404 



HORTICULTURE 



March 31, 1906 



names that should have appeared in 

 the published list of members, his own 

 name being one of the unfortunate 

 ones. The others were Miss C. Cruger, 

 J. D. Eisele, A. Gude, W. F. Gude and 

 Mrs. G. M. Reynolds. 



The number of members who have 

 paid annual dues during the fiscal 

 year ending June 30. 1905, or later, is 

 112; the number of life members 42; 

 making the total membership March 

 20, 1906, 154. Of this number 22 are 

 new members added since March 21, 

 1905. Resignations received since 

 that date have been 14. 



As I have said the problem of the 

 existence and prosperity of the Ameri- 

 can Rose Society seems now to have 

 been solved. Under its standard are 

 gathered not only the commercial cut 

 flower growers with their marvellous 

 enterprise and giant influence but 

 specialists in roses for the garden, the 

 park and the dwelling house. The 

 hybridist and fancier, no matter what 

 direction his enthusiasm may take, is 

 coming to be a believer in and a sup- 

 porter of the rose society. Your sec- 

 retary is of the opinion that our best 

 success lies in holding the affairs of 

 the organization under professional 

 management for the present at least. 

 it being clearly the duty of the practi- 

 cal rosarian to first establish the or- 

 ganization on a sound foundation and 

 then, by such educational means as 

 are possible, to widen the circle of the 

 Society's scope 'and popularity. No 

 better beginning can be made than the 

 assembling of an exhibition, alike 

 creditable in extent and quality, such 

 as we have in evidence on this occa- 

 sion. Under existing circumstances 

 our strongest appeal to the people lies 

 in the exhibition feature. Other work 

 will follow in course. Hybridization, 

 cultural experimenting and investiga- 

 tion must be encouraged and results 

 carefully tabulated and given wide- 

 spread publicity. All this means work 

 unremitting, methodical and self- 

 sacrificing, but if it is undertaken in 

 the right spirit we shall have some- 

 thing to show for it all a year or two 

 hence. 



It is a knowledge of this urgent 

 necessity which prompts me to ask 

 that you now place the office of secre- 

 tary in the hands of some one who 

 can give it much more time than I am 

 able to devote to it. I have realized 

 all along, since assuming the duties of 

 secretary, that the time and effort I 

 have been able to spend in the work 

 have been most inadequate to the 

 pressing needs of the society. Some one 

 should be secured who can keep up a 

 •vigorous campaign all through the 

 year and build up the membership so 

 that the annual dues may be sufficient 

 to pay running expenses. Our field 

 is a wide one and its possibilities far 

 from being disclosed as yet. 



Treasurer's Report. 



Harry O. May, treasurer, presented 

 his report, showing: 



A cash balance of $282.20 in addition 

 io the permanent fund. This was re- 

 duced from the amount reported one 

 year ago by several payments on ac- 

 count of previous years, but at the 

 end of the fiscal year. June 30, it is 

 hoped to have the deficiency fully 

 made up by collection of back dues. 



The treasurer supplemented his re- 

 port with an urgent appeal for more 



active financial support for the society, 

 calling attention to the small amount 

 ■ of funds on hand. He was followed 

 by John H. Taylor in advocacy of a 

 permanent fund to be raised by sub- 

 scriptions from those who are finan- 

 cially interested in the rose, Mr. Taylor 

 offering to start the list with a sub- 

 stantial sum. ''"his brought up an 

 animated debate, participated in by 

 Messrs. Robert Simpson, Farenwald, 

 Dorrance, Reed, Elliott, Barry, Wheeler 

 and others, in which much oratorical 

 ability was displayed. Some took the 

 ground that the amateur should be 

 followed up and his active support 

 secured, others that the professional 

 people who arc making money out of 

 the rose should take hold first. A 

 permanent fund large enough to yield 

 a substantial income was looked upon 

 by some speakers as the most desirable 

 feature, while others believed that a 

 large annual membership would be 

 preferable. All agreed that the effect 

 of the magnificent exhibition given by 

 the society on this occasion would do 



P. J. Lynch. 



much to give the society the needed 

 enthusiasm. 



P. J. Lynch of West Grove, Pa., then 

 read a paper on the mail order trade. 



The Mail Order Trade. 



By I'. .T. Lynch. 



In considering the scope to which 

 I should confine the subject I have 

 taken it for granted that to keep within 

 the propaganda of this Society I must 

 speak with special reference to the 

 rose as a mail order commodity, vet 

 the subject. The Mail Order Trade (in 

 plants), has been touched upon so little 

 by any of our National Societies, I 

 shall therefore treat it somewhat 

 broadly. 



We have no governmental statistics 

 to give an idea of the magnitude of 

 the present mail order trad" in plants. 

 I doubt if very many of us realize the 

 great work being done in this branch 

 of our industry, a work whose power 

 to advance the material growth and 

 welfare of floriculture has been 

 and is perhaps the greatest factor in 

 our present unparalleled prosperity. 

 Your mail order man is the pioneer 



and pathfinder of the craft that has 

 carried to the remote parts of the 

 country the gospel of loving flowers, 

 especially roses, and how to get and 

 grow them. He has been, in a meas- 

 ure, the educator of the masses, many 

 of whom are not in close touch with 

 the large centers of population where 

 the rose as grown for cut flowers can 

 make its own appeal. He has been a 

 factor in beautifying the waste places 

 of our land, and it is my thought that 

 the great work in which we are en- 

 gaged has but commenced. Each year 

 this great Government of ours con- 

 tinues to improve the efficiency of the 

 mail service, so that to-day there is 

 not a post office in any part of the 

 Union where rose plants cannot be 

 delivered with entire safety. 



When the time shall come that cor- 

 porate greed will not stand in the way 

 of the needs of the people we shall 

 have a parcels post system that will 

 mean more to the business interests 

 of the country than any contemplated 

 legislation that I know of at this time. 

 No measure that we can endorse will 

 so advance the mutual interests of 

 both buyer and seller as the enactment 

 of a parcels post system similar to 

 that in vogue in Great Britain, and no 

 measure we can oppose, if I am not 

 digressing from the subject, is more 

 detrimental to the interests of the mail 

 order trade than this absurd free dis- 

 tribution of seeds by the United States 

 Government. 



The mail order man is not a young- 

 ster. He has been around quite a 

 long while. In 1SC9 the firm with which 

 I am connected published an advertise- 

 ment in the New York Tribune offer- 

 ing to send to any post office in the 

 United States fresh, live, growing 

 plants, on their own roots, and 

 guaranteed the. safe arrival. This 

 proposition evidently was taken as a 

 good joke, for we got no orders from 

 it. Since those days marvelous advan- 

 ces have been made. Throughout the 

 land there are to my direct knowledge 

 one hundred and five mail order estab- 

 lishments, comprising millions of feet 

 of glass, devoted exclusively to send- 

 ing plants — roses principally — by mail. 

 For catalogues and advertising alone 

 I estimate that there is spent annually 

 one and one-half million dollars. 

 Some of these catalogues are gems of 

 printers' art, and as a rule they are 

 sent free to customers and to all 

 others who ask for them. Through 

 liberal advertising in the National 

 weekly and monthly publications the 

 public is kept advised that your mail 

 order man is ready with the goods. It 

 has been said, but I believe facetiously, 

 that our descriptions of the wares we 

 have to offer are occasionally too 

 seductive, but I am sure, nevertheless. 

 that the sinceritv of purpose cannot 

 be questioned. To be successful we 

 must be enthusiasts, and in figuring 

 the expense of printing these cata- 

 logues and advertising them appropri- 

 ately your mail order man must have 

 his nerve with him, because the propo- 

 sition calls for sums of money in this 

 department of publicity that is almost 

 akin to the salary of the president of 

 a modern Life Insurance Company. 

 First of all, having grown his stock, 

 the next move is to determine how 

 much will be safe to invest in selling 

 it. I am told that the gentlemen who 

 ci nstruct the modern greenhouses of 

 to-day are diligent in the prosecution 



