102 



HORTICULTURE 



February 1, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



VOL. XXIX 



FEBRUARY 1, 1919 



NO. 5 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 147 Summer Street, Boston, Mass. 



WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager 

 Telephone, Beach 292 



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

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CONTENTS Page 



SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS— National Pub- 

 licity Campaign — Department of Registration 101 



OBITUARY— Charles Fox— Henry W. Wood— John M. 

 Hunt 101 



NEW ENGLAND NURSERYMEN'S ASSOCIATION— 

 President's Address — Secretary's Report; — The Dinner 

 — Wednesday's Session 103-104 



YUCCA— Richard Rothe— Illustrated 104 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES— State Florists' Association 

 of Indiana — Horticultural Society of New York — 

 Gardeners' and Florists' Club of Boston — Notes 105 ' 



AMERICAN CARNATION SOCIETY— President's 

 Address — Secretary's Report — Treasurer's Report.... 107 



THE CULTURE OF CONIFERS— A. H. Hill 108 



SEED TRADE— Department Seed Experts Visit 

 Europe — Conservation Need Indicated — More Seed 

 Grown During the War — Government Help Needed — 

 Notes 110-111 



OF INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 

 Flowers by Telegraph — New Flower Stores 112-113 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 

 Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati. Philadelphia. 

 Rochester, St. Louis, Washington 115 



LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS: 



St. Louis 108 



Chicago, Cincinnati, Boston, Rochester 117 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Better Service Campaign 107 



Greenhouses Contemplated 108 



Patents Granted 108 



Visitors' Register 109 



Hats Off to Edward C. Dungan 109 



Business Troubles 109 



News Notes 108-113 



The Onion Fly Ill 



New Corporations.. Ill 



A few weeks ago we queried as to which 

 The airplane enterprising florist would be the first 

 to use the air plane as a vehicle of 

 delivery. A grocer has been, the first to adopt this 

 idea. At Charleston, W. Va., on January 35th, a 

 charter to the Spicer Grocery Co. of Charleston and 

 Kanawha City, authorizing it to "deliver groceries and 

 food products by aerial navigation," was granted by 

 Secretary of State Young. Mr. Young says this is the 

 first request of the kind ever made in America by a 

 business organization. The grocer has the lap on the 

 florist apparently. 



Aiming those assembled at 

 What quarantine No. 37 the New England Nursery- 

 means to nurserymen men's Association Conven- 

 tion at Boston this week, 

 and amongsl them were several of the trade from New 



York and New Jersey, it was conceded that the appli- 

 cation ni the new Federal Horticultural Hoard embargo 

 would cut off at least forty per cent of the total volume 

 of business dune by nurserymen in the eastern states and 

 probably as far west as Chicago. Those who attended 

 the hearings at Washington were given to understand 

 that the board woidd take no drastic action but could 

 anything be more drastic than quarantine No. 37? An 

 amusing bit of information came to light at the con- 

 vention tn the effect that a certain grower of conifers in 

 the middle states who hail strongly favored the embargo 

 and had written to numerous friends employing them 

 also to work for it, had on learning of its having been 

 passed immediately cabled to Holland stating that he 

 wanted to import 100,000 small conifers to come in if 

 possible before the embargo should take effect. Many 

 nurserymen who at first favored the embargo as afford- 

 ing more certain protection to some individual interest 

 than could be had under any tariff, now regret their 

 earlier attitude and inaction. We might quite as con- 

 sistently be told by some Federal Board that we could 

 import -no more silk from China, because among the 

 girls who pick apart the cocoons, some might have 

 germs of leprosy or bubonic plague, therefore we must 

 do without silk, we must use cotton instead. Where 

 would the receipts of the great dry goods establishments 

 of the country be under such a ruling? Yet quarantine 

 37 provides a similar case for the nurserymen and 

 florists to solve. 



One of the gratifying lessons of 



The the past month is that, with but a 



emoluments f ew exceptions, the higher prices 



of super-excellence which florists have been obliged 



to ask for their product has not 

 been seriously resented by the public. Like all other 

 manufactured commodities, the products of tlie green- 

 In mse have been the victims of unprecedented times and 

 conditions, and all right-minded people fully under- 

 stand. Doubtless there have been some profiteers who 

 have not hesitated to take advantage of any opportunity 

 to put on the screws. These are "chiels that wanna 

 ding" hut there are such in every line of industry. The 

 florist trade has no more than its normal proportion of 

 them and when a fair and considerate attitude has been 

 maintained we have yet to hear of any widespread pro- 

 test, and we think that, generally, the public has been 

 satisfied to meet the florist half-way. Now that times 

 of greater plenty are in sight we hope the trade will not 

 he stampeded into ruinous competition as in so many 

 instances in times past. There can be no more prolific 

 cause for public distrust than such a course. Don't 

 begin slashing because you happen to have a surplus 

 hut do everything in your power to maintain quality. 

 There is plenty of room for improvement in this respect 

 The carnation is a case in point Everybody who is 

 acquainted with conditions all oxer the country is well 

 aware of the vast difference in quality between the car- 

 nations produced in certain sections and those produced 

 elsewhere. For growers or dealers in the high-grade 

 localities where the Goddards. Pembrokes, Strouts, Pat- 

 tens, Fishers. Howards and other experts are to l>e 

 found, to he expected to base the market value of their 

 flowers on the prices prevailing in other and less fortu- 

 nate sections would be manifestly absurd and we hope 

 to see high-class product, wherever produced, hold well 

 tip for the rest of the season -to the figures which their 

 qualities merit. 



