General Trade Edition 
Dic =DuNG 

There is no soil, however barren and unproductive, that cannot, by well digging and dunging, be made 
fertile and prolific——Adapted from Cervantes DON QUIXOTE, Part II, Chapter XII. 
Sales and Service Bulletin 
VOL. 13 
WAYLAND, MICHIGAN, U. S. A., SEASON OF 1944 
NO. 1 


THE DAHLIA SITUATION THIS YEAR 
As to Acreage 
Probably the total acreage in 
dahlia plantings this year is not over 
half what it was last year. Most of 
the smaller growers have discon- 
tinued their plantings almost en- 
tirely, cut-flower growers in most 
parts of the country have greatly 
decreased their plantings and purely 
commercial root growers like our- 
selves have in many cases cut down 
their dahlia planting to make room 
for essential food crops. Fortu- 
nately we had plenty of land so we 
could give up one of our entire farms 
to feed and seed crops and still in- 
crease our dahlia planting a little 
over last year. We put out over 
fifty acres of our Leighton farm, 
planting approximately 900,000 roots. 
This should give us ample crop to 
take care of our regular customers 
but we cannot expect any surplus to 
meet the requirements of jobbers and 
others who have usually looked to 
the cut-flower growers and smaller 
growers for their supplies. The de- 
mands of such buyers while not ex- 
acting as to variety runs into mil- 
lions of roots every year and their 
inability to obtain their requirements 
will reflect itself chiefly in a shortage 
of dahlia roots on the counters of the 
chain. stores. 
As to Crop 
Dahlia plants are looking very 
good at this writing (September 1st) 
but we have not had the rain we had 
last year and probably roots will not 
be quite so large as they were last 
year although they should be better 
than in 1941. We start digging Oc- 
tober 1st and if we have a normal 
amount of rainfall in September and 
not too early frost, roots should 
make considerable growth between 
now and harvest time in which case 
they should run above the average 
size. 
As to Labor 
Harvesting and processing dahlias 
require considerable hand work— 
probably as much or more than any 
other similar crop. Both digging 
and dividing clumps are done almost 
entirely by hand and while much of 
this can be done by women and 
older men yet even such help is be- 
coming scarcer every day. This labor 
situation might seriously affect our 
operations between now and _ next 
spring and cannot safely be counted 
on by anyone. 
As to Materials 
We use many tons of paper, paper 
boxes and fiber cartons in handling 
our crop each year. We have our sup- 
plies of paper and paper boxes and 
part of our supply of fiber cartons 
already on hand for this season’s re- 
quirements. We are still, however, 
short several tons on our fiber car- 
tons and these may be absolutely un- 
obtainable this year, in which case 
shipments of specially packaged and 
boxed dahlias would become almost 
impossible. We might wrap our 
dahlias and place them in _ paper 
boxes ready for counter trade but 
we could not get these boxes to our 
customers without the heavier ship- 
ping eartons which are made from 
corrugated stock. We, therefore, ask 
our customers to order as much of 
their stock as possible in bulk form 
or at least be prepared to have stock 
shipped in “best manner possible.” 
As to Prices 
With wages, materials, taxes and 
other elements that enter into the 
cost of production constantly going 
up, it is clear that some advance in 
price must be made to cover such 
costs. In past years we have listed 
a number of the most popular of the 
older varieties of dahlias at 3c and 
31%c each. These prices were really 
below the general run of the market 
and as a matter of fact many of our 
competitors have severely criticized 
us for offering dahlias at such prices 
when most of the other growers were 
maintaining a minimum of 4c per 
root. After careful consideration 
we have, therefore, decided that it 
would be only right to throw the 
bulk of the increased cost of produc- 
tion on varieties which have been in 
these two lower priced groups, and 
keep the rest of our list at prac- 
tically the same prices as last year, 
raising only on such items as are 
short crop and would, therefore, have 
to be raised even in normal times. 
At these prices our customers will 
still be able to build their collections 
of really first class standard varie- 
ties at such a low cost that they will 
not be compelled to raise their prices 
on dahlias for 1944 and _ should, 
therefore, find the dahlia one of their 
most profitable items to feature this 
coming season. 
We have noticed that there are 
just two ways of looking at one’s 
business. If I am boss and put up 
the money, naturally I can have 
everything run exactly my way. I 
can raise such stock as I want to, I 
can plant it where I want to, I can 
harvest it or not just as I want to 
and no one, not even my business can 
object; but if I expect by business 
to pay the bills, my business has got 
to be boss. That is, it tells me to 
plant such and such items, to plant 
them at such a time, to plant them 
in such a place and attend to them in 
such a manner, to harvest at such a 
time and to sell at such a price. In 
fact, I have to do everything just as 
the business demands it or I don’t 
have any pay check coming in. If 
I am boss the business is my play- 
thing, but if I am looking for pay 
from my business all play ideas have 
to be forgotten and either I do or the 
business doesn’t. I wonder how 
many men who are working for 
wages realize that their employer 
while apparently their boss is in fact 
the slave to the very business that 
gives them their job and has to fol- 
low its dictates even more rigidly 
than they themselves have to obey 
orders, or he doesn’t draw his pay 
with the rest of the men. 
1944 Prices—pgs. 8,9 & 10 
