September 5, 190S 



HORTICULTURE 



319 



THE VALUE OF STATE FLORIST 



ASSOCIATIONS. 



Heart before the Society of American Flor- 

 ists by Albert T. Hi y. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

 I have been called upon to talk to 

 you this morning on State Florist As- 

 sociations, their value and the rela- 

 tion they should bear to the Society 

 of American Florists. I believe the 

 best interest of this great society can 

 be better accomplished and more fully 

 developed by systematizing its work 

 and the greatest good to the largest 

 number can be secured through State 

 Societies that can individually take 

 up the work and develop what is most 

 suitable for their localities. 



To give you an idea what these So- 

 cieties can do I will give you a brief 

 review of the work accomplished by 

 the Illinois State Florist Association. 

 After a year of preliminary work 

 the present organization was formed 

 and elected Mr. J. F. Ammann of Ed- 

 wardsville, 111., its first President. 

 From that time the work was care- 

 fully planned and the first important 

 step undertaken was to secure a defi- 

 nite and separate department for 

 floriculture at our Illinois Experimen- 

 tal Station, believing this would bring 

 further benefits in its train. 



The next question was to raise 

 funds to carry out the work. The 

 Executive Committee set to work, a 

 bill was framed and presented to the 

 Illinois Legislature, becoming a law 

 and giving us $15,000 for the purpose 

 stated. The bill provides for an Ad- 

 visory Board appointed by the Presi- 

 dent of the Society, consisting of five 

 members of the Association with the 

 Dean of the College as chairman, 

 whose duty it is to advise and consult 

 with the University Officials what shall 

 be done at the Station, and the results 

 so far obtained show that they have 

 attended strictly to their business. 



The Experimental Station is located 

 at Urbana in connection with the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois. The plans and 

 specifications which appeared in the 

 trade papers you probably are ac- 

 quainted with. The houses will be 

 planted with carnations this season 

 and the work will be chiefly in fertil- 

 izers under the direction of Prof. H. B. 

 Dorner, son of the veteran carnation 

 grower of Lafayette, Ind., who has 

 been placed in charge of the Experi- 

 mental Station, with capable assist- 

 ance. 



When the officers of the College saw 

 what our work meant and the amount 

 of practical good it was going to do, 

 they became enthusiastic and in ad- 

 dition to our appropriation from the 

 Legislature donated to the cause out 

 of the College funds the magnificent 

 sum of $7,000, making a total of $22,- 

 000, to help carry on the good work, 

 for which I assure you our Association 

 was highly pleased. In addition to 

 this they attended the services of the 

 Entomological department and . sent 

 out one of their men to take up the 

 thrips question, which has been doing 

 an immense amount of damage in the 

 rose-growing district, and have since 

 detailed him on special work study- 

 ing insect life and giving instructions 

 in the different ways of fumigation, 

 etc. At an early date a bulletin will 

 be issued which will be of value to all. 



Our first year's experimental work 

 was done in greenhouses rented from 

 Washburn Bros., in Bloomington, 111., 

 by Prof. Beal. This was mostly in 

 the testing of the different commer- 

 cial insecticides and when this bul- 

 letin is issued it may be a surprise in 

 the varying analysis in these prepara- 

 tions tested. 



We expect soon to see a course in 

 floriculture established at the Univer- 

 sity covering soil analysis, a study in 

 insect life and a practical training in 

 greenhouse construction and heating, 

 making a school which we have long 

 dreamed of for our boys. 



Now there are other important 

 things that a State Society can do. 

 Nearly every state has a State Fair 

 and did you ever realize or stop t<> 

 think that you can reach the masses 

 quicker at a state fair than at a flower 

 show. We took up this idea and 

 thought it out in thiswise. The peo- 

 ple who go to a flower show are as a 

 rule flower-lovers and generally know 

 just about what they are going to see. 

 but the every-day, ordinary people do 

 not go to these flower shows, but will 

 go to their state fair. 



Now nearly every state fair has a 

 floriculture department and there are 

 hundreds of people who never visit a 

 greenhouse or even see one and never 

 have flowers in their home or garden. 

 They see these flower and plant dis- 

 plays and it creates a desire to have 

 some in their home, which sentiment 

 may have lain dormant forever if they 

 had not visited the State Fair. 



In a great many of the state fairs 

 this department is looked upon as one 

 of the side lights and whose fault is 

 it but our own? Our State Society 

 took this up, went before the State 

 Board of Agriculture with our statis- 

 tics, showed them the importance of 

 our trade, impressed upon them the 

 idea of cultivating the beautiful and 

 elevating the taste of the people. This 

 was hard work to get it through the 

 heads of our farmer friends. Farm 

 crops and cattle they understood, but 

 did not realize that flowers cost money 

 to grow and when the exhibition was 

 over it was a dead loss to the ex- 

 hibitor, but if some ordinary hog went 

 in and came out with a blue ribbon he 

 was worth so much more, but the 

 flowers, why, of course, they did not 

 amount to anything. 



We finally gained our point and se- 

 cured $1,000 to the Illinois State Fair 

 in premiums, also revised the list and 

 gained an important recognition in 

 the appointment of a practical florist 

 as assistant superintendent of the 

 floriculture department. Through the 

 efforts of this Society the premium 

 list stands on equal basis with any of 

 our great shows. This is one of the 

 things that a State Society can do. 

 This is not work for our Society of 

 American Florists to do and this is 

 where I make one of my strong 

 points. 



The Society of American Florists 

 has done its share of pioneer work, 

 but there are some things it can still 

 do. For instance our State Vice-Presi- 

 dents can. in addition to what they 

 are doing, get in closer touch with 

 their Experimental Stations, take 

 more interest in their State and Coun- 

 ty Fairs, visit the board of agricul- 

 ture and get in touch with appropria- 

 tion committees of the different State 

 Legislatures. 



rade has not taken advantage 

 of these things. Our agricultural 

 friends have and the results are shown 

 bj ihe many experimental stations 

 devoted to their use. We have no 

 one to blame but ourselves. The 

 t of capital invested in our busi- 

 ness demands that we should have 

 recognition and if we organize and 

 go after it like the Illinois State Flor- 

 ist A ociation did you can get it. 



ry city should have a Florist 

 Club and every State a State Society 

 and these societies become as feeders, 

 from which the National Society can 

 draw iis membership and with this 

 near relationship a far greater work 

 can be accomplished. 



It has been said that we have too 

 many societies, the Carnation, Rose, 

 Paeonia and Chrysanthemum Socie- 

 ties, which has a tendency to divert 

 the interest from the parent Society. 

 1 say no. The very strength of the 

 tree lies in its fibrous roots, without 

 these the Society could not accomplish 

 its work and stand at the top. Let it 

 continue to be the advisor and coun- 

 sellor of these Societies. 



You know already, as I know, what 

 good these Associations have done 

 and we could not have done the work 

 which has been accomplished in these 

 special lines without the aid of these 

 Societies. 



Now a State Society can get nearer 

 to its home members, awaken their 

 interest in the work locally. You take 

 up the school gardens and the "City 

 Beautiful idea," which is one of the 

 greatest modern ideas that the florists 

 can take up and push with a good 

 credit to themselves and benefit to 

 their neighbors. This idea was taken 

 up in the City of Springfield and with 

 the assistance of the State Society 

 was made a great success and if time 

 permitted I would like to tell you 

 about it for the "City Beautiful" idea 

 aside from its moral and uplifting ten- 

 dencies is one of the greatest adver- 

 tisements the craft could have. Get 

 the masses interested, start with the 

 children and the rest will come. 



There is also another feature, an im- 

 portant one and that is statistics of 

 our business. This was thoroughly 

 discussed by our State Association 

 and through this we have been able 

 to get in connection with the Census 

 Bureau and with the aid of our So- 

 ciety of American Florists we think 

 we can, and will have a better census 

 of our business than ever. 



When you go before a legislature 

 and ask for an appropriation they 

 want to know who and what you are 

 and we found that this was a very 

 important feature, to know just how 

 we stood and what better way of get- 

 ting it than each State take up this 

 work. 



Now you may ask. what relation do 

 we bear to our Society of American 

 Florists. I answer that in this 

 way. The same relationship as the 

 State bears to the National Govern- 

 ment, each working out its own prob- 

 lems, all for the common good and I 

 believe it should be the policy of this 

 society to foster and aid any state 

 that will take up this work. We can 

 make this Society stronger in member- 

 ship and far reaching in the good 

 work it can do, continuing its Commit- 

 in National affairs, such as ex- 

 - rates, statistics, postal laws, and 

 like broad questions. 



