666 



HORTICULT URt 



May 6, 1911 



horticulture: 



TOL. XIII WAY 6, l»ll no. 18 



PLBI^ISHED WEEKLY BY 



HOR.TICULTUR.I£ PU<3UISftING CO. 

 II Hamilton Place. Boston, Mass. 



Telephone, Oxford 292. 

 WH. J. STEWART, Editor and Manaser. 



Entered as second-elasB matter December 8, 1!)04, at tbe Post Office at 

 Huston, Mass., under tbe Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



OONTKNTS Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION — A San Francisco Flower 

 Store. 



FRUITS AND VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS— Canker 

 on Melons — Muscat Vines in Flower — Packing 

 Peaches — Ice Boxes — G. H. Penson 665 



MANETTIA BICOLOR— George F. Stewart 665 



SEASONABLE NOTES ON CULTURE OF FLORISTS' 

 STOCK — Acacias — Bedding Plants — Carnation Stock 

 —Orchids— Dahlias— Stevia—/o/!,i / M Farrell 667 



ARNOLD ARBORETUM BULLETIN 668 



FLOWER SHOW AT PENNA. STATE COLLEGE 668 



MENDEL'S LAW AS RELATED TO HEREDITY AND 

 BREEDING— Dr. Herrmann Decker 669 



PENTSTEMON GE.XTIANOIDES— Dlustrated 669 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES: 



Florists' Club of Philadelphia — Booming the Gladio- 

 lus — American Rose Society — Detroit Florist Club — 

 Horticultural Society of New York — Cincinnati Hor- 

 ticultural Society — Ladies' Society of American 

 Florists — St. Louis Fall Show — Notes 670 



OF I.XTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



Retail Florists in New Orleans, p, A. Chopin — A 

 Model Florists' Office, lllus. — A San Francisco Store. 671 

 Steamer Departures — Condemn "Crepe Pulling".... 680 

 New Flower Stores — Flowers by Telegraph 681 



DURING RECESS: 

 Breck Salesmen — Chicago Bowlers — New York 

 Bowlers — N. Y. vs. Madison — Cincinnati Bowlers.... 672 



OBITUARY: 

 Theodore 3. Strickler — Herbert S. Price — George 

 Engel — Mrs. William Winter 674 



SEED TRADE: 

 Hearing at Harrisburg — The Penna. Seed Bill — Notes 676 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston. Buffalo, Chicago 683 



Cincinnati, Detroit, New York. St. Louis 685 



Philadelphia 691 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Brooklyn's Botanical Garden 668 



An Enemy of the Scale — An Aphine Demonstration. 668 



Catalogues Received — Incorporated 671 



Boston Notes 672 



British Carnation Scale of Points — /. j", Bninton • ■ ■ • 674 



Protest on Hyacinth Bulb Duties Sustained 674 



Chicago Notes — Philadelphia Notes 674 



Personal 681 



News Notes 672-691-693-694 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 692 



Our reading notes show that horticul- 

 Interest ture and its branch, floriculture, are 



the colleges making good progress as live depart- 

 ments in the State College of Pennsyl- 

 Tania, as is also the case in a number of Agricultural 

 Colleges in other States. Now is the time, when the 

 students are evincing an interest in such work and the 

 governing bodies are recognizing its claims, for the 

 friends of horticulture to get busy and insist upon a 

 reasonable .share of the appropriations being devoted 

 to practical horticultural teaching and demonstration. 

 One year ago, last week in April, the 

 A visitor cntij'e country, more particularly the 



to be dreaded soiitliern and western sections, suffered 

 severely from a sudden freeze of tin- 

 paralleled ferocity, for so late a date. Considering the 

 backward .season this year and the slowness with which 

 spring verdure has materialized we have been hoping 

 that we should be spared the ravages of this almost 



annually-recurring spring pest, with its disheartening 

 accompaniment of blasted fruit prospects, as well as 

 ruined wistarias, magnolias and other prized gems of the 

 early garden. But now, as we write, comes the news of 

 a devastating freeze with snow in its train, extending 

 over tlie entire west and bound east. It is to be hoped 

 that this unwelcome visitor may be dismantled and 

 broken up before it has done any serious damage. We 

 can all agree with Shakespeare as to the incongruity of 

 '■'a snow in May's new-fangled mirth." A frozen land- 

 scape in the time of cherry blossoms is the worst kind of 

 a misfit. 



Mr. Chopin, in his paper on the flower 

 An ever- trade of New Orleans wliich appears in 

 narrowing this issue, touches on some things that are 



sphere not exclusive to that city. New Orleans 

 and other cities similarly dependent upon 

 remote sources for their supply of cut flowers are just 

 passing through the experiences that many other places 

 formerly so situated have gone through and the outcome 

 will, in every case, undoubtedly be the same — the estab- 

 lishment of local means of supply and a gradual with- 

 drawal of the regular support heretofore extended, of 

 necessity, to distant shipping centres. Any place where 

 there is a considerable flower-buying ptiblic is bound to 

 become restive, sooner or later, under the constraint of 

 imported flowers and this fact, constantly forced upo"a 

 the attention of the shipping trade, is one of the most 

 disturbing features of the wholesale dealers' existence. 

 While it is undeniable that the now defunct flower-ship- 

 ping industry of certain eastern centres did most of the 

 digging for its own grave, yet the movement everywhere 

 must be in the direction of shorter and shorter distances 

 lietween producer ai:d consumer, regardless of care in 

 packing and attention to minute detail, and, as shipping 

 demands gradually narrow down to special emergencies 

 and scarce items, the responsibility of ttsing up the 

 ]}roduct must fall eventually upon the home market. 



We have always leaned towards the 

 An expensive conviction that the selling market was 



salesman a costly place at any season of the year 



for a flower grower in which to spend 

 much of his time. The most prosperous growers will, as 

 a rule, be found right at home watcliing every detail 

 of their growing establishment and fully alive to the 

 fact that in regularly absenting themselves from the 

 same they are paying a ruinously extravagant price for 

 the privilege of being salesman. Especially at a time 

 like the present when the plans and foundations for next 

 season's business must be put in motion and when, with 

 overstocked markets, goods are only unloaded in bulk 

 at sacrifice figtires we cannot see how any grower who 

 aims to lead in the quality of his product can afford to 

 devote the best hours of the day in clerking in the mar- 

 ket and leaving the conduct of his place to subordinates. 

 Thoughtful proprietors are coming to realize this fact 

 more clearly than heretofore, Judging from the con- 

 stantly increasing number who are adopting the system 

 of sending their goods to be disposed of by a regular 

 salesman working on a salary or a commission. We 

 refer now particularly to the Boston markets but have 

 no doubt the tendency will be noted elsewhere in greater 

 or less degree. We have no prejudices in the matter 

 and have no intention of making a plea for any par- 

 ticular interest. There may yet be perfected much bet- 

 ter and more economical methods of marketing cut flow- 

 ers than liave thus far been tried. We would simply 

 put forth the proposition that the grower who does jtis- 

 tice, personally, to his home establishment will find very 

 little time at his disposal for the haggle and barter of 

 the city market place. 



