Jamiary 21, 1911 



HORTICULTURE 



73 



ARE WE PROGRESSIVE? 



(A paper re;icl before the Fl 'i-ists' Club of 

 Philndelphia by S. S. Skidelsky.) 



If I could prove to the satisfaction of 

 the craft that at the bottom of most of 

 our failures lies the inexorable cause 

 of ignorance, inefficiency and a disre- 

 gard for the little details which go a 

 good way towards the make-up of the 

 sum and substance of a successful 

 business undertaking. — I should indeed 

 be proud of my achievement. I shall 

 not venture, however, to treat the sub- 

 ject in an exhaustive manner for fear 

 that I might fail in the attempt. 



With your permission I will read a 

 letter which appeared a few months 

 ago in one of our trade papers. It 

 read, "Can you tell me what is the mat- 

 ter with my violets? I am enclosing 

 a few leaves, and if you can give me 

 any information regarding them, it 

 will be appreciated. I have a green- 

 house 22 X 70, chiefly in violets, and 

 there is something wrong with them. 

 We also have our sweet peas in the 

 same house, and I am enclosing some 

 of them. They are not doing as well 

 as they might. Will you tell me what 

 to do with them? I am located in 

 Eastern Missouri." And this from a 

 citizen of Missouri, who, according to 

 the popular belief, should have been 

 "shown" before he undertook the grow- 

 ing of violets and sweet peas — not af- 

 ter. I need hardly add that the Mis- 

 sourian in question represents a type 

 not at all uncommon amongst us. 



This Missoiiiran might as well have 

 undertaken the construction of an 

 aeroplane or the preparation of a 

 brief in an important case before the 

 Supreme Court. The results, to be 

 sure, would have proven equally unsat- 

 isfactory. Can we imagine, foi- a mo- 

 ment, a competent machinist, a cabi- 

 net-maker, or an attorney or a physi- 

 cian doing their work on the mere as- 

 sumption that if one does "not suc- 

 ceed, he must try and try again?" 



"The florist business looked mignty 

 good to me," remarked an ex-coal deal- 

 er in a western town, one day, to me. 

 "I sold out my business," he continued, 

 "and built a range of six houses. Not 

 knowing a thing about growing, I en- 

 gaged a man, who claimed he knew it 

 all, with the result that I lost heavily 

 the first season. The reason following, 

 I hired another fellow, a carnation 

 grower, and planted four of my houses 

 to carnations, and two with miscella- 

 neous bedding stock. As bad luck should 

 have it, we had a dry season, the 

 plants made poor growth in the field, 

 and when benched they began to wilt 

 and to stem-rot. Neither of us knew 

 what to do about it. Another failure 

 stared me in the face, but I was de- 

 termined to make the best of it, and so 

 put in a batch of lettuce to help pay 

 for the coal at least, let alone monev- 

 making. Well, sir." concluded the 

 would-be florist, "if you know of any- 

 body looking for greenhouses, please 

 send him around. I'll sell out cheap." 



Now, here is a case of a man. who. 

 because the florists' business looked 

 good to him, did not at all hesitate to 

 dispose of his coal business, and to 

 embark in something he did not know 

 anything about. Can we imagine a 

 carpet-weaver or a doctor undertak- 

 ing their respective work without any 

 training, but simply because the car- 

 pet business or the M. D. profession 

 looked good to them? Hardly. But 

 horticulture, evidently, puts no obsta- 



cles in the way of the novice. On the 

 contrary, it seems to allure coal deal- 

 ers, carpenters, machinists, clerks and, 

 if I may change Milton's verse, it in- 

 vites all, "All hope cherish, ye who 

 enter here." Men and women, too, 

 who know no more about flower or 

 plant culture, than they do about 

 bridge building, often embark unhesi- 

 tatingly in the florists' business, trust- 

 ing to mere pluck or luck, with the re- 

 sult, as might be expected, of failure 

 in the end. 



The thought has often occurred to 

 me that but few professions or trades, 

 if any, are being conducted on the "hit 

 or miss" principle to the extent ia 

 which the florist business is being 

 conducted. To be sure, we have very 

 competent and able growers every- 

 where. We can point to men who have 

 achieved succtss because of their abil- 

 ity and foresight. There are rose 

 Igrowers, carnation growers, plants- 

 men, specialists in every branch, many 

 of whom are well-known to all of us. 

 But such men. we must admit, consti- 

 tute but a handful as compared with 

 the number of incompetents. I will 

 hazard the assertion that to ever/ stic- 

 cessful carnation or rose grower, to 

 every man who knows not onlv how 

 to do things, but why and when to do 

 them as well, there are dozens at least, 

 who grope in the dark, who know 

 nothing about soils, about the use and 

 abuse of fertilizers, about the require- 

 ments of plants, about the proper 

 handling of bulbs and seeds; who, in 

 brief, are utterly unfit for the work 

 they are doing. My own observations, 

 during nearly a quarter of a century 

 of road life, among all classes and 

 conditions of florists, ha"e led me to 

 but one conclusion, and that is, that 

 oiir business, notwithstanding the tre- 

 mendous progress it has made, kioi'.s 

 in those fundamental eli ments. whi:h 

 are so necessary in order to insure its 

 permanent healthy growth. The florist 

 who makes a failure of his roses, for 

 example, and cannot diagnose the 

 cause of the failure in order to apply 

 the remedy, or to nip the very failure 

 in the bud, proves conclusively that 

 he had not studied his trade or profes- 

 sion. In other words, he has not the 

 theoretical knowledge or scientific ba- 

 sis upon which to work out his practi- 

 cal results. 



On the other hand, the man who 

 makes a success of his plants and is 

 i-qually at sea to explain the whys and 

 wherefores, is no more to be commend- 

 ed than he, who, through mere chance 

 or accident, hits upon a streak of 

 good luck. The "hit or miss' principle 

 accounts equally for the results in 

 both cases. It was a "miss" with one, 

 and a "hit" with the other, while tbe 

 law of cause and effect underlying 

 both, is a mystery or a closed book 

 to either. 



The question naturally arises, Why 

 do people venture into a trade or pro- 

 fession, the essential knowledge of 

 which they do not possess? Why give 

 up a paying coal business and build 

 greenhouses, without first mastering 

 the art of growing? Why so many 

 failures everywhere, while those real- 

 ly successful, because of a thorough 

 training, intelligent observation, de- 

 duction and application, are compara- 

 tively few? Is it because the florist 

 business "looks so mighty good?" 

 Granted. Then that much more reason 

 wh.v wo should bend all our energies 



and put forth our best efforts towards 

 eq\iipping ourselves in every way in 

 order to build our success upon a more 

 solid foundation. 



The farmer who tilled the soil for 

 generations past, and who thought he 

 Knew all about it, as his fathers did 

 before him, is just beginning to real- 

 ize that he has yet much to learn, 

 that his primitive methods of farm- 

 ing will not do, if he is to keep pace 

 with the progress of the times. In 

 this connection it may not be amiss to 

 quote a few lines from an article of 

 Gantt, in the Engineering Journal, 

 having a direct bearing upon the sub- 

 ject under consideration. "In the 

 United States our superb national re- 

 sources have enabled us to make phe- 

 nomenal progress without regard to 

 thi' teachings of science, and in many 

 cases in spite of our neglect of them. 

 But we have reached a point where we 

 must recognize that the proper appli- 

 cation of science to industry is of vi- 

 tal importance to the future prosperity 

 of the country." 



The progressive farmer has evident- 

 ly arrived at the same conclusion, if 

 we are to judge by the number of 

 farmer boys filling the halls of the 

 state agricultural colleges, the farm- 

 ers' institutes, the agricultural depart- 

 ments of the high schools, the Uni- 

 versity extension courses, etc. The ex- 

 perimental stations established in "va- 

 rious states, in most cases as a result 

 of the pressure brought to bear by the 

 farming element upon the state legis- 

 latures, is but an additional proof that 

 the farmer is not only awakening, but 

 that he is wide-awal e to his interests. 

 He is not content to let "well enough" 

 alone, but wants to accomplish the 

 best results possible. He wants to 

 know something about the chemistry 

 of the soil, about the ways and means 

 of improving it, about diversified 

 crops: in brief, he realizes that in or- 

 der to increase and to improve his pro- 

 duct, he must combine brain and 

 brawn, and work out his problems 

 upon scientific principles. 



In his annual report. Secretary of 

 Agriculture Wilson tells us that "since 

 October, 1908. the number of insti- 

 tutions in the United States giving in- 

 struction in agriculture has increased 

 from 545 to 875. Departments of agri- 

 cultural instruction have been estab- 

 lished in thirty-eight public high 

 schools. Two hundred and fourteen 

 institutions now give teachers' train- 

 ing courses in agriculture. Farmers' 

 institutes are now organized in every 

 state. The attendance at the institute 

 meetings was 2,395,908. Ninety-nine 

 movable schools of agriculture were 

 held with an attendance of C5,977." 

 These are interesting facts. 



Now. . what the farmer has accom- 

 plished or is striving to accomplish, 

 should not be beyond the reach of the 

 horticulturist as well. If the farmer 

 deems it wise, and to bis interests to 

 send his son to an agricultural college, 

 and to take advantage of a university 

 extension course, often brought to his 

 very doors, as has been the case in 

 some western states, why should the 

 horticulturist neglect his opportunity 

 to broaden out and to equip the rising 

 generation with a more thorough 

 knowledge of the details of the pro- 

 fession in which they are engaged? 

 Our business has grown to gigantic 

 |)roportions, and the capital invested 

 is bevond the dream of the florist of 



