I. GENERAL REMARKS. (Z. H. Bailey,^ 



For three years we have made a special effort to study the 

 problems associated with the florists' chrysanthemums, and this, 

 is the third report which we have published upon the work. 

 Our object in this, as in all floricultural study, is to help both 

 the general flower-lover and the professional florist, and we can- 

 not, therefore, devote our attention wholly to amateur methods 

 upon the one hand, nor to the raising of exhibition blooms upoa 

 the other. 



We stand for the buyer as well as for the seller ; and the ques^ 

 tion therefore at once arises as to what the real measure of a 

 variety is. Is one bloom, or one vase of blooms, chosen from a 

 score or a hundred or a thousand plants which have received the 

 utmost care and forcing, to be taken as the ideal of the variety ? 

 It is the fashion to describe varieties of florists' plants from just 

 such blooms, — from those which draw the prizes in the exhibi- 

 tions. But since there are few persons who can give this ex- 

 tra care and skill to the growing of a few plants, even if thejf 

 cared to do so, and since only a part (and often a small part) of 

 any number of plants can be expected to give such results, even 

 under extra treatment, it is easy to see why the novelties are so 

 often a disappointment to the buyer. The fact is, that the highly 

 forced and extra-selected exhibition flower is not always the true 

 measure of what a variety is, but is a measure of what may be 

 done with a few plants. The true type or measure of any variety 

 is the composite character which a whole patch gives, under good 

 care. The flower show is of the greatest value as a popular 

 educator and as a source of information and inspiration to the 

 plant-breeder, but it is not the place in which the general flower- 

 grower should expect to see what a variety actually is. It is 

 often possible to select a few most meritorious exhibition 

 blooms from a range of plants of an inferior variety. 



If these points are well taken, then it follows that an experi- 

 ment station, when reporting upon the merits of varieties, should 



