November 13, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



453 



the weighty flower-heads they support. In the middle of 

 the room the floor is closely covered with open boxes, each 

 containing twenty-five chrysanthemums — the long stems 

 and their dark luxuriant foliage nearly filling the boxes, 

 which are four feet or more long, half the blooms being at 

 each end of the box, and especially choice and tender 

 flowers separately wrapped in tissue paper. Last week in 

 a collection whose quality suggested an exhibition for effect 

 and for premiums, choice specimens of the new white 

 Mayflower were, perhaps, the most sensational flowers. 

 This variety and Nemesis, resembling the Daybreak carna- 

 tion in its delicate pink color, commanded the highest 

 prices of all. Flowers of Major Bonnaflbn were also con- 

 spicuous among the best stock, and so were those of Phila- 

 delphia, the favorite new seedling of 1894. 



The third room of this immense floor, which, in its 

 length of two hundred feet, reaches entirely through to the 

 Twenty-fourth Street front, is in a way even more interest- 

 ing than the others. This apartment, which is not open to 

 the public, is the receiving depot. A powerful elevator 

 lifts the boxes after they are deposited on the first floor at 

 this end of the building, where they are brought by im- 

 mense vans direct from the growers' establishments, or by 

 express wagons from railroad stations. The boxes mea- 

 sure about five feet in length and six inches in depth. 

 Many are made of wood, the corners protected by zinc 

 strips, and other metallic looking ones, two feet deep, are 

 of heavy-glazed papier-mache, iron-bound and securely 

 strapped. The boxes are at once opened, the flowers ex- 

 amined and graded according to established standards, and 

 a credit slip made out in the shipper's name, with memo- 

 randa of the kind of flowers, the number received, and 

 whether of the first, second or third grade. The flowers 

 are then passed into the salesroom or stored in great 

 refrigerators, which are ranged along one side of the 

 receiving-room in unbroken lines and have altogether a 

 capacity of nearl};- five thousand cubic feet. 



The New York Cut Flower Company, of which this is the 

 home and business centre, is an organization new to this 

 industry. It is not a trust, and does not attempt to regu- 

 late the business of its members, but it is a combination of 

 some fifty commercial cultivators of flowers, who joined 

 together to sell their products to wholesale buyers direct, 

 instead of shipping, as heretofore, to commission houses. 

 It has been estimated that the flowers sold on commission 

 in this city in a year have a total value of one million dol- 

 lars. If this is double the real sum, the fifteen per cent, 

 charged by commission merchants would even then amount 

 to $75,000, and the combined growers thought they could get 

 their flowers to the retailers for less money. At all events, 

 they can now know definitely about the sales of their stock, 

 and if reports come back to the effect that it is unsalable for 

 some reason they can investigate the matter, as they could 

 not do when the flowers had been sold on the old plan. 

 The company includes members from this state, New Jer- 

 sey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Rhode Island. More 

 than ninety per cent, of the members use above twenty 

 thousand square feet of glass, and some have glass houses 

 which cover a hundred thousand feet. Many members 

 are stockholders, and those who are not sign certain coop- 

 erative contracts, in which they agree to sell all their 

 flowers through the company. 



By this system of sales a large and complete assort- 

 ment of cut flowers is concentrated, so that dealers can 

 readily supply their varied needs in one place. Besides 

 this, the very best growers are in the combination, so that 

 the very best flowers of the season can always be found 

 here. Other advantages claimed are that the flowers reach 

 the consumer more quickly and are thus fresher, and that 

 prices will be lower to consumers on account of reduced 

 commission, since the combination sell for ten per cent, 

 instead of fifteen per cent., and it is hoped that the lower 

 commission will be still further reduced by dividends of 

 profits. It is held that the grower under this plan comes 

 into closer relation with his customers, and is, therefore. 



better able to learn what the market demands — a condition 

 which must redound to his own profit and the satisfaction of 

 retailer and consumer. 



The commission men, who see in the combination a most 

 formidable rival and one that already controls the highest 

 grade of flowers sold here, are not inclined to take so hope- 

 ful a view of the situation. They deny that it costs less 

 money to get flowers to consumers than it did under the 

 commission system. They affirm that the rent paid by the 

 combination is more than the combined rent paid by all 

 the commission dealers, and that when to this are added the 

 salaries of several expensive ofllcers, the alleged reduction 

 of commissions vanishes. They hold that in an unequal 

 partnership of this kind the large growers will ultimately 

 get the profits and squeeze out the small ones ; but they pre- 

 dict that the combination must fall to pieces. Prices must 

 be evened up every day so that all receive the same for one 

 grade, and the alert man who is on hand promptly to catch 

 the top of the market, or the exceptionally good grower whose 

 flowers are a shade better than the average of his class, loses 

 the benefit of his superior enterprise and skill and shares it 

 with his rivals. In short, they hold that the combination 

 has already brought disaster upon growers ; for the com- 

 mission men, lacking the very finest stock, must cut prices 

 to draw customers from the new company, and the com- 

 pany in turn cuts prices to meet the opposition, so that the 

 retail dealer buys more cheaply than ever. The ultimate 

 buyers, however, reap no advantage from this as the 

 retail sellers are able to keep prices up, and in this 

 way are reaping a rich harvest. The combination 

 originally proposed to make prices for a week in advance 

 and to make sales only to retail storekeepers. Experience 

 has proved, hovi'ever, that the company cannot maintain 

 prices for any fixed time, and when the regular florists 

 have secured their stock for the day the Greeks, who have 

 sidewalk flower-stands all over the city, can get the advan- 

 tage of an overfull market here just as they always have 

 done. 



All these foretellings on both sides are in the nature of 

 guesses. Time alone will show whether the new plan is 

 satisfactory in its practical working to growers and buyers. 

 Every one hopes that the growers of flowers will receive 

 an adequate reward for 'their labor and skill, and yet 

 every buyer feels that the retail prices for cut flowers 

 are often unreasonably high. Americans while they 

 live in Paris, for example, learn to think choice 

 flowers a necessity rather than a luxury, and they buy 

 them there as regularly as they buy vegetables. Re- 

 turning home the contrast in cost is ■ marked. Roses 

 which there can be bought for $1.50 to $2.00 cannot here 

 be had for less than $5.00, and even wealthy persons who 

 are able to aSbrd expensive flowers must think it a useless 

 extravagance to pay $3.00 for a bunch of fifty violets, a 

 price not infrequently demanded here. The future must 

 decide all such questions, but those interested in present 

 facts may be told that of all the cut flowers now sent to 

 this city for sale sixty per cent., and perhaps more, are 

 received by the new company, and since it began business 

 on the flrst of September an average of 100,000 flowers 

 have been sold every day. Certainly it is to-day the con- 

 trolling force in the cut-flower trade of New York and its 

 vicinity. Its rather elaborate machinery seems to be 

 moving with as little friction as could have been expected 

 when it is remembered that the managers are conducting a 

 business in which they have no experience and for which 

 there is no precedent. Its founders are men of capital, of 

 enterprise, of general business ability, and they ought to be 

 able to adjust themselves to meet unexpected opposition or 

 difficulties. Certainly, their large salesrooms and ware- 

 rooms have that interest which a great business always 

 commands when it is carried on with rapidity and system 

 and precision. ,^ „ ^ 



New York. M. B. C. 



It is a sure evidence of the health and innocence of (lie be- 

 holder if the senses are alive to the beauty of nature. — Tliorcau 



