HORTICULTURE 



July 29, 1905 



HORTICULTURE 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Telephone, Oxford, 292 



WM. J. STEWART. Editor and Manager. 



The Editor Has His Say 



The placing of a can full of gypsy caterpillars in 

 the grounds of a nursery firm, near Boston, recently, 

 was one of the most contemptible acts of malice on 

 record. It is to be hoped that the scoundrel may be 

 apprehended and the severest possible penalty al- 

 lotted to him. 



The despatches tell us that as early as last winter 

 the collection and setting out of shrubs and trees for 

 decorative effect was commenced at Jamestown, Va., 

 in preparation for the exhibition to be held there in 

 1907. Willows, laurels, dogwoods, maples, water 

 oaks and many other things by hundreds of thou- 

 sands are already in position, in a district known for 

 the luxuriance with which plants and flowers grow. 

 This is a proper beginning. It was in the neglect of 

 these features, until too late, that stupendous mis- 

 takes were made in every big fair held thus far in 

 this country. This wise oversight promises well for 

 the Jamestown enterprise, and there is another evi- 

 dence of good judgment in the statement that it is 

 proposed to preserve natural features, as much as 

 possible, in the laying out and planting of the grounds 



It is to be hoped that members of the Society of 

 American Florists and Ornamental Horticulturists, 

 and many others who have not heretofore been 

 identified with that organization, will take advantage 

 of the excellent opportunity offered to see Washing- 

 ton under such pleasant circumstances as are out- 

 lined in the program for the approaching convention. 

 The first convention in Washington city, thirteen 

 years ago, was especially remarkable for the diversi- 

 fied character of its attendance, the visitors being 

 appropriately drawn from all sections of the country. 



and it is fitting that at the present time earnest 

 effort should be put forth by those officially re- 

 sponsible to again insure widespread interest in every 

 locality and every horticultural organization, so that 

 the coming pilgrimage to the Capitol City may be a 

 large and representative one, commensurate with the 

 importance of the occasion and the magnificent 

 preparations that are being made by the hospitable 

 brethren of beautiful Washington. 



In another column of this paper we present, as 

 news matter, a California view of Japanese immigra- 

 tion, its effect on California's great horticultural in- 

 dustries, and a characteristic Californian remedy for 

 the threatened evil. We, on the Atlantic seaboard, 

 who have long been inured to the hard knocks of 

 alien invasion, naturally regard these questions in a 

 more philosophic and dispassionate spirit than is to 

 be expected in the people of the Pacific coast whose 

 influx (other than the Chinese incursion, which was 

 promptly arrested) has been, until recently, almost 

 entirely overland from the older-settled communities, 

 and so distributed and controlled that it fell easily 

 into established customs and manners. The free- 

 and-easy, yet irresistible, frontier dash has always 

 had a certain fascination for us of the older settle- 

 ments, broken-in and well-subdued as we are by the 

 struggle to hold our own against rigorous chmate, 

 refractory soil, and a half-century's deluge of "cheap 

 labor." One does not need to be very ancient to 

 remember the days of fierce prejudice against a race 

 that has since given us fighters, scholars, politicians, 

 and strategists of no mean rank; in later years we 

 have seen many of the vast mercantile interests of 

 the metropolis pass into the control of a race to 

 which all Christendom seems more or less hostile; 

 to-day the Italian has full possession of our fruit 

 traffic, and is rapidly driving the "native" market- 

 gardener of New England into exactly the same 

 predicament with which the Japanese is threatening 

 the "native" Californian; the Greek, uneducated and 

 discordant, has a clutch on the cut-flower trade of 

 New York City that cannot be broken. So we think 

 we know something about it, and we can sympa- 

 thize, as fellow-sufferers, with our brethren of the 

 other coast. Yet we doubt not that native grit and 

 resourceful industry will carry them through, as it 

 has us, as they adapt themselves to new adjustments 

 that cannot be escaped. In seeking for the best 

 solution of the problem at its present stage, let mod- 

 eration prevail, and let us not forget our great 

 indebtedness to Japan and her remarkable people for 

 much of what we prize most highly in horticulture. 

 Chinese exclusion has not been an unadulterated 

 blessing to California. We think it is now generally 

 recognized that it has greatly retarded her develop- 

 ment, and that the lack of a laboring element in her 

 population is to-day a serious handicap to her in- 

 dustries. 



