68 



HORT1 CULTU RE 



January 20, 1906 



NEWS OF THE CLUBS AND SOCIETIES 



GARDENERS' AND FLORISTS- 

 CLUB OF BOSTON. 



The first meeting of the new year 

 was held on Tuesday evening, Janu- 

 ary 16, with an attendance of over 

 one hundred members. President 

 Wheeler made a brief address of con- 

 gratulation on the prosperity attained, 

 and gratitude for the support accord- 

 ed him during the past year. He em- 

 phasized the importance of individual 

 activity as compared with the value 

 of mere numerical strength, advocated 

 the encouragement of the recreation 

 features of the club's work, referred 

 briefly to the preparations which are 

 perfected for the coming carnation 

 convention and set a shining example 

 for his fellow-presidents all over the 

 country by thanking in appreciative 

 words the representatives of the pro- 

 fessional papers for their share in pro- 

 moting the welfare of the orgamza- 



Vice-president West wood, Secretary 

 Craig and Treasurer Hatch also re- 

 sponded to the call and spoke a few 

 words. Mr. Craig advocated the es- 

 tablishment of some system whereby 

 positions might be found for worthy 

 members out of work and deprecated 

 the insidious encroachment ot the 

 landscape architects on the garden- 

 ers' domain. Mr. Hatch's dissertation 

 on thriftiness was pointed and impres- 



sivG 



Mr A Patten gave an interesting 

 resume of the carnations of the past 

 and was followed by Peter Usher, 

 who presented the interesting paper 

 on the carnation of the future, which 

 appears on another page of this issue. 

 In the discussion which followed Mr. 

 Fisher told of investigations he is 

 making on the subject of cross-rela- 

 tionship and intermingling of blood in 

 carnation raising and its effect in tne 

 tendency of certain varieties to sport. 

 This subject brought out interesting 

 remarks from a number of members 

 Mr Fisher also told of the apparent 

 effect of fumigation in causing carna- 

 tion flowers to go to sleep in a short 

 time after cutting, and said he had 

 found the use of Nicotine a great im- 

 provement, the flowers keeping much 

 longer. He advised growers to try 

 Nicotine. A general exhibition com- 

 mittee was appointed with Alexander 

 Montgomery, Peter Fisher and Robert 

 Cameron chairmen of the rose, carna- 

 tion and general plant sections, re- 

 spectively. The project to refer appli- 

 cations for membership to the execu- 

 tive committee before action by the 

 meeting was voted down. Sixteen 

 new members were elected. The ap- 

 plication of a lady for membership 

 brought out a spirited debate and a 

 negative vote, which was afterwards 

 reversed, but the sponsors for the 

 lady withdrew the name. Altogether 

 it can be said that gallantry was not 

 rampant on this occasion. An invita- 

 tion to attend the banquet of the 

 North Shore Horticultural Society at 

 Manchester on February 15 was pre- 

 sented by W. B. Jackson and ac- 

 cepted. 



/~\« *Un ai-ViiV.it inn tnhle were some 



fine carnation displays, including 

 Evangeline (light pink) and Beacon 

 (red) from Peter Fisher, a white seed- 

 ling from T. F. Matthews, Helen God- 

 daid from S. J. Goddard, sport from 

 Enchantress and several seedlings 

 from Backer & Co., seedlings from 

 Stevens & Co., Pink Patten and 

 Mikado from Patten & Co. 



PHILADELPHIA COUNTY FARM- 

 ERS' INSTITUTE. 



Unlike the regular farmers' institute 

 in the country districts the Philadel- 

 phia affair generally has an element 

 of horticulture and floriculture inject- 

 ed into it. This year's meeting, held 

 at Horticultural Hall on the 16th lnst, 

 was no exception to the rule. Antoine 

 Wintzer, of the Conard and Jones Co., 

 gav » a very interesting talk on hybri- 

 dizing, Dr. Roberts delivered his much- 

 looked-forward-to lecture on the influ- 

 ence of flowers in the sick room, and 

 J Otto Thilow spoke on grasses for 

 lawns and other purposes. These lec- 

 tures were in addition to the regular 

 lecturers of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. 



Carnation Robert Craig was on ex- 

 hibition from the Cottage Gardens, be- 

 sides Begonia Lorraine and a number 

 of other items for the monthly prizes 

 of the society. Henry A. Dreer made 

 an elaborate exhibit of insecticides 

 and tools. 



The most interesting of the papers 

 have been secured and will be pub- 

 lished as soon as circumstances will 

 permit. Altogether this proved a 

 verv successful institute. Edwin 

 Lonsdale presided, ably seconded by 

 David Rust, secretary of the Horticul- 

 tural Society. 



AMERICAN CARNATION SOCIETY. 



Carnation Registered.— By George 

 B Anderson, Hvde Park, Mass. "Red 

 Warrior," a bright scarlet, very free 

 bloomer, strong grower, average stem 

 at this time eighteen inches, blooms 

 three to three and one-half inches. A 

 cross between Mrs. Lawson and Mrs. 

 Bradt. 



The Boston Meeting. 

 The paper on Carnations from a 

 Wholesaler's Point of View will be 

 given us by Mr. A. J. Guttman, New 

 York, N. Y. 



The New England Passenger Associa- 

 tion have granted the rate of a fare and 

 one-third for the meeting over all of 

 their lines excepting The Eastern 

 Steamship Company. 



Your Secretary has made application 

 at the same time to the Trunk Line As- 

 sociation and the Central Passenger 

 Association for the same rate, and it 

 will no doubt be granted. Parties com- 

 ing to the convention should give them- 

 selves plentv of time to buy their 

 ticket and get the usual certificate 

 from the ticket agent at their home 

 office entitling them to the reduced 

 fare. . 



There will be more flowers staged in 

 Boston, Jan. 24th, than have ever been 

 staged at one time and place in the 

 world, and every Carnation man who 

 can should attend this meeting. 



ALBERT M. HERR, Sec. 



MASSACHUSETTS HORTICUL- 

 TURAL SOCIETY. 



Dr. L. O. Howard, chief of the bu- 

 reau of entomology in Washington, 

 lectured on "The Possibilities from 

 Insect Parasites," illustrated with 

 stereopticon views, at Horticultural 

 Hall last Saturday. 



The lecture consisted of a careful 

 historical summary of all of the work 

 that has been done in different parts 

 of the world with the practical 

 handling of the insect enemies of in- 

 jurious insects, starting with the first 

 attempt in 1855 by Dr. Asa Fitch, then 

 State entomologist of New York, to 

 import the European parasites of the 

 wheat midge, and closing with the 

 present attempt to import into New 

 England the European and Japanese 

 parasites of the gypsy moth and 

 brown-tail moth. The excellent work 

 carried on in California in this direc- 

 tion was described at some length, 

 from the first overwhelming success 

 of the importation of the Australian 

 ladybird in 1889 to destroy the fluted 

 scale, down to the latest importation 

 of an ichieumon fly from Spain, 

 which is a parasite of the codling 

 moth of the apple. The work done in 

 Hawaii, in Western Australia, and in 

 South Africa received due attention, 

 and the similar work carried on under 

 the United States Department at 

 Washington, naturally, was not dis- 

 regarded. 



With regard to the gypsy moth and 

 brown-tail moth, he expressed himself 

 as hopeful of success. He described 

 in some detail his last summer's trip 

 to organize the work of importing 

 parasites of these two insects, and 

 stated that it was difficult in very 

 many localities to find any specimens 

 at all of the gypsy moth, although it 

 is well understood that in almost any 

 year it is liable to appear in consider- 

 able numbers. The work of last sum- 

 mer showed that it was an easy thing 

 to import parasitized specimens of 

 both species into Massachusetts, and 

 it now remains simply to bring over 

 as many as possible and to care for 

 them as well as possible, in the confi- 

 dent hope that some of them will es- 

 tablish themselves and become per- 

 manent denizens of the United States. 

 Surely, with the extraordinary abund- 

 ance of food which they will find in 

 eastern Massachusetts, there can be 

 no reason, unless it be climatic, why 

 they should not breed rapidly and 

 eventually reduce both the gypsy 

 moth and brown-tail moth to approxi- 

 mately European conditions. 



The 1906 schedule of prizes and ex- 

 hibitions is issued. In the general ar- 

 rangement it follows closely that of 

 previous years. There are to be thir- 

 teen exhibitions, one less than in 

 1905, and a further reduction of the 

 weekly Saturday summer shows is 

 made by cutting out two in August, 

 so that this year there will be two 

 in July and two in August. An addi- 

 tional two days' exhibition in October 

 is established exclusively for the fruit 

 and vegetable interests. 



Five hundred and seventy-four en- 

 tries of mostly three prizes each are 

 offered in the several departments of 



