;t3S 



HORTICULTURE 



April 6, 1918 



HORTICULTURE 



VOL XXVII 



APRIL 6, 1>I8 



NO. 14 



rUBLISHED WKKKI.Y UY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 147 Summer Street, Boston. Mass. 



%VM. J. MTKUAKT, Killtnr lind ManKcrr 

 Tf'Irphoo*. Ilrarh tW 



ADVKKTININU nATF:8: 



Par lli«h, SO lD«)ip« to pafr 91.tA 



DIsroont on ronlrart* for consecutive Inaertlona, «• followa: 



One monCti (4 timre), ft per cent.; three month* (1^ ttmei), 10 



Cr eenl ; alx month* (20 timet). 20 per cent.; one jckt (02 times), 

 per cent. 

 Pmf ftnd hjUf pare apace. Dot coBBecotlre, r»t«« en appllcatloD. 



SIIISCKH'TION KATES: 



On* Year, In adrence. fl.OO; To Forelcn Conntrlee, >2.00i To 



Canada, $l.r>0. 



Botered aa ■econd-clnaa matter December 8, 1904, at tbe Poat Office 

 at Boaton. Maea., under tbe Act of Congreat of March 3, 1879. 



CONTENTS Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION — A Sample Rock Garden 

 VEGETABLE CULTURE— Crop Rotation— Cabbage- 

 Cauliflower — John Johnson 337 



A SAMPLE ROCK GARDEN IN GLENSIDE, Pa 337 



LETTERS FROM AN OLD TO A YOUNG GARDENER 

 — Co-operation in Horticultural Experiments — Wil- 

 liam Rollins 339 



A CALL TO ACTION— Joseph J. Lane 339 



AMERICAN ROSE SOCIETY 340 



THE PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN 341 



THE DETROIT CONVENTION GARDEN 341 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— Chicago Florists' Club 341 



Meetings Next Week — National Association of 



Gardeners 342-343 



THINGS TIMELY AND IMPORTANT— G. H. Bramm 342 

 OBITUARY — Samuel L. Allen — George Golding 



Kennedy *. 342 



SEED TRADE — Some Encouragement — Connecticut 



Seed Corn Should be Certified 344 



THE VALUE OF ORGANIZATION— P. C. O'Mara 344 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



One "Why" of the Easter Success — Henry Penn 346 



New Flower Stores 347 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston. Chicago, Cincinnati 349 



New York, Philadelphia, Rochester, St. Louis 351 



LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS: 



Boston, New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Rochester... 352 

 MISCELLANEOUS: 



A Greenhouse at Tsingtau — Illustration 340 



Lilium candidum as a Woodland Feature — Illustrated 342 



News Notes 343 



New Corporations 347 



Visitors' Register 351 



May Cancel All Coal Delivery Contracts 353 



Publications Received — Catalogues Received 354 



.\ Beauty Sp6t in Georgia 354 



111 the multitudinous fe(ieral and 



Unfortunate state bulletins and other agricultural 



and misleading publications this spring farmers are 



being admonished to test for germi- 

 nation before sowing, all seeds of their own saving and 

 to buy no seeds that do not carry a certificate of having 

 been so tested. This i.> good advice, of course, but when 

 coupled, as it is in many instances, with a warning 

 against the seedsmen as likely to impose upon the farmer 

 by giving him seed several years old or otherwise of 

 inferior quality, it conveys an insinuation which is most 

 unfortunate, to say the least, in that it tends to beget a 

 nation-wide distrust of the seed trade in genera!. 



There is much that might jirofitably be imparted to 

 the farmer and the gardening public in the way of in 



fonMiition as to seed production and the true basis of 

 seed value, of wliich germinating qualities constitute 

 but a part, and it is in the province of the government 

 bureaus and educational iiiiititutions to disseminate this 

 much needed instruction, but this does not carry with 

 it the duty or the right of sowing the seeds of vilifica- 

 tion and suspicion against the men who arc engagc'd in 

 this most vital of all the world's industries and who, as 

 a rule are the jicers in probity and business moral- 

 ity jf those employed in any other work. 



No seedsman can hope to continue lung 

 The bases j,, business if he is not selling good seeds, 

 of quality 'J'q Jq otherwise is to court business ruin. 

 The seedsniiin is not unlike the physician; 

 good le.-ults must follow his efforts or he will soon bo- 

 come di.scrediled and lose his clients — and he knows it. 

 It should be borne in mind by those who are ever watch- 

 ing for some iniquity to fasten upon the seedsman, that 

 the seedsman does not manufacture seeds but must take 

 them as they are produced by the joint agency of the 

 grower and Nature's unseen and intricate processes, 

 and can no more give assurance as to their eventual 

 attainments under cultivation good or bad, than the 

 doctor can guarantee that a twelve-pound baby will or 

 will not develop into as robust physical manhood or in- 

 tellectual superiority as a nine-pound youngster. Innate 

 characteristics are beyond his ken and neitiier the cul- 

 tu'al care nor ultimate results are within his control. 

 it is not necessary to remind most of the readers of 

 Horticulture that high germinative power does not 

 go very far as a factor in desirable seed quality of many 

 of the most important crops, but one might infer from 

 some of the literature that has come to our attention 

 thiit this quality overtopped all other considerations, 

 while every seedsman has learned that viability is quite 

 li'<ely to run in inverse ratio to quality and indicate a 

 reversion from highly bred strains. We might instance 

 Italian cauliflower seed which is decidedly superior in 

 color, shape and weight, as well as of somewhat higher 

 vitality, as compared with the Danish seed, but the latter 

 will give ninety to one hundred per cent of heads while 

 the Italian may |)roduce perhaps ten to fifteen per cent. 

 Golden Self Blaiu.hing celery from seed produced in 

 Fr.^nce, compared with that from California-grown seed, 

 is white, solid and high flavored while the latter is apt 

 to be largely green, hollow-stemmed and stringy, yet the 

 French .seed is of much weaker vitality. Onion seed 

 grown successively for a few years in California loses its 

 high standard of quality and the seed grow'.Ts then 

 have got to come back cast, periodically, to get stock 

 from which to regenerate their own. The AgricTiltural 

 Department has found it necessary to import from the 

 country of the Black Sea the hard flinty wheats to rein- 

 vigorate the stock of the farmers in the Dakota? and 

 other great wheat producing areas of our country — and 

 so we might go on, multiplying examples. The seed 

 trade lias its .job cut out for it this year, with the em- 

 barrassing shortage, insatiable demand for many essen- 

 tial things and chaotic condition as to market values, 

 but as we clo.«e these lines a letter comes to us 

 from one of the leading seed houses of this coun- 

 try in which the writer says, ".^s .seedsmen we are 

 having our troubles but how slight they are as com- 

 pared with tho.se good souls, men and boys, who are 

 doing so much more for their country than we are." 

 "Last year we became a nation of gardeners," it is said 

 with considerable truth. The seedsman is doing his 

 level best under the circumstances and it would be only 

 fair to accord to him the consideration and recognition 

 which is his due. 



