THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



299 



talk; others, tlie soonor they finish.' Xo iloiibt you will (ve\ 

 relieved wlien I finish. (Meninient.) 



"With the rrcsiclciit's periiiission, I vonture to broaden the sub- 

 ject a little to that of tlic progi'ess of horticulture, agriculture 

 and the allied industries; because, according to the technical 

 -definition of it, horticulture is confined to a knowledge of trees, 

 shrubs, etc.: and the progress of horticulture in America has not 

 been as rapid as it might have been; in other words, the progress 

 of some of the other associated industries, for instance, the great 

 nurseries. lias been far more rapid. 



"In refiectiUK upon how to broaden the subject of the advance 

 <if horticulture 1 felt an.xious to learn .something of the popular 

 notion of horticulture, or what it was commonly undi'rstood to 

 mean. With that idea in mind, the other day, I called in one 

 of my assistants whose business it is to file all the publications 

 that eonie in. ami, addressing her by name, abruptly asked 'What 

 is horticulture';' Instead of giving a definite answer she ex- 

 claimed. 'Why, 'Slv. Therkildson. is it possible you don't know 

 what horticulture is? Horticulture is a paper published in Bos- 

 ton." (Merriment.) 



■'Assuming that I have the privilege of broadening the subject. 

 I will say that the progress of horticulture, agriculture and the 

 allied industries has been very rapid in America, more rapid 

 than that of any other industries in the world. It has been said, 

 and no doubt with truth, for I do not know that the statement 

 has been controverted, that America leads the world in commer- 

 cial growing under glass. I assume that that is a fact that will 

 not be disputed, but I am not so well qualified to speak of it from 

 ])ersonal knowledge as I am to speak of seed growing, although 

 1 was associated with the world's greatest combined nurseries for 

 some years. 



"My early days were spent on a greenhouse and nursery place 

 of minor importance in southern Ohio. My father came to this 

 country from Denmark with a knowledge of horticulture gained 

 by experience — a practical, not a technical knowledge — and was 

 first employed by one of the largest nursery organizations in 

 Ohio. Later he went into business for himself in a small way. 

 My earliest recollections are of greenhotises and nurseries. I had, 

 as 1 have said, a hardy Norseman for a father, who knew no 

 pleasure except in his work, who got a dollar and kept it. who 

 never thought of making a dollar earn a iloUar; anil in those 

 days flower ]iots were not so easily or cheaply gotten. As a 

 «mall boy flower pot washing was the bane of my existence. As 

 I have mentioned, we had a small greenhouse range of some 

 twenty to twenty-live thousand feet of glass, and I insist that 

 it seems we had more flower pots than the balance of all the 

 nursery concerns combined. I do not know that any of you have 

 undergone that experience. ]ierhaps many of you have. After a 

 few years, as I grew larger and stronger. I Avas given a position 

 in winding after the budders. I liecame a winder. That was 

 liard work. I'erhaps some of you have done that. I was very 

 envious of the man who wielded a knife. After a time I had 

 experience enough to use a budding knife. I was very proud of 

 it. AVhen I went out the first time T butchered many thousands 

 of roses and trees, but finally acquired the art. became proficient 

 and got a place where T coidd bud from three to foiu' thousand 

 a day on an average. I feel that this experience enables me to 

 speak without any guesswork, and gives me a right to .judge in a 

 Avay of the progress of hiu'ticultiu'e and agriculture. My home 

 place was a i-ombined nursery and greenhouse. We also sold 

 some market gardening and did everything to keep going. We 

 raised a little celery. We had no modern celery tiller at that 

 time, and I had the pleasure of raking it up by hand. I believe 

 that I have crawled ahmg celery rows to the distance of several 

 thousand miles and lifted countless tons of earth. 



"I remember well when a place that had twi'iit.v-fi\c Ihnusaiid 

 feet of glass was a big place commercially. Today sucli ]ilaces 

 are not counted in figures of square feet, but in acres of glass 

 aiul. with their large complement of men ;uid eqnipmi'ut, arc 

 nothing short of marvelous. 



"I gatliercd from my conversation wiflL Mi'. Elicl that what 1 

 would say here was to be regarded as. in a way. a talk to pri- 

 vate gardeners, but I am going to indulge in a little more lati- 

 tuile for my remarks. When one considers the size of the-c in- 

 dustries statistics do not ukmu iiuicb. because we speak of a 

 million as glibly as we speak of a thousand feet. Few have any 

 conception of what a million really is ; hut wdien we come to the 

 mn'scry and speak of millions, two or tlu'ee or, in some instances, 

 four or five millions, as there are in some of the niu'series lodav. 

 tlu' amoiuit of work which those figin'es may be taken to repre- 

 sent is so enormous that it is not readily ap|)arent. I mention, 

 bv way of illustration, one nursery concern with wliich T was 

 connected for several years, and which has a reputation of being 

 the largest combined nursery in the world. That particular con- 

 cern has some twent.v-two hundr<'d and fifty acres in active 

 cidtivation. I mean by active ctdtlvation in continuous rotation 

 crops. The firm owns in pieces, in widcdy separate pieces, several 

 thousand acres of land. One of its oiganizations is said to have 

 2.5.") niiUs of tile drainage. This tile ilrainage svsteni is blue- 



printed and platted, so that stoppage may be locked without any 

 trouble. Few people even in the trade have an adequate concep- 

 tion, of the magnitude of this particular concern. For instance, 

 ])eacli pit seeds that we used for planting were not bought in 

 bushels; they were bought in car loads. At one time several 

 car loads of North Carolina and South Carolina peach pits were 

 brought in, and one car load was kept for sale to small nur- 

 series throughout the country. On that particular nursery quite 

 a number of pea(di i)it planting machines are employed. Those 

 macliines operate in a way similar to potato planters. The peach 

 pits are screenul and assorted to size to fit the machine without 

 stop|iing it, and the ics\iltaut growth of the seed evidences the 

 accuracy ot the work of the machine, tlie same being most regu- 

 lar and at almost equally divided intervals. On this nursery 

 there were budded some seven hundred and fifty thousand roses. 

 At the time I was connected with it there were thirty-five acres 

 of own root stulf with pears, apples and plums running into hun- 

 dreds of acres and ornamentals occupying immense areas. 



"In the Ea.st we have other nurseries of more or less different 

 character. 'I'here is located near I'hiladelpliia one of the largest 

 organizations of its kind in the world. 



"'Colossal niusery industries are not confined to any one section. 

 In the far South there are enormous areas devoted to nursery 

 culture. In Louisiana and Missouri, we have the great nurseries. 

 In Iowa, we have several large concerns. Around Rochester and 

 Danville, N. Y., are big organizations. In North Carolina we 

 have a famous nursery. In Connecticut there are big niuseries, 

 and right around Philadelphia we have several of the foremost 

 nurseries in America. Aromul Oulfport. I'iloxi and Bay .St. Louis, 

 near Mobile and in southern ilississippi the radish industry is 

 immense, one grower having fifteen acres in continuous cultiva- 

 tion in radishes. They are put in l)y seed drills, cultivated by 

 hand, by wheel holes dug w'ith a Piatt Junior onion digger, and 

 are rapidly washed by means of a large cement tank in which 

 is a revolving brush. The radishes are held up against the brush 

 and cleansed. They are then put on a table, bunched and packed 

 in barrels or boxes for the Southern market. A long radish is 

 required for the Southern markets, that being the more popular in 

 tlie South. For the Nortliern market the round types are grown. 

 The eft'ort in out-door growing in various sections of the country, 

 in the vegetable imlustiy ]iartii'ularly. is simply stupendous. 

 One organization near Jtedina, Ohio, estimates that the return 

 from their product in onions and celery, this year, will reach the 

 enormous sum of one million dollars. This organization is known 

 as a commercial celery concern. 



"The seed industry in tliis country has grown to immen.se pro- 

 portions. There was a time when Peter Henderson and Dreer 

 were, to use a common ))hrase, 'all there were to it' in the United 

 States. Numerous concerns bave come into the field, and today 

 the quantity of seeds handled daily in the trade is so immense 

 as to be almost beyond ccunpetition. Having given many years 

 of my life to the seed business, I claim to have some familiarity 

 with' it. As it js commonly defined, the business embraces the 

 handling of bulbs and in some instances even tree seeds. Phila- 

 delphia might be termed tlie headquarters of the industry in this 

 country, but the distinction would be due rather to the number 

 of linns engaged in the business here than to the size of any one 

 concern. In the Northwest there are great establishments, of 

 which we hear little, that do individually more business than 

 was done by all the seed concerns in the entire East twenty-five 

 years ago. 



"When visiting a Canadian concern, not long ago, I was told 

 that they had there about two million pounds of turnij) seed in 

 storage. I also saw there in stora.se tremendous quantities of 

 beet and other varieties of seed. This concern occupies some 

 twelve or fifteen acres of floor space in buildings of most modern 

 and uniform construetirm. I was tidd lui good authorit.\-. and 

 have reason to belie\c it. that the concern's investment in com- 

 mission boxes runs into millions of dollars. That may not be an 

 accurati' estimate, liiit T do know that they lia\c their own box 

 ccuuinission plant, iirinting and litliograjibing facilities in order 

 that their output in books, boxes and lithographs may be under 

 their own control. 



'1 li;nc licard it said that in California three thousaml acres 

 are ilcvotcd to the growing of sweet peas alone. 



''Nowadays the woman wdio comes to a nursery concern knows 

 exactl.v what she wants. Women's clubs and garden clubs liave 

 done niiicdi to educate a Avoman not only as to wliat she wants 

 but as to the correct nomenclature and characteristics of the 

 varieties desired. You are no longer dealing with a person who 

 does not know what she wants. So 1 say that the gardener, to 

 be of rial value, nuist continually strive to improve his knowl- 

 edge and his service; and with this improvement will come the 

 proper remuneration. The lack of knowledge on the part of 

 people Avlio are procurable to do the actual work of gardening- 

 is doing more perliaps to prevent the growth and ])rogress of 

 horticulture in America than anything else. There are nniny men 

 who are properl>- equipped for it. but that does no credit to 

 .America. It is a cuiious fact that all tile cITort of real value- 



