702 



HOETICTJLTUEE 



June 2, 1917 



HORTICULTURE. 



VOL. XXV 



JUNE 2, 1917 



HO. 22 



FUBUSHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 147 Summer Street, Boston, Mass. 



Telephone, Beach 292 

 WM. J. STEWABT, Editor and Manager 



Uncered as secuud-class matter December b, lUOl, at tbe Post Offlca 

 at BoBtun, Uaas., under tbe Act of Congress of March 3, 1U7U. 



CONTENTS 



Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION— A Beauty Spot 



NOTES ON CULTURE OF FLORISTS' STOCK— Care of 

 Adiantum — Vandas — Baby Ramblers — Dieffenbachias 

 — Plants for Stock — Reminders — John J. M. Farrell 701 



"COLD FEET"— £dwm Jenkins 703 



MOISTURE LOVING PRIMULAS— J^. B. Reardon 703 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— Society of American Flor- 

 ists — Horticultural Society of New York — Meet- 

 ings Next Week — Nassau County Horticultural So- 

 ciety — New Jersey Floricultural Society — American 

 Rose Society — Notes 704 



DAHLIAS AND THEIR CULTURE— iJicftord Vin- 

 cent, Jr 706 



SEED TRADE — To Learn Seed Testing— Defense of 

 the Seedsman 708 



OP INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



Adiantum Glory of Moordrecbt, Illustrated 710 



New Flower Stores 710 



Flowers by Telegraph 711 



NEWS ITEMS FROM EVERYWHERE: 



Chicago, Rochester, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New 

 York, Washington 712 



OBITUARY— Charles H. Fischer— Mrs. Carl Wilk— 

 Alexander Siegel — David I. Saunders 713 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati 715 



New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester, 

 St. Louis 717 



MISCELLANEOUS; 



A Worker Appreciated — 0. 8. Harrison 703 



The Food Question— G. C. Watson 703 



White-Pine Blister Rust 703 



Insecticides: Old Cyclamens 707 



The Outlook for Dutch and Danish Supplies 707 



Catalogues Received 708 



Visitors' Registers 712 



Peony Identities 712 



Precautions Against a Nematode Disease 713 



Forced Fruits, Illustrated 713 



Publications Received — New Corporation 713 



A Question of Piping 722 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 722 



Chile Nitrate 722 



The most extensive and comprehensive 



A great out-door horticultural exhibition ever 



exhibition made in this countiy oioeus on Saturday 



of this week lq Boston. As we go to 

 press the finishing touches are being given to the ex- 

 hibits and it is sutBciently near completion to warrant 

 our advising professional gardeners and the florists from 

 even remote places to make the trip to see it at some 

 time during the next two weeks. The area under can- 

 vas is computed to be seven times the floor space in all 

 the halls in Horticultural Building. We shall not at- 

 tempt any description of the various features now but 

 next week's issue will give full details. Come and see 

 for yourself. 



Ed. Jenkins does not agree with Hoeti- 

 "Business culture's attitude on the much disputed 

 as usual" "business as usual" proposition and 



promptly "gets after us" with characteris- 



tic Jenkins aggressive earnestness in criticism of our edi- 

 torial note of last week in which we expressed the hope 

 that the example set by the Lenox Horticultural Society, 

 in discontinuing its exhibitions because of the war con- 

 ditions, would not be generally followed by other socie- 

 ties. Mr. Jenkins makes out a good case as to the exist- 

 ing situation in the Berkshires and we agi-ee that the 

 Lenox gardeners are the best judges of what is the 

 better course for them to follow in the present lament- 

 able exigency. 



We do not wish to be understood as disputing 

 the wisdom of their decision in particular. What 

 we do deplore, however, is the underlying principle in 

 much that has been advocated by speakers and writers 

 on the question of retrenclmient on certain luxuries, so- 

 called, and which Mr. Jenkins frankly admits to have 

 been one main reason for the abandonment of the Lenox 

 exhibitions. It is true that civilization's very life de- 

 pends upon the outcome of this stupendous world con- 

 flict and we should be ready to make any and all neces- 

 sary sacrifices in order that the hard-won results of 

 centuries of humanity's struggle upward may not be 

 swept away. Intelligent economy, the elimination of 

 waste and a thorough realization of the gravity of the 

 work before us are essential but we must not lose our 

 heads and strike a blow at that which constitutes the 

 very essence of civilization. 



It has been said tliat civilization is but a thin 

 veneer underneath which will be found only the 

 cold-blooded, pitiless savage and the truth of 

 this assertion would seem to be proven by the 

 inhuman atrocities which in Europe have marked the 

 tliree past years. Must we, too, follow suit and divest 

 ourselves of the refinements and humanizing influences 

 that help to make life worth living, cease to "feed the 

 aesthetic soul of man," as the late William E. Smith 

 was wont to say, devote our energies primarily to eat- 

 ing and killing, and thus give the lie to the scriptural 

 injunction, "Man shall not live by bread alone" ? 



We submit that there never has been a time 

 when flowers and gardens and horticultural exhibitions 

 were more seriously needed in this country than during 

 the period through which we are now passing. Whether 

 they are technically up to previous standards or whether 

 prizes are offered or not, is immaterial if only we shall 

 be "doing our bit" to stem the retrograde movement 

 which threatens to overwhelm the world. History shows 

 tliat Boston and Massachusetts did their full share in 

 the stem realities of the Intter conflict of '61-'65. The 

 length of that straggle was in no way influenced by the 

 course which the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 pursued while it lasted but on the other hand it is rea- 

 sonable to assume that the activities which Mr. Jen- 

 kins seems to regard as having been frivolous and ill- 

 timed did serve in some degi'ee as an antithesis to the 

 demoralizing and brutalizing influences of those cruel 

 years. It is also doubtless true that to its courageous 

 persistence in "business as usual" under all circum- 

 stances is due the uninterrujited pre-eminence of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society among its sister 

 societies everywhere and of the people in its particular 

 section in the most refining of all arts. Let us stand 

 our ground, continue to educate the people in the love 

 of flowers and sliow the world that Horticulture has 

 not been and shall not be stampeded. We can take a 

 lesson from France, where, despite the privations and 

 terrible stress which the people have suffered a rose 

 congress with plans for two years' trials is to open this 

 summer. 



