PLAN No. 233. SELLING POTTED PLANTS
A southern woman who was extremely fond of flowers lived in a town of 5,000 inhabitants in which there was no regular florist, so she began supplying the needs of the flower-loving people there by engaging in the business on a small scale herself, specializing on potted plants and cut flowers.
She bought small plants, repotted them, and easily doubled her money on them. In their season she buys tomato and pansy plants and scarlet sage, as well as bulbs and roots, and holds regular flower sales at Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, etc., and always finds a demand for all her floral products.
Recently she turned her back yard into a hot-house, and raises the plants herself, thus decreasing the cost and increasing the margin of profit. From one large bed, the seed for which cost 75 cents, she sells from $15 to $20 worth of plants every season. She also advises flower growers about flowers culture, color schemes, etc., and in many ways adds to the grand total of her yearly income.
PLAN No. 234. BASKET MAKING
A downeast woman learned basket making in the young people’s society of her church, and made it a regular business. She specializes in market and scrap baskets, but makes fancy reed ones to order. Her main sales are made through the woman’s exchange, though sometimes direct to customers, and her earnings are sufficient to support her very comfortably.
This line of work is not overcrowded, and there is plenty of opportunity in it for many other women.
PLAN No. 235. GROWING MUSHROOMS
There are many methods of growing mushrooms, but the one adopted by this Michigan woman is perhaps as easy and profitable as any of them.
First, providing a sufficient quantity of fresh manure and black dirt, she carefully prepares the beds and buys the spawn, and with but little care thereafter they produce a good crop every month in the year.