742 



GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



G. H. Pring on School Gardens 



G. H. Pring (\"ice President 1\. A. G.} : It was the least of 

 my expectations when I left St. Louis that I would be called upon 

 tc address this convention instead of Mr. Eastman. 



I am sorry to say that it is impossible for me to give you any 

 direct statistics of the work being done in Cleveland. 1 will 

 try to cover the subject, generally speaking. I had the pleasure 

 of being at the Cleveland Convention when Mr. Eastman as 

 Garden Supervisor was directed by the Board of Education to 

 visit cur convention .md to ask for some assistance in the direc- 

 tion of the work in Cleveland and the possibilities of improve- 

 ment. 



A committee was appointed. I was selected as Chairman and 

 the matter was taken tip with the Board in general and also with 

 Mr. Eastman. The Committee reported with its recommenda- 

 tions which of course you have read through the medium of The 

 G.\RDENERs' Chronicle. 



It was probably due to that report that I was called to Cleve- 

 land to start the first Summer course in gardening, or as we 

 term it. horticulture. \\ hen I arrived at Cleveland I found that 

 the students were composed of teachers or various garden super- 

 visors. There were about forty-five teachers in the class doing 

 school garden work during the vacation period. 



There are two main tracts which are worthy of mention. One 

 is the so-called West Tech Tract which comprises the West 

 Technical High School and the surrounding grounds, and the 

 other is the John Hay Tract which is in the eastern part of 

 Cleveland. The John Hay Tract is a combination of both 

 flowers and vegetables. It is probably about two acres in extent 

 and is laid out in up-to-date lines. The old-fashioned idea of 

 having little two by four plots for individual children is done 

 away with. Everything is planted in straight lines and the chil- 

 dren have their special lines to work. There is a gardener in 

 charge of the tract who is absolutely responsible for the prac- 

 tical teaching of the children. In addition there is a school teacher 

 designated for a certain section. 



In reference to the West Tech High School and gardens there 

 is ornamentation around the High School which is partly taken 

 care of by the children. There is also the West Tech Green- 

 house, which is about seventy-five feet long and somewhat anti- 

 quated. I am speaking, of course, about last year. There the 

 children are allowed to take their various courses in plant 

 propagation and various other suajects relative to plant growing. 



There are probably between thirty and forty outside frames 

 where various ve.getablcs are raised in the Spring. Probably 

 about two acres are under cultivation for various farm crops 

 and a gardener is in charge. .\11 the vegetables grown at West 

 Tech are turned over to the so-called commissarj' department. 



The latest report from Mr. Eastman is that there will be a 

 complete new range on this West Tech ground. I understand this 

 range will cost approximately $40,000. 



I think that covers the subject as far as I know at the present 

 time. I am sorry that I did not know sooner that I was going 

 to be called on, because I could have prepared some figures to 

 present to vou. 



CHAIRMAN H-WEMEYER: Discussion is now in order. 

 Does anyone wish to address the meeting? 



MRS.'SLO.-vN: I would like to ask vvhether the boys like the 

 work well enough to go on with it, or whether it is just tempo- 

 rary while they r.re in school? 



MR. PRING: I think Mr. Eastman has tried to direct as 

 many as possible into the profession. He claims there are quite 

 a fev/ following it up — principally from the foreign element. 



Robert Cameron on Quarantine 37 



CHAIRMAN HAVEMEYER: Robert Cameron is here. I 

 wish he would say something in regard to Quarantine No. 37. I 

 understand he has something to sav on this subject. 



ROBERT CAMERON: "I have" very much to say. I am in 

 favor of Quarantine and Mr, Craig is not. I think it is the 

 finest thing in Quarantine we have ever had in this country. 



I have looked thror.gh all the catalogs that are printed in New 

 England of every nurseryman who has anything to propagate 

 and has plants to .sell and there are no Elizabeth Campbell phlox. 

 Why? Because we imported them. Don't we need a quarantine? 

 What did the war liring about? Didn't we produce a lot of 

 things that we did not have before? Now, our nurserymen are 

 producing them. How are private estates to be made now? The 

 owners won't make them. Prices are too high from the nursery- 

 men. I just want to open the discussion so that we will hear 

 the other side. That is my viewpoint. We have got the quaran- 

 tine 'and we want the quarantine still harder. 



We have the corn-borer in Massachusetts in almost every 

 section today. States will be quarantined shortly so we can't 

 send things out and that will he hard. If we only had had quar- 

 antine years a.go we would not have these pests. There is now a 

 chance for more discussion. (Applause and laughter). 



CHAIRMAN HAVEMEYER: There are a number of nur- 

 serymen hce and I would hke to hear from them. 



MR. ATKINS: Of course, it is generally understood that 

 nurserymen have worked a little trick and they have just turned 

 Quarantine No. 37 into a high wall, so they can get various plants 

 for themselves. Now, Quarantine No. 37, as our friend, Mr. 

 Cameron, says, is, no doubt, the best thing that ever happened 

 to horticulture in this country. I would like to say we have 

 never had horticulture here, it has been largely from Europe. 

 Mr. Cameron just told us he could not find EUzabeth Campbell 

 phlo.x because we used to import thousands of them, and so 

 with all kinds of phlox which we used to import. Now we take 

 our roots and keep them and pick our plants and have tens of 

 thousands of them to sell. We are going to have by Quarantine 

 No. 37 a distinctive American horticulture 



When 1 was a boy (I was born in England) we were proud 

 of our horticulture there; where I was apprenticed on Lord Dud- 

 ley's estate we had a very large institution and used to buy as 

 many as three roses at one time of one variety and then what 

 happened ? We boys were taught to propagate them and all other 

 things in a similar manner. That is what is going to happen in 

 this country. One time from three million to four million roses 

 were brought, here from various parts of the world and what 

 happened to them?' They went into our great stores and sold 

 for at least two for a quarter. 



This year many iven and boys are employed in the country 

 from $5 to $15 a day budding roses. It is an American industry, 

 I understand, not European. Now, speaking of young fellows 

 learning the nursery trade and gardening trade, how could they 

 learn if everything was produced in Europe by young Europeans? 

 They learned the business and stayed over there and got our 

 money instead of having something here to induce our young 

 men to go into the business. We had 160 boys, but we don't 

 expect to get all these boys to come into our enterprise. Sooner 

 or later some are going to do it, because we have quarantine 

 which enables us to produce hundreds of thousands of plants 

 which we were not producing before we had quarantine, There 

 is going to be no end to the benefits. 



Developing an American Style of Horticulture 



MR. STEW.ART (.of Massachusetts): I meant to ask Mrs. 

 Sloan a question as to what the Garden Club of Amer- 

 ica is doing tov.ard developing an American style of horticulture. 

 We have too many Italian, Grecjan and English styles of horticul- 

 ture which demand various foreign plants which we are com- 

 pelled to use and which are a nuisance to the gardener. We have 

 to coddle and coax them I should like to see our native Ameri- 

 can plants taken up and an Ameriacn style of horticulture de- 

 veloped in this country. There is no reason why it should not 

 be done. We have everything to do it with and there is no use 

 importing unhardy plants which require twice the work to look 

 after when our beautiful .'\merican plants would do. I would 

 like to ask Mrs. Sloan if the Garden Club of America is doing 

 anything along that line 



MRS. SLO.AN : There is a feeling that we must plant Ameri- 

 can-grown plants or things that will grow better in America 

 rather than to import things from Europe. I think we are real- 

 izing that we want to hibernate the American plants, in landscape 

 effects and all that. The English gardens would be very much 

 like .\nierican. This, I 'hink, depends upon our climate. It varies 

 in different parts of .America, so we can't always follow that. 



Italian gardens are more or less green ; no flowers are used 

 comparatively :n the Italian garden. Potted flowers are a great 

 help in giving a bit of color and our very dry season with very 

 great heat do not destroy them, as they can be brought back or 

 other ones put in their place. Tnat is one of the great charms 

 of the Italian garden. Possibly it might become an explanation 

 of why we are doing so much Italian gardening. That is really 

 the reason, because if the Sumn:er is absolutely dry you can't 

 have ;.ny effect. Is it not better to have a beautiful green effect 

 of some green things than a few measley flowers? I think that 

 the only plea I can make for the Italian garden is that one. I 

 think it should be all plain common sense planting; not Italian, 

 Enghsh or anything else, b'.t v.'hat we all call .American common 

 sense. If we want the right thing v.'e will get it there. If it is 

 Italian, or English, or French, it really docs not make any differ- 

 ence as long as we get the right thing. 



Cause of High Prices for Roses 



MR, BOYD- I would Uke to ask Mr. .-Xtkins a question. I 

 believe he is Vice-President of the .Vmcrican Rose Society and 

 that society is very much interested, and has been for years, in 

 placing roses in every home. Now, if they are going to pay 

 young men ,^5 to $15 a day for buddin.g roses, roses are not going 

 to lie within the reach of the working man for many, many, 

 many days. 



MR. .\TKINS : I think as we find the true method of cultiva- 



