120 



HORTICULTURE 



August 9, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



Established by William J. Stewart In 1904 



VOL. XXX 



AUGUST 9, 1919 



NO. 6 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 78 Devonshire Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 



Telephone Tort Hill 3094 



ADVERTISING RATES: 



P«r lnsh, 30 inches to page $1.86 



Discount on Contracts for consecutive insertions, as follows: 



One month (4 times), 5 per cent.; three months (13 times), 10 

 per cent.; six months (26 times), 20 per cent.; one year (52 times), 

 80 per cent. 



Page and half page space, not consecutive, rates on application. 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 



One Year, in advance, $1,110; To Foreign Countries, $2.00; To 

 Canada. $1.50. 



Entered as second-class matter December 8, 1004, at the Post Utile* 

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



While nurserymen may not be wholly in 



Interest agreement concerning novelties and the ad- 



,n vertising of them, there can be no doubt of 



novelties the fact that they are keenly alive to the 



general situation, for that is evidenced by 

 the letters already published in Horticulture. A point 

 which has perhaps not been touched on very largely is 

 brought up by a well known nurseryman in a personal 

 letter in which he says : 



"Happily there is a change coming over the face of 

 America, thanks to the open eyed and out of door trend 

 of our people; thanks to the past and growing interest 

 in horticulture; thank to the fact that our children arc 

 being taught in the schools and elsewhere how to grow 

 things and to appreciate them. What is still more en- 

 couraging is the fact that within the last ten years there 

 has been a great increase in the number of municipal 

 gardens, and I am referring especially to rose gardens. 

 There has been a definite establishment of rose test gar- 

 dens, quite apart from the others, in two or three of the 

 horticultural zones in this country. The American Rose 

 Society has mapped out a campaign for doubling its 

 membership and expects to do it. But on the other 

 hand, its officers are equally insistent that the value of 

 the membership shall be increased. They are hoping to 

 develop the work of the rose test gardens. They are 

 hoping to increase the number of municipal rose gar- 

 dens, and they are planning to improve the methods 

 of reporting results from these gardens and getting the 

 votes as to favorites from both amateurs and profes- 

 sionals. This will be a guide in each locality for those 

 who want these tilings and want to get these plants 

 without wasting their money on possible, disappoint- 

 ments. I think Mr. Wilson is quite right in the points 

 he makes, including the Fact that, many of us who know 

 how to grow tilings don't know how r to sell them." 



There is a very emphatic and exceeding- 

 Quarantine | v well worded editorial on Plant Quar- 

 deplored antinc No. 37 in the current number of 

 the Journal of the International Garden 

 Club. We arc glad to quote it in full: 



Under this new regime no such plantings as are to 

 be found at the older and liner private estates, the bo- 

 tanic gardens, or in the Moravian Cemetery at Staten 

 Island, will be possible ten years hence. The plants 



simplj will not be found in America in commercial 

 quantities and a Board that sits at Washington and 

 now has been granted immensely increased powers, says 

 we must import no more. As to the merits of their 

 case there are several opinions possible, as to the blight- 

 ing effect of their action upon future ornamental plant- 

 ing in America there seems to be pretty general agree- 

 ment. 



Not only are the plants noted above excluded, but 

 many others such as peony, dahlia, etc., and much ma- 

 terial for propagating purposes by American nursery- 

 men. The contention of the Board that forbidden 

 plants may still be imported through the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry is of little horticultural significance. 

 Beyond a few institutions no one is likely to use this 

 doubtful privilege, which in any case applies "only to 

 limited quantities." 



The act as it now stands (there is of course much 

 agitation to have it repealed and the powers of the Fed- 

 eral Horticultural Board curtailed or withdrawn), ap- 

 pears as if it had been framed with deliberate intent 

 to cripple the normal development of American gar- 

 dening. The irony of the situation is that the Board 

 has insisted from the first that on the contrary it was 

 framed to protect our gardening and crops from destruc- 

 tion. Whether the truth lies on this side or that, there is 

 little likelihood of their assumptions going unchallenged. 

 In fact the storm of abuse to which the Board seems 

 relatively impervious may react so that 1920 may see 

 the end not only of Plant Quarantine Xo. 37 but of the 

 somewhat overzealous regime that created it. 



Landscape Gardeners' Viewpoint 



Reynolds, N. C, July 16, 1919. 

 Dear Sir: 



In your issue of Horticulture, July 12th, I was very 

 much interested in the discussion that came under the 

 heading of "Novelties and Nurserymen." This discus- 

 sion I offer is from the viewpoint of a landscape 

 gardener. 



Tt seems to me much responsibility should fall upon 

 the nurseryman for increasing our too meagre stock of 

 plant novelties. 



1 have often spent a day at a time ini the Arnold Ar- 

 boretum making a list of the best plants for use in beau- 

 tifying home grounds. I have walked over the Arbor- 

 etum with eminent horticulturists, who have spoken of 

 such and such a fine shrub to use. and why not try this 

 and that. But I have immediately replied "Where can 

 such a shrub or plant be obtained, or what nurseryman 

 offers it in his catalogue." "I don't think you can buy 

 it anywhere," is his reply. Then if the nurseryman 

 hasn't it we can't use it. 



I have gone around private estates, a good many of 

 them in New England, Pennsylvania and New York. 

 The gardener with pride has pointed out a shrub here 

 or there, perfectly hardy,- — fine. "Why don't you men 

 use this?" I reply. "Where can we obtain it ?" 



"Doesn't this or that nurseryman offer it?" he ques- 

 tions. 



■'No, it can not be obtained. Our nurserymen do not 

 carry it in their plant lists." 



We have to finally use the old sorts of material year 

 after year with feu newer kinds, because Ave are ham- 

 pered in our selection of novel material. 



What is the nurseryman doing to give us a few of the 

 new plants, that air so rapidly being introduced by such 

 men as Mr. Wilson? Very sincerely yours, 



William H. Hatfield. 



