652 



HOKTICULTURE 



November 8, 1913 



CHRYSANTHEMUM SOCIETY OF 



AMERICA. 



President C. H. Totty's address at the 

 meeting in CUicago, Novemljer 5, 1913. 



Fellow Members o£ the Chrysanthe- 

 mum Society of America: 



We are once more assembled to 

 do homage to our favorite flower, the 

 chrysantuemum, and in the name of 

 the Society I bid you welcome! 



Just how far we have progressed 

 since a year ago, I must leave the ex- 

 hibition to say. The weather all along 

 the eastern seaboard has been so 

 wretched that many of our very finest 

 flowers never reached maturity. Our 

 brethren in the Central States are not 

 bothered, I understand, by the night 

 fogs They have cause to thank a dis- 

 criminating Providence for sparing 

 them this particular misfortune, al- 

 though perhaps they have other trou- 

 bles which cottnterbalance it. 



I think I may safely say that in my 

 eighteen years of chrysanthemum 

 growing in New Jersey, we have" never 

 had such a season as this, with tem- 

 perature running as high as 75 at 

 night and a heavy fog that rolls up 

 and causes the foliage and flowers to 

 simply reek with moisture. As a rule, 

 damping is confined to flowers that 

 have been heavily fed mo'e or less, 

 but this year for the first time in my 

 experience that I saw flowers which 

 had never been fed at all. damp off 

 almost as badly as flowers that had 

 been overfed. 



It is, indeed, depressing to the 

 grower of fancy stock to see his labors 

 for the past six or seven months wiped 

 out in a night, but this apparently is 

 one of these conditions that the 'mum 

 grower is unable to prevent or advise 

 upon. I thought perhaps if the So- 

 ciety could got up a list of what would 

 be non-damping kinds, it would be 

 useful to the grower living in a foggy 

 zone. Chrysolora, for instance, was 

 the bright particular star of our col- 

 lection as comparatively few of the 

 flowers failed to mature in good shape. 

 The question of loss in a season like 

 this is a very serious one and none of 

 our members, I am afraid, made any 

 money so far this fall out of his prod- 

 uct. 



I feel that the demand for the chrys- 

 anthemum is just as large as it ever 

 was or even larger, but this year in 

 the large eastern wholesale markets 

 the thousands, nay. millions of dahlia 

 blooms brought in formed a stagger- 

 ing load for the chrysanthemum to 

 overcome, since the dahlia can be and 

 is sold so cheaply. We can. of course, 

 have no argument with the dahlia 

 fn"ower, for he. like ourselves, is en- 

 titled to make what he can out of his 

 business and enjoy the fruits of the 

 earth, but it does seem as though the 

 problem of distribution to the masses 

 could be better accomplished in some 

 way than by crowding the w-holesale 

 markets to such an extent that noth- 

 ing can be sold at a remunerative 

 figure. We have the varieties, we 

 have the cultural skill, but in a sea- 

 son such as this last one we certainly 

 have not had the market to dispose of 

 the stock. If there is anyone who 

 knows of a way to overcome this con- 

 dition I would be glad to have him 

 mention it or have the matter thrashed 

 out in a meeting, by members present. 

 Had Providence intervened with a 



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good sharp frost or two the last days 

 of September as very frequently hap- 

 pens, there would have been a differ- 

 ent story to tell. One good result, 

 however, of the beautiful fall has been 

 the marvellous display of outdoor 

 early flowering chrysanthemums. In 

 our own case several acres that we 

 planted have been a wonderful sight 

 since the last week in September and 

 even today are very, very fine in spite 

 of the drenching rains and heavy fogs. 

 Can the market for chrysanthemum 

 blooms be increased? Personally. I 

 think it can by growers broadening 

 out their list and not confining them- 

 selves to the eternal Ivory, Bonnaffon. 

 and one or two other kinds. Where 

 one is shipping to a wholesale market 

 the varieties that will ship well must 

 be a first consideration and, of course, 

 take first precedence, but it will be 

 noted in an exhibition that ladies rave 

 over the large-flowered Japanese va- 

 rieties, the singles and any other odd 

 type that comes up. This is a point 

 for the observer to make his deduc- 

 tion from. The buyer would willingly 

 take somethins different if given a 

 chance and while the shipper to a 

 wholesale market is always handi- 

 capped by the apathy of the retailer, 

 who only wants a few staple varieties 

 and large quantities of them, still the 

 grower, of whom there are thousands 

 in America, who retails his own prod- 

 ucts, should certainly enlarge his list 

 of varieties. He is enabled to do this 

 because the problem of packing and 

 shipping is not of such consequence 

 to him as it is to a grower for the 

 wholesale market. The public mind is 

 very fick'e and the cry is always for 

 something n little different, something 

 new. and the grower who has some- 

 thing different for his customers every 

 year, can always succeed in holding 

 them and make good money. 



How can we increase our member- 

 ship? This is a yearly question at 

 this time and the answer is still some- 

 what rroblematic. The kindred socie- 

 ties such as the Rose and Carnation 

 Societies have something of interest 



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