

II OUT I CULTURE 



August 25, Iftl? 



I'ndpr date of AiiKust 9th. we re- 

 i-oived a (■onimuniiatloii from PlilUi- 

 dolphia in rofiTfiicp to the roal sll- 

 iiatloii which soeined lo aKiiate maiiy 

 of our niemborn. We imnicdlaloly 

 toolt the matter up with the Director 

 of the GeoloBlcal Survey, who suh- 

 mits the followioK: 



K.T V"iir Inrnriiiiilloii I would «ny tliat 



^IniUiir lo llioni' iiialli'd the 



"II Hftit til luiiiiy iithi'r til- 



. ihi' larKiT iif wliloli are 



ll-ui mills. l.ri'niTli'H, moiiiu rullruiuU. 



iiiiiiili'Ipiil KiiH pliiiitii. iiiiIiiiiiiililU'H iiod 



jiiiltiiiinlilli- iiiiiliirH. Ill nil. iiKire llinn 



lil.lKXi liliiiikii Imv.' Iiwii iiiiiIIimI mil rcqueiit- 



liik' liifiiniiiitliiii i.ii IliiiMo iHiliilH. tliily 'lie 



lliiiit i.f III!' clerli-al fiiriv aviillalile luiH 



pri'tviiled till' niiivaBS uf an even ^TcatiT 



iiiiiiil.cr iif liiiliislrli-». Tl tiji-it <if the lii- 



vesllBatlon In primarily tn »eeure specltle 

 hiroriiialloii nil till' eiiiisiiiii|itli>ii and stnruKe 

 .i( r.ial In order tliiil the proper Uovern- 

 nifiilal ak'eneles may he aide to art Intelll- 

 Kently on any alliiatlon whieli may arise. 



I wish to take this opportunity of 

 tlianliini; every member of our com- 

 mittee for willing assistance rendered 

 whenever the occasion required, es- 

 pecially Mr. James McHutchison, who 

 is most thoroughly versed in all these 

 matters and has been untiring in 

 bringing about the desired results for 

 our organization. 



As chairman of the Committee on 

 \V. R. Smith Memorial Mr. Gude asked 

 for further time wliich was granted. 



The State Vice-Presidents' annual re- 

 ports were ordered printed. 



Michael Barker of Chicago. J. G. 

 Esler of Saddle River, N. J., and ,1. A. 

 Peterson of Cincinnati, were appointed 

 a Memorial Committee on the members 

 who have passed away during the year. 

 W. C. Gloeckner of .Albany was appoint 

 ed to serve as a judge in the trade ex- 

 hibition in place of Philip Breitmeyer 

 who was not present. 



The report of the School Gardening 

 Committee was then presentoi! by the 

 chairman, Benjamin Hammond, a.- 

 f ollows : 



REPORT OF SCHOOL GARDEN 

 COMMITTEE. 



The year 1917 will go down into his- 

 tory as a special year of gardens, for 

 gardens are no longer regarded as of 

 no account and suitable only for labor- 

 ing people to attend to. The Society 

 of American Florists and Ornamental 

 Horticulturists has for several years 

 been encouraging the efforts to teach 

 the school children of the country 

 about garden cultivation. The florist, 

 w'herever he may be. usually has 

 premises that are a model for tidiness 

 and beauty and an example that peo- 

 ple of good taste love to follow. The 

 very fact that from one end of the 

 country to the other, we have sent 

 each spring a well illustrated circular 

 letter to school authorities in every 

 town or city that has a member of the 

 S. A. F.. this suggestion has had its 

 effect judging from the correspon- 

 dence that has come to hand there- 

 from. It would be diflficult to name 

 any city or town of prominence but 

 what is giving attention to school Gar- 

 dening. The City of Grand Rapids. 

 Mich., has issued one of the best cir- 

 culars that we have seen. Chicago. 

 111., in various parts of the city has 

 made it a point to instruct the chil- 

 dren. On the Pacific Coast the move- 

 ment has extended from San Diego, 

 Cal.. to Tacoma, Wash., and much at- 

 tention has been given this work. 



PouRhkeepnlc. N. Y., has been one of 

 the leaders in the work. Boston, 

 .Mass.. which has always been a 

 Ihrifly town from the time It was Hrst 

 settled, keeps up the good work. 

 Cleveland. Philadelphia, Wilkcs-Barre, 

 BulTalo. Cincinnati, Denver, and so we 

 may go on indefinitely and what at 

 first was regarded sometimes as a fad 

 in school studies has spread from end 

 to end of the United States, and the 

 past year, owing to the conditions 

 arising from the destruction now 

 going on in Kurope, has brought a 

 realization of the practical value of 

 the little garden, that engaged the 

 thoughts of the ablest men of the na- 

 tion, and President Wilson specially 

 laid stress on the desirability of this 

 work. As your committee, we have 

 followed up the work and we believe 

 that the florists in every town where 

 one is located, can be a lighthouse 

 showing what can be done, not only 

 witli flowers, but with vegetables, to 

 the benefit of their communities and 

 will fix in this country a desire for 

 gardens — both plants and flowers — to 

 an extent that will remain a perma- 

 nent benefit to their business. 



(Signed) 

 Benjamin Hammond, Beacon, N. Y., 

 Chairman; Michael Barker, Chi- 

 cago. 111.; Gust. X. Amryhn. New- 

 Haven. Conn.; Leonard Barron. Gar- 

 den City, N. Y.; Irwin Bertermann, 

 Indianapolis, Ind. 



School G.vhden Com.mittee. 



Prof. E. A. White of Ithaca made a 

 verbal report on behalf of the Nomen- 

 clature Committee and asked for an ap- 

 propriation of $:ion. which was granted 

 liy unanimous vote. 



THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO 

 THE CONSTITUTION. 

 The proposed amendment providing 

 for the appointment of the secretary by 

 the executive board instead of election 

 by the Society was then read and a 

 lively discussion ensued, participated 

 in by W. A. Manda, Patrick O'Mara, 

 J. D. Fulmer, James Dean and Max 

 Schling and announcement was made 

 that voting on the proposition would 

 take place at the evening session. 



DETROIT CHOSEN. 

 On nomination for the Convention of 

 1918 George Asmus spoke forcibly in 

 favor of the selection of Detroit, Mich., 

 and there being no other nominations 

 or invitations Detroit became the unan- 

 imous choice of the Convention. 



THE PRESIDENT'S RECEPTION. 



Tliis popular function on Tuesday 

 evening was very successful as always 

 and the informal character given to it 

 on the President's request made it es- 

 pecially enjoj-able, for the evening was 

 warm. During its progress balloting 

 on the constitutional amendment was 

 carried on. 



SECOND DAY — WEDNESDAY, 

 AUG. 22. 

 Morning Session. 

 The morning session on Wednesday 

 opened a little late but with a large 

 attendance. The first business was 

 the nomination of officers. Competi- 

 tion developed only on the office of 



president but that brought out a flow 

 of Impassioned oratory such as the 

 Society of American Florists is rarely 

 treated to. \V. F. Gude started the 

 bull with an eloquent nomination of 

 Charles II. Toddy. .Madison, N. J., ex- 

 tolling that gentleman's qualities, his 

 experience, loyalty and elficient serv- 

 ice on behalf of the society and the 

 horticultural ijrofesslon. James Mc- 

 Hutchison took the floor in advocacy 

 of his favorite, A. L. .Miller, whom he 

 characterized as a grower of distinc- 

 tion, a worker in the society for twen- 

 ty-four years who had "made good" in 

 every responsibility entrusted to him, 

 tireless, zealous and faithful. These 

 gentlemen were followed by many en- 

 thusiastic seconders, including F. R. 

 Pierson, Robert Craig, E. G. Hill, Pat- 

 rick Welch and Otto Lang in favor of 

 Mr. Totty, and Wallace R. Pierson and 

 A. Schultheis for Mr. Miller, much of 

 the speaking being accorded unstinted 

 applause. 



NOMINATION OF OFFICERS, 



Nominations for other ofllces were 

 as follows; Vice-president, Jules Bour- 

 det, St. Louis, Mo.; secretary, John 

 Young, for re-election; treasurer. J. J. 

 Hess, lor re-election; directors. Joseph 

 Manda, Jr., West Orange, N. J. and C. 

 E. Critchell, Cincinnati, O. 



A. Rasmussen, of New Albany, Ind., 

 then took the platform with his 

 report as chairman of the Committee 

 on Storm Damage. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON WIND- . 

 STORM INSURANCE. 



Inasmuch as The State Florists' As- 

 sociation of Indiana is now working to 

 form a mutual company among the 

 florists and greenhousemen of the 

 United States, for protection against 

 damage from wind and hail — to be 

 known as The Florists' Mutual Casu- 

 alty Association, Inc.. and in view of 

 the fact that all of this committee has 

 not sufllcient data on the progress or 

 plan of this proposed movement, at 

 this time to recommend an indorse- 

 ment of it by the S, A. F. and O. H., 

 your committee would recommend that 

 a committee l)e appointed to investi- 

 gate the Indiana project and report to 

 the board of directors at their next 

 regular meeting, said committee to be 

 made up of men not officially connect- 

 ed with the Florists' Hail Association 

 or with the movement started in In- 

 diana. 



In order to give all sections of the 

 country representation, we suggest 

 that they be appointed accordingly, 

 and their traveling expenses to be paid 

 by the S. A. F. and O. H. We further 

 recommend tliat this committee in 

 conjunction with the board of directors 

 be given authority to indorse the 

 Florists' Mutual Casualty Association 

 should they deem it worthy of the sup- 

 port of the S. A. F. and O. H. 



ANDEns Rasmussen. 



E. G. Hill. 



J. Phed Ammann. 



Supplementary report by A. Ras- 

 mussen: 



I will briefly review the work that 

 so far has been done in Indiana and 



