n 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



OCTOBEB 28, 1900. 



two inches thick at the top and four 

 inches thick at the bottom. 



We use pecky cypress boards and red 

 cedar posts here, and we like them better 

 than concrete. The posts are about 2x4 

 inches and are thirty-six inches long. 

 Half of this length is set in the ground, 

 leaving eighteen inches above to nail the 

 boards to. The boards are nailed against 

 the inside of the post, so that the soil 

 does not touch the post and no strain is 

 on the nails, the boards being pressed 

 against the posts instead of away from 

 them. 



Fill in with cinders to within four 

 inches of the top and then fill level full 

 with good bench soil, to set the plants in. 

 If you can build these beds this fall, it 

 will help you considerably to get your 



plants out in good time next spring. 

 We have worked this plan here with 

 splendid success and can recommend it 

 in your case. A. F. J. B. 



AMERICAN CARNATION SOCIETY. 



The Charles Knopf Floral Co., Eich- 

 mond, Ind., registers Carnation Admira- 

 tion; parentage, a seedling crossed with 

 Enchantress; color light pink, lighter 

 than Winona; size three to three and 

 one-half inches; height ideal, with no 

 surplus grass, every shoot going right up 

 to flower; stems as long as Enchantress 

 and hold the flowers up at all times of 

 the year; easy to handle either from the 

 field or planted inside. 



A. F. J. Baue, Sec 'y. 



I 



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THE EMPLOYER 



AND EMPLOYEE 



TWO SIDES TO A QUESTION. 



The Minnesota State Florists' Society 

 recently had an interesting debate on the 

 relation of employers and employees in 

 the flower business, introduced by the 

 two papers printed in this issue. The 

 Ekview does not wish to be understood 

 as indorsing the ideas of either speaker, 

 but rather would go on record as of the 

 opinion that in no industry in this broad 

 land are the employers more fair-minded, 

 kindly and considerate in their dealings 

 with their men; in none is there a more 

 loyal, more faithful or more deserving 

 body of employees; nor is there any 

 business under the sun that more grips 

 the interest of those engaged in it, or 

 which offers such abundant opportunities 

 for the employee to make a start for 

 himself and become, in time, an employer. 

 The great majority of those now in the 

 business began at the foot of some other 

 man 's payroll. 



AN EMPLOYEE'S VIEW. 



(A synopsis of a paper by A. J. Smith, of 

 Minneapolis, Minn., read before the Minnesota 

 State Florists' Association, October 19, 1800.] 



About six weeks ago I went to St. 

 Paul and called upon some of the florists, 

 and in one place I broached the subject 

 of our society, and requested the party 

 to come to our meeting. The reply I 

 received was, "Oh! The Florists' So- 

 ciety! What do they care about usf It 

 is all very well for those 'boss' florists 

 to get together and talk about prices, 

 and try to better their positions. All 

 they care for is to get our dues. Why 

 don 't they discuss matters about the poor 

 fellows who do the work ten, twelve, and 

 often more hours per day in the green- 

 houses, for a little sura of money that 

 just enables them to live? What do any 

 of those 'boss' florists care about us, 

 who have to do what we do, get stiff and 

 all used up with rheumatism and other 

 ailments, by working in the houses and 

 handling the hose? And ofttimes, when 

 overheated, in the winter we must step 

 out into the deep snow from a tempera- 

 ture of 60 degrees to 25 or 35 degrees 

 below zero to fit in glass broken with the 

 weight of the snow or some other mis- 



fortune, or to fetch in flats of bulbs or 

 make other calls. It is hard on • any 

 man's health to stand such sudden 

 changes. Then, in the summer time, when 

 the heat is just about all one can stand 

 outside, we have to stay under the glass 

 with the sun beating down hard enough 

 to set the benches on fire, with wheel- 

 barrow and basket, doing the heavy work 

 of filling the benches with soil, rushing 

 the work along, getting the plants set in 

 time for another season." 



Wages and Physical Comforts. 



How few places have even the com- 

 mon necessities to keep a man healthy 

 and clean! How many men working in 

 the greenhouses know what it is to go 

 from a temperature of 60 degrees in the 

 winter to a poor apology of a toilet 

 room outside, simply a few boards nailed 

 together? As for a place to wash his 

 hands, sometimes you will find a dirty, 

 rusty old sink in some dark corner of 

 the shed, and as for wiping his hands 

 and face, how few supply towels! He 

 must use his apron or a piece of paper. 



I^om a money point of view, what 

 does he get? Take any other line of 

 trade, that of masons, bricklayers, car- 

 penters, etc., are they not all better paid 

 than the florist? And what has a me- 

 chanic got to endure compared with a 

 florist? What brain work does it take for 

 a bricklayer, stone mason or carpenter, 

 after he has got the thing learned, com- 

 pared to a florist? Look at our hours; 

 do they stop at ten? Not by a little. 

 Many a time, both summer and winter, 

 have I and many others been obliged to 

 leave our beds and make a hurried run 

 out to the greenhouses to save our em- 

 ployers' plants or his houses from suf- 

 fering. Again, on Sundays, as well as 

 week days, do we get any rest? Even 

 if we are not on every Sunday, we have 

 to make the rounds of the houses 365 

 days in the year. 



Then in the spring and during the holi- 

 day season, I know I am no exception 

 with reference to the calls from the first 

 part of March until the end of June, every 

 day in the week, month in and month out. 

 And for all that, what will the wages 



amount to? All the way from $,J0 to 

 $125 per month. 



Again, as to the growers ; they have not 

 the same amount of responsibility, but 

 what is their pay, compared to that for 

 other kinds of work? The rose and car- 

 nation grower, pot plant man and oihers 

 — what do they get? Wages all the nay 

 from $40 to $65 per month, though ihey 

 work, on an average, from ten to t^\^lve 

 hours per day, and lots of them e.ery 

 Sunday, and if they are wanted, evei on 

 their way home, must deliver cut flo.ors 

 and plants. 



Lack of Appreciation. 



The grower wears out on an avev.ige 

 two pairs of rubber boots and apn is, 

 costing anywhere from $15 to $20 jier 

 year. He takes, besides, all kinds of 

 abuse if things go wrong. Some men v\ ill 

 undertake to marry on these small wajjcs, 

 and when lots of the greenhouse employ- 

 ers know they have ^ married man, how 

 they will "rub it into" him! I have 

 seen it time upon time, the poor fellow 

 straining every nerve to please, knowing 

 full well that he can not retaliate, or his 

 name is "Dennis." 



Judging from the whole of my expe- 

 rience as an employee and my associa- 

 tions with the florists' business, I do 

 not think there is another class of men 

 who have so much to go through for so 

 little compensation, considering all they 

 endure from the time they start as young 

 men learning the business until the time 

 when they themselves become managers. 



Even when a man has obtained a posi- 

 tion as manager, for the amount of hours, 

 worry and self -sacrifice, what does he get? 

 If he has the interest of his place at 

 heart, can he say at any time that he 

 is free? No, not even when he goes to 

 bed; his last thought is his greenhouse: 

 "Will the man left in charge be faith- 

 ful?" Every man who has had charge 

 of a place, no matter how small, knows 

 the exigencies of such a charge, and I 

 myself could write for hours of the dis- 

 advantages a man in such a position is 

 under, and what he has to contend with, 

 often with little satisfaction as to his 

 progress under the proprietor. 



Finding a New Position. 



Doubtless many will say, "We would 

 not stay in such a place." That's the 

 trouble; it might be jumping from the 

 "frying pan into the fire." We are not 

 situated like men of other trades. An 

 engineer, for instance, can pack up his 

 tools and go to the next company and 

 start right in where he left off, perhaps, 

 but a man in the florists' business has n 

 different proposition. You can tell by 

 the way a mechanic handles his tools 

 whether he is a man with a knowledge of 

 his trade, but our business is entirely 

 different. It takes time for a man to 

 show what he can do. On account of tho 

 greenhouse surroundings, the business 

 may be entirely different from that ot 

 the house in which the man was previous- 

 ly employed, and it takes months to show 

 his ability. Of course, we can all make 

 a fair estimate of a man in the first few 

 days, but when it comes to the growing, 

 the producing of the goods, that counts, 

 and a man has to have time to show what 

 he can do. 



Then, again, when a man gets past 

 fifty, unless he has a few dollars put by, 

 if anything happens to cause him to 

 change his position, who wants him? He 

 is looked upon as a back number, and 

 one feels sorry for the poor man pushed 

 around by everybody. He would have 



