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Januaky 2, 1908. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



Field of Asters Growing for Seed With F. A. G>nway & Co., Indianapolis, 1907. 



demand are on the whole fairly well bal- 

 anced in the big wholesale markets, even 

 if the changes in supply and prices often 

 are startling. 



Glass for Vegetables. 



In passing, the increase in the extent 

 of glass devoted to vegetables should 

 not be overlooked. A year or two ago 

 the forcers of vegetables under glass 

 were in panic lest the rapid increase in 

 the winter supplies of vegetables from 

 the far south, brought in express re- 

 frigerator cars, should ruin their busi- 

 ness. But they have found that the public 

 will pay for quality. (If they will do so 

 in supplies for the table, it stands to rea- 

 son that the same thing will hold true 

 in matters of sentiment, and the grower 

 of first-class cut flowers will have the 

 call on the market.) Last year the vege- 

 table growers had a splendid season and 

 they built heavily in the spring of 1907. 

 Thus far this winter prices have been 

 exceedingly low and the probability is 

 that there will be much less building for 

 vegetables in the spring of 1908, what- 

 ever may be true of building for cut 

 flowers, which gives every indication of 

 being large, particularly in the west, 

 where the country is prosperous as never 

 before. 



Flower Shows. 



The flower shows of 1907, those edu- 

 cators of public taste in things floricul- 

 tural, were the most successful ever held, 

 although they came just at the height of 

 the financial flurry, when the banks were 

 hoarding their currency and declaring it 

 was the people. The greatest show of 

 the year was at Chicago, but all the 

 lesser affairs were marked by exhibits 

 of superior quality and rewarded with 

 attendance greater than usual. The 

 popularity of flower shows is certainly 

 greater than ever before. 



The shows of 1908 will have to con- 

 tend with a presidential election, al- 

 though save in a few localities, where 

 early exhibitions are the rule, the shows 

 will open the week after election. The 

 "great and only three-ring event of the 

 year ' ' will be the national flower show at 

 Chicago. This not only is planned on 

 broader scope than any other exhibition 

 ever held in this country, but it is the 

 first attempt of the Society of American 

 Flonsts in the way of a public exhibi- 

 tion. The guarantee fund is the great- 

 est ever raised for a flower show and the 

 premium list the most liberal. The co- 

 operation of the Rose, the Chrysanthe- 



mum and the Carnation Societies has 

 been enlisted and the show will, without 

 any opportunity for it to be otherwise, 

 prove not only the greatest ever held in 

 this country, but the longest, for it will 

 be open to the public for ten days, No- 

 vember 6 to 15, inclusive. 



Florists Fortunate. 



The florists may count themselves for- 

 tunate in the business of the autumn 

 season. Men well informed on general 

 trade conditions assert that the florists' 

 business in November and December was 

 less affected than almost any other by 

 the financial flurry. Florists have spoken 

 of their wares as luxuries and have 

 taught themselves to believe that at the 

 first sign of retrenchment on the part of 

 the public, the flower bill will be cut off. 

 This may be true in a sense, but the ex- 

 perience of the last two months has 

 shown that flowers are a need of the 

 present, and that what the public needs 

 today it will buy, while the needs of to- 

 morrow are put off. As an illustration, 

 the metal industry (and surely metals, 

 like copper and steel, are necessities) 

 have been almost at a standstill. The 

 general view is that it is merely a case 

 of suspended animation and that the 

 business usually booked by the dealers in 

 necessities in November and December 

 will come with a rush at a little later 

 day. 



The Flurry in Percentages. 



As indicating something of how the 

 country felt the fall flurry in finance, 

 the figures of the bank clearings for No- 

 vember are of interest. Bank clearings, 

 being the exchange of checks among city 

 banks, are generally considered the best 

 index of the extent of the country 's busi- 

 ness. 



In November the bank clearings of the 

 whole country showed a reduction of 

 29.3 per cent. In New York city the 

 reduction was 36.1 per cent. For all the 

 clearing houses outside of New York it 

 was only 17.6 per cent, and the average 

 in the group of western cities ranging 

 from St. Paul and Minneapolis to Kan- 

 sas City and Denver was only 3 per cent. 

 In the middle west, including Chicago, 

 Cleveland, Cincinnati, etc., the reduction 

 was 15.9 per cent. 



We all know that the New York cut 

 flower market felt the blow a great deal 

 worse than did any other city, and the 

 comparison of 36 per cent reduction in 

 clearings in New York and 3 per cent re- 

 duction in the grain states indicates 



about the way the flower business was af- 

 fected by the troubles of the banks. 



Wealth in Farmers' Hands. 



As pointed out in the annual report of 

 the Secretary of Agriculture, made pub- 

 lic November 30, the total value of the 

 farm crops of the United States for 

 1907 was $7,412,000,000, which is the 

 prodigious sum of $657,000,000 greater 

 than in 1906. If the farmers had any 

 share in making the prosperity of the 

 early part of 1907, they surely have the 

 means in hand for contributing to equal- 

 ly good times in 1908. 



Exports Greatest Ever. 



As another indication of what we may 

 look forward to, the exports of the 

 United States for the month of Novem- 

 ber, which is the latest for which figures 

 are available, were the greatest for any 

 thirty days in the history of the coun- 

 try. In that month, the United States 

 sold and shipped to foreign countries 

 foodstuffs, agricultural products and 

 manufactured articles to the enormous 

 value of $204,444,860. This not only 

 exceeds October by $24,000,000, but it 

 was $5,000,000 greater than any month 

 in our history. Breadstuffs alone con- 

 tributed $24,736,636, so the farmer is 

 getting his share. 



Balance of Trade. 



But the best feature of the November 

 figures is that in the month our imports 

 were only $110,789,109. This means that 

 the balance of trade in our favor for 

 only one month of the year amounted to 

 $93,665,751. It is equal to all the gold 

 the banks imported tp allay the finan- 

 cial flurry. It was the farmer and the 

 manufacturer whose products paid for 

 the gold that helped the bankers out, and 

 it is upon such natural and economic re- 

 sources that the prosperity of 1908 will 

 be based. 



CONWAY'S ASTER. 



F. A. Conway & Co., Indianapolis, 

 think they have a first-class thing in the 

 white branching aster they have been 

 growing for cut flowers for several years, 

 and which has now been worked up to a 

 point where they have saved about 115 

 pounds of seeds from the 1907 field of 

 plants shown in the accompanying illus* 

 tration. The Indianapolis retail florists 

 have endorsed the opinion of Conway & 

 Co., and it is largely due to the recom- 

 mendation of Bertermann Bros. Co. that 



