38 



HORTICULTURE 



January 13, 190S 



HORTICULTURE 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Telephone, Oxford 292, 



WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



This is the time of the year when the 

 Look volume of greenhouse news from all sections 

 out for is punctuated with notes of fires and con- 

 fires sequent loss. Defective or over-taxed heat- 

 ing apparatus is the usual cause given and 

 the loss, almost invariably without insurance, often 

 means practical ruin for the owner. To say that the 

 majority of these occurrences are easily avoidable is to 

 state what all know to be a fact. It is hard to under- 

 stand how those who have so much at stake can be so 

 careless. 



Ladies' night, so called, at the Florists' Club, 

 Ladies' } s n0 less a gentlemen's night, as experience 

 night has proven. The latter are by no means 



unresponsive to the allurements of ice cream 

 and cake, not to mention the magnetic influences of the 

 ladies themselves, to which no proper man is impervi- 

 ous. Late home-coming is inseparable from attendance 

 on club meetings by the grower whose home and business 

 are, of necessity, remote from the centre of activity, and 

 it is only fair that the wives, sisters, and daughters thus 

 often deprived of the company and protection of "our 

 gude man" should receive compensating consideration 

 in an occasional ladies' night or outing where they may 

 come in contact with those whose life work lies in the 

 same lines as their own. No club is doing its full duty 

 nor can be said to be permanently prosperous which 

 neglects these gentle courtesies. 



The selling of flowers to retail 

 Mutual customers by wholesale dealers has, 



obligations of from the beginning, been a fruitful 

 wholesaler and cause of trouble and complaint. 

 retailer From what we have seen and known 



we believe the matter is unduly mag- 

 nified by the retail dealers. There are isolated cases 

 where open competition is carried on by so-called whole- 

 sale concerns but, as a rule, the wholesale dealer looks 

 upon these calls by personal friends and others for 

 broken lots of flowers as a nuisance from which he 



would be glad to escape, for his own comfort. So long, 

 however, as the retail dealer persists in his inclination 

 to ignore the wholesaler and deal direct with the latter's 

 sources of supply, he forfeits whatever claims of moral 

 obligation or ethics he might otherwise justly make. 

 The wholesale business is now well-organized in many 

 of the large business centres, it is carried on according 

 to established principles by responsible firms, and there 

 is no good reason why, as in other sound and well- 

 ordered commercial industries, the wholesale house 

 should not have the constant and cordial support of the 

 retail distributor so long as he is in a position to respond 

 to the demand and supply the goods. Let it be under- 

 stood that this is to be the policy, and we shall quickly 

 see the end of retailing by wholesale houses. 



The concentrated ardor so well 



Good demonstrated in the annual pil- 



wishes for grimages of the carnation enthu- 



the carnation men s iasts at this season of the year, 



when traveling is a positive 

 discomfort, commands admiration. This element of 

 fidelity and zeal has been a prominent characteristic of 

 the American Carnation Society from the start and its 

 unflinching devotion to the objects for which it was 

 organized is unsurpassed in the history of our horticul- 

 tural bodies. The lesson of its successful career and the 

 reasons therefor should not be lost on our clubs and 

 societies everywhere. It is our hearty hope that the 

 blizzard weather which has beset the carnation men at 

 their every convention for a number of years may be 

 graciously side-tracked on the occasion now so close at 

 hand and that the adherents of the divine flower, 

 together with their prized products may, for once, all 

 arrive at their destination in prompt time and faultless 

 condition. Their perseverance certainly entitles them 

 to this good fortune. 



The horticultural world will 



Tne learn with a feeling of sadness of 



death of the death of that eminent and 



Samuel B. Parsons lovable horticulturist, Samuel B. 



Parsons. Half a century ago he 

 stood in the van-guard of the men who, actuated pri- 

 marily by their love for nature and the products of the 

 garden, laid the substantial foundations of American 

 horticulture as we know it today. That the good which 

 men do lives after them was never better demonstrated 

 than in the beautiful town of Flushing, Long Island, 

 where on every side one sees ornamental trees of rare 

 perfection all bearing silent testimony to the benign 

 home influence of the Parsons' nursery. The fascinat- 

 ing book on the rose, its history, poetry, culture, and 

 classification, published by Mr. Parsons in 1847 is still 

 well worthy of a place on the bookshelf of every rose 

 lover. It is not only a work of high literary merit but 

 overflows with the earnest, inspiring sentiment of an 

 author full of affection for his subject. The passing 

 away of such a man, even after advancing years have 

 forced him from the sphere of activity, makes the world 

 poorer. 



