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HORTICULTURE 



December 23, 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, 



WM. J. STEWART. Editor and Manager. 



The seedsmen, in appealing to the 



The seedsmen's President to express liis disapproval 



appeal of the free seed distribution as now 



carried on, have taken a wise course 



and in doing so are likely to accomplish more in the 



direction of getting "a square deal" than by any other 



means within their power. Hammering at Congress is 



but wasted efEort. 



Correspondents of the British jour- 

 Make nais are debating the question of 

 the prize what should be considered a 

 schedule explicit "spray" of flowers, in judging 

 chrysanthemum exhibitions. The 

 anticipated prominence of the small-flowered varieties 

 in future exhibitions in this country makes the topic 

 one worthy of the consideration of the schedule makers. 

 The length of growth, minimum number of twigs and 

 flowers thereon, all should be stipulated in some way 

 that will be similarly interpreted by exhibitors and 

 judges. The term "truss" is also open to diverse con- 

 struction, as will quickly be recognized by any one called 

 upon to judge a lot of Ghent azalea exhibits. Vagueness 

 should be eliminated as far as possible in the exhibition 

 sched^de. 



It is a generally-accepted proposi- 



what Is the tion that market price is established 



"market price"? by a majority of actual sales. Those 



readers of trade press quotations 



who are disposed to be hypercritical and take the 



ground that advance prices as quoted on dealers' lists 



and prices obtained for isolated emergency sales on cut 



flowers or anything alse, are "market prices" and should 



be quoted as such, take a position which no court would 



sustain for a minute. If the holder of goods sets a value 



that nobody will pay, that figure is worthless as indicat- 

 ing market value. There must be actual transactions 

 to establish value on a specified date and the price 

 wliich a majority of reputable dealers accept for a cer- 

 tain line of goods is the market value of such at the time 

 of sale. So many factors have a bearing on the fluctua- 

 tions from day to day and, at times, from hour to hour, 

 of prices on such goods as American Beauty roses or 

 violets, that to accurately record them in a weekly re- 

 port would be as impracticable as the attempt would be 

 stupid. All that the trade journals can do is to fur- 

 nish approximate figures on which a general informa- 

 tion as to the market and its tendencies may be based. 

 This, with rare exception they do, without prejudice 

 and after due investigation through well-qualified 

 sources of information. 



The day of the forced bulb flower comes 



on apace. 



There was a time when the 



the forcing advent of these flowers meant a welcome 

 bulbs time relief from the famine that lagging 

 crops and holiday demands occasioned. 

 In present conditions with surpluses in all lines more 

 frequent than famines, and resultant low values, the 

 bulb flower has to stand entirely on its own merits and 

 consequently there is nothing in the way of special 

 remuneration to tempt the grower to risk his crop in the 

 effort to get these things in bloom at an exceptionally 

 early date. So give them time ; don't hurry them. The 

 crop will be safer, the product better and the prices 

 certainly no less. 



We learn from one of our contempora- 



The violets' jjeg that the feeling prevalent in the 



troubles great violet-growing section "up the 



Hudson" is one of extreme pessimism 

 as to the outcome of the present season. We hope the 

 forecast is overdrawn and that, although the growers 

 may fall short in their chickens which they "counted 

 before they were hatched" they, nevertheless, may pull 

 through without disaster. These doleful expressions of 

 apprehension are not unfamiliar to us. We heard them 

 years ago when the drop of a dollar or two in the value 

 of certain flowers was characterized as ruin, yet the same 

 goods now sail along on an even keel at an average of 

 ten dollars below the values of those days. Some years 

 ago we heard one of the most successful of the up-Hud- 

 son gi-owers say that if he could be assured of fifty cents 

 a hundred for his violet crop, the season through, he 

 would in time become a rich man. If this be a fair 

 statement — and we believe it is — then let the violet 

 growers abandon their speculative bravado in the fall, 

 turn the deaf ear to the plungers, listen to calm advice, 

 cease their frenzy for new high records on prices and 

 their disregard for the logical consequences of these 

 flights and then— stop building for a year or two, until 

 the outlet has reached the capacity oE the product. 

 Above all, be it remembered that impartial observers 

 have repeatedly attributed the violet's worst reverses to 

 its reckless defiance of the buying public at the opening 

 of evcrv season. 



