August 2(i, 1905 



HORTICULTURE 



227 



hundred members called and spent a 

 merry hour. The store was gaily dec- 

 orated with bunting and greenery, an 

 orchestra furnished music, and light 

 refreshments were served until far 

 past the midnight hour. J. I). Car- 

 mody's contribution to the hilarity of 

 the occasion was as follows: 



"When flodsts meet 

 EiicU other greet 



In times of recreation, 

 •Tls right, I think. 

 To eat and drink 



And have a Jollification. 

 So crack .vour jokes 

 Like other folks, 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 

 FINAL RESOLUTIONS. 



WHEREAS, The citizens of Wash- 

 ington, particularly the Florists' Club 

 of Washington, have tendered to us a 

 most hearty welcome, and have made 

 our stay in their beautiful city an oc- 

 casion long to be remembered, there- 

 fore be it 



RESOLVED, That they be tendered 

 the thanks of the Society. 



RESOLVED, That we tender to the 

 Honorable B. F. Macfarland and to Sec- 

 retary Wilson of the Department of 

 Agriculture the thanks of the Society, 

 also to Professor Galloway for his en- 

 tertaining lecture. 



RESOLVED. That thanks are espe- 

 cially due to Vice-President Freeman 

 and Superintendent Cooke, who made 

 our exhibition the great success that 

 marked it. 



Resolved, That thanks of the So- 

 ciety be tendered to Miss Sipe for her 

 entertaining lecture. 



Resolved, That the thanks of the So- 

 ciety be tendered to Mr. George W. 

 Brown, superintendent of public build- 

 ings and grounds, and also to Colonel 

 Burr, for exhibition and drill by 

 United States Engineer .Corps, with 

 full regimental band. 



Resolved, That on behalf of our 

 ladies the thanks of the Society be 

 extended to Mrs. Freeman and the 

 Florists' Club of Washington for their 

 untiring efforts to please and entertain 

 them, and they also express their 

 warmest gratitude for the hospitality 

 extended to them, and upon their re- 

 turn home they will ever remember 

 the kindly effort of their Washington 

 friends. 



Resolved. That the thanks of the 

 Society be extended to President Gude 

 and Vice-President Freeman and the 

 members of the Florists' Club of Wash- 

 ington for the masterly way in which 

 they handled every detail of the duties 

 incident to their offices, and for their 

 grand entertainment and lawn party 

 to our President, and Society mem- 

 bers, Tuesday evening. 



Resolved. That a vote of thanks be 

 extended to Mr. Oglesby Paul, of 

 Philadelphia, for his able and illus- 

 trated lecture of "The Ideal Home." 

 Also, to the Baltimore Club for their 

 kind invitation to their city. 

 Signed, 

 PETER FISHER. 

 .JOHN B. NUGENT, Jr., 

 WESLEY GREENE. 



A RETROSPECT FROM WASHING- 

 TON. 



With the ending of the week our 

 convention visitors have liisappeared 



as completely as the morning dew be- 

 fore the sun, and thus the official pro- 

 ceedings and personal incidents of the 

 twenty-first annual convention of the 

 S. A. F. become matters of history. 



All during Saturday the different 

 flower stores were places of rendezvous 

 for the visitors still in town, where all 

 the incidents of the convention were 

 freely and enthusiastically discussed 

 and farewell greetings exchanged. Un- 

 stinted praise was given to those who 

 have worked so hard and faithfully tor 

 the success of every detail in connec- 

 tion with the convention. Speaking 

 first from a social standpoint, it seems 

 to have been one of the most success- 

 ful conventions in the history of the 

 S. A. F.. Indeed, among all the visitors 

 not one unfavorable comment has been 

 heard as to the quantity and quality of 

 entertainment offered for our guests. 



The reception to President Vaughan 

 was not only a surprise to the visitors, 

 but far exceeded the expectations of 

 our own members. It is impossible 

 for any one who had not seen that bare 

 lawn before it was made ready for the 

 occasion to realize the amount of work 

 which was required to make it such a 

 scene of beauty. All of those numer- 

 ous trees which that night were 

 abloom with flowers and ablaze with 

 electric lights, had been borrowed 

 from the woods. 



This event was appropriately fol- 

 lowed up the next day by the beautiful 

 luncheon tendered the ladies by Mrs. 

 Joseph R. Freeman. During the entire 

 week the Freeman store was "open 

 house," and in practical disregard of 

 business. As the genial proprietor 

 very fittingly expressed it in his speech 

 on the boat at Baltimore, in southern 

 cities when business interferes with 

 pleasure, they usually let business go; 

 and just so it was here. 



The ladies' carriage ride on Wednes- 

 day afternoon, and the trolley ride 

 Thursday morning, with luncheon fol- 

 lowing at the Library of Congress cafe, 

 as well as the bowling and shooting 

 events, will long be remembered by 

 those present. 



To us it seemed that the business 

 sessions of the convention were very 

 well supported; the exhibition was also 

 a grand one, and so, viewed from every 

 standpoint, the convention was a 

 great success. For whatever labor or 

 sacrifice the members of the Florists' 

 Club of Washington were called upon 

 to make, they feel that they were 

 amply repaid by the honor of the pres- 

 ence of our distinguished guests from 

 far and near, and by the universal ver- 

 dict which seems to have gone up as 

 if from one voice, "Well done thou 

 good and faithful servants." 



PROMOTING HORTICULTURE AND 



CIVIC IMPROVEMENT 



AMONG CHILDREN. 



Statistics taken in the training 

 school for teachers, known as Normal 

 School No. 1 .of Washington, D. C, 

 show that two-thirds of the students, 

 young ladies from eighteen to twenty 

 years of age. have never put a seed 

 into the ground. They have little 

 knowledge of the preparation of the 

 soil for their home gardens: one stu- 

 dent attempts to dig with a trowel her 

 entire yard to the depth of three feet 

 to plant coreopsis seed. The lack of 



u'lieral information in regard to the 

 I tinmon flowers and vegetables among 

 those girls who have just finished our 

 iii«h schools is astonishing. One girl 

 liiil not know peas when the pods were 

 on the vines. Only one girl in a class 

 oi twenty-four knew positively that it 

 did not take two seasons to mature 

 radishes, the common garden flowers, 

 zinnia, scarlet sage, cockscomb, pinks, 

 are simply flowers and nothing more. 

 And these young ladies are to be the 

 public school teachers of the city! 



itcalizing that the teachers must be 

 trained before the children can be 

 reached, the Department of Agricul- 

 ture is urging the establishment of 

 elementary courses in horticulture 

 and agriculture in all normal schools 

 and is using the normal schools at 

 AVashington to demonstrate its ideas 

 as to what such courses should teach. 

 Three years ago. Dr. B. T. Gallo- 

 way, chief of the Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry, through whose efforts the 

 work in Washington has been accom- 

 plished, sent one of the Department 

 experts to the normal school to pre- 

 sent in simple lecture form such infor- 

 mation as would be helpful to the 

 students in planning and planting 

 heme gardens. Each student was re- 

 quired, and has been every season 

 since, to improve some portion of her 

 home surroundings; 175 students 

 have taken the course since its estab- 

 lishment. As the work is legitimate 

 school work, every garden has been 

 inspected by the teacher in charge and 

 suggestions given were necessary. 

 Of eighty-five gardens visited last 

 spring but three were failures and 

 these were from obstacles too difficult 

 for the young gardener to surmount. 

 Every teacher should have her own 

 garden, large or small, perhaps only 

 a window box, if she hopes to improve 

 the children under her charge. My ex- 

 perience has been that so much pleas- 

 ure is to be gotten from watching the 

 garden to its full fruit that the teacher 

 is anxious to give others the same 

 happiness that she has had so that the 

 teaching is a delight and not a 

 burden. 



Last winter a large greenhouse on 

 the Department grounds was assigned 

 the school, and facilities are now at 

 hand for giving both theoretical and 

 practical instructions to the student- 

 teachers. Necessarily for practice, so 

 much material is propagated that the 

 school has become the supply depart- 

 ment for plants for school ground 

 decoration throughout the city. Such 

 impetus has been given by this means 

 to the improvement of school grounds 

 that where three years ago there was 

 but one school in the District whose 

 grounds showed care, the rest were 

 neglected, now one hundred and 

 twenty of the one hundred and twenty- 

 four buildings for graded schools have 

 gardens. But few of these are pre- 

 tentious, but whatever has been done 

 has been done by the children. They 

 have brought tools from home and 

 given the labor; shrubbery has been 

 bought by the teachers or donated by 

 parents and some of our public-spirit- 

 ed florists, and seeds for flowers and 

 lawn grass have been given generously 

 by the Department of Agriculture. 

 These school grounds have inspired 

 the children for home planting so that 

 a local seedsman sold to them 120,000 

 penny packages of seed in the spring. 

 (To be Continued.) 



