96 



HORTICULTURE 



August 2, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



Established by WilUam J. Stewart In 1904 



VOL. XXX 



AUGUST 2, 1919 



NO. 5 



PUBLISHED WEJEKL.Y BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 78 Devonshire Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 



Telephone Fort H1U 3694 



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Entered as second-class matter December 8, 1904, at the Post o flics 

 at Boston, Mass., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



There is food for much thought in the article 

 Ideas prepared by Miss M. R. Case in the last num- 

 worth her f Horticulture wherein she dealt with 

 testing f] le various ways by which the work of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society might be 

 extended. Truth to tell, what she said might be con- 

 sidered carefully by similar societies in all parts of the 

 country, for there is plenty of opportunity for improve- 

 ment if these organizations are to come into close touch 

 with amateur gardeners as well as professional growers 

 and meet the full measure of their opportunities at this 

 particular time, when interest in gardens, fruit growing 

 and the improvement of home grounds is greater than at 

 any other time in the history of the country, perhaps, 

 and is being fostered in many ways. 



There is no reason why this movement should not be 

 lifted to a higher plane and given an impetus in the 

 direction of gardening aspirations such as have been 

 developed in England, and which have led all classes of 

 people to take a genuine interest in novelties as well as 

 standard plants; and as a result of which the body of 

 gardeners dictates to the trade and to the garden pub- 

 lications rather than passively following their lead. 



A suggestion of Miss Case that there be a demonstra- 

 tion at each of the shows is especially worth while. Such 

 a variation from the usual plan of simply displaying the 

 groups of cut flowers would certainly attract a very 

 much larger number of people and would serve to help 

 them meet their gardening problems in as direct a way 

 as by any means which could be devised. It is quite 

 probable that the Agricultural Colleges, Horticultural 

 Schools and similar institutions would gladly co-operate 

 by providing demonstrators for such occasions. More 

 or less work of tin's kind is always done in the spring, 

 often at a time when attendance is difficult. Moreover, 

 so great a mass of material is presented at such times 

 that much of it remains undigested, and has been for- 

 gotten when the time comes to apply it- 

 No good reason appears why some of the ideas pre- 

 sented In Mis- Case through the pages of Horticulture 

 should imt at hast be tried out. We believe that the 

 results would justify going farther along this line. 



\\ hy is it that florists are so often chosen to 

 Bad be the victims of bad check artists? 1- it be- 

 check cause ii"\ are reputed to be less careful in 

 artists their financial dealings than people in other 

 lines of business? Or do thej have the repu- 

 tation for being especially sofl hearted and unsuspicious? 

 At any rate they are continually being imposed upon 

 and sometimes to the tune of larger amount- than even 

 a successful florist likes to lose. The methods employed 

 vary somewhat with the operator, but a happening just 

 reported from Woburn, Mass., is typical. 



It seems that a man giving his name a- William I'. 

 Forrester went into the store of Edward L. Aylward and 

 ordered flowers valued at $35.00. In payment he tend- 

 ered a check drawn on a Fall River bank. Aylward re- 

 quested him to get the check cashed at the Woburn Na- 

 tional Bank, across the street. The customer left the 

 store and when he returned said that the cashier at the 

 bank said he would accept the check if Aylward would 

 endorse it. This the latter did. Then the customer 

 took the check to the bank and had it cashed. The 

 amount was $135.00, just an even hundred more than 

 the cost of the flowers ordered. When the cashier of the 

 bank got into communication with Fall River, he found 

 that no funds were on hand to meet the check and the 

 Woburn man undoubtedly will have to stand the loss. 

 It would be said naturally that it was a careless thing 

 for the florist to do, and no doubt it was. Nevertheless 

 every now and then reports of some such occurrence are 

 received at this office. It would appear as though florists 

 should exercise more than usual care from now on, for 

 these bad check men are evidently finding their business 

 an easy and profitable one. 



Verb. Sap 



I had finished reading in the Transactions of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society the first paragraph 

 of the "John Lewis Eussell Lecture" (for the year 

 1919), entitled "Protecting American crop plants 

 against alien enemies" by Dr. B. T. Galloway, and was 

 glancing over the morning paper with its daily record 

 of accidents when I began musing on the risks I ran in 

 my daily ambulations. By careful calculation, duly 

 checked and counter-checked, I found to my amazement 

 that in my morning walk of about one mile I ran no 

 fewer than 313 risks, everyone of which fraught with 

 fatal possibilities. Since I had to essay the return jour- 

 ney they were exactly doubled, which made a total of 

 626 risks. Being a careful man with a wife and family 

 dependent upon me for support I was all the more aston- 

 ished at not having thought of this matter before. Ob- 

 viously I owed it to my family not to incur danger, so 

 I decided that henceforth, I would remain in my home 

 and thus eliminate all risks. Having comfortably 

 settled this most momentous question to my satisfaction, 

 I was beginning to feel quite happy again when, sud- 

 denly, a terrible truth flashed across my mind. If I 

 stayed at home I would soon have no income with which 

 to support my family and self; also the home might burn 

 down ! In despair 1 picked up the "John Lewis Russell 

 Lecture" again ami fell to thinking of what might have 

 been the condition of this country had its early settlers, 

 fearing the "alien enemies" prohibited the introduction 

 of such crop plants as Wheat, Barley, Oats, Peas, Sugar, 

 Peach, Apple, Pear, Citrus fruits and a score of others. 



E. H. Wilson 



P. S. Corn and Potatoes as a steady diet don't ap- 

 peal to E. H. W. 



