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HORTICULTURE 



April 7, 190G 



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. 



Spring has come. We see it in the burst- 

 Easter j n£ p buds and blooming crocuses, we hear 

 greeting it in the song of robin and blue bird and 



it thrills us with longings for the outdoor 

 life and the invigorating breath of the garden and the 

 wildwood. Dull impulses are stirred to fresh life and 

 the wonderful regeneration going on all around us 

 inspires us with living purpose. How detestable the 

 selfishness and stupid follies of every day experience 

 appear in the wholesome light of the spring awakening; 

 how the burdens of material existence lighten ; how 

 buoyantly one assumes fresh responsibilities; how hope- 

 ful looks the future! May this glorious Easter season 

 bring happiness and prosperity in overflowing abun- 

 dance is Horticulture's sincere wish for every reader 

 of this our second Easter number. 



Agreeably to custom, this week's 



For the issue of Horticulture is dedicated 



Easter growers to the glorious spring festival of 



flowers and the great industry which 

 plays so important a part in the appropriate celebra- 

 tion of the day. The greenhouses now so radiant with 

 gorgeous color, the reward of many months of unremit- 

 ting toil and anxiety, will in a few days be divested of 

 all their glory and their fragrant contents will have 

 gone out into the homes of rich and poor, of joy and of 

 sadness, carrying their sweet message of the spring 

 lime, of new hope and inspiration. We believe with 

 the speaker at the rose banquet that flower culture is the 

 most honorable and elevating occupation on the face of 

 the earth and it is our best wish for the Easter plant 

 and flower growers that they may have willing' buyers 

 for everything they produce and ample returns for their 

 investment and labor. 



Field (lavs, so called, are rightly 



The advantages regarded in some of our florists' 



of visiting organizations as among their most 



instructive and enjoyable functions. 



The name, itself, is somewhat of a misnomer as applied 



to a greenhouse visii but the visiting habit is a good 



trait for either a 30cietj or an individual to acquire. 



It combines the advantagi of the lecture and the 



exhibition, the two universally recognized means of 

 imparting instruction and stupid, indeed, must he be 

 who cannot learn something to his own advantage on 

 these excursions, not to mention the recreation to be 

 derived from the outing and the friendly intercourse 

 of one's fellows. The worker who seldom sees any place 

 but his own. who imagines he cannot spare the time to 

 participate in these social affairs, is his own enemy for, 

 in the long run, he will surely find himself left behind, 

 distanced by his more enterprising contemporaries, and 

 a mere nonentity outside of his own conceit. 



in commercial floriculture the 

 The indispensable ultimate object has been only 

 wholesale florist half accomplished when the flower 

 has been produced. It matters 

 little how well grown the stock may be if it is not also 

 well sold. If it is to go to waste in the storehouse or 

 be sacrificed at a fraction of its value to the street fakir 

 all the work of its production has gone for naught. As 

 a certain philosophical wholesale dealer is wont to say, 

 "We've accomplished little or nothing until the flower 

 is transferred from the ice-chest to the ledger or cash 

 book." Our advertising pages in this issue are well 

 patronized by the men who are engaged in the indis- 

 pensable work of transfering the great Easter product 

 to the ledger or cash book. ' The business of the whole- 

 sale florist has grown within a few years to enormous 

 size and importance. Its peculiar requirements have 

 brought to the surface a class of shrewd business men, 

 able, industrious and enterprising, well fitted to sup- 

 plement the growers' cultural abilities by developing 

 and maintaining a remunerative market for their 

 product. They speak for themselves in our advertising 

 pages. We hope our readers will favor them with their 

 patronage for everything needed in the Easter material 

 they offer. They are handling today the cut of the best 

 growers by an overwhelming majority and can "make 



'_! I." 



The "Better Farming Special" train is 



Mahomet creating an unprecedented sensation as 



goes to the it proceeds on its .route through the 



mountain rural sections of New England. The 



ears are fitted up with exhibits bearing 

 upon modern husbandry and agricultural methods and 

 appliances and lectures are given at each town, where 

 the train stops for an hour or so. Nothing that has 

 happened within the experience of the present generation 

 has ever aroused the interest of the farmers as this- 

 clever idea of bringing to their doors the demonstration 

 in a practical way of what the experiment stations have 

 investigated and proven in the years since their estab- 

 lishment. The accumulated knowledge of the agricul- 

 tural colleges derived from scientific study and experi- 

 ment is now in a fair way to reach and benefit those 

 for whose elevation and enlightenment these institutions 

 were founded but who with characteristic rural per- 

 versity or skepticism have never been disposed to learn 

 much, from the Bulletins and the "new-fangled" methods 

 therein set forth. "Mahomet called the hill to come to 

 him. again and again; and when the hill stood still he 

 was never a whit abashed, but said. Tf the hill will not 

 come to Mahomet. Mahomet will go to the hill." " 



