
ITH THE YEAR 1947, the firm of S.S. SKIDELSKY & CO., INC. marks its fiftieth 
anniversary. As we celebrate, we look back over the years upon the first 
small beginnings, in 1897, and see how each early step was made cau- 
tiously and carefully, to lay solidly the foundations of strict honesty and 
fair dealing which the founder believed in. 
This has been a half century filled with great changes. Among them, 
there has been striking progress in floriculture throughout the country; 
and it was a source of sincere concern to the founder to play an active 
part in its development. A few years before he died, he wrote:* 
‘Business has other compensations than the profits that one counts 
in money. There is genuine satisfaction in doing part of the constructive 
work in the growth of an industry.” 
Throughout these years, too, the firm of S.S. SKIDELSKY & CO., INC. has kept pace with 
the general expansion, and has attained to an established and honorable place in the trade, 
of which we are very proud. Writing* not long before his death in 1927, the founder said: 
“IT believe that I have won the confidence of the trade, and that I have made my friends 
sure of the honesty of my intention in all my dealings with them. This it is that is my greatest 
compensation; and this it is that I hope to perpetuate during the remaining years of my life.” 
That was the guiding principle which the founder of the firm of S. 8. SKIDELSKY & CO., 
INC. laid down. It is our guiding principle today; and our many friends can rest assured that 
there will never be any deviation from it. 

8. S. SKIDELSKY & CO., INC. 
* TALES OF A TRAVELER. By S. S. Skidelsky. 
From TRAVELING OBSERVATIONS by A. E. Borg, Southeastern Bulletin Oct. 1946. 
“Many years ago when I first started on the road, a hard-boiled old customer in Michigan 
objected to me calling on him instead of my old boss, Mr. S.S. Skidelsky, so after several not-so- 
cordial visits I decided to take the bull by the horns and find out why I couldn't get his busi- 
ness. Well, he told me this, ‘Mr. S. S. Skidelsky has called on me for years and I have never 
known him to sell me an article not worth while and I have every confidence in his judgment 
and integrity.. Those words ring in my ears every day — honesty, integrity and confidence — 
three plain words that spell success to every businessman.” 
