552 



HORTICULTURE 



December 27, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



Established by William J. Stewart In 1904 



VOL. XXX 



DECEMBER 27, 1919 



No. 26 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 78 Devonshire Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 

 Telephone Fort Hill S(i94 



ADVERTISING BATES: 



Per Inch, 80 Inches to page $1.28 



Discount on Contracts for consecutive Insertions, as follows: 



One month (4 times), 6 per cent.; three months (13 timeB), 10 

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

 30 per cent. 



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



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

 at Boston, Mass., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1897. 



There are two ways of influencing public 



Flower upinioii. One is to make a big noise, 



boostings ] OU( ] claims and exaggerated statements. 



with the hope of impressing people by 

 sheer force of oratory. The other is the more quiet way 

 of keeping the subject always before the public but in 

 such a subtle manner that it does not realize what 

 changes are being made with thinking processes. All 

 this applies to the flower propaganda. Which is the 

 better way? Who shall say. For our own part, we 

 think that the result is more satisfactory in the long- 

 run when the psychological effect is obtained by the less 

 obvious methods. And so we find the following edi- 

 torial in the Philadelphia Sunday Record, inspired we 

 have reason to believe, by somebody of importance in 

 the trade: 



"After-dinner orators, and all glad-handers, partic- 

 ularly those whose positions impose upon them the ne- 

 cessity of reciting with oratorical fervor the catalogue 

 of the glorious of this 'gr-rand old Commonwealth of 

 Pennsylvania,' should take note of one of our industries 

 which is usually overlooked. The scarcity and high 

 prices of roses, a subject of much comment hereabout 

 of late, most people believe to be merely a natural con- 

 comitant of war conditions. Other things are high. 

 why not roses? But there is a special reason for the 

 situation in the rose market. Philadelphia is the centre 

 of the country's rose trade, at least east of the Missis- 

 sippi. Even Florida, the land of flowers,' sends here 

 for its supplies. And all the country in between, and 

 north, west and cast of us, looks to this city for 'Amer- 

 ican Beauties' and other varieties of the queen of flow- 

 ers. Let our professional boosters and boasters remem- 

 ber that." 



It will be noticed that the opportunity to boost Phila- 

 delphia as well as of flowers has not been lost sight of, 

 but there can be no objection to that. It is a poor news- 

 paperman who loses an opportunity to boom his own 

 burg. At any rate, this sort of mention is a tine thing 

 for (lie trade. It will be worth while for the tlonsts in 

 all cities to systematically cultivate the friendship of 

 newspapermen and the favor of the papers. The Phila- 

 delphia Record in a second evidently inspired editorial 

 ha- tin' following aliout roses: 



"When your florist asks you $3 for a single American 

 Beauty rose with a 3G-inch stem, blame it on Bancroft. 

 When the historian returned to Washington from being 

 Ambassador to Germany in 1875 he brought a plant 

 of that rose with him. But he did not know for 15 

 years after what a prize he had in his garden. It took 

 two Philadelphia llorists, Edwin Lonsdale and John 

 Burton, to demonstrate how this rose could be grown 

 to wonderful perfection and become the foremost rose 

 in the commercial cut-flower field, where it still reigns 

 supreme after the lapse of :5n years. And so, dear lady, 

 when you open that box of a dozen for Christmas, re- 

 member that they probably cost him a 'cool fifty' to ex- 

 press the full beauty, fragrance and strength of his af- 

 fection. And so, dear man, blame Bancroft and Phila- 

 delphia fur wishing on you this German atrocity to eat 

 up your hard-earned dollars." 



English nurserymen and florists are 

 Co-operative trailing along after those of this eoun- 



advertising | rv j n the matter of co-operative action 

 to further sales of their products. It 

 has been shown by experience here that it pays to unite 

 in some concerted movement properly directed than to 

 undertake a lot of individual schemes here and there. It 

 is like exploding one enormous shell rather than using 

 weak rifle fire. The Britishers have taken a page from 

 America's hook and aie giving much more attention 

 than ever before to well planned co-operative advertis- 

 ing campaigns. The idea, however, is not only to in- 

 crease the sale of flowers but to help the seedsmen and 

 nurserymen in various ways. 



For one thing, it is believed that garden making 

 should be stimulated so that amateurs who began this 

 work during the war will not give it up now. This 

 may not appeal to market gardeners in this country, but 

 probably would not displease the seedsmen. Many 

 people who went in for garden making during the war 

 because it" was the fashion or indicated patriotism, will 

 abandon their gardens now unless some effort is made 

 to keep them interested. The National Nurserymen's 

 Association of this country has the light idea in send- 

 ing out free garden articles to hundreds of newspapers. 

 There is reason to Ixdieve that these articles have been 

 of no little value to nurserymen. They help to increase 

 sales, but are not recognized as definite propaganda. 



A writer in one of the English papers suggests the 

 following paragraphs as indicating some of the lines 

 which might be taken to increase the business among" 

 amateurs. 



""Kniphasize the benefit to personal health to be de- 

 rived from gardening. Gardeners are notoriously the 

 most long-lived of men. 



"Point out how superior freshly cut vegetables are 

 to the comparatively withered, dusty, much handled 

 shop samples. 



"Hammer home the real saving effected by growing 

 one's own vegetables; instance prevailing prices. 



"Give timely and helpful hints how to avoid the com- 

 mon as well as the particular errors. 



"Induce the lay press to support the National Cam- 

 paign by continuing their gardening articles. 



"Educate the seed buying public against cheap foreign 

 seeds. 



"Deprecate seed saving in allotments and small sar- 

 dens, such as is often thoughtlessly recommended in 

 gardening articles, especially of such sorts as are liable 

 to become cross fertilized with alien breeds." 



