The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



Decembeu 



1897. 



ship with Peter Henderson, was one of 

 the old Leigh Park men. Mr. Buist, of 

 Pliiladelphia, and Mr. Brackenridge, of 

 Baltimore, were old associates of the 

 elder Scott in Edinburgh. Mr. David 

 Ferguson, of Philadelphia, was another 

 Leigh Park man, and there were others 

 in the United States. 



The watering pot was thrown down one 

 Saturday nighc in March, with the expec- 

 tation that it was never to be handled 

 again and the trio were off for the back- 

 woods of Canada to irap and hunt and get 

 in clo.se communion with the redmen of 

 the primeval forest. A look at the forest, 

 about three miles up Yonge street, To- 

 ronto, was enough for the party, and 

 through the kindness of Mr. George Les- 

 lie, the well-known nurseryman, the party 

 was quickly back at the old trade. The 

 following winter Mr. Scott was in theem- 

 plov of Mr. James Pape, who grew plants 

 for the Toronto market. The summer of 

 1S69 they tried market gardening and the 

 seed business in Stratford, Ont. There 

 were too many in the firm, as was evi- 

 denced during the dull months when the 

 gross receipts of the day amounted to not 

 over |i. 25. So they paid their London 

 seed bills, and all other bills, and through 

 his old friend Mr. George Vair, Mr. Scott 

 engaged with Mr. George Bailey, of Buf- 

 falo, who was then one of Buffalo's most 

 prosperous manufacturers and w'as build- 

 ing a fine place. Mr. Scott was "im- 

 ported" to work for him in 1S70. He 

 crossed the Niagara River under condi- 

 tions that would now be a direct violation 

 of the contract labor law. But in this 

 case low price w-as not the motive for im- 

 porting "a foreigner," for he received 

 good wages. The first two ^-ears, and 

 especially the second year, he saviil S50 a 

 month and kept a wife and prospective 

 family. 



In 1876, through the declining business 

 of his employer he was almost compelled 

 to rent the houses, quite a little commer 

 cial growing having been done the pre- 

 ceding two years. In August, 1.S76, an 

 agreement was made by which, for the 

 use of 3,700 feet of glass for eleven 

 months, Mr. Scott bound himself to 

 pay |i,ooo. This included the use of 

 the stock, but that consisted mainly 

 of bedding plants from which he could 

 get cuttings for another year. The 

 onlv thing to return any money that win- 

 ter was a few thousand good carnation 

 plants. As he had invested his previous 

 hard earnings in a small farm which he 

 found out too late passed considerable 

 periods under four feet of water, he 

 started without |io working capital. It 

 was hard scratching when the second in- 

 stallment of the rent (|2=.o) came due in 

 February, but when the last payment of 

 I500 was made June i, he had cash in 

 abundance. The place not being sold he 

 rented it again for another \-ear at |6oo, 

 at the end of which time he secured the 

 property on Balcom street, where he now 

 lives, and built two houses, each 20x100. 

 He rented the Bailey place for the third 

 year and at the end of that time gave it 

 up. Since then several )-oung men have 

 tried to run the old place at a rental of 

 {300 a year, but always at a loss. 



Mr. Scott speaks modestly of his pres- 

 ent establishment as but a moderate sized 



place compared to those of many yoimger 

 in the business, and while this may be 

 true to a certain extent his place ranks 

 with the large ones and nowhere are 

 plants and flowers better grown. (Juality 

 is sought rather than quantity, and the 

 former is found to pay better than the 

 latter, though Mr. Scott comes pretty 

 near getting both. 



A beautiful note in Mr. Scott's charac- 

 ter is his sincere affection for his excel- 

 lent wife. In referring to his early strug- 

 gles in business he freely accords her the 

 credit for his success, and says that with- 

 out the help of his most true and loving 

 helpmate he never could have accom- 

 plished what he has. 



Mr. Scott has alwa3-s believed in em- 

 ploying plenty of help of good quality 

 and pa\ing good wages. He hates to see 

 an intelligent young florist put down on 

 a level with an hostler. No tattered and 

 torn urchins are ever seen on liis place. 

 He cares not as to the nationality or re- 

 ligious faith of his workmen, but insists 

 on intelligence, integrity and industry. 

 In speaking of himself Mr. Scott has 

 said: "1 do not wish to be judged by 

 what I am worth, but by what I have 

 earned and done." 



What Mr. Scott has done for his fellow 

 craftsmen through his contributions to 

 the trade press is well known to the 

 readers of this, and all will be pleased to 



know that his pen is to contribute regu- 

 larly and freely to these cohmins, but we 

 have a still more pleasant announcement 

 to make. Mr. Scott is now at work on a 

 book which will prove an inestimable 

 boon to the trade. It is to be entitled the 

 "Florists' Manual" and will cover the 

 whole field of commercial floriculture, the 

 subjects arranged in alphabetical order. 

 encyclop;vdia style, so that the cultural 

 details regarding any plant may be 

 quickly looked up as desired. It will 

 cover construction, heating, labor saving 

 devices, peculiarities of varieties, and 

 everything connected with the trade about 

 which a florist may occasionally wish to 

 refresh his memory, the retailer as well 

 as the grower. This book will be pub- 

 lished by the publishers of the Florists' 

 Review at a moderate price and a very 

 large circulation of the book is assured. 

 This will undoubtedly be Mr. Scott's 

 crowning work and he is devoting the 

 greatest care to the preparation of the 

 various articles, which will be as full and 

 complete as possible though still terse 

 and condensed. The art of telling a 

 great deal in a few words is possessed by 

 Mr. Scott to a remarkable degree and he 

 is peculiarly fitted to write exactly the 

 sort of matter for which there is a need. 

 We know the appearance of the volume 

 will be looked for with the greatest 

 interest. 



CATTLEYAS AND THEIR 

 CULTURE. 

 There is not in the cornucopia of the 

 floral goddess a flower that has more ad- 

 mirers at the present time than the 

 cattle}-a. What flower could draw forth 

 more genuine admiration than the beauti- 

 ful specimen herewith reproduced I page S ) 

 with its ninety exquisite blooms all fully 

 expanded at one time? Such gems, I pre- 

 sume to assert, can never be looked upon 

 with scorn— except by the utterly per- 

 verted, nor can they be offered to the 

 spoiled child of fortune without an im- 

 plied compliment. Every year has ad- 

 vanced their popularity and enhanced 

 their beauty in the shape of some 

 stranger of garden or natural origin 

 that has forced itself upon us by the 

 niar\-elous beauty of its markings or size 

 of flower. Considering how easily and 

 inexpensively a large number of them 

 can be successfully handled it is surpris- 

 ing to me that they have not received 

 more general attention from the growers, 

 for there is no doubt that the cattle^-a is 

 the flower of the future where chasteness. 



fragrance and richness of effect are de- 

 sired. 



The diSerent methods of mounting 

 specimens shown here in the illustration 

 are all ver\- simple and inexpensive and 

 if carefully carried out are sure to give 

 satisfactory results, thereby commending 

 themselves to the growers in general. 

 Figs. I, 2, 3, 4 and 6 in the illustration 

 are methods preferable to pot culture, 

 because you can water, feed heavier, and 

 drv out quicker than is the case with pots, 

 and you can understand the condition of 

 your plants at a glance; inexperienced 

 labor is not so liable to err and one man 

 can liandle by this system three times the 

 number of plants that he could were they 

 in pots. Lager and Hurrell of Summit, 

 N. J., are the pioneers in the long board 

 svstem (Fig. 4), a sj-stem that is highly 

 commendable. 



Fig. I shows plants moutited upon a 

 fern stem, the plants fixed thereon by 

 means of long wire staples clenched on 

 the other side. I prefer these stems to 

 anything else for growing cattleyas upon 

 because you can deluge them with water 



