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HORTICULTURE 



May 24, 1919 



HORTICULTURE InMemoriamof William J. Stewart 



VOL. XXIX 



MAY 24, 1919 



NO. 21 



PUBLISHED WEKRLV BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 147 Summer Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 

 Telephone, Beach 298 



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

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



There is no reason for not saying that the 



Nearing a affairs of the Massachusetts Horticultural 



crisis Society are fast reaching a crisis. The 



last exhibit was evidence enough of that 

 fact. With not a single entry in the flower class, the 

 question which naturally came into the minds of those 

 interested was this: Have the head gardeners of es- 

 tates around Boston deliberately determined to boycott 

 these shows? On the heels of this question came an- 

 other : If true what is the reason for such a move- 

 ment? Horticulture is not attempting to prejudge 

 the case or even to offer undue criticism. It is an abso- 

 lute fact, though, that the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society is losing ground among flower lovers and the 

 general public because of the paucity of exhibits at all 

 the recent shows. Even now it is going to be difficult 

 to get them to attend when a good show is given. It 

 remains, therefore, for everybody who is interested in 

 the Society's future well being to help heal the present 

 situation. If the gardeners believe, as many of them do, 

 that a great mistake was made in the failure of the 

 society to offer anything like adequate prize money, they 

 are perfectly justified in stating these objections and in 

 an attempt to bring about different methods another 

 year. It is due to them and due to the public that their 

 side of the question be fully considered, not simply as a 

 matter of opinion between two classes of members, but 

 with a view to the best interests of the organization. 

 On their part the gardeners should think twice before 

 taking a step which will do the society irreparable harm. 

 Although there are some dissenters, it seems to be a very 

 general feeling that it would be better to have fewer 

 shows with higher prize money and more entries than 

 a series of small shows which are not shows at all in the 

 true sense. It is quite probable that the lack of exhibits 

 is due partly to war time conditions which have caused 

 many greenhouses to be closed and curtailed the num- 

 ber of plants produced. These facts were known, 

 though, when the year's schedule was made out, and if 

 investigation showed then that there was material 

 enough to warrant holding the exhibits announced, it is 

 reasonable to believe that a creditable showing could 

 be made. The time has come when some definite action 

 is needed to bring about more harmonious relations, 

 which can come only with a conciliatory attitude, and 

 a generous willingness to se1 aside personal riews. 



The pathetic poem written by the late William J. 

 Stewart, founder and editor of Horticulture, just 

 before his death, has been copied by several papers and 

 widely discussed. An answer in verse almost equally as 

 good lias been written by Mr. Winfred Rolker, in a letter 

 to Mr. E. II. Wilson, by whose permission it is published 

 hercw ilh : 



Au Revoir 



Say not adieu, my friend, say au revoir! 

 Inexorable fate decreed that man must part; 

 Kind Providence sowed Hope into his heart 

 To meet again beyond our humane sphere, 

 Unfettered by mortal clay, 

 Unhampered by distance: 

 Under the spell of Truth Divine 

 Drinking the beauties of God's universe. 

 There we shall meet again and take reward ; 

 Our feeble human failings readily forgiven. 

 There we shall meet again, my friend. 

 Such is my creed : "In God we trust." 

 My friend, I say, "Au revoir." 



A Plea for Protection 



In the last issue of Horticulture is printed a letter 

 taken from the Christian Science Monitor and written 

 by a resident in Denver, Colorado, protesting against 

 the destruction of the Mayflower or Trailing Arbutus. 

 True horticulturists must heartily agree with the 

 writer. It is a mournful fact that unless some power 

 restrains the vandal hand, many of the treasures of the 

 woods and of the countryside before long will be as ex- 

 tinct as the Dodo. The winsome Mayflower is only one — 

 Kalmia, broadleaf Bhododendrons and Azaleas are 

 others. The itinerant vendors and the street corner 

 florists are no more to be blamed than their more flour- 

 ishing competitors, the florists no more than the nursery- 

 men, the nurserymen no more than the landscape archi- 

 tects, and the latter no more than those who control the 

 educational systems of the country. All are blame- 

 worthy, all are delinquent. Not equally perhaps and. of 

 course, there are exceptions. How many Kalmia plants 

 have been destroyed to supply "greens" for street dec- 

 orations during recent parades? How many native 

 Rhododendrons have been torn from their naitve homes 

 to supply "carload lots" to gardens during the last 

 decade? I wonder! Also, how much disappointment 

 misguided owners of such gardens suffer? It may bring 

 wealth to a few, it certainly brings poverty to the coun- 

 tryside. It is wrong, it is destructive and opposed to 

 the true spirit of horticulture which is constructive. 

 How long is this senseless demolition of the native veg- 

 etation to be allowed? When will the public at large 

 grasp the fundamental fact that the natural resources — 

 economic and aesthetic — of a country belong to its peo- 

 ple, generation upon generation; that they are simply 

 property in trust and as such in the present to be pro- 

 tected, properly used and handed on to posterity? Read 

 Audubon's account of the "eggers" of Labrador, think of 

 the Passenger Pigeon, of the Bison, of the forests of 

 this country, and ask ourselves what future generations 

 of nature lovers will think of the boasted civilization 

 of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that, in its 

 mad greed for wealth, it should have so devastated a 

 whole continent as not to leave room in it for the con- 

 limied existence of many grand, unique and beautiful 

 life-forms. E. H. WILSOX. 



