March 15, 1913 



HORTICULTURE 



375 



tended by state commissioners, forest- 

 ers and the owners of private nurseries 

 for the data and information kindly 

 submitted to it, and hope that the con- 

 sideration of this subject by the asso- 

 ciation may result in liarmonious re- 

 lations between the forestry depart- 

 ment of the government, each of the 

 states and those engaged in the busi- 

 ness, to the mutual advantage of all. 

 Fredk W. Kelsey, 

 H. H. Chapman, 

 H. R. Bristol, 



Committee. 



THE NEW CARNATIONS 



A Paper Read by Elmer Weaver Before The Lancaster County (Pa.) 



Florists' Club. 



A GIANT ELM. 



The Markham elm, near Avon, N. Y., 

 of which only a small piece remains, 

 may have begun to grow six hundred 

 years ago. John Dunbar, assistant 

 superintendent of Rochester Parks, 

 and President of the Rochester Florist 

 Association, gives this interesting ac- 

 count of what he has learned about 

 the tree. "While spending a few hours 

 one day on the estate of W. G. Mark- 

 ham, I was much interested in view- 

 ing the lingering remnant of the large 

 historic elm known usually a s ihe 

 Markham elm. A small pi;ce of its 

 former self remains, and this is mainly 

 a large limb extending over the north 

 side of the base, supported by a stout 

 brace to prevent its breaking down 

 from its own weight. The immense 

 size of this giant of the past can read- 

 ily be judged from the hollowed and 

 partial shell of the base which re- 

 mains. To a lover of trees it conveys 

 impressive lessons on the beauty and 

 grandeur of some vegetable organisms. 



"The Markham family have been ac- 

 quainted with this elm for four gener- 

 ations and extends back for 149 years. 

 This elm was distinctly a pendulous 

 branched or 'weeping' tree. 



"The trunk of the Markham elm was 

 forty-five feet in circumference three 

 feet above the ground and at noon the 

 shade of the branches extended over 

 an acre. 



"In the spring of 1S93 the north side 

 of the tree which was mainly a shell, 

 blew down. This was sawed across 

 and Mr. Markham counted approxi- 

 mately three hundred and seventy-five 

 rings. Estimating the portion that 

 had decayed toward the center of the 

 tree, he felt confident that the elm was 

 six hundred years old. 



"To have this direct evidence of the 

 age of this remarkable elm is excep- 

 tionally interesting and valuable as a 

 record. It places the maximum age of 

 the American elm far above the c:m- 

 mon estimate. 



"This tree was old when the Pilgrim 

 Fathers founded the Plymouth Colony 

 in 1620. It was in adult age when 

 Columbus landed in 1492. It will be 

 six hundred years on June 24th. 1914, 

 when the Scottish army under King 

 Robert Bruce, crushed the English 

 army under King Edward II on the 

 field of Bannockburn, securing for all 

 time Scottish independence. About 

 this time the Markham elm began its 

 life's history." 



Starting with Benora, it looks liU« 

 an ideal variegated, exceedingly free 

 bloomer; stem of sufficient length and 

 strong enough to hold flower erect. 

 The color is good, although carrying a 

 slight yellow cast. Growth is healthy 

 and vigorous and cuttings root about 

 as easy as Beacon which means you 

 may get them rooted if you are care- 

 ful, very careful, not to allow any 

 chance tor them to get too wet, too 

 dry, too hot or too cold, don't let any 

 wind blow over them, and a few other 

 don'ts. In transplanting from the 

 field, plants take hold easily and in a 

 few weeks blooming shoots are form- 

 ing in abundance. On the whole it is 

 a variety worthy of trial, though the 

 color would preclude the growing of it 

 universally in large quantities. 



Delhi is an improved Victory and, as 

 I personally could never muster much 

 enthusiasm over Victory, I do not 

 know whether or not I think much of 

 Delhi. With us it has somewhat the 

 habit of a sweet potato vine, the 

 stems showing a tendency to grow 

 horizontal instead of vertical. Even 

 though it has formed such undesirable 

 habits here it certainly makes enough 

 flowers and will make as many during 

 the season as any thing in sight. 1 

 have seen it growing in Chester Coun- 

 ty this season and can say it was a fine 

 sight, away ahead of Beacon in the 

 same house, having as good a stem, 

 and better color, is a freer bloomer and 

 not the cropper Beacon is, though the 

 (lower looks as though a trip to the 

 laundry would improve it greatly; Vic- 

 tory looks like a wilted collar and 

 Delhi the same. 



Comfort has had the advantage of 

 two seasons' experience on our place 

 and when you visit us next season you 

 will find 10.000 plants growing on the 

 place. I know a number of you gen- 

 tlemen are afraid of Comfort because 

 it looks sleepy under certain con- 

 ditions, but the grower who thinks 

 Comfort sleepy and discriminatrs 

 against it on that score is nearer asleep 

 than the carnation. He had better take 

 a nap and when he wakes up and feels 

 fit try Comfort. It is not so high in 

 quality as our Mr. Rohrer's E-e;dling 

 but will produce more money per 

 square toot of bench surface than any 

 red we now have. 



Rosette is the fourth variety of la^t 

 season's novelties with which we are 

 experimenting and from the ultimate 

 doUar-and-cents point of view I feel 

 sure the best: first, from what it is 

 showing itself to be, and second be- 

 cause it is one of Dorner's seedlings, 

 all of which have made good here ex- 

 cepting Scarlet Glow. It differs from 

 their other recent introductions in that 

 its growth is heavier and that it 

 ma'es plenty of good cuttings that root 

 easily. When lifted and planted in- 

 doors it was ready for business long 

 before Mrs. Ward, White Perfection 

 and some others decided whether they 

 wanted to move or not. The stem is 

 very stiff and of good length, the 

 flower larger than either Gloriosa or 

 Pink Delight, deeply serrated, center 

 well filled and of unusual depth. In 



color it is perfectly clear and very 

 nearly a Lawson shade, having none 

 of the streaks or faded edges some- 

 times found in Mrs. Ward. My com- 

 mission man pronounces it a very de- 

 sirable shade and an excellent keeper. 

 One year's trial is not suflicient to 

 determine the merits of a variety un- 

 less it shows characteristics so bad 

 and so universal that the condemna- 

 tion is general, as quite frequently, in- 

 deed too frequently occurs. 



Any variety showing many good 

 points and a few detects, is worthy of 

 care and further trial, as something in 

 our treatment individually may accen- 

 tuate the good points and minimize 

 the bad, so that in the end we are the 

 gainers. Even though we unfortunate- 

 ly are handed many gold bricks, I feel 

 that it pays to try at least a few of the 

 new ones as introduced, but not so few 

 that they do not seem worthy of your 

 care. Then do not throw them out 

 until you are sure there is no money 

 in them for you, or that they are not 

 better than the variety they are in- 

 tended to replace. 



This constant adding and discarding 

 of new varieties is expensive but if 

 you do not do it you will soon, very 

 soon, be comparing the market reports 

 in the trade journals with the returns 

 from your commission firm, with the 

 result that you will decide that the re- 

 porter for the trade journals should be 

 in Teddy's Annanias Club or the com- 

 mission merchant in jail, while the 

 cause usually is to be attributed to 

 your own lack of business acumen in 

 keeping up with these progressive 

 times. 



Some years back we experienced 

 something like this. Mrs. Lawson 

 was given a trial in a small way and 

 in a careless manner, with the result 

 that we discarded it the first season as 

 no good, and you all know that we did 

 not know anything at that time when 

 we said Mrs. Lawson was no good, 

 and that we lost good money by our 

 hasty action. Later on when everybody 

 was doing it, well, we bought stock 

 again, but we lost several seasons 

 when the flowers were bringing big 

 money. 



A present-day parallel is Gloriosa, 

 about the grandest we have had up to 

 the present time.- I have made many 

 inquiries regarding this variety and 

 have had a great variety of replies, 

 never realizing before how ipany peo- 

 ple are affected by various (Jegiees of 

 indecision. Several are propagating 

 and buying all they can get of it; oth- 

 ers say frankly they are going to dis- 

 card it, while others are up in the air 

 and don't know yet what they want 

 to do. 



The chief objections to this variety 

 are its lack of desire to reproduce it- 

 self by a cutting and its lack of growth 

 in the field. These faults should not 

 deter us from experimenting until we 

 overcome them. This tendency to run 

 to a flowering shoot in a short space of 

 time can be partly overcome by top- 

 ping iiart of the shoots when bringing 

 them in from the field. If we can get 

 thp results Mr. Brinton has we would 

 certainly be foolish to discard it. 



