546 



HOHT I CULTURE 



November 24, 1917 



HORTICULTURt: 



TOL XXVI NOVEMBER 24. I9I7 NO. 21 



rrilI.l-IIKI> WKKKI.Y ll\ 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 147 Sttmmer Street, Boston, Mass. 



Eat' >•■ iiiattcr DrcembtT K, IIKM, at tliv Puat Ofllrc 



■ I l...i.i..... y..i^>... uiuliT (ho .Art of ConKri'lia o( Murcli 3, 1H7U. 



CONTENTS ^ P^ 



COVKU lU.rSTUATION- Hill of Dahlia Ami narlllot. 



TI.MELY RL.MINUKUS— Madc-Up Plants— Stock Plants 

 for Next Winter — Repairs and PalntlnK — John J. M. 

 t'arrcll 545 



THE S. A. F. PinLlClTY CA.MPAIGN 545 



NEW YORK KFOKKATION OF HORTICULTURAL 

 SOCIETIES AND FLORAL CLUBS 547 



CLUBS .Wn SOCIETIES— Chrysanthemum Society of 

 America — Gardeners' and Florists' Club of Boston — 

 Lenox Ilorlicnltural Society — Meetings Next Week — 

 Holyoke and Northampton Florists' and Gardeners' 

 Club — Worcester Florists Organize — Nassau County 

 Horticultural Society— Lancaster County Florists' 

 Club — Chicago Florists' Club — The Gardeners' Con- 

 vention — American Rose Society — Westchester and 



Fairfield Horticultural Society 548-550 



New York and New Jersey Asso. of Plant Growers.. 561 



COOPERATION— if ic^ian/ Vincent, Jr 551 



SEED TRADE— Grass Seeds— Wholesale Seedmen's 

 League 552 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



New Flower Stores 554 



OBITUARY— Wilford B. Woodruff- William B. Hall- 

 James Dohertv 555 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 

 Boston. Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, New York, 



Philadelphia 557 



Pittsburgh. Rochester. St. Louis 559 



LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS: 

 New York. Pittsburgh. Chicago. Boston, Rochester, 

 Cleveland. St. Louis, Philadelphia 560-561 



MISCELLANEOUS:. 



Is Y'our Business Drab?—!,. W. C. Tuthill 545 



Primula La Lorraine — Lime Should be Ordered Now 545 



Christmas Poinsettias — Illustrated 548 



Washington's Little Joke 554 



News Notes 555 



Visitors' Register — New Corporations 561 



The Coal Emergency— K. C. Kerr 562 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 562 



'J' he coal situation seems to Lave 



The reached an acute stage. At least it 



coal exigency \s so regarded by representative men 



in the greenhouse industrj', for it is 

 proposed that a delegation of them shall go to Wash- 

 ington to discuss the situation with the powers that be 

 and impress upon them how vital it is to the men who 

 cultivate crops under glass that they be permitted to 

 have enough coal to prevent their crops from freezing 

 up and themselves and their dependents from ruin. 

 Factories may close down for a week or several weeks on 

 account of fuel shortage and then open again in perfect 

 order but it takes only a few minute's freeze to wipe 

 out the entire savings of a lifetime when invested in 

 greenhouse stock. Doubtless a straightforward pres- 

 entation of the hardship that would be thus forced 

 upon a beneficent industry will assure humane consid- 

 eration and a rea.sonable immunity from the threat- 

 ened calamity. We earnestly hope so. 



The average men in public life, and 

 The those assuming character as educators 



signs of the of the people seem often to be woefully 

 times lacking in any adequate conception of 

 how essential flowers are to normal ex- 

 istence or a commensurate estimate of the good that 

 flowers can do. That a fuller realization of the right- 



ful place of these benofnctions of Nature in civilized 

 life may bo awakened in the men who aim to mold 

 l>iibiic ojiinion, and their use l>y nil the poojile in- 

 creased, is tlie primary incentive liehind the vigorous 

 campaign now being prosecuted by the S. A. F. Pub- 

 licity Committee. But while the collecting and dis- 

 bursing of lifty thousand dollars to help strenglhen and 

 jjopuhirize tlie use of flowers is in itself a great and 

 most CDinmendable undertaking yet its chief signifi- 

 cance to the observant mind lies not bo much in tiie 

 mere raising and purpose of this fund as it does in the 

 underlying "get-together" sentiment of unity and co- 

 operation, of which this movement is the outward man- 

 ifestation. The signs of the times plainly indicate 

 that the primitive policy of iiulividiial isolation, inde- 

 pendent effort and trade ant^igonism in the florist avo- 

 cation is now i)assing rapidly into disuse. It has taken 

 a full generation of time since the seed of the new 

 gospel of which the present co-operative movement is 

 the fruition was sown. Gradually men of constructive 

 ability and forceful character have come to the front 

 and we now sec commercial floriculture because of this 

 concentration preparing to take its place high among 

 the most respected mercantile industries of our 

 country. It is evident that this converging of horti- 

 cultural interests and ideals comes not one day too soon. 

 The full force of a united front will be urgently needed 

 in the handling of the many serious economic and mer- 

 chandizing problems afl'ecting tlic trade, which are sure 

 to come up in the near future. 



Fall trade thus far has been consider- 

 A ably under the mark, among the city 



sheet anchor fldrists especially. This condition is 

 readily accounted for and it would be 

 surprising if it had been different. Large numbers of 

 young men of the class who at this sea.son are accus- 

 tomed to send flower gifts to debutante parties and 

 other affairs that usually mark the opening of the sea- 

 son are in camp and the social atmosphere generally is 

 conducive to extreme moderation in the line of enter- 

 taining. Just to what extent these facts can be held 

 responsible for the present low tide of business cannot 

 be reliably estimated until the subsidence of the 

 chrysanthemum flood for, while apparently rather ag- 

 gravated in degree the situation is not otherwise differ- 

 ent in its general aspects and effect from that of other 

 years at this particular period. Should it develop, how- 

 ever, that the unusual conditions above alluded to are 

 seriously influencing the stability and immediate wel- 

 fare of the florist trade, as some are disposed to believe, 

 it does not necessarily follow that flowers must "go a- 

 begging" this season or that the resourceful possibili- 

 ties of the flower business are anywhere near exhausted. 

 We like the tone of J. Horace McFarland's talk before 

 the New York Federation which we have reported in 

 part in another column of this paper and would com- 

 mend it for careful perusal to our readers, particularly 

 any who may feel despondent because of the slackening 

 up or abandonment of certain gaieties and customs that 

 have heretofore contributed substantially to the main- 

 tenance of commercial floriculture. Let us pin our 

 faith on the inborn love of humanity for flowers, on 

 which Mr. McFarland so eloquently bases his argument 

 and see to it that, so far as our influence and effort can 

 prevent it, this natural affection for our products be 

 not permitted to smoulder, for while this instinct and 

 sentiment is kept active our interests will be compara- 

 tively safe and if one avenue should be temporarily 

 closed to us the great field is still open for development 

 in numberless ways. 



