70 
Gardeners and Florists’ Annual for J9J8 
Contrary to the foreboding that was to be expected, this consider- 
able increase in the number of retail seed stores and mail order houses, 
has been beneficial to the trade, and has produced a very much larger 
and more profitable demand for seeds of every description. A greater 
interest in gardening and farming has been created in communities by 
the simple presence of a seed store where previously no such store had 
existed. A greater variety of vegetable, flower and farm seeds has 
been demanded, and acreages under culture have been considerably 
increased. 
This new life has put the entire seed trade, wholesale as well as 
retail, upon its mettle. The quality of the seeds put upon the market 
has been vastly enhanced, service has been rendered better, the tone, 
reading matter, illustrations, cover coloring of catalogs have been 
changed for the better, the wording, illustrations, and coloring used in 
the printing of the seed packets have been altered for the better. There 
has been meritorious improvement along the whole line. 
As intimated, quality with seeds is now the order of the day. The 
buying of seeds, therefore, in a modern, well regulated seed store has 
become a very serious matter. Prices play an unimportant part with 
the experienced proprietor. With him that which counts in the giving 
of an order or contract for supplies is practically 100 per cent, confi- 
dence in the grower or seller. 
He usually places his orders at the time when the various seed 
growers or their representatives perform their annual rounds. Before 
the war, this commenced about October 20 and ended generally about 
Jan. 10, with the French, English, German, Holland and Danish growers, 
who timed their visits or solicitations to securing of contracts before 
arrival of the sowing or planting season. The Pacific Coast seed growers 
made it a rule to commence their visits to the trade about Dec. 1, and 
to finish up in February or about March 1. The Middle West and 
Atlantic Coast growers, whose specialties comprise Peas, Beans and 
Corn, vine seeds of all sorts. Tomato, Pepper, Egg Plant, Turnip and 
some Cabbage, start their visits and make their offerings usually later 
than do the foregoing mentioned, and wind up their booking of orders 
shortly before Corn-planting time in the North. 
As it is he who must bear the brunt of responsibility for the char- 
acter and reputation of his business, the owner or proprietor himself 
Special Articles in the 1916 Edition • 
The following articles appeared in the 1916 edition of this Annual: 
Accounting, Simple Method of 
Birds, Our Wild 
Bunching Flowers and Foliage 
Business, Starting Into. Some 
Consldera tions 
Constructing in Concrete 
Florist’s Window as an Advertising 
Medium 
Foliage, Prepared, for Florists’ Use 
Hardy Garden Flowers, Best Hundred 
Orchids, Lesser Known Commercial 
Varieties 
Refrigerator, What Do You Know 
About Your? 
Retail Florist— The Year Round 
Trees and Shrubs, Ornamental Flower- 
ing 
Weeds, Fifty Worst 
