50 



among the first, were discarded; hence the flower trade was 

 dull. P'lorists who had all their capital invested could not af- 

 ford to sit down and wait for good time;s they must eflect sales 

 in some way, and the only way to do this was to lower their 

 prices, and the lowest priced man got the order. The result has 

 been that plants are now delivered at your door at less than 

 one-third the price they were in the spring of 1873. Even now 

 at these prices some florists are making money. But while we 

 remember that the prices are so low, we must also remember 

 that in the mailing trade the plants are smaller. It is unrea- 

 sonable to expect a large plant for a small price, or in other 

 words, you need not expect to receive a plant weighing a half 

 pound by mail for ten cents ; the cost of packing and postage 

 would cost all you gave for it. Florists who make a business of 

 sending plants by mail prepare their stock for this purpose. If 

 the florist understands his business he will have small, stocky, 

 well-rooted, healthy plants, grown in as cool a temperature as 

 the nature of the plants will admit of. At the prices quoted in 

 their respective catalogues, they can only afford to send small 

 plants, hence when a plant becomes too large to send by mail, 

 that is, when it weighs too much for the price, it is grown on 

 either for stock or for retailing at home. The florist with 

 whom you deal doubtless has some Of these plants. If you 

 want larger plants than are usually sent by mail you can get 

 them by adding one-half or doubling the catalogue price, which 

 has been placed low in order to secure your patronage. We 

 don't want a false impression to go forth from these remarks , 

 that the higher the price the larger the plant. We know that 

 some florists charge two or three times as much for the same 

 sized plants as others do, the plants being very similar. 



Sending plants by mail is always attended with some risk. 

 No matter how well they may be packed, the box may be acci- 

 dentally broken or the package bursted, and the plants will be 

 damaged if not wholly destroyed. Sometimes the packages 

 are allowed to remain in the Post-offlce for several days ^and 

 nights before they are called for by the party to whom they are 

 addressed ; If the weather is very cold the plants may get 

 frozen while awaiting delivery at the PostoflSce, hence you see 

 the necessity of getting the plants as soon as they are delivered 

 at your Post-oflice. The loss occurring in these ways is com- 

 paratively small, and most florists bear this loss by guarantee- 

 ing the safe arrival of plants in good condition ; however, this 



