100 



HORTICULTURE 



January 20, 1906 



AMERICAN CARNATION SOCIETY. 



Story of the Boston Meeting. An Unprecedented Exhibition. 

 Glorious Weather. Record Breaking Attendance. 



Should the American Carnation So- 

 ciety exist for a hundred years to come 

 — and we have no doubt it will— it is 

 highly improbable that they will ever 

 in the whole course of that time open 

 a January meeting with such glorious 

 weather as Boston handed out to her 

 honored visitors on Wednesday, Jan. 

 24, the opening day of the fifteenth 

 annual convention of the American 

 Carnation Society. The attendance was 

 remarkable in the great extent of terri- 

 tory represented and the prominence 

 in the carnation arena of the individu- 

 als. Very few of the names prominent 

 east of the Rocky Mountains were 

 missing from the list of those in at- 

 tendance. The same may be said of 

 the varieties of carnations staged; few 

 varieties recently heard of or aspirants 

 for position were missing from the 

 tables. The only serious absence was 

 in the case of the varieties associated 

 with the name of H. Weber & Sons, 

 Oakland. Md. Through some inexplic- 

 able influence — possibly due indirectly 

 to the warm weather at the time of 

 starting— Mr. Weber's flowers, regard- 

 less of variety, were found, when the 

 crates were opened, to have gone to 

 sleep. Not a solitary flower was left. 

 Much sympathy was expressed on all 

 sides for Mr. Weber in this great mis- 

 fortune. 



The forenoon was spent in the work 

 of staging, and it wis well along after 

 noon when the army of men had com- 

 pleted this duty and everything was in 

 order for the judges' attention. A brief 

 meeting was called, and it being 

 learned that Mr. Rudd would not be 

 present, William Weber was appointed 

 a judge to serve in his place. Messrs. 

 J. A. Valentine of Denver; Eugene 

 Dailledouze of Brooklyn; and W. J. 

 Palmer of Buffalo, were appointed ad- 

 ditional judges. These gentlemen, with 

 Messrs. William Scott and William 

 Nicholson, previously announced, made 

 up a good board of six, and when the 

 evening session was called to order, 

 their complete report, as it appears 

 herewith, was on the secretary's desk 

 ready for presentation to the Society. 

 The formal opening of the conven- 

 tion took place at S p. m., Wednesday, 

 Jan. 24. The lecture hall was well 

 filled with an audience that nearly 

 filled the spacious room. President 

 James Wheeler of the Gardeners' and 

 Florists' Club of Boston, called the 

 meeting to order, and after a few 

 words of welcome on behalf of the 

 club, introduced the mayor of Boston, 

 Hon. John F. Fitzgerald, who made a 

 most interesting and felicitous address 

 on behalf of Boston. He told of the 

 pride of the city in its Public Gardens 

 and of the encouragement given to the 

 public school pupils in the develop- 

 ment of a taste for horticulture. He 

 enumerated some of the men who have 

 done so much to give Boston its horti- 

 cultural prominence and the institu- 

 tions that they have founded, and 

 claimed that everything good in the 



country at large owed something to 

 the inspiration of Boston achievement. 

 In presenting the visitors with the 

 freedom of the city, he advised faceti- 

 ously that a lookout be kept for the 

 efficient district attorney, but thought 

 no trouble would ensue if normal 

 decorum be observed. His closing ref- 

 erence to Boston's rich historic asso- 

 ciations and interesting landmarks was 

 received with enthusiastic applause. 



E. G. Hill responded in his usual 

 happy vein, on behalf of the Carnation 

 Society. He noted the great advance 

 in carnation culture since the last 

 meeting in Boston, eleven years ago. 

 He congratulated the city, and admit- 

 ted all that the mayor had said to be 

 true, but submitted that Indianapolis 

 was becoming a dangerous rival for 

 Boston. Secretary W. P. Rich spoke a 



President Peter Fisher. 



few words of welcome on behalf of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society, 

 and C. W. Ward made -a reply, saying 

 that "Boston never does things by 

 halves, neither does the Carnation So- 

 ciety, neither does the Horticultural 

 Society," and expressing his own at- 

 tachment and the debt of gratitude he 

 owed the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society. 



The president of the American Car- 

 nation Society, Mr. Peter Fisher, was 

 then introduced, and received an en- 

 thusiastic welcome. After a few in- 

 troductory words of greeting, he pro- 

 ceeded to read his formal address, 

 which was as follows: 



PRESIDENT FISHER'S ADDRESS. 



Ladies, Gentlemen and Members of 

 the American Carnation Society: 

 For the second time in its history, 



and after a lapse of eleven years, th? 

 American Carnation Society again 

 convenes in the city of Boston. 



The avowed purpose of the organi- 

 zation at its inception was "The Ad- 

 vancement of the Carnation." Look- 

 ing backward for a moment and draw- 

 ing a comparison between the carna- 

 tion as grown eleven years ago and 

 that of today, no one will deny for a 

 moment that the trend of improve- 

 ment has been steadily onward and 

 upward until the carnation as a com- 

 mercial commodity ranks second to 

 none, owing largely to its increased 

 size, long keeping qualities and the 

 beautiful and varied tints of new col- 

 ors constantly appearing — this last by 

 no means the least, as it keeps it 

 out of a rut, and the purchasing pub- 

 lic in this progressive age are ever 

 looking for something new. For this 

 advance we are indebted to a better 

 knowledge as to cultural require- 

 ments obtained largely from the many 

 excellent papers read at our annual 

 meetings by growers, professors, 

 wholesalers and retailers, and the 

 free discussions on the science which 

 bring out many points of value and 

 interest, not only to the general 

 grower, but also to those engaged in 

 the cross-breeding and production of 

 new varieties, whose first step if they 

 would be successful must be: Bring 

 your plants up to the highest state of 

 cultural excellence, then it is simply 

 summed up in one word — "Selection" 

 all the time. Prices for strictly 

 high-grade varieties have in some in- 

 stances kept pace with the best roses, 

 with the single exception of the 

 American Beauty, and I venture to 

 predict that a carnation will yet be 

 produced, the pioneer of a strictly 

 fancy strain in varied colors, that will 

 even rival that popular rose in size 

 and price. 



Perhaps in our haste for size we 

 sometimes loose sight of the fact that 

 carnations are in three distinct class- 

 es — first, strictly fancy high-grade, 

 producing comparatively few but first- 

 quality blooms; second, the commer- 

 cial class, producing abundantly 

 blooms of varied color but smaller in 

 size: and third, those exactly interme- 

 diate. Most of our popular sorts of 

 today belong to this latter class, pro- 

 ducing freely high-grade blooms that 

 ought, in my opinion, to bring a bet- 

 ter average price at wholesale than 

 they do at present. 



The country florist who retails the 

 smaller commercial varieties at 50 to 

 75 cents per dozen would do well to 

 grow also some of the better grade 

 varieties. Show his customers the 

 difference and by degrees educate 

 them to buying the better sorts at 

 from $1 to $2 per dozen, they would 

 in the end prove more satisfactory to 

 the purchaser, and the florist would 

 derive more pleasure and profit from 

 handling this grade of flowers. Intro- 

 ducers of new varieties would do well 



