442 



HORTICULTURE 



October 3, 1908 



horticulture: 



TOL. VIII 



OCTOBER 3, 1908 



NO. 14 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE. PUBLISHING CO. 

 11 Hamilton Place, Boston, Mass. 



Telephone, Oxford 293 

 WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager 



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Entered as second-dass matter December 8, 1904, at the Post Office at Boston, Mass. 

 under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1S70. 



CONTENTS 



Pag 



COVER ILLUSTRATION'— Pine Bank. Olmsted Park 

 GROWING THE FERN BALL— Luke J. Doogue— Il- 

 lustrated 441 



PINE BANK. OLMSTED PARK, BOSTON 441 



HORTICULTURE AT THE FRANCO-BRITISH EX- 

 HIBITION— C. Harman Payne 443 



NEWS OF THE CLUBS AND SOCIETIES: 



Society of American Florists — Gardeners' and 

 Florists' Club of Baltimore City — Connecticut 

 Horticultural Society — Lenox Horticultural Soci- 

 ety — Columbus Florists' Club — Huntington Horti- 

 cultural and Agricultural Society — American In- 

 stitute Dahlia Show 444 



London Dahlia Union — Mineola Fair — The Vin- 

 cent Festival — International Exhibition of the 



East of France — Club and Society Notes 445 



CYCAS CULTURE IN BERMUDA— Illustrated 446 



OBITUARY— James W. Paul, Jr.— Mrs. Cochran 447 



STANDARD POTS IN RELATION TO CHEMICAL 



FERTILIZERS— Dudlev M. Pray 448 



CONSERVATORY AT GARFIELD PARK, Chicago- 

 Illustrated 450 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION— Walter L. Jagger.. 450 



SEED TRADE 452 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit. New York, 



Philadelphia, Washington. Twin Cities 457 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Coming Events 446 



School Exhibitions 446 



Lawrence Cotter Gets a "Send Off" 446 



Field Notes 446 



Sweet Pea Classification 447 



Silene Laciniata 447 



Telekia Cordifolia 448 



"Wireless" from Westerly, R. 1 448 



Decisions of the Board of General Appraisers... 449 



Gentiana Acaulis 449 



Seeding Begonia Gloire de Lorraine 449 



Beautiful Flowers and How to Grow Them 44;< 



Catalogues Received 452 



Publications Received 452 



Plant Imports 453 



Incorporated 453 



Business Changes 454 



Steamer Departures 454 



Personal 455 



New Retail Flower Stores 455 



News Notes 455 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 466 



Where Prosperity Thrives 466 



Patents Granted 466 



New Heating Apparatus 466 



A couple of years ago there 

 A possible were shown at one of the ex- 



opening for the dahlia hibitions of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society some 

 pretty little cactus dahlias grown from cuttings in three 

 and four-inch pots, in bloom in November. They were 



The 

 revolution in 

 the cut flower business 



iid were produced with little ex- 

 pense and dbition at that season suggested pos- 



sibilities for Christmas which, Grange to say, growers of 

 bolidaj specialties seem not to have taken note of. Some 

 11I' the single-flowered varieties should make splendid 

 1- Eor this culture, with their vivid scarlet, crim- 

 ;• parti-colored flowers. Doubts have been ex- 

 • 1 as to the possibility of producing well-flowered 

 pot grow 11 dahlias in the short dark days of December 

 but many things are done today which, not so very long 

 ago, would have been declared impracticable and it is 

 hardly in keeping with the progressive spirit of present- 

 day floriculture to assert that the dahlia cannot be con- 

 quered. I ibilities in sight surely warrant the 

 effort. 



Developments from year to 

 year all tend to the un- 

 willing conviction that the 

 days of the small grower as 

 a factor in the cut flower 

 business are about numbered. The advent of the capi- 

 ialist, either directly as proprietor or in the capacity of 

 financial backer for the individual or corporation en- 

 gaged in commercial flower production, has made a rad- 

 ical change in aspect and conditions and the big rose 

 and carnation factories, with their advantages of inde- 

 structible construction, stupendous heating systems, 

 watering and feeding apparatus, division of labor and 

 grading of products, have already so affected the mar- 

 kets that the standard of value in much of the staple 

 product has declined from time to time until it is now 

 but a fraction of what the old-time grower regarded as 

 his just due, while the standard of quality for which an 

 appreciative regular demand may be found has ad- 

 vanced steadily. It seems to us that one of the most 

 deplorable results due to the changed conditions is the 

 eagerness of the experienced grower to accept employ- 

 ment at wages so low as to be out of all proportion to 

 the responsibility assumed and the ability called for in 

 the management of a large establishment. It is safe to 

 say that in no other manufacturing industry is executive 

 efficiency and technical knowledge, in a superintendent 

 or manager so poorly paid, everything considered. 



The recent exhibition of the Xew Eng- 



Of interest l an a Dahlia Society in Tremont Tem- 



to Bostonians p] e> Boston, apart from the general 



question of excellence as exhibitions go, 

 was the object of deep interest to many, owing to the 

 fact that in its prospectus much had been made of its 

 being located in the densely thronged down-town shop- 

 ping neighborhood which the Massachusetts Horticul- 

 tural Society had abandoned when it removed a few 

 years ago to the Back Bay section of the city. Tremont 

 street in the vicinity of Tremont Temple is one of the 

 most crowded thoroughfares in this country and here 

 surely was an excellent opportunity to test the attitude 

 of the great sidewalk public generally towards flower 

 shows and to form an opinion specifically as to the wis- 

 dom of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in mov- 

 ing away. The result left no room for doubt. Just as 

 in bygone days they bad passed, unheeded, the bulletins 

 at the portals of old Horticultural Hall announcing 

 the "grand"'* free flower shows, so now the crowd surged 

 by, regardless, all day long, and the fact that 30,000 

 dahlias, more or less, might be inspected at will for a 

 trifling admission fee concerned them not. Our views, 

 often expressed, as to where the key to popular support 

 for flower shows may be found, whether they be sound 

 or not, are doubtless well-known to our readers and we 



