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OCTOBBB 5, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



1097 



The Every Day, Mechanical Style of Flat Bunch or Panel of Roses. 



pall was made principally of white roses 

 and asparagus and bears the regimental 

 number and the crossed sabers indicative 

 of the officer's branch of the service. The 

 sabers were of Perle roses and orchids. 



A WORD FROM AN EMPLOYER. 



I have read A. L, H. 's article on the 

 relation of the greeuhouae employee to 

 his job, in the Ebview for September 28. 

 It is well that employees state their side 

 of the question, for it gives the employ- 

 ers an opportunity to correct many an 

 error. 



In the first place let me say that the 

 trade is yet so young that the ' ' business 

 type" of employer does not yet predomi- 

 nate in the craft. This condition results 

 in two detrimental things: The proprie- 

 tors are not sufficiently systematic that 

 they know even approximately the cost 

 of production of a certain line of stock 

 and therefore sell at any price, absolutely 

 regardless of cost, thereby injuring such 

 as do try to sell at a reasonable profit; 

 secondly, there is not sufficient effort put 

 forth to reduce the cost of production to 

 its lowest level. In this an intelligent 

 employee can materially assist his em- 

 ployer and at the same time help him- 

 self to a start in life. 



In the first of these instances the fault 

 may be divided equally between the pub- 

 lic and the dealer, the former because they 

 do not learn the difference between high 

 and low grade stock (perhaps more cor- 

 rectly speaking, fresh and stale stock), 

 and the latter because we persistently 

 refuse to educate the public. Success in 

 business is founded on the absolute con- 

 fidence of the public, and the public will 

 not gain confidence in a florist who will 

 sell low-grade stock at a high-grade 

 price, or who will sell low-grade stock at 

 a ridiculously low figure and then try 

 to make the purchaser believe he is get- 

 ting a high-gradQ article at a great sacri- 



fice as a special favor. This policy may 

 work all right for a while but in the long 

 run it reacts against the guilty florist. 

 Honesty pays better than much adver- 

 tising. But if you have a high grade 

 article, make a proper charge for its 

 quality, for you may not be able to sup- 

 ply it at all times and you must impress 

 upon the customer that such differences 

 in price have very good reasons. If 

 you do this your customers will come to 

 consider you as a man of good judg- 

 ment and will learn to rely upon you. 

 So much for the income side of the busi- 

 ness. 



As I said before, the employee has 

 much to do with the expense side of the 

 business, and lucky is the man who is 

 surrounded with a group of workmen- who 

 are imbued with the ' ' esprit du corps, ' ' 

 or that united spirit which labors in all 

 its might to a common end. I hardly 

 know of a place where there is so much 

 leakage as in a greenhouse. If the fire- 

 man neglects his flues, he wastes heat. 

 If he is inattentive to temperatures he 

 not only wastes coal but iniluences quan- 

 tity and quality of stock. Should he be 

 careless about cleaning his grate and ash- 

 pit he soon burns out a grate and new 

 grates eat into' earnings. If the grower 

 is careless with the ho£e and kinks it in 

 a dozen places he can wear out a good 

 hose at least once a year, yet it takes no 

 more time to manipulate a hose so it will 

 not kink than to coil it up and yank it 

 straight. Water can also be economized 

 or wasted, as the case may be, with a 

 great influence on cost, whether it is 

 metered or pumped on the place, because 

 it costs a certain fixed rate per hour to 

 run a pump of any description, no matter 

 what it is. How much air to admit and 

 how much to exclude is also a matter for 

 good judgment on the part of the grower. 

 Too much air in winter wastes heat and 

 too little wastes good stock. Don 't waste 

 any fertilizers — they cost m»uiyf'StaA too 



much disorders the constitution of the 

 plants — gives them indigestion. The 

 propagator has also a big hand in deter- 

 mining the profit and loss of an institu- 

 tion. Careless selection of cuttings results 

 in some good, some poor and some indif- 

 ferent stock, from which the best returns 

 cannot be obtained by any grower. Heat, 

 moisture and air must be watched more 

 closely here than anywhere else or you 

 waste much valuable stock. The chipper 

 should closely study his part of the busi- 

 ness, to the end that "fancy" flowers 

 don't grade "select" on arrival or "se- 

 lect" grade "common." 



I have always noticed that the fellow 

 who economizes and systematizes in his 

 private affairs is likely to be economical 

 in his employer's business. How many 

 of our employees keep an expense ac- 

 count, showing how much they take in and 

 how much they expend! Pardon me for 

 taking you into personal experience. 

 If I had failed to keep an accurate record 

 of my private affairs from my earliest 

 youth (I began at 15 years) I would not 

 now be an employer. I am not one of the 

 "whales" in my line, because I am still 

 young (30 years old) and because I 

 chose to train myself along broad lines. 

 At the end of the year, if I failed to save 

 as much as I thought I ought, I went 

 over my expense account and made up a 

 list of things I would eliminate the fol- 

 lowing year. The first year I discovered 

 that my shoe bills went something like 

 $12 per year and learned that if I picked 

 up my feet in walking I could wear a 

 pair of $3.50 shoes one year on an aver- 

 age. I also learned that by buying 

 clothes of a firm texture and not follow- 

 ing the latest fad too closely I could 

 wear » $25 made-to-order suit five years 

 — half the time as a dress suit and half 

 the time as a working garb. By having 

 a summer and winter suit my clothes 

 cost me on an average of $10 per year 

 and I Was dressed as well as any ordi- 



