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HORTICULTURE 



February 15, 1908 



horticulture: 



VOL. VII F EBRUARY IS, 1908 NO. 7 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 11 Hamilton Place, Boston* Mass. 



Telephone, Oxford 292 

 WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager 



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CONTENTS ~ 



Page 



FRONTISPIECE— Primula acaulis. 



THE MECHANICAL FINENESS OF FERTILIZERS 

 —Dudley M. Pray 197 



FERTILIZING AND SELECTING OF CYCLAMEN 

 —Win. McM. Brown 197 



THE HYDRANGEA QUESTION SETTLEOJ— Prof. 

 C. S. Sargeut 198 



THE PERENNIAL BORDER AS A RECREATION 

 — Frederic J. Rea 198 



THE IDEAL HORTICULTURIST— Edgar Elvin 199 



AFTER ADJOURNMENT 201 



PRIMULA ACAULIS 201 



LIBRARY NOTES— C. Harman Payne 201 



NEWS OF THE CLUBS AND SOCIETIES; 



New Jersey Floricultural Society — Gardeners' 

 and Florists' Club of Boston — Pittsburg Flor- 

 ists' and Gardeners' Club — Nassau County Hor- 

 ticultural Society — New Bedford Horticultural 



Society 202 



New York Florists' Club — Chicago Florists' 

 Club— Toledo Florists' Club — Florists' Club of 

 Washington — Newport Horticultural Society — 

 Huntington Horticultural and Gardeners' So- 

 ciety 203 



Washington State Horticultural Association — 

 Society of American Florists — Pasadena Gar- 

 deners' Association 208 



Club and Society Notes 209 



American Rose Society 220 



EXPERIMENTS IN CARNATION GROWING— Dr. 

 B. T. Galloway— Illustrated 204 



SEED TRADE 206 



INDOOR CULTURE OF CARNATIONS— E. A. 

 Harvev 210 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Buffalo, Chicago. Indianapolis, New 

 York. Philadelphia 213 



OBITUARY— J. B. Heiss. Portrait— Wm. J. Allan— 

 N. R. Coolt- Other Deaths 221 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Catalogues Received 206 



Plant Imports 207 



Personal 209 



Philadelphia Notes 213 



News Notes 220-221 



Fire Record; Incorporated; Business Changes. . 213 

 Greenhouses Building; List of Patents 222 



Our congratulations to E. G. Hill on 

 The passing of the outcome of the Hydrangea contro- 

 "sterilis" versv. Also to the S. A. P. registra-^ 

 tion department in its vindication. 

 All parties who now wish to persist in cataloguing 

 "sterilis" will undoubtedly be given free scope in their 

 endeavors, whilst their allies, the "hindsisrht" critics, 

 ponder on the dangers of a little learning and the 

 anonymous scribbler silently steals away. 



The American Rose Society, through its 

 A proposed energetic secretary Benjamin Ham- 

 rose bulletin mond, announces its ptirpose to issue a 

 quarterly publication to be called The 

 T?ose .Journal. Tliis is in accord with views expressed 



by several active members of the Society at the annual 



iiicctiiig ill Washington last year. We can see no rea- 

 son why jL should not, with good management, succeed. 

 Tiie membership of the Society is small, so far, but the 

 couutry boasts many thousands of devotees of the rose 

 — and their number is rapidly increasing' — who, if they 

 can l)c reached and I'oundcd up. wilL be glad to support 

 a publication giving acceptable and timely news about 

 the (jueen of flowers and will thus furnish a batiS' for 

 the support of advertisers without whose support the 

 pi'oject could not be made self-sustaining. We shall 

 be glad to see the plan successfully put in operation. 

 'I'bc influence of such publications is always on the 

 j'iglit side for tlie advancement of horticulture and the 

 benefit of the horticulturist. We congratulate the ex- 

 ecutive committee of the Rose Society on their courage 

 and extend our heartiest good wishes for the success of 

 the enterprise. 



Our attention has been called from time 

 Vicissitudes to time during the present season, to 

 of the violet occasional articles in tlie daily papers 

 from various places, in which the violet 

 is spoken of as no longer fashionable or popular. It is 

 unfortunate for the violet that at a time when it is 

 produced in perfection and in greater profusion than 

 ever before it should be discredited in this manner. 

 While it is. not true of all yet it is true of a great many 

 people that they are influenced largely by what they 

 road in the daily papers and undoubtedly the sale of 

 violets is affected to a greater or less extent by the 

 articles referred to, the origin of which may often be 

 traced to the unwise remark of some local florist, made 

 to gain some momentary object without tliought of the 

 widespread injury inflicted on the trade in general in 

 which he himself must indirectly share. To advance 

 the interests of the rose, carnation, orchid, violet or 

 other flower in the sale of which one may be specially 

 concerned it is not necessary to disparage the others. 

 If any flower is doomed to lose caste with the public let 

 it not be said tliat the florist trade bears any of the 

 responsibility. 



For many years those growers who by 

 An inevitable reason of soil or other local advan- 

 result tages found themselves able to pro- 

 duce viojets of a superior quality were 

 in a position to dictate market prices and they did it, 

 as anybody else would have done under the same cir- 

 cumstances. The enormous increase in production 

 which followed, year after year, was the natural result. 

 It was also natural and inevitable that the limit would 

 be reached some time and it took no great prescience to 

 see that in the order of things the day would come 

 when in the great flower communities the exclusive 

 special violet would make its appearance on the curb- 

 stone stand and to realize that, thenceforth, price con- 

 trol would shift from grower to consumer and that old 

 conditions could never be brought back. How much of 

 the reported indifference or actual antipathy to the vio- 

 let in certain fashionable circles is due to the abundance 

 and consequent commonness of the flower we shall not 

 attempt to say but tmquestionably this factor must be 

 taken into account. Further, the well-known practices 

 of the curbstone pedlers in doctoring up stale stock 

 ^YJth. perfumery is an offense which must react to the 

 detriment of the violet industry. The truth is that the 

 violet has been overburdened and abused. As to its 

 future — well, only the growers know whether it is still 

 a profitable proposition on the basis of this season's 

 returns. 



