MARCH 8. 1000. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



409 



Ball Decoration at Madison Squire Garden, New York. 



of our slock, is tame, playful as a kit- 

 ten, and will follow the men about like 

 a dog: and if its presence annoys visi- 

 tors, it may be kept confined during 

 the day. W. T. BELL. 



Franklin, Pa., March 5, 1900. 



BULB GROWING IN THE SOUTH. 



Why not grow the million dollars' 

 worth of bulbs that we import each 

 year into this country. We have in 

 this country every kind of climate and 

 soil that is to be found anywhere on 

 earth, and is there any reason why we 

 cannot produce in this country all of 

 the bulbs and plants that we import? 

 A protective tariff of 25 per cent ought 

 to be sufficient to encourage this in- 

 fant industry, if it needs protection. 

 For my part I can see no reason wliy 

 bulb growing cannot become the most 

 profitable industry in this country. 



I have been studying the possibili- 

 ties of bulb growing for some time 

 and believe there is nothing that will 

 pay as well. Last season on one-third 

 of an acre I planted $00 worth of gla- 

 diolus bulbs and bulblets and pro- 

 duced a crop worth $4<X). I believe 

 that with a milder climate and a lon- 

 ger season, such as can be found in 

 our southern states, even better results 

 can be obtained. I recently spent a 

 few weeks in southwestern Alabama 

 looking for a suitable location for 

 bulb growing and studying the possi- 

 bilities of that part of the country, and 



I am more than pleased with what I 

 learned there. Gladiolus and cannas 

 are left in the open ground all win- 

 ter in the gardens that I visited, and 

 I never saw finer narcissus bulbs in 

 my life than I dug up in an old garden 

 there. All bulbs that have been test- 

 ed seem to be perfectly at home, but 

 hardly any one has ever given a 

 thought to the commercial possibilities 

 of bulb culture. 



In a short time I intend to return to 

 the south and put out a stock of bulbs, 

 and meanwhile I wish that any of 

 your southern readers who have had 

 even a slight experience with any kind 

 of bulbs in the south would give us 

 through the Review a few notes on 

 their experiences. L. H. READ. 



Grand Rapids, Wis. 



ON THE HORNS OF A BUFFALO. 



I read Buffalo's severe remarks in 

 the Review of last week to my friend 

 Sam De Graw, who feels sorry that 

 his half-joking impresssions should 

 have been taken so seriously by Buf- 

 falo, and hopes that no one else will 

 feel so much hurt by them. 



The show was a grand one. and I 

 myself heard Sam tell Buffalo as much, 

 but when everybody praises a thing 

 sometimes a few notes in a minor key 

 will set those most interested to think- 

 ing, and Buffalo has evidently thought 

 about the scoring nonsense or he 



would not have said what he did 

 of it. 



He admits, as very few scorers are 

 willing to do. that scoring is done by 

 comparison, as Sam said it was, and 

 why not stop at that? Sam says that 

 he would l>e perfectly willing to allow 

 Buffalo to judge a seedling of his, if 

 he was fortunate enough to have one. 

 and tell him whether or not it was 

 good enough for a certificate, without 

 the humbuggery of scoring it to 

 eighty-seven and three-quarter points, 

 as some pretend to be able to do. Sam 

 has had to do with scoring and scor- 

 ers before Buffalo ever split fractions 

 in its application, and has seen so 

 many absurdities result from it that 

 he has always opposed the plan, but 

 he has no expectation that Buffalo and 

 others will drop it for that reason. 



From Buffalo's remarks one might 

 infer that Sam would scarcely know a 

 carnation when he saw one, but this 

 is wrong, for there are tew florists 

 in the country who have watched the 

 development of the carnation more 

 closely than he has, or with more 

 interest. He was growing Day- 

 break—the most profitable com- 

 mercial carnation for years if not 

 to date — for one or two seasons 

 before Buffalo had it; tests the best 

 new ones as they appear, already has 

 some of the best newest ones of this 

 year, and is intrusted with kinds that 

 will not be distributed for some time 

 to come, that the grower may have his 



