7 



JtJNB 8. 1905. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



J 33 



Chicago ; The Shipping Market. A SmaU Part of the Shipments May 28. 



close the house tight and bum 200 grains 

 (about six ounces) to 1,000 cubic feet of 

 space. Keep the house closed at least 

 twelve hours. 



THE SHIPPING MARKET. 



There can be no question but that New 

 York handles more cut flowers than any 

 other city in the country, but there is no 

 market which can compare with Chicago 

 as a center for the shipping trade. This 

 has been well understood for years, but 

 the new arrangements resulting from the 

 express drivers' strike in Chicago have 

 served to emphasize the fact. When five 

 express companies each sent a wagon 

 into the market to pick up outgoing ship- 

 ments it so separated the boxes that 

 their number was hardly apparent, but 

 under the exisiting arrangement the ship- 

 ments from the seventeen wholesale 

 places are consolidated and make an im- 

 pressive showing. 



On Sunday before Decoration day 

 probably more boxes went out from the 

 Chicago market than on any one previous 

 day. They were all consolidated at the 

 corner of Wabash avenue and Randolph 

 street and loaded upon the wagons which 

 the wholesalers are operating on their 

 own account in the absence of the ex- 

 press service. The accompanying illus- 

 trations serve to give a partial idea of 

 what the business amounted to on that 

 (lay. In all between 700 and 800 boxes 

 went out and the pictures only show a 

 small part of the day's business. It is 

 estimated that $20 is a fair average value 

 for each box. On that basis the day's 

 !^°iP™ents would have approximated $15,- 



Not only do the huge piles of boxes 

 serve to give an idea of the extent to 



i! . *v !. ^.^^PP^°S business has grown, 

 Dut the division according to the trains 

 serves to give an idea as to where Chi- 

 cago gets the bulk of its business. Pitts- 

 burg gets a great deal of stock from Chi- 

 nt^i°\?? ^°^^ Omaha and so do St. Paul 

 and Minneapolis, while other cities in 

 TUG far west and northwest are also heard 



Ur^:^ M* '* "^^^ noticeable that the 

 iargest pile of boxes under the present 

 Shipping arrangement has been the one 

 tnat was to go out on the Illinois Cen- 



tral. The south is Chicago's best cus- 

 tomer. 



The strike of express drivers and other 

 teamsters in Chicago, although it has now 

 apparently worn itself out, has served to 

 deprive Chicago of millions of dollars of 

 business, but the wholesale cut flower in- 

 dustry has escaped better than any other 

 line at all dependent upon express ser- 

 vice. The day after the strike began, on 

 April 27, the wholesalers met and organ- 

 ized the Chicago Wholesale Florists' As- 

 sociation, with F. F. Benthey president, 

 John P. Bisch secretary and C. M. Dick- 

 inson treasurer. The association engaged 

 Fred Lautenschlager to conduct its trans- 

 portation business. The strikers permit- 

 ted Mr. Lautenschlager to pass the picket 

 line with "funeral flowers." Since the 

 day of its inception the service has oper- 

 ated to greater satisfaction than the for- 

 mer service of the express companies. On 

 some days, like May 28, five wagons have 

 been employed in hauling the shipments, 

 making trains on short notice and at any 

 hour. The agreement was that the whole- 

 salers should share in paying the ex- 

 penses of the service in proportion of the 

 number of boxes each house had to go 

 out. To date (six weeks) nearly 7,000 

 boxes have been handled and the cost has 

 been only about 13 cents per box. And 

 if it were not for Sunday, when overtime 

 has to be paid and few shipments are 

 made, the cost would be much less. Cer- 

 tainly the Chicago wholesale cut flower 

 industry is to be congratulated upon the 

 way it has come through the present 

 labor difficulty. 



A PERMANENT BENCH. 



At the George Wittbold Co. 's estab- 

 lishment in Chicago, they are building 

 benches after a fashion of their own, 

 but which are warranted to be as near 

 permanent as anything connected with a 

 modem greenhouse and which are also 

 comparatively inexpensive. 



To begin with they set a cement foun- 

 dation for vitrified drain tiles to serve 

 as legs for the bench. When these are 

 set they cover them with a flooring of 

 boards to serve as a temporary bottom 

 for the bench. When this is completed a 

 strip of galvanized iron six inches wide 

 is laid on for the sides of the bench. The 



end pieces are wood. The sides are held 

 together by rods of half-inch pipe across 

 the bench at the bottom, through which 

 a rod and bolt tie the galvanized iron 

 sides to the pipe. When all is in position 

 they fill an inch of cement around the 

 pipes which are lying on the temporary 

 wooden bottom. When the cement is set 

 they knock out the wooden flooring, 

 which permits the permanent bench to 

 settle upon its tile supports. There is a 

 row of supports through the middle of 

 the bench if it is a wide one and 

 a bench not only has good drainage but 

 is strong, indestructible and easy to 

 empty. 



PIPING. 



I have a greenhouse 14x50 feet and 

 ten feet to the ridge which is to be heated 

 by hot water. What size and how many 

 runs of pipe will be needed to get 50 

 to 55 degrees at night when the outside 

 temperature is 6 degrees below zero? 

 I have 100 feet of 2i^-inch pipe I would 

 like to use. C. L. L. 



Since you have the 100 feet of 2%-inch 

 pipe on handj it would not be improper 

 to use this size throughout. Three hun- 

 dred feet in all, of 2i/4-inch pipe, would 

 be required, or the 100 feet of 2 1^ -inch 

 you have on hand and 230 feet of 2- 

 inch, 290 feet of l^^-inch, or 330 feet 

 of 1^-inch. The larger pipe should be 

 used as flow pipes and the smaller for 

 returns. L. C. C. 



GAS FOR MEALY BUG. 



My greenhouses are overrun by mealy 

 bugs and I should like to try the cyan- 

 ide of potassium fumigating process. 

 Will you be good enough to publish in 

 the Eeview the formula and quantity 

 to use per cubic foot in a rose house, 

 carnation house, violet house and a 

 house containing orchids, palms and 

 ferns? E. C. D. 



If anyone has fumigated orchids with 

 hydrocyanic acid gas it has not come 

 under our attention. The materials re- 

 quired are ninety-eight per cent cyanide 

 of potassium, commercial sulphuric acid 

 and water. The method of combining 



