884 



HORTICULTURE 



June 17, 1911 



HAIL INSURANCE. 



A paper tiy John G. Esler before The New 

 York Florists' Club. 



What General Sherman said of war, 

 applies as well to hail. A few weeks 

 ago I visited St. Louis and saw some 

 of the disaster caused by the storm of 

 April thirteenth, last. A breakage of 

 over 37,000 square feet of glass, near- 

 ly all double-thick, out of 50,000 feet, 

 in one range, will give you some idea 

 of what hail can do when it gets busy. 

 This storm was three miles wide by 

 forty miles long, and broke seventy- 

 five percent, of the glass in the fifty 

 or more greenhouses in its path. And 

 The Florists' Hail Association paid for 

 nearly all of this loss without a quiver. 



As to the formation of hail, nearly 

 every scientist has a theory all his 

 own, but in my estimation they have 

 about as much evidence to convince 

 the man from Missouri, as the various 

 gentlemen who describe the golden 

 streets of The New Jerusalem, that 

 their guess is correct. 



It would tire you to enumerate the 

 freaks of hail storms, but suffice it to 

 say that the storm that does the most 

 damage is the one that has wind 

 enough to carry the stones so that 

 they hit the glass at right angles. 



Various devices of protection have 

 been tried but nearly all have proved 

 either too costly or too cumbersome 

 to be practical, and hail insurance 

 still remains the best and easiest way 

 for the person who owns a glass 

 house to recoup himself for damage 

 by hail. Therefore it will not be ir- 

 relevant to say a word or two about 

 the mutual benefit conferred by The 

 Florists' Hail Association of America. 



It is nearly twenty-five years ago 

 since the S. A. F. christened The 

 Florists' Hail Association, and placed 

 the infant upon its doorstep, with the 

 admonition to go forth into the world 

 and be a Good Samaritan, but on no 

 account to come back and trouble its 

 dad. On June first, 1S87, the State of 

 New Jersey adopted the orphan and 

 for twenty-four years it has gathered 

 experience, and the fact has been de- 

 veloped that a majority of the own- 

 ers of glass are very much more in- 

 terested in hail insurance after, than 

 before a hail storm. 



Since the day of its incorporation 

 this association has never paid a dol- 

 lar for attorney's fees, notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that up to date over 

 $213,000 has been disbursed to its 

 members for glass broken by hail. 

 Likewise, it has never paid a single 

 cent for office rent, fuel or light, for 

 its officials. And here comes our 

 loudest whoop. Not a dime has been 

 paid to an agent for commissions. We 

 employ no agents. We only do busi- 

 ness in the State of New Jersey, and 

 are not amenable to any other state. 



He who wishes to come or rather 

 sends to New Jersey for hail insur- 

 ance, can procure the same without 

 any rakeoff to anyone. Reformers 

 take notice, and when you plan to 

 eliminate the middleman, think of The 

 Florists' Hail Association as the one 

 organization tliat has wiped that in- 

 dividual off the slate. 



By prompt payment of losses and 

 straight-forward dealing The F. H. A. 

 has won an enviable place in the in- 

 surance world, and with its sixteen 

 hundred members, insuring over thir- 

 ty-five million square feet of glass, 

 and a reserve fund of over twenty-five 

 thousand dollars for a backbone, it 



can afford to sit quietly by and wait 

 until a hail storm drives the unin- 

 sured into its fold. 



In conclusion, allow me to advise: 

 Don't shingle your hot house with 

 single-thick glass and be sure to lock 

 the door before the horse is stolen. 



GREAT HAIL STORM IN MARY- 

 LAND. 



On the evening of June 12, while the 

 members of the Gardeners' and Flo- 

 rists' Club of Baltimore were assem- 

 bled transacting committee business 

 for the coming convention of the S. 

 A. F. and O. H., a terrific electric 

 storm started, and made great havoc 

 among many of the greenhouses of the 

 members. Telephone calls came re- 

 porting great losses from hail. Isaac 

 H. Moss of Govans, Md., who has two 

 extensive plants, a mile or so apart, 

 had the glass in all his houses com- 

 pletely riddled. Many valuable plants 

 were also destroyed. Mr. Moss esti- 

 mates his loss at about $8000. F. 

 Bauer, Govans, also is a heavy loser. 

 Mr. Bauer had left in the morning for 

 New York, to sail tor Europe the next 

 day. M. Thau, Govans, suffered 

 severely. In less than two hours after 

 the damage, Mr. Thau had given his 

 order to a dealer for the replenishing 

 of his glass. William Paterson, 

 Govans, had five greenhouses riddled. 

 At the same place the conservatories 

 of Andrew Anderson, Hans An- 

 derson and Andrew Bartell were 

 damaged, the loss being thous- 

 ands of dollars. Greenhouses at 

 Ruxton and at Pikesville were badly 

 damaged. Stevenson Bros., who had 

 just completed two fine greenhouses 

 near Towson, had nearly every glass 

 broken, and they also had loss at their 

 houses at Govans. Edward A. Seide- 

 witz's Mt. Washington greenhouses, 

 were greatly damaged. Floral View 

 Nursery lost $2000 and George Cook 

 $800. James Hamilton, Mt. Wash- 

 ington, who is a large rose 

 grower, suffered greatly by loss or 

 complete destruction of plants as well 

 as glass. He estimates his loss as 

 over $10,000. John L. Waggoner and 

 H. L. Kline, near Towson, had glass 

 demolished, and many plants in their 

 houses were destroyed. At Hampton, 

 one of the finest colonial places in the 

 state, there was great destruction of 

 the fine old trees, the beautiful drive- 

 way being completely strewn with 

 trees. At the greenhouses of Mrs. T. 

 Harrison Garrett, in which is a mag- 

 nificent collection of rare ferns and 

 tropical plants, great damage was 

 done. 



In the track of the hail storm the 

 wind was terrific, and fruit and other 

 trees were uprooted by the hundred. It 

 was the most destructive storm in this 

 state for over twenty years. In many 

 cases out-door crops in gardens and 

 fields are completely ruined. 



DAMAGE BY HAIL IN MICHIGAN. 



On Sunday night, June 11, a de- 

 structive hurricane swept over a large 

 part of the state, ruining gardens, un- 

 roofing buildings, etc., and, in the 

 vicinity of Flint, where it was accom- 

 panied by hail, inflicting great dam- 

 age on glass structures. 



One of the heaviest losses sustained 

 was that of Hasselbring, the florist, 

 whose greenhouses are located west 

 of the city, and everything is com- 

 pletely ruined. 



There are 13 buildings, which have 

 100,000 square feet of glass, and 50,000 

 square feet of this was broken. The 

 lights in the buildings on the north 

 side were all broken and also 17 

 lights in the windows of the resi- 

 dence were demolished. The loss, 

 which cannot be estimated at this 

 time, will run into thousands of dol- 

 lars. Thirty thousand carnation plants 

 were ruined and also 20 acres of fruit 

 crops. The tomato plants which were 

 in two houses are a total loss. Most 

 of the damage was caused by the hail. 

 This is the third time in seven years 

 that the greenhouses have been dam- 

 aged by storms. Harry Schott, who 

 conducts a small greenhouse and also 

 raises garden truck on 15 acres near 

 the Hasselbring greenhouses, suffered 

 heavy loss, all the garden truck being 

 ruined. 



OTHER STORMS. 



Fostoria, O. — A violent hail storm 

 broke about 5000 feet of glass in the 

 greenhouses of the Fostoria Floral Co., 

 on June 3. 



Detroit, Mich. — A severe storm on 

 June 4 did much damage to the coun- 

 try about here. The Alma greenhouse 

 suffered a loss of about $1000. 



Boone, la. — A very severe storm did 

 much damage in this section. L. Loeh- 

 rer lost 5000 lights of glass, and the 

 damage at the greenhouses of I. Kem- 

 ble was considerable. 



NEW AZALEAS OF MERIT. 



In a letter written by August Hae- 

 rens from Italy, on May 21, Mr. 

 Haerens has the following to say: 



"We took first prize, golden medal, 

 in Florence, notwithstanding that 

 most of the extra fine varieties of 

 azaleas were spoiled on account of 

 delay on the road; it has taken 

 twelve days for exhibits shipped by 

 grand express from Ghent to Florence 

 (about same distance as N. Y. to 

 Chicago). We exhibited the following: 

 Lady Roosevelt, Easter Greetings, 

 Haerens' Lorraine, Winfried Haerens 

 and Mile. Suzanne Haerens, double 

 pure white; ten other sorts intended 

 for exhibiting arrived spoiled by the 

 long transit. It was wonderful how 

 perfect Easter Greetings, Haerens' 

 Lorraine and Winfried Haerens un- 

 packed after thirteen days' confine- 

 ment, traveling a distance of some 

 1370 kilometers. Please make a note 

 of this and let the trade that is in- 

 terested know. Of the Lady Roose- 

 velts only one plant unpacked in 

 good condition." 



Messrs. Rolker of New York, who 

 are the American agents for Aug. 

 Haerens. state that several of the 

 above mentioned azaleas were shown 

 at the National Flower Show in Bos- 

 ton, but escaped the scrutiny of the 

 judges and consequently received no 

 special recognition there. 



Washington, D. C. — Every year the 

 ceremony of decorating the graves of 

 the Confederate dead in Arlington 

 National Cemetery is carried out. 

 These exercises took place this year 

 on Sunday, June 11, the hottest day 

 the Capital has seen, it is said, at this 

 date in 34 years. A wreath from 

 President Taft was among the floral 

 tributes placed on the graves of the 

 264 Confederate soldiers buried in Ar- 

 lington. 



