T ,: .-i^- 



August 18, 1904. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



581 



of saying a few words on the subject. 

 From all reports, the prices obtained for 

 products in the east are in advance of 

 those obtained in the west. There must 

 be a cause for this condition. Is it pos- 

 sible that it is due to over-production! 

 The clase of goods offered in the mid- 

 dle west is equal to the best in the coun- 

 try. Are the prices? If so, I fail to 

 see it. I venture to say the condition 

 has grown worse the last two years, and 

 seems to have come as predicted — an 

 abundance of good stock going to waste. 



Need for a Reserve. 



I think this is an opportune time to 

 call your attention to that part of ex- 

 President Burton's address last year, in 

 which he said all should take caution 

 and keep some of our earnings in re- 

 serve, and I believe he alluded particu- 

 larly to our western brethren. I am of 

 the same opinion. It might be well for 

 the progressive, who are adding enough 

 glass each year to alone swamp the sec- 

 tion in which they are in, to hold off 

 building a few years. It may help to 

 equalize the production. Let the con- 

 sumption exceed the production if it 

 will. The general trade may benefit by 

 it — the grower would at least. I do not 

 mean to discourage progress, for that 

 would be impossible. 



It would be reasonable for men in 

 our line of business to take a hint from 

 what other industries are doing. For 

 instance, a car-shop can close the doors 

 of their shops in whole or in part, if 

 business conditions require it. They 

 then await the reawakening of business 

 ere they operate again. An entirely dif- 

 ferent proposition for the florist. A 

 greenhouse, once built, needs constant 

 watching 365 days each year. With the 

 present condition it is well to yield. We 

 know the building operations have been 

 far beyond normal of late; therefore a 

 bit of caution will not go amiss. 



I think it would be well for some of 

 this enormous glass area which is now 

 devoted to cut flowers to be used for 

 growing a more extensive stock of flow- 

 ering plants, in which the public is of 

 late showing so much interest in all parts 

 of the country. I quote the words of 

 a shrewd grower, prominent in our 

 midst, in which he uses good logic. He 

 said: "No more building for me. I 

 have a desire to see what a bank ac- 

 count looks like. Since I have had the 

 building craze I have been a poor man. ' ' 

 A good word spoken, I thought. 



This is too often the case with the 

 florists. They seem to have a hobby 

 of being in debt constantly, caused, as a 

 rule, by the anxiety to build green- 

 houses. We all know the result. Fur- 

 ther, we are apt to establish poor credit. 

 Whether it is by building greenhouses 

 or building other houses, the credit of 

 our business can stand for improvement. 

 Too often it is impaired alone by the pure 

 carelessness of those who need it most. 

 This carelessness extends so far to the 

 point of even refu^ng the courtesy of 

 a reply to demands for payments, and we 

 all know the natural result. 



The Labor Problem. 



The present time seems opportune for 

 this society to, in some proper manner, 

 do something toward the improvement 

 of the conditions of most of our em- 

 ployes. Even the casual observer will 

 notice the rapid but certain depletion in 

 the ranks of efficient help engaged par- 

 ticularly in greenhouse work. It ap- 



pears to me that a period of extreme 

 difficulty in getting such efficient help 

 for the necessary requirements is close 

 at hand, and that we must make provi- 

 sions to meet it. 



We hear from many parts the cry of 

 an employer's inability to secure help 

 with sufficient knowledge and application 

 to warrant their retention in greenhouse 

 work with even a small share of respon- 

 sibility. About twenty years ago this 

 trouble did not confront the employer 

 anywhere. He could obtain the neces- 

 sary help required, from the small boy 

 pulling weeds and cleaning pots to the 

 section foreman. Apprentices were 

 much the rule then and not the excep- 

 tion, but today we find but few boys at 

 work in our establishments, and I am 

 led to believe the reason for it is that 

 the usual compensation given for the 

 different grades of greenhouse work is, 

 to the seeker for work, not sufficiently 

 remunerative when compared with the 

 wages offered and received by help in 

 other lines. This, I think, is all a mis- 

 take. 



We should seek to employ boys and 

 teach them the business and teach them 

 to feel attached to their chosen line of 

 life's work, but to bring about this 

 change, which if done at once would be 

 a violent one, we must lend encourage- 

 ment to the youthful applicant by point- 

 ing out the possibilities in the lines of 

 promotion, that carries with such pro- 

 motion and added responsibilities, wages 

 and salaries which will at once seem 

 sufficiently attractive to warrant the adop- 

 tion of this line of work as one 's life 

 vocation. At the present time there is 

 not the least stability to the wages and 

 salaries given in any grade of green- 

 house work, .so that it is impossible to 

 point out substantial reward for the 

 prospective florist, and the result is, as 

 above stated, a scarcity of the help re- 

 quired and a great deficiency in the 

 knowledge of those at all obtainable. 



Therefore, looking forward to a pos- 

 sible improvement of the condition, I 

 would suggest that the society would ap- 

 point a committee to draw up a scale of 

 wages that would, in the judgment of 

 the committee, properly compensate the 

 service rendered and which would be ap- 

 plicable to most places throughout the 

 country, and let that scale be as gener- 

 ous as the business can afford. Then 



we may be able to enlist more in our 

 pursuits than at present seems possible, 

 and the merit of them will be improved, 

 for if we would elevate our calling we 

 must elevate the men engaged in it. 



Amateur Societies. 



I am much impressed with the ex- 

 tensive good work being done in many 

 parts of the country by these unique or- 

 ganizations for home and civic improve- 

 ment, and I believe this society should 

 substantially recognize such work by 

 the awarding of suitable medals and 

 certificates to those of their members 

 who are being particularly successful in 

 the advancement of sucn work, which, 

 even indirectly, operates to the pecun- 

 iary advantage of members of our own 

 society. I earnestly hope that such ac- 

 tion as may be necessary will be taken 

 at this meeting to carry into effect this 

 recommendation. 



During the past winter I had the 

 pleasure of attending the lectures in our 

 city of Prof. Zueblin, on civic improve- 

 ments which pointed out the great work 

 done on these lines and the interest 

 shown now most universally in this most 

 commendable work, and when I contem- 

 plate the interest and real enthusiasm 

 shown in matters horticultural, bearing 

 upon improvements and embellishments of 

 home and public grounds by the League 

 of Civic Improvements, the Outdoor Art 

 Association, and similar associations, I 

 feel that cur members are losing a grand 

 opportunity to advance this feature of 

 that line of business, which belongs, al- 

 most exclusively, to our craft. We may, 

 I think, very properly and to great ad- 

 vantage identify ourselves with these as- 

 sociations and lend what assistance we 

 can to the development of ornamental 

 horticulture and thereby <-reate a fur- 

 ther demand for the class of stock re- 

 quired in work of this nature, and never 

 losing sight of the necessity of providing 

 this stock. I observe that the nursery- 

 men are already alive to the importance 

 of this branch of the business, which 

 properly belongs to us, and their en- 

 croachment upon this field is the result 

 of our own indifference to the growing 

 and sale of this very remunerative class 

 of stock. 



In many of our public parks, notably 

 those of Cleveland, where I was recently 

 shown around by ex-President Graham, I 



Exposition Building, St. Louis, where the S. A. F. Met this Week. 



