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HORTICULTURE 



May 17, 1919 



HORTICULTURE 



VOL. XXIX 



MAY 17, 1919 



NO. 20 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 



147 Summer Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 

 Telephone, Beach 292 



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Entered ;\s second-class matter December 8, 1904, at the Post Office 

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



When every prospect pleases and only 

 Memorial Day the weather is vile, is the way the flor- 



outlook ists paraphrased the poet's remark the 



first of the week. After the weather 

 cleared they began to wonder if it were going to be so 

 hot as to bring out the flowers too fast. All things con- 

 sidered, florists everywhere are well satisfied with ton- 

 ditions. The volume of business in some lines is less 

 than usual, because of the scarcity in stock, but on the 

 other hand prices are two hundred per cent higher, 

 which means a fine cleanup. Several interesting fea- 

 tures are to be noted. There is little call now for the 

 cheaper flowers of former years, such as lilacs and can- 

 dytuft except in the smaller towns. The people who 

 formerly bought them get a few cut flowers and a mag- 

 nolia wreath. The change began last year, when for the 

 first, time one large Boston firm lost money on candy- 

 tuft. The safe of artificial flowers and magnolia 

 wreaths will be unprecedented. Without doubt more 

 than 100,000 wreaths will be disposed of in the New 

 England trade. Even some of the alley dealers are 

 expecting to sell five thousand or more. Some of the 

 stuff offered is very inferior, but it goes this season. 

 Even the dealers are surprised at the way in which the 

 public is buying. Who shall say that the slogan. "Say 

 it. with flowers" shoul dnot have at least part of the 

 it with flowers"' should not have at least part of the 



Just before the war the plan of using 



Window boxes at the windows of business houses 



boxes and even of manufacturing establishments 



was gaining in favor. Of course many 

 Brnis dropped the matter while war conditions prevailed. 

 although a feu concerns, like the Filene Company in 

 Boston made a somewhat elaborate display last year. 

 This season there seems to he a disposition to take up 

 the subject again, and the movement may well be en- 

 couraged by the florists. It is true that there is a 

 shortage this season of such plants as are commonly used 

 in window boxes. Vet as a rule there will he no diffi- 

 cult] in filling orders. The Florists' Club in Cleveland 

 3eems to be taking the lead in the matter, perhaps be- 

 cause the mayor of the city several years ago gave an 

 otlieial endorsement to the plan id' using window boxes 



on public and business buildings. When such boxes are 

 properly cared for they add greatly to the appearance 

 of a business house and of business thoroughfares, the 

 floral suggestion being exceedingly welcome during the 

 hoi summer months. 



EOETICTJLTDRE is reporting experiment- ina.de 

 Dr y iii Newt .Jersey with the use of dry sprays for 

 sprays combatting strawberry weevil. Apparently 

 powdered poisons and bordeaux mixture in 

 powdered form are growing in popularity, especially 

 with amateurs, because of the little work required to 

 prepare them, for use. Horticulture would like to 

 have reports from professional gardeners who have ex- 

 perimented with dry sprays as to the results obtained, as 

 compared with wet mixtures. 



Mr* Wilson on Quarantine No. 37 



Looking over recent numbers of Horticulture I have 

 been much interested in the opinions voiced apropos of 

 Quarantine No. 37. That Horticulture has taken and 

 maintained such a proper and unflinching stand in op- 

 position does not surprise me. Quite the contrary. It 

 would be false to its principles to do otherwise. Why 

 such a ludicrous measure, wrong in principle and arbi- 

 trary in spirit, should have received the signature of the 

 Secretary of Agriculture, passes the writ of common 

 mortals. Its purpose is to keep out further plant 

 diseases and noxious plant pests, and the tacit implica- 

 tion is that it will do so, though even its framers hesi- 

 tate to claim that of a surety it will effect this. That it 

 will not achieve this Utopian dream goes without saying, 

 but that it will severely handicap the development of 

 gardens in America is equally obvious. Had such a law 

 been in force ten, twenty, fifty years ago this country- 

 would have been without a great many plants of beauty 

 and usefulness to her citizens, but whether plant pests 

 would have been less numerous is. to say the least, prob- 

 lematical. The whole question of noxious plant pests 

 and their control is admittedly most intricate and dif- 

 ficult and is intimately bound up in the much larger 

 question of man's modern methods of civilization. The 

 solution will not he found in such simple if drastic action 

 a.s plant exclusion. 



No one desires to bring into the country a pest in any 

 shape or form. All garden lovers will agree that regu- 

 lations and proper inspection of plant importations is 

 eminently desirable, but that a small group of men. no 

 matter how capable, should be empowered to dictate 

 what should and should not be grown in American gar- 

 dens is preposterous. That the importation in limited 

 quantities of plant novelties and necessities through the 

 Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introductions of the 

 lVpartment of Agriculture is to be allowed, will be 

 small comfort to plant lovers generally, much less to 

 those who have had experience of the treatment meted 

 out to such aliens. 



As one whose unselfish interest is in helping forward 

 the development of American gardens, which in effect is 

 the converting of dwelling places in homes, I join with 

 others of like ideals in the earnest hope that even at 

 this, the eleventh hour. Quarantine No. 37 well inten- 

 tioned, but none the less disastrous to American hor- 

 ticulture, may he repealed and its place taken by a 

 measure fair in principle, liberal in spirit, serviceable 

 in application and in effect beneficial to American 

 gardens 



E. H. WILSON. 



