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The Weekly Florists* Review. 



OCTOBEB 1, 1908 



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THE SOUTHERN ; 



BULB STOCK... 



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s It Unfair Competition ? 



No one was more surprised than I to 

 see the statement credited to Edward 

 Reid in the Philadelphia news letter in 

 the Review of September 17. I should 

 certainly like Mr. Reid to explain in what 

 way be considers our competition in the 

 flower market as unfair. If we have 

 found a cheaper way of producing bulb 

 blooms, does not this rather redound to 

 our credit than otherwise? And as re- 

 gards protecting those growers who grow 

 these flowers under glass, in the same 

 way as American products are protected 

 by a tariff against imported goods, it 

 is a well-known fact that some of the 

 leading men of the day are at variance 

 on that very point and it is an open 

 question whether the country at large 

 really benefits by these tariffs. But this 

 is going away from the point. 



Mr. Reid says that the grower who has 

 the courage and enterprise to erect glass 

 houses and heat them, etc., merits the 

 protection of public sentiment. This 

 same argument was used years ago, wheu 

 railroads gradually superseded the stage 

 coach in the old country, and the same 

 may be said today. Why let the Mar- 

 coni system interfere with the present 

 system of telegraphing, when we all know 

 what a lot of cash has been expended in 

 installing^ the present system? There is, 

 in my opinion, but one answer to these 

 arguments, and that is the word "For- 

 ward 1" 



Mr. Reid speaks of our flowers as 

 cheaply grown. Has he any idea what 

 these flowers cost to produce and place 

 on the market? I think not. He is evi- 

 dently basing his opinion on the prices 

 realized during the rush last season, but 

 this is no guide to him, for two reasons: 

 First, it was not till the glut was over 

 that we were informed of the state of 

 the market, as, owing to the plans usu- 

 ally adopted by the wholesale florists, we 

 generally get our account of sales about 

 d, week or ten days after the sales have 

 taken place, and thus, as I explained to 

 Mr. Reid at the florists' meeting, the 

 wholesale florists are largely to blame 

 for the glut. Second, we know that we 

 are only feeling the market, and to get 

 a trade together we must be prepared 

 to sacrifice a little. In no other way 

 can we get such an advertisement as by 

 sending our flowers to the market. 



I regret that Mr. Reid has gone so 

 far as to state that he will do his utmost 

 tJ discourage this work. As well m-jy he 

 try to stop the tides. We are here and 

 ouly in our infancy, and I feel certain 

 that if Mr. Reid is spared to watch the 

 developments of this work, he will regret 

 Iiaving made that remark. The time is 

 not far distant when every family in the 

 United States will insist upon having 

 flowers on the dining table and every 

 lady t)nd gentleman will carry a button- 

 hole of flowers. For these purposes 

 flowers must be produced, and produced 

 in quantities, and they will l.e grown 

 right here in Virginia. What I thick 

 has, up to the present time, stopped the 



development of flower trade and inci- 

 dentally caused the glut on the market, 

 is the great difference between the price 

 charged to the consumer and the returns 

 sent to the grower, and nothing but plac- 

 iiig large quantities of flowers on the 

 market is going to stop it. J. Guille. 



Mr. Reid's View. 



In the Review of September 24, under 

 the head of "Marketing Bulbous Flow- 

 ers, ' ' D 'Alcorn & Sons take exceptions to 

 some remarks I made in a previous issue. 

 In the first placej I would state that 

 any remarks I made were not with the 

 intention of detracting from any special 

 •branch of the trade, but, on the other 

 hand, to elevate and raise the standard 

 of the business in general. I suppose it 

 is safe to presume that everyone engaged 

 in the florists' business commercially is 



The Kdltor Is pleased 

 wlien n Reader 

 presents bis Ideas 

 on any subject treated In 



eVtfw 



As experience Is tbe best 

 teaober, so do ■w 

 learn fastest by ail 

 excbanee of experiences. 

 Many valuable points 

 are brourbt out 

 by discussion. 



Oood penmanship, spelling and gram- 

 mar, tboutrta desirable, are not neces- 

 sary. Write as you would talk when 

 doing your beau 



WK SHALL. BK GLAD 

 TO HSAB FROM TOU. 



in it for profit, and anything which is 

 going to increase the profits of the busi- 

 ness would surely be a benefit to those 

 who are engaged therein. In saying this, 

 I am leaving sentiment out, as far as en- 

 couragement to give to the general pub- 

 lic a lot of cheap flowers at certain sea- 

 sons of the year, to the detriment of the 

 man who produces flowers under glass', 

 who is the backbone of the business and 

 on whom we have to depend for almost 

 twelve months of the year for the prod- 

 uct that goes to make our business. 



The gentlemen say that they agree with 

 Phil that the law of supply and demand 

 regulates the production. That is very 

 true in most cases, but, unfortunately, it 

 does not hold good in this particular one, 

 for various reasons, some of which I 



will state. In the first place, the gentle- 

 men, if. I am rightly informed, are in 

 the business mainly to grow bulbs for 

 sale and are not depending on the cut 

 flowers for their profits, but, on the other 

 hand, under said conditions every dollar 

 deriv6d from such sales of cut flowers 

 might be set down as profit, as they have 

 the bulbs to sell anyhow. Again, th^se 

 bulbs can be grown from year to year 

 and are multiplying all the time; also, 

 they have an advantage on account of 

 the cheapness of land compared to that 

 of the florists contiguous to large cities. 

 Then again, climatic conditions are in 

 their favor, as what can be produced in 

 open ground in that locality must be 

 forced under glass here to be brought on 

 the market at the same time, never speak- 

 ing of the advantages of the cheap labor 

 in that section. 



Now look at the reverse side, or the 

 man who grows under glass: He must 

 first "buy his bulbs, pay high prices for 

 skilled labor and then comes the heating, 

 which is not the least ef the expense, and 

 tell me, ^nder these conditions, if this is 

 fair competition; or would the gentle- 

 men care to buy and grow bulbs for the 

 prices they get for the cut flowers under 

 their most favored conditions? I most 

 certainly do classify southern grown daf- 

 fodils as cheaply produced goods, when 

 they come in competition under the con- 

 ditions as I have stated. 



As to the wholesaler being responsible 

 for the glut, I think this is an error. He 

 knows they are coming and if he don't 

 have them come, someone else will. The 

 writers also state that they paid one man 

 over $100 commission in one week. I 

 would just state that it was well earned 

 money. I venture to say that had not 

 that product been in the market his com- 

 missions on flowers grown under glass 

 would be very much greater, and I know 

 the producer under glass' of various other 

 varieties of flowers would not have found 

 his product selling comparatively low, and 

 often not sold at all. It is he who paid 

 the penalty — the very man we ought to 

 protect. 



Next, they refer to England. It is 

 only necessary for me to say that we do 

 not care to see conditions exist here as 

 they do in England. The best evidence 

 of this is that we have plenty of Eng- 

 lishmen engaged in the business in this 

 country, and I do not know of one Amer- 

 ican w^jo has gone over there to follow 

 the craft. I do not care anything about 

 the tons that are handled — ^he volume 

 of money is what counts. 



It is stated that in the months of 

 March and April there were over a quar- 

 ter of a million bulbous flowers sold to 

 the ladies in Norfolk, Va. What effect 

 did that have on those engaged in the 

 trade in that locality? I for one know 

 the demoralized conditions that it caused 

 at that time within a radius of some 200 

 miles or more of that city. Had this a 

 tendency to elevate the business or raise 

 the standard? If these conditions pre- 

 vail, when, as they say, every city gets 

 educated, I would say, God keep them 

 ignorant ! 



The last paragraph is rather ambig- 

 uous. The gentlemen say the land is 

 bought and the greenhouses erected. Do 

 they mean to convey the impression that 

 their bulbous flowers are raised under 

 glass and not in the open field? If such 

 is the case I retract all I have said, and 

 as to my suggesting what they should do 

 with their flowers, that would be pre- 

 sumption on my part, but would merely 

 I state that if bulbs are sold to be forced 



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