use one in our 

 local advertising; we contracted with 

 the leading paper here for a number of 

 local advertisements to run the whole 

 year through, in various parts of the 

 paper. All we used in these locals was 

 our slogan, "When you think of flow- 

 ers think of us," and unless you have 

 tried it you have no idea how much 

 attention such a slogan attracts. It 

 will pay anyone to try it. In conclud- 

 ing this part of my subject, I would 

 say advertise, and advertise liberally, 

 but do it judiciously and carefully. 



Bookkeeping. 



So much can be said about bookkeep- 

 ing, and so many of us florists need to 

 be hammered and pounded so hard on 

 this point, I scarcely know where to 

 begin. Most of us think our line does 

 not require any bookkeeping, in which 

 we are badly mistaken. Almost any of 

 us can tell at any time about how much 

 he owes or how much is due, but how 

 many of us can go to our books and 

 tell which line of stock paid us best for 

 the last year. I do not mean guess at 

 it, but give actual figures. While our 

 flower department is not kept separate 

 on our books, it is kept in such a way 

 that at any time we can see just where 

 this department stands. For the gen- 

 eral bookkeeping of the company, we 

 keep an account for everything; for 

 instance, all improvements are charged 

 to a separate account; likewise iuter- 

 est, implements, live stock, growing, 

 purchase, and so on. Every individual 

 thing has an account of its own on our 

 books; then when a sale of these vari- 

 ous things is made it is credited to 

 that account, so that any time we wish 

 we can see just how that department 

 stands and how much we have in it, 

 and what we are getting from it. 



Of course, most florists do not nee<I 

 so large a system as ours, but I would 

 suggest something like this for even 

 the smallest of us: General sales ac- 

 count, cut flowers, advertising, pur- 

 chases, flower store account, greenhouse 

 account, improvement plant purchases, 

 delivery account, live stock or automo- 

 bile account, supplies, etc. Whatever 

 item is a factor in the conduct of the 

 business ought to be on your books, 

 that you may refer to it at any time and 

 be able to tell how deep you are in it, 

 and put on the check valve if getting 

 an overload. It would be hard for me 

 to state just what one should keep; each 

 one should be able to tell which are 

 the more important items, but above 



all, start right now, even if on only 

 a part of the items, and you will like it 

 so well at the end of the year that I 

 am sure you will have a perfect book- 

 keeping system thereafter, and without 

 much extra expense or trouble. Each 

 year you will be able to see where you 

 can improve on it and make it easier 

 and clearer to keep. 



Forms and Systems. 



There are many forms on which to 

 keep these records, but to most of us 

 these need considerable explanation to 

 keep properly, and the busy florist has 

 not the time to take a course in such 

 things. I believe it is best to work out 

 a simple system of one's own, and by 

 his own experience gradually improve 

 on it, until he has a plain, neat, compact 



Jack Hassoo in I9t0. 



system, that will be a pride to him as 

 well as a pleasure to all whom he may 

 have any occasion to show or tell of it. 

 The most satisfactory system of book- 

 keeping is the double entry system, 

 which, as its name implies, requires two 

 entries for each transaction. This may 

 sound like too much work to do, but 

 by it one can always tell if all items 

 have been posted in the proper amounts. 

 There are only two fundamental rules 

 to be followed to carry out this system; 

 they are: "All items, cash, flowers, 

 merchandise or whatsoever we may 

 ' take in ' go on the credit side of the 

 proper account, and all items paid out 

 or sent out go on the debit side of the 

 proper account." The other rule is 

 based on the same principle and is, 

 "For every debit there must be a cor- 

 responding credit, and conversely, for 

 every credit there must be a correspond- 

 ing debit." For instance, we send to 

 our flower store a dozen American 

 Beauty roses. We debit our flower 

 store account one dozen A. B. roses $3; 

 we credit our greenhouse sales account 

 by one dozen A. B. roses to flower store 

 $3. Our flower store sells these to Mrs. 

 John Doe for $5; so we cfedit flower 

 store sales account by $5 and charge 

 Mrs. John Doe's account one dozen A. 

 B. roses $5. Later Mrs. John Doe sends 

 us a check; so we credit her account $5 



and charge cash account $5. Thus by 

 charging the proper or selected accounts 

 with the items belonging thereon, and 

 crediting these accounts with all items 

 belonging thereon, one is able to deter- 

 mine if it is profltable ta run an uptown 

 flower store or to hire delivery men, or 

 to know out of which flowers profits 

 are made, etc. 



In conclusion on these subjects, I 

 would say the moral of all this talk is, 

 "Don't hide your light under a bush- 

 el; let it shine by careful, judicious 

 advertising and reflect upon the pages 

 of a perfect bookkeeping system. ' ' 



WHAT A STATE BANOE CAN DO. 



[A summary of a paper read before the Texas 

 State Florists' Association at Fort Worth July 6, 

 1915, by B. J. Kyle, dean of the School of Agri- 

 culture at the A. & M. College of Texas.] 



A short time ago, in order to gain 

 a better idea of the status of the flo- 

 rists' industry, I sent out a question- 

 naire to the florists of the state. The 

 following are some of the important 

 points developed from this inquiry: 



First, Fully eighty-five per cent of 

 our cut roses, sixty per cent of our 

 carnations and over forty per cent of 

 our chrysanthemums are imported from 

 out of the state. 



Second. The principal reasons as- 

 signed for not growing more of these 

 flowers within our state are: (a) Un- 

 favorable climatic conditions. (b) 

 Shortness of season. (c) Lack of 

 equipment. 



Third. The most serious insect pests 

 are the red spider and the thrips, while 

 the most damaging disease is the rust. 



Fourth. The carnation is easily the 

 best selling flower. 



Fifth. The large majority of the 

 florists feel , that the college could best 

 serve the florists' industry of the state 

 by introducing varieties best suited to 

 our peculiar climatic conditions. 



The Importation of Stock. 



Taking these questions up in detail, 

 let us consider for a moment the impor- 

 tation of cut flowers into the state. It 

 has been stated on reliable authority 

 that over $1,000,000 worth of cut 

 flowers are brought into Texas each 

 year. I do not doubt this statement at 

 all, because reports from a number of 

 the leading florists show that consid- 

 erably over sixty-five per cent of the 

 most popular selling flowers are pur- 

 chased from without the state. 



It is quite probable that some flowers 

 will always be broiight into the state 

 for the retail trade, but the per cent 

 should be far below what it is now. 

 The fact that the person who purchases 

 flowers in this state has to pay often 

 four or five commissions works an in- 

 justice not only to the purchaser, but 

 to the florist who does the selling. 

 The sale of cut flowers will never be 

 \vhat it should be under present con- 

 ditions. It seems to me, therefore, that 

 one of the first problems that a range 

 of glass at the college will enable us 

 to take up is the question of how to 

 profitably produce within our state more 

 of the cut flowers used by our people. 



Climate and Varieties. 



The majority of the florists feel that 

 the principal reason why there are not 

 more flowers grown in the state is on 

 account of unfavorable climatic condi- 

 tions. They are probably right. And 

 right here we come face to face with 

 an exceedingly difficult proposition. 



