788 



HORTICULTUBE 



December 5, 1914 



MORTICUI TURE 



VOL XX 



DECEMBER 5, 1914 



NO. 23 



l-LUI-lsHEU WEEKLY BV 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 11 Hamilton Place, Boston, Mass. 



Telepbone, Oxford tBZ. 

 WM. J. STEWART. Eilltor and HaDaser. 



SL'BSCRIFTION RATES: 



One Tear, In advance, $1.00; To Foreign Countries, $2.00; To 



Canada. $1.60. 



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Per Inch. 30 Inches to page $1.00 



Discounts on Contracts for consecutive insertions, as follows: 



One month (4 times), 6 per cent.; thre« months (13 times), 10 

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Page and half page space, special rates on application. 



■ntered as second-claaa matter December 8. 1901, at the Poat Offlce 

 at Beaton, Mass., onder tbe Act of Conicreaa of March 3, 1879. 



CONTENTS P'^se 



COVER ILLUSTRATION— Simplicity in Flower Ar- 

 rangement 



NOTES ON CULTURE OF FLORISTS' STOCK— Aza- 

 leas for Christmas — Care of Violets — Christmas Talk 

 —Hybrid Perpetuals for Easter — Lilies for Christ- 

 mas — Christmas Greens — John J. M. FarrcU 785 



ARENARIA— Tficftard Ko(/!e— Illustrated 78C 



CARYOPTERIS MASTACANTHUS— i?u6er< M. Can- 

 ning 786 



BEUATY IS WEALTH— C. S. Harrison 787 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES; 



Society of American Florists — National Association 



of Gardeners 790 



American Sweet Pea Society — Florists' Club of 



Philadelphia — St. Louis Clubs and Societies 791 



Maryland Week in Baltimore 797 



GROW NURSERY STOCK IN THE UNITED STATES 

 — T. n. Hatfield 792 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS FOR EXHIBITION— WiHiam 

 Yert 793 



OBITUARY— David Y. Mellis 794 



SEED TRADE— Chicago Seed Notes 798 



THE POTASH SUPPLY— ff. A. Huston 798 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS— Simplicity 



in Floral Arrangement 797 



The Retailers' Business Calendar 800 



Flowers by Telegraph 801 



.Altar Decoration for Pan-American Celebration, 



Illustrated 802 



New Flower Stores— Christmas Orders by Telephone 803 



NEWS ITEMS FROM EVERYWHERE— Knoxville, 



Tenn 791 



Boston. San Francisco 802 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati 805 



Knoxville, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, 



St. Louis 807 



Washington 812 



DURING RECESS— Chicago Bowlers— N. Y. Florists' 

 Bowling Club 812 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Personal 789 



Transplanting American Holly 789 



A Modern Hitchings House — Illustrated 789 



News Notes 789-801-803-812 



Business Troubles 794 



Visitors' Register 814 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 814 



Patents Granted 814 



Judging from the freedom with which 

 Valueless .some of our generously disposed hortieul- 

 dlplomas turn] societies and florists' clubs are dis- 

 pensing certificates of merit and other 

 diplomas of high degree to all sorts of exhibits it will 



not be long before all the value of these once-prized 

 honors will have vanished. There w^as a time when 

 such winnings were proudly displayed by a grower aa 

 indisputable proof of exceptional skill. Now, as passed 

 around in some places, they may mean that or they may 

 mean nothing more than a pleasant little compliment on 

 the part of the judges. It is not well to cheapen such 

 trophies until there is no longer any incentive to work 

 for them. If j'ou give the highest award in your power 

 to some common production, what form of outstanding 

 approval can you bestow upon an exhibit of remarkable 

 merit? We think there is room for vast improvement in 

 the methods of some organizations in this respect if they 

 expect their diplomas to be regarded as worth the paper 

 on which they are printed. 



An interesting note on tbe foreign 



The fertilizer |;„ta^h supply will be found in another 



problem column of this paper. As the writer 



of that communication truly says, 

 '"the interruption of traffic has not made American 

 soils or crops any less hungTj' for potash," and ex- 

 planations of the causes of the present scarcity of this 

 material will not satisfy the plant's hunger. Among 

 the many effects, direct or indirect, of the war in 

 Europe none have so important a bearing upon the hor- 

 ticultural industries of our country as this almost com- 

 plete stoppage of the potasli sliipmenis from Germany. 

 At present it is true that a small quantity is coming 

 forward and these receipts have been looked upon as 

 indicating an approaching return to normal conditions 

 but when we consider that at this season of the year the 

 (lennan Kali people should be shipping about 175,000 

 tons a month the arrival of a few tons more or less is of 

 small moment. So the problem is still with us, a minor 

 matter commercially as compared with the needs of 

 the great agricultural interests, but still serious enough 

 in horticulture to cause much trouble if other sources of 

 this indispensable plant food are not found. 



The American people have been 



Potash resources of very wa.steful of their natural 



the United States resources, and in none more than 



in the rich top soil of their 

 lands, the Ici-tility of wbieb has !)een exhausted, one 

 section after tiie otiiei'. From now on great crops can 

 only be assured by more scientific culture and restoring 

 to the soil those essential elements of wJiich it has been 

 robbed so recklessly. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potash 

 must be had for this purpose. All these elements are 

 present in enormous quantities, the great prolilem being 

 to get them in practical available shape. The Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture at Washington has been working to 

 this end for some time past and with results more (u- less 

 encouraging, even to the extent that it is confidently 

 asserted that it is a matter of time only until there will 

 have been developed a great American industry on the 

 Pacific coast capable of producing over six times the 

 present consumption of soluble potash salts in the 

 United States, or something more than the world's 

 present total production. An enterprise at Searles 

 Lake, California, jiromises that when appliances now in 

 course of construction are completed the output will be 

 between 30,000 and 40,000 tons a year. The most 

 promising American source of potash, however, accord- 

 ing to official information sent out this week by tbe 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, is the annual crop of 

 giant kelps aggregating an area of nearly four hundred 

 square miles. Full details on this and other American 

 fertilizer resources are civen in the report of the Bureau 

 i)f Soils, which has just been issued. 



