130 



ft ORTI CULTU RE 



February 3, 1906 



horticulture: 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 

 DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Telephono, Oxford 292 



WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



Boston has been honored by the attendance 

 Boston f a large number of the most enterprising 

 and her a nd intelligent florists from remote points 

 visitors during the past week. Many had never vis- 

 ited Boston before and the historic riches 

 and traditions of the city were intensely interesting to 

 them. As Mayor Fitzgerald truly said, the effect of 

 such a visit could not but make of everyone who partici- 

 pated, a better American. Come again and again. 



It is many a year since the eastern 

 Effects h a if f these United States have been 



of the treated to such a winter as we have 



mild weather had up to date. In the vicinity of 

 Boston lawns are almost as green as 

 when frost overtook them. Tips of rose branches still 

 bear foliage and in sheltered sunny spots are actually 

 growing while the young buds down the stem are swell- 

 ing and ready to break out. However, we know not what 

 a day may bring forth and by the time these lines are 

 in print the face of nature may have undergone a 

 change. It will be fortunate for the spring-flowering 

 material if this unseasonable weather stays not too long. 



The next important horticultural event 



The w ill be the meeting and exhibition of the 



coming American Rose Society which is now but 



Rose Show seven weeks away. Like the carnation 



show this also conies to Boston this year. 

 The wide diversity of types, in the outdoor and indoor, 

 the commercial and amateur classes, which the exten ive 

 prize schedule provides for will make this exhibition 

 something extraordinary, not to mention the great 

 annual spring show of the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society with which it is to be associated. The pilgrim- 

 age to Boston from all parts of the country on this occa- 

 sion will be a large and representative one, for the Queen 

 <>f Flowers lias myriads of devoted subjects, and Boston's 

 welcome will be a hearty one. 



The agitation to secure government 



Tne co-operal i<>n in the preservation of the 



farmer remnant of the White Mountain for- 



and the forest e strength every day and the 



are fairly hopeful. Con- 

 gress can be relied on to respond when evidences of a 

 wide-spread popular demand for action on any special 

 subject are forthcoming. The greatest drawback to 

 accomplishing this is the apathy of the rural population. 



To the average farmer the woods are an obstruction in 

 the way of tillage and the first step in "improving" his 

 land is to get rid of the forest. The advance in the 

 value of wood as it grows scarcer will eventually bring 

 the rural population to a realization of the need for its 

 preservation after the mischief has been done and the 

 loss irreparable. In the meantime it is as hard to get 

 the farmer interested in forest preservation as to get 

 Sydney Smith's proverbial joke into the understanding 

 of a Scotchman. 



The American Carnation Society has 

 Advancing d one a g re at deal and noble work in 

 the carnation's the development and improvement of 

 interests (he carnation during the years of its 



existence. The indications are that, 

 like all organizations that aim to advance and not stand 

 still on the glories of the past, efforts will be put forth 

 to extend the activities of the Society on lines hitherto 

 unmolested. To the really earnest seeker there are 

 abundant openings and there will always be found 

 plenty to engage the attention of those willing to work. 

 A problem of vital interest to the carnation grower is 

 how to raise the standard of price for cut blooms to 

 where an adequate return for the production of high- 

 class stock may lie had all through the year. No better 

 means to this end can be devised than frequent public 

 demonstrations of the art such as the great Boston exhi- 

 bition which has just closed. Educate the people away 

 from the notion that the carnation is a "common" flower 

 and educate them still further, by these displays of the 

 higher grades, so that they will insist on having such 

 when they buy and be satisfied to pay the difference in 

 price. 



Our New York contemporary. 



Where commenting on the address of 



the small exhibitor President Fisher before the Arner- 



stands j ca n Carnation Society, expresses 



its views as fellows : 



"Mr. Fisher believes that 'the most serious menace to the 

 usefulness and progress of our society lies in the staging 

 at our exhibitions of varieties that have little or no com- 

 mercial value.' This, we presume, has a more direct bear- 

 ing on novelties, and may be regarded, and well taken as 

 a hint to those who think their 'own crow blackest,' 

 and have faith enough in their belief to place their produc- 

 tions on view alongside those, measured by which they fall 

 a long way short, and help generally to detract from the 

 excellence of the exhibition as a whole. The rebuke is 

 merited; and it should be heeded." 



We eannoi endorse these sentiments nor do we believe 

 that Peter Fisher intended to be understood as rebuking 

 a brother florist for having the audacity to place his pro- 

 ductions on view alongside those of his more experienced 

 and successful fellows. "Despise not the day of small 

 things" is a bit of old-fashioned advice not out of place 

 when considering the novelty classes in a professional 

 exhibition. Here lies the best field of such a society as 

 the American Carnation Society in its eapaeitv as an 

 educational instrumentality. Here the best of lessons 

 may be learned through the opportunities for compari- 

 son — the lesson of humility and the lesson of courage to 

 try again. The man with "bis own crow blackest" is 

 the stock from which will evolve the successful man of 

 the Inline. His interior exhibit will not detract from, 

 but rather enhance, the perfect points of his competi- 

 tor's product. Failures are as useful educators as are 

 successes and the society will make a great mistake in 

 adopting any such proscriptive policy as the above quo- 

 ta! ion seems to advocate. 



