240 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Mrs. Alpheus Ilardv had been sent here in the first instance from 

 Japan, and numerous other varieties were now imported from tlnit 

 country in the hope of securing something equally valuable. But 

 while many of those importations proved really meritorious under 

 our climatic conditions, none of them reached that high position in 

 the public regard which had been accorded their forerunner. 



So many of these varieties imported from Japan and Europe 

 proved to be unsatisfactory, that it soon became evident that if our 

 growers were to have a class of plants suited to their own peculiar 

 needs and climate, they must set about raising them fi'om seeds, 

 crossing the varieties iri hand so as to secure offspring of the desired 

 character. This has been done with very marked success, and fore- 

 most among those who have given the departure extensive attention 

 and encouragement may be mentioned, Messrs. Pitcher & Mandy, 

 of Short Hills, ITew Jersey ; Messrs. Kathan Smith & Son, Adrian, 

 Michigan ; Messrs. Peter Benderson & Co., New York ; Messrs. E. 

 G. Hill & Co., Pichmond, Indiana ; Mr. John JST. May, Summit, 

 New Jersey ; Mr. Hugh Graham, Philadelphia ; Mr. T. D. Hat- 

 field, Wellesley, Massachusetts ; Mr. J. C. Yaughan, Chicago ; Mr. 

 Wm. K. Harris, Philadelphia ; Mr. Thos. H. Spaulding, Orange, 

 New Jersey, and Messrs. Fred. Dorner & Son, Lafayette, Indiana. 

 A very large proportion of the imported varieties are weak growers, 

 and they have a tendency to produce imperfect flowers. The outer 

 florets (erroneously called petals) sometimes expand so as to show 

 the center of the flower, and this characteristic renders certain 

 groups of varietiescomparatively worthless for commercial purposes, 

 while in other sections (anemones and pomjDon anemones) the full 

 development of this central disk is considered one of the essentials 

 of a worthy bloom. This defect occurs less frequently in the 

 domestic productions, although unscrupulous dealers occasionally 

 praise inferior varieties to the disadvantage and often serious loss of 

 the purchaser. Great difliculty stands in the way of decreasing the 

 extent of this evil. With some such idea, and to prevent the duplica- 

 tion of names, the American Chrysanthemum Society was organized 

 at Buffalo, N. Y., August, 1889 ; and the work of that body, espe- 

 cially in the latter particular, has been of great service to the growers. 

 A promising innovation was made by the society last autumn in 

 establishing local committees to determine the degree of merit 

 exhibited by all new varieties brought to their notice, and to report 

 them worthy or unworthy, as they found them to be. With a testi- 



