HORTICULTURE 



August 19, 1905 



HORTICULTURE 



AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL 

 DEVOTED TO THE 



FLORIST, PLANTSMAN, LANDSCAPE 



GARDENER AND KINDRED 



INTERESTS 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 



II HAMILTON PLACE, BOSTON, MASS. 



Telephone. Oxford 292, 



WU. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



During the past week the rain so much needed in 

 eastern New England has come in copious showers and 

 already lawns sere and Ijrown from the combined effect 

 of drought and cut worm are taking on the rich fresh 

 green which is a feature of Xew England scenery in 

 normal 



The rudimentary training in gardening occupations 

 which is being given the children of the public schools 

 in many parts of the country should bear fruit in later 

 years in a wave of popular horticultural intelligence 

 such as is yet very rare. The florist and seedsman who 

 has had dealings with the average plant or seed-buyer 

 has cause to envy his successor of a quarter century 

 hence. 



The annual report of the energetic secretary of the 

 Florists' Hail Association makes very suggestive read- 

 ing when one stops to think of the relief and comfort 

 that the payment for losses must have, in many cases, 

 brought to the recipient. Nothing can be more sudden 

 and few afflictions can be more disastrous tlian that 

 which a lively hail storm can impose upon the florist. 

 Judging from the reports it appears that the hail visita- 

 tions of the past year have generally kept well within 

 "the belt." 



It is a paramount duty for every individual employed 

 in floriculture or allied pursuits to identify himself with 

 the local club or other organization active in his 

 neighborhood. Imagine the tremendous influence such 

 bodies might wield for the individual and common good 

 if every one, employer and employee were to ally him- 

 self with it. The beneficial effects of these organiza- 

 tions, brought about hitherto, show what is possible 

 where the interest is confined merely to a small frac- 

 tion of those who arc eligible and are a pertinent sug- 

 gestion as to what might be accomplished if everybody 

 would lend a hand. 



Tiie niggardly economy practiced by many city re- 

 tailers in the mid-summer season is apt to react on 

 those who are doing it. Practically no cut flower stock 

 is kept on hand and when a customer calls for what he 



wants it is not forthcoming. The result is that the 

 goods will be sought elsewhere. There is, of course, 

 some risk in carrying a regular stock through the dull 

 season and some loss is inevitable when this is done, but 

 at summer prices the loss is insignificant and does not 

 compare with the loss sustained by the estrangement of 

 a customer who, finding accommodation elsewhere is 

 liable to transfer his patronage. It is well to remember 

 that the flower-buying public has a memory. 



It is our belief that the S. A. F. will yet adopt some 

 practicable way of promoting the objects for which it 

 exists, by working through or in co-operation with other 

 organizations. This is greatly to be wished, especially 

 in respect to communities far removed from the confines 

 within whfch the society must needs, as a rule, locate its 

 annual conventions. There is, for example, a big field 

 all along the Pacific coast for organized horticulture 

 endeavor on the lines on which the S. A. F. is working, 

 the cultivation of which should not prove an insur- 

 mountable task, and there are abundant opportunities 

 not so far away. '"Closer relations" is by no means 

 dead as an issue and we feel confident that tlie much-to- 

 be-desired solution of tnis problem will yet be found. 



Greenhouse building has been active all through 

 jH-esent season and the aggregate of additions for the 

 year will comi)are favorably with the average of recent 

 3'ears. The builders report especially large accessions 

 to the glass erected for private use. Every jirivate 

 range that goes u}3 makes employment for a larger 

 number of expert gardeners, means more business for 

 wholesale plant growers, for .seedsmen and bulb import- 

 ers and greater encouragement for the hybridist and 

 introducer of new products. So it is not alone the 

 builder and glass dealer that profit by the multiplica- 

 tion of conservatories. The possible trifling shrinkage 

 in the cut flower sales to those who have houses erected 

 for their private use is nothing as compared with the 

 gain made in other directions and every glass house 

 added contributes to the magnitude of our horticultural 

 business and enhances its prosperity. 



A perusal of the various reports of local conditions as 

 made Ijy the state vice-presidents of the S. A. F. shows 

 that, while in most of the large flower-growing centres 

 the supply of flowers is in excess of the demand during 

 the greater part of the year, yet in a large majority of 

 the smaller and more isolated communities the pinch 

 of scarcity is felt at every recurring special season. At 

 first thought a compensating di-fi-ilnitiiin of the sur- 

 plus would seem to be a si]iipl'' ivmclv but the fact is 

 that the surplus is rarely of a •^y:\Ar -at i.sfactory to the 

 country buyer, who has come to l)e very fastidious as to 

 the quality of goods he will accept. There are very 

 few of the local florists in the smaller cities and towns 

 who do not know just where to put their hands on 

 plenty of stock, such as it is, for all reasonable holiday 

 demands. It is not the scarcity of flowers, as such, of 

 which he has to complain Wit his inability to get suited 

 as to grade and — we might also add — his unwillingness 

 to pay the price for the sort of goods he demands. 



