1286 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



March 29, 1906. 



THE MAIL ORDER TRADE. 



[A paper by I'. J. Lynch, West Grove. Pa., 

 rend before tlie Auieriiuu Uose Society iit 

 Boston, March T.i, I'.XIG.] 



In considering the scope to which I 

 should confine the subject, 1 have taken 

 it for granted that to keep within the 

 propaganda of tliis society i must speak 

 Avith special reference to the rose as a 

 mail order commodity, yet the subject, 

 "The Mail Order Trade," in plants, 

 has been touched upon so little by any 

 of our national societies;, I shall, there- 

 fore, treat it somewhat broadly. 



We have no governmental statistics 

 to give an idea of the magnitude of the 

 present mail order trade in plants, i 

 doubt if very many of us realize the 

 great work being done in this branch of 

 our industry, a work whose power to 

 advance the material groAvth and wel- 

 fare of floriculture has been, and is, 

 perhaps, the greatest factor in our pres- 

 ent unparalleled prosperity. Your mail 

 order man is the pioneer and pathfinder 

 of the craft that has carried to the 

 remote parts of the country the gospel 

 of loving flowers, especially roses, and 

 how to get and grow them. He has 

 been, in a measure, the educator of the 

 masses, many of whom are not in close 

 touch with the large centers of popula- 

 tion where the rose as grown for cut 

 flowers can make its own appeal. He 

 has been a. factor in beautifying the 

 waste places of our land, and it is 

 my thought that the great work in which 

 we are engaged has but commenced. 

 Each year this great government of ours 

 continues to improve the efficiency of 

 the mail service, so that today there is 

 not a post-office in any part of the union 

 where rose plants cannot be delivered 

 with entire safety. 



Parcels Post System. 



When the time shall come that cor- 

 porate greed will not stand in the way 



Great Britain, and no measure that we 

 can oppose, if I am not digressing from 

 the subject, is so detrimental to the in- 

 terests of the mail order trade as this 

 absurd free distribution of seeds by the 

 United States government. 



The mail order man is not a young- 

 ster. He has been around quite a long 

 while. In 1869 the firm with which 1 

 am connected published an advertise- 

 ment in the New York Tribune offering 

 to send to any post-office in the United 

 States fresh, live, growing plants, on 

 their own roots, and guaranteed the safe 

 arrival. This proposition evidently was 

 taken as a good joke, for we got no 

 orders from it. Since those days mar- 

 velous advances have been made. 

 Throughout the land there are to my 

 direct knowledge 105 mail order estab- 

 lishments, comprising millions of feet 

 of glass, devoted exclusively to sending 

 plants, roses principally, by mail. For 

 catalogues and advertising alone I esti- 

 mate that there is spent annually $1,- 

 500,000. Some of these catalogues are 

 gems of the printers' art, and as a 

 rule they are sent free to customers 

 and to all others who ask for them. 

 Through liberal advertising in the na- 

 tional weekly and monthly publications 

 the public is kept advised that your 

 mail order man is ready with the goods. 

 Ft has been said, but I believe face- 

 tiously, that our descriptions of the 

 wares we have to off'er are occasionally 

 too seductive, but I am sure, however, 

 the sincerity of purpose cannot be ques- 

 tioned. 



Must Be Enthusiasts. 



To be successful we must be enthu- 

 siasts, and in figuring the expense of 

 printing these catalogues and advertis- 

 ing them appropriately your mail order 

 man must have his nerve with him, be- 

 cause the proposition calls for sums of 

 money in this department of publicity 



Cyclamens and Primulas Shown at Boston, March 23-25. 



of the needs of the people we shall have 

 a parcels post system that will mean 

 more to the business interests of the 

 country than any contemplated legisla- 

 tion that I know of at this time. No 

 measure that we can endorse will so ad- 

 vance the mutual interests of both buyer 

 and seller as the enactment of a parcels 

 post system similar to that in vogue in 



that is almost akin to the salary of the 

 president of a modern life insurance 

 company. 



First of all, having grown his stock, 

 the next move is to determine how much 

 will be safe to invest in selling it. 1 

 am told that the gentlemen who con- 

 struct the modern greenhouses of today 

 are diligent in the prosecution of their 



business; that to intimate that one in- 

 tends to build means a busy time with 

 our genial solicitor, but if you have 

 never been in contact with the gentle- 

 men who solicit for our large printing 

 houses there is in store for you an expe- 

 rience that will add much to the zest of 

 living. 



Having, we shall assume, survived this 

 strenuous preliminary of placing the 

 printing contract, the work of prepar- 

 ing copy for the printer means weeks, 

 and in many instances months of care- 

 ful, painstaking labor. The material 

 for each department is collated from 

 time to time throughout the year, the 

 space it is to occupy is determined upon, 

 then the material is carefully edited and 

 made to fit into the allotted space, all 

 of which requires an outlay of energy 

 that would be almost impossible in the 

 short space of time given to the work, 

 unless these details were not carefully 

 systematized. 



Postage a Serious Item. 



At all times it must be kept in mind 

 that the matter of postage upon big 

 editions is a very serious item and where 

 the weight exceeds the estimated weight 

 even by the smallest fraction .of an 

 ounce, one cent is thereby added, the 

 rate being one cent for every two ounces 

 or fractional part thereof. Having fin- 

 ished the catalogue, they are mailed to 

 the most distant states at the most 

 seasonable times, that the suggestion 

 produced by the arrival of the catalogue 

 will not be lost through unfavorable 

 weather conditions. 



In the rose trade the period of activity 

 is confined from January 15 to June 1. 

 Orders must be handled with great skill 

 and dispatch, and it is not uncommon in 

 our large establishments during the busy 

 days to fill an order a minute. 



It will be seen that the average mail 

 order man has no extended periods of 

 relaxation, for having placed his adver- 

 tising campaign in operation he is called 

 upon almost immediately to see to it 

 that the promises and conditions he has 

 set forth in his literature are made good, 

 therefore, as a rule, he assumes personal 

 supervision of the order department. He 

 must of necessity know the business thor- 

 oughly, and must ever be upon the alert 

 to secure the very latest and most meri- 

 torious varieties and it is here that his 

 acquaintance with geographical condi- 

 tions must serve him in good stead, for 

 a rose that succeeds admirably in New 

 Orleans will not bring satisfaction to 

 the planter in Boston, and as all parts 

 of the country must be served, the mail 

 order man is keenly alert to test the 

 merits of every new rose introduced. 

 He must ever keep in mihd that to ad- 

 vance his business he must first satisfy 

 the public. 



Must Study Human Nature. 



The mail order trade has developed 

 AvoiiderfuUy Avithin the last ten years 

 and I am firmly convinced that it is 

 but in its infancy. The study of human 

 nature enters largely into its success or 

 failure. It must be realized that to sell 

 goods to, let us say, a quarter of a mil- 

 lion different individuals through the 

 medium of printers' ink requires on the 

 part of the mail order man, first of all, 

 honesty of purpose and forceful and at- 

 tractive descriptions, such as will beget 

 the confidence of the average buyer. 



This business is largely cash, which 

 speaks volumes for the confidence in 

 which this class of florists is held, when 



