270 



HORTICULTURE. 



August 21, 1909 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS AND 

 ORNAMENTAL HORTICULTURISTS 



Return to Cincinnati for the Twenty-Fifth Convention — Extensive 



and Varied Trade Exhibits 



Rochester, N* Y,, the Next Meeting Place 



Officers Elected 



PRESIDENT— F. R. PIERSON, Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson, N. Y. 

 VICE-PRESIDENT— F. W. VICK, Rochester, N. Y. 

 SECRETARY— H. B. DORNER, Urbana, Ml. 

 TREASURER— H. B. BEATTY, Pittsburg, Pa. 



The twenty-fifth, convention proceed- 

 ings opened according to program with 

 an organ concert in Odeon Hall, at 

 1.30 p. m., Tuesday. President Valen- 

 tine then read his add-'ess, there be- 

 ing on the platform Bx-Presidents 

 Hill, Graham, Smith, OMara. Burton, 

 Stewart and Traendly, and the present 

 officers of the society, 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



I talte great pleasure in addressing 

 you at this twenty-fifth meeting of the 

 society and I am able to assure you 

 that the past year has shown an in- 

 crease in membership and that our 

 financial condition is also stronger 

 than a year ago. 



Societies, lil^e human beings, suffer 

 the greatest mortality in infancy, so 

 that on its twenty-fifth birthday; this 

 society may be congratulated on hav- 

 ing passed its period of greatest peril 

 and to be reasonably certain of reach- 

 ing a good old age. 



But, fullness of years is not neces- 

 sarily' an evidence of usefulness and 

 we must talie care that youthful com- 

 placency does not malce us forget that 

 we have the only charter ever granted 

 to a similar organization by these 

 United States and that such distinc- 

 tion carries with it unusual responsi- 

 bilities. We should, therefore, take 

 heed to our conduct so that the work 

 intrusted to us by Congress shall be 

 well and faithfully performed on the 

 broad lines contemplated by our char- 

 ter. The next twenty-five years must 

 show a record of work accomplished 

 upon ever broadening lines if we are 

 to uphold the traditions of the old 

 guard who started this work a quarter 

 ofi a century ago. I had hoped that 

 ■we would at this meeting have the en- 

 couragement and the prophetic voice 

 of our first President but instead we 

 are called upon to pay tribute to his 

 memory. I shall leave to others better 

 equipped the task of doing honor to 

 those we have lost, but if this society 

 can become imbued with the enthu- 

 siasm and the optimism of John 

 Thorpe, no work can be too great for 

 It to undertake with reasonable hope 

 of success. If a knowledge of the 

 things done here can penetrate to the 



Great Beyond the thought that his ef- 

 forts were bearing fruit in a wider use- 

 fulness for this society would bring 

 great happiness to the soul of that re- 

 mai'kable man. 



Membership. 



A few members of this society have 

 been continuously faithful to it since 

 its organization and have never failed 

 ■ to send their dues to the Secretary. 

 It seems eminently fitting that some 

 special recognition should be made of 

 their many years of loyal support and 

 I suggest that their names be can'ied 

 in the annual report during their lives 

 under the heading of "Pioneers" and 

 that no further annual dues shall be 

 collected from them. 



The present membership of our so- 

 ciety does not include more than ten 

 per cent of the commercial men who 

 are owners and operators of some kind 

 .of a floral establishment and this indi- 

 cates that something has been wrong 

 somewhere. We have either not fol- 

 lowed the right method in canvassing 

 for new members or the conduct of 

 the society has not been such as to 

 interest outsiders and bring them into 

 the fold. 



Our membership is especially weak 

 among the retail florists and we have 

 lew members in the South or on the 

 Pacific Coast. It is well worth while 

 to consider whether there is not some 

 more effectual way of canvassing for 

 new members in those states and we 

 should try to devise some means of 

 interesting the owners of retail flower 

 stores so that they will find something 

 in our society and at our conventions 

 of especial interest and benefit to them. 

 There are thousands of these re- 

 tailers in th'e country and their most 

 crying need at present is some form 

 of organization whereby they can, with 

 confidence, exchange orders by mail or 

 telegraph. If some such organization 

 could be effected confining its member- 

 ship to the members of this society I 

 believe the retailers would flock to our 

 standard in large numbers. 



Convention Work Divided Into Sec- 

 tions. 

 The members of this society are en- 

 gaged in so many different lines of 



work that it is hard to arrange a pro- 

 gram which will hold the interest of 

 a large pi-oportion of its members. 

 We claim to hold the door open for 

 the admission of all persons interested 

 in horticulture and to manufacturers 

 of and dealers in horticultural sup- 

 plies, but having come in through our 

 open door many fail to find anything 

 of personal interest within our home 

 and so allow their membership to 

 lapse. The manufacturer or the dealer 

 may join and attend as a matter of 

 policy but he cannot be expected to 

 take any great pereonal interest in the 

 life history of Aphis or in the Men- 

 delian Theory: nor can the man who 

 devotes his whole place to growing cut 

 flowers be presumed to take a keen 

 interest in landscape gardening. 



While our membership is very much 

 smaller than it ought to be, and than 

 we hope it will be, it is now large 

 enough so that the work of the con- 

 vention could be successfully divided 

 into sections, as is done in many so- 

 cieties. One section might take up 

 matters of interest to all importers of 

 bulbs and plants, another section, as I 

 have already indicated, might profit- 

 ably be devoted to the Interests of the 

 retailers. 



We might have a section devoted to 

 the interests of the private garden'ers 

 and ornamental horticulturists and so 

 justify that portion of our name. If 

 the organizing and conducting of such 

 a section should prove to be of in- 

 terest to any considerable number of 

 private gard'eners and park men, we 

 would get an accession of valuable 

 members from a direction where we 

 have heretofore awakened but little in- 

 terest. 



In pursuance of such a policy, sec- 

 tion programs would be prepared of 

 especial interest to those engaged in 

 some particular branch of work. 

 These different sections would hold 

 their meetings in different rooms and 

 no one would be oblig'ed to listen to a 

 class of papers that did not interest 

 him, neither would an interesting dis- 

 cussion have to be abridged to prevent 

 its taking the time set down on the 

 program for a topic of a different 

 nature. 



A number of the members of this 



