278 



HORTICULTURE: 



August 21, 1909 



convention — F. R. Pierson, 

 Weathered and W. J. Stewart. 



A CORRECTION. 



In our issue of last weelc an error 

 crept into the inscription under the 

 portrait of John Thorpe. It was in the 

 last form and was not discovered until 

 several hundred sheets had beeUf run 

 off and sent to the bindery. If any of 

 our subscribers received the incorrect 

 edition we shall be glad to supply 

 them with the revised one on request. 



THE CINCINNATI SOUVENIR. 



Chairman Carmichael of the Conven- 

 tion Souvenir committee is entitled to 

 the sincerest congratulation upon the 

 eminent artistic and business ability 

 displayed in the fine volume turned 

 out. His cleverness in 'touching" the 

 advertising fraternity in the trade so 

 effectively is not among the least of 

 his triumphs. 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY 



At the meeting on August 3 the fol- 

 lowing notable orchids were exhibited: 

 F. Sander & Sons, St. Albans, showed 

 a small group of plants, among which 

 I remarked Maxillaria venusta magni- 

 fica, an almost pure white flower of 

 large size and nodding in pose like the 

 type; Cypripedium Martin Cahuzac- 

 C. lo grande Charlesworthi, a flower 

 with a white pouch, dorsal sepal of a 

 rosy purple tint having darker lines 

 and tessalation; Laelio-Cattleya An- 

 tigone with a rich purple lip, and sepals 

 and petals of a lighter tint, and three- 

 quarters of an inch in breadth where 

 widest; Dendrobium Sanderae, pure 

 white in all parts of the flower except- 

 ing the lip, which possesses five purple 

 lines — a first-class certificate. Very 

 beautiful was a flowering plant of 

 Vanda coerulea var. Rex. Messrs. 

 Stuart, Low & Co., Enfield, obtained a 

 botanical certificate for Eria Armen- 

 iaca, having flowers of a light buff 

 color, produced terminally on a stout, 

 erect stock. The firm likewise showed 

 several singular-looking Masdevallias, 

 Bulbophyllums and Oncidium aborti- 

 vum. Sir J. Colraan showed a plant of 

 Sobralia Colmanii, the flowers of which 

 resemble in color those of Alamanda 

 Schotti. A plant of Phains parviflorus, 

 with small white pendant flowers ob- 

 tained a botanical certificate. 



F. M. 



NEW BEDFORD NOTES. 



R. E. Nofftz has been sick, but is 

 now about again. 



Mann Bros, of Randolph were visi- 

 tors of E. H. Chaniberlain on Au- 

 gust 15. 



George Borden of R. H. Woodhouse, 

 is taking his vacation in New Hamp- 

 shire for the rest of the month. 



Peter Murray of Fairhaven is put- 

 ting up a forcing house, 22x125 ft, and 

 also a cold storage house, 25x50 ft. for 

 bay trees, hydrangeas and bulbs. 



Napoleon Lemay has planted his vio- 

 lets in one houi=e, and will plant his 

 whole place of 20.000 square ft. of glass 



THE SCIENCE OUTLOOK. 



(Abstract of aa Address before the Amerl 



cm Association of Nurserymen by Dr. 



I, H. Bailey, Ithaca, N. Y.) 



I have no "practical" message to 

 bring to this body of nurserymen to- 

 day. I desire rather to speak of an 

 attitude of mind and an outlook on the 

 world which applies to the regulation 

 not only of the daily life of every one 

 of us but also to our business organ- 

 izations and procedure. There is per- 

 haps a special reason for speaking on 

 the science outlook to a body of nur- 

 serymen because the nursery business 

 is founded directly on a basis of sci- 

 ence; by which I mean to say that the 

 products that the nurserymen raises 

 are secured by the application of sci- 

 entific methods to the soil and by 

 rational procedure in tbe propagating, 

 breeding and handling of plants. The 

 ntirsery business has taken on a whol- 

 ly new character during the past twen- 

 ty years, consequent on the applica- 

 tion of the results secured by investi- 

 gators in soil fertility, entomology, 

 plant pathology and a dozen other de- 

 partments of science. The old hap- 

 hazard methods have largely disaii- 

 peared and the mere rule of thumb 

 that is not founded on reason is ranid- 

 ly passing away. I am encouraged to 

 take up a discussion of this nature be- 

 cause yoti nurserymen come together 

 on the basis of a scientific program 

 rather than solely to do business or to 

 provide yourselves with recreation. 



This year marks the celebration of 

 the centenaries of a number of re- 

 markable men. Amongst others, it 

 has celebrated the one hundredth an- 

 niversaries of the birth of Charles 

 Parwin and Abraham Lincoln. Per- 

 haps no two men within the past cen- 

 tury have more exactly typified the 

 character of our unfolding civilization 

 than these two. We may be said to be 

 living in a Darwin epoch in the same 

 sense that we are asking for evidence 

 and taking nothing for granted which 

 is not fotinded on reason and fact; and 

 In a Lincoln epoch in the sense that 

 we care less for the mere forms of 

 argument and of procedure than for 

 the justice of the final results. 



We are living in a time when it is 

 considered to be right for a man to 

 inquire, to see Tor himself, and to 

 draw his own conclusions; for there 

 are many things to find out and the 

 hi'nian mind is inquisitive. 



We are living in the epoch of evi- 

 dence. News-gathering and gossiping 

 aside, do not depend on hearsay, nor 

 on opinion, but on the fact and the 

 reasons. We want proof. We are 

 asVing what truth is. and then we are 

 not assuming that it is this or that, 

 but are demanding the fact rather than 

 a statement of the authority of any 

 man. 



We are living in a time when we 

 are not afraid of our own conclusions. 

 Men have been under bondage to 

 other men from the first. They have 

 been under bondage to the king or 

 ruler, to the priest, to the capitalist, 

 to the politician, and to current public 

 opinion. Gradually we are passing 

 out of our bonds and becoming free. 

 We now enjoy physical freedom; but 

 relatively few persons In the world 

 are really free to think as they will 

 or to draw their own conclusions. 



to violets and sweet peas tor the com- ijwhile they may not know it, very few 



Dig .'season. 



Ppersons really want to know the 



truth. Very few, relative to the whole 

 number, have open minds. 



Our conclusions should follow natur- 

 ally as a result of a line of work; and 

 it matters not whether anybody is 

 pleased with them or not. An honest 

 man can withhold nothing in the 

 search for truth, nor color his opinions 

 for any persons or for any benefit to 

 himself, or detract anything except on 

 new evidence. When he arrives at a 

 conclusion, he speaks; and when he 

 speaks, he stands. 



That is, we are beginning to think 

 as individuals, and not as masses. 



We are living in a time of integrity 

 of thought. By this I mean that we 

 follow our thought out to its logical 

 end, and that we do not in any way 

 modify or shade our opinions in order 

 to meet anybody's preconceived no- 

 tions or to fit our ideas into the frame 

 of thought of our time. It is the in- 

 tention of the investigator to know no 

 other criterion than truth. If fame 

 attracts him to modify his opinions, he 

 is not a scientific man. If he modi- 

 fies or understates or overstates his 

 conclusions because he is afraid of 

 them, or because he desires to win 

 favor anywhere or with anybody, then 

 he does not have a really scientific 

 mind and does not have integrity of 

 thought. He does not go where the 

 truth leads him. Darwin wrote well 

 toward the end of his life, "I am sure 

 that I have iiever turned one inch out 

 of my course to gain fame." 



Now, if this spirit were to guide all 

 men it would revolutionize all our busi- 

 ness; for a large part of the business 

 of the world is essentially morally un- 

 honest, even though it may conform 

 itself perfectly to the statutory law. 

 It would also revolutionize our poli- 

 tics, for it would take out of political 

 operation the element oif expediency 

 and compromise which now dominates 

 It 



There is just as much need that we 

 develop politics and government on a 

 scientific method as that we develop 

 chemistry, or botany, or physiology on 

 that method. It is first necessary ac- 

 tually to study the conditions and de- 

 termine what are the real facts; then 

 on these facts to establish a construc- 

 tive procedure and to let the whole 

 question of favor and of patronage be 

 forgotten. Government by patronage 

 and by influence is a phase of an un- 

 developed society. Only as we found 

 government on evidence and develop 

 it in the scientific spirit can we ex- 

 pect to have really good government, 

 or to make the best progress in civili- 

 zation. 



There is a peculiar disagreement of 

 method in the work of many men as 

 between their week-day attitude tow- 

 ard the world and their Sunday atti- 

 tude. I see this in persons who are 

 giving their lives to scientific investi- 

 gation. They may be good scientists 

 In their laboratories, in the sense that 

 they search for fact and are exceed- 

 ingly cautious not to express even an 

 opinion that is not founded on evi- 

 dence, and yet when they are out of 

 their laboratories they accept the most' 

 Impossible reactionary dogmas and the- 

 ories which have no foundation, so 

 far as we can discover, in either fact 

 or reason. I always distrust the 

 science of such men; or at all events, 

 a presumption is raised in my mind 

 as to whether a man who does not 

 have complete integrity of thought on 



