442 



HORTICULTURE 



September 30, 1916 



AMERICAT^^AHLIA SOCIETY 



The Annual Exhibition of this So- 

 ciety opened on Tuesday, September 

 26, at the Engineering Building. New 

 York City in association with that of 

 the American Institute. It can safe- 

 ly be said that this was the best and 

 most impressive dahlia exhibition 

 ever put up in this country. The halls 

 were filled with exhibits of high In- 

 dividual quality and commendably ar- 

 ranged. A display worthy of high 

 praise was that of W. Atlee Burpee 

 & Co., arranged by George W. Kerr. 

 Not only in quality of its material but 

 in decorative effect as a whole it was 

 a conspicuous success. This exhibit 

 won the Michell gold medal. The 

 Dreer silverware for floral design of 

 dahlias was worthily won by Young 

 & Nugent. The silver medal for gen- 

 eral collection was won by H. Cottam 

 & Son and the bronze by W. A. 

 Manda, P. W. Popp got the Chapman 

 cut glass vase for giant singles in 

 vases and the Burpee cup for best 

 vase, peony-flowered. W. C. Noonan 

 was awarded the Vincent silverware 

 for best vase, mixed. The Stout cup 

 for best seedling cactus went to 

 James Duthie and the Mordecai cup 

 for best new seedling was won by 

 Mrs. C. H. Stout. 



Certificates of merit were awarded 

 to Jean Kerr, pure white show, from 

 W. Atlee Burpee & Co. Also to Fiery 

 Cross, crimson scarlet peony, from 

 Frank P. Quinby, White Plains, N. Y. 



A certificate of merit was granted 

 to J. F. Anderson, Bernardsville, N. 

 J., for a seedling. Geisha x J. B. F^y 

 also to W. H. Waite for "Rohallion." 

 Preliminary certificates were granted 

 to Jas. Duthie for three seedlings, 

 Nos. 2, 12, and 30. Special awards 

 were made to Richard Vincent. Jr. 4: 

 Sons Co., Mrs. Chapman, Jr., and 

 Mills & Co. 



In the regular schedule classes for 

 commercial growers, W. D. Hatha- 

 way, New Bedford, Mass., won five 1st 

 and Mills & Co., one 1st. Other win- 

 ners were Maurice Puld, C. Louis Ai- 

 ling, D. V. Howell and G. H. Walker. 

 All these classes were contested by 

 from four to eight competitors. Prom- 

 inent winners in the gardeners' class- 

 es were James Kirby, P. W. Popp, 

 Jos. Robinson, W. C. Noonan, Forbes 

 & Keith. Arthur Daley, J. Gowans and 

 W. H. Waite. In the "open to all" 

 classes the big winners were John 

 Lewis Childs, W. D. Hathaway, W. 

 A. Manda, N. Harold Cottam & Son, 

 Maurice Fuld, Brookcrest Gardens, 

 Fred P. Webber, C. L. Ailing, Jas. 

 Gowans, 0. P. Chapman. Jr., and A. E. 

 Doty. 



The Meeting 



The Annual Meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Dahlia Society was called to 

 order in a spacious room on the 12th 

 floor of the Engineering Building at 3 

 P. JM., September 26, President Vin- 

 cent in the chair and every seat filled. 

 President's Address. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of 

 the American Dahlia Society, I wel- 

 come you to this our second annual 

 meeting. 



We are not yet a year and a half 



old, but with strength and vigor equal 

 to some of the older floral organiza- 

 tions. Now, with two successful exhi- 

 bitions to our credit, we feel well re- 

 compensed for the exertions we have 

 made, and if success is to be contin- 

 ued, of which I have no doubt, it is in 

 your hands. We have every assurance 

 and belief that you will do your part 

 to back up the officers. 



As your retiring president I heartily 

 express my appreciation of your kind- 

 ness toward me and the good work 

 done by all of you during my incum- 

 bence of the office. I request you 

 kindly to continue in the good work 

 and do your very best for those you 

 may elect, as I assure you I will con- 



R. VlNCEXT, Je. 

 President Ameriean Dahlia Society. 



tinue to do my little. Much of our 

 success is due to our worthy secretary, 

 and Mr. Eagleson, secretary of the 

 American Institute, and the other of- 

 ficers. 



The premiums offered at this meet- 

 ing, we think, are very appropriate 

 and numerous. The Institute has done 

 grandly by us, as also the trade, with 

 other kindred organizations and indi- 

 vidual members, for which we are all 

 truly thankful. 



Nomenclature. 



I would recommend the continuance 

 of our present Nomenclature Commit- 

 tee, who have already done good work. 

 They have a big task before them and 

 it will possibly take several years be- 

 fore they can say it is complete. There 

 is much to be accomplished, both in 

 classification and in the elimination 

 of duplicate varieties. Many are mis- 

 named or similar varieties raised by 

 growers who did not know that a sim- 

 ilar variety already existed. There 

 was no society in this country at the 

 time of our inception to look after 

 these matters or adjudicate upon a 

 new variety. There has been also a 

 few, and we are glad to say a very 

 few, unscrupulous dealers who tried to 

 mislead the public by giving new 



names to old or worthless varieties, 

 thus misleading buyers and doing the 

 dahlia cause harm. But with the ed- 

 ucation we are giving our members 

 we will soon educate the buyers. With 

 the description of new varieties given 

 in our bulletins from time to time, 

 they will know at once, when the 

 plant blooms, if they have the true 

 variety or not. 



It is my opinion that it would be ad- 

 visable to amend the by-laws in rela- 

 tion to new membership and dues. 

 There is a great deal of objection to 

 the initiation fee. I think that two 

 dollars for active and one dollar 

 straight for associate members, or ten 

 dollars for club membership (affilia- 

 tion) would bring us in more money 

 than we are likely to get by sticking 

 out for the membership fee. 



Affiliation with the S. A. F. and O. H. 



A number of our members worked 

 hard to get a sufficient number of S. 

 A. F. members so that we would have 

 the one hundred required for represen- 

 tation with that body, but failed. We 

 need this to put us on a par with other 

 societies. All good work needs some . 

 little sacrifice from the individual. 

 Will you, as a member of this society, 

 lielp us in this? It has to be done pre- 

 vious to January, 1917, to entitle us to 

 representation for that year. 

 Dahlia Trial Grounds. 



We have two trial grounds in differ- 

 ent sections of the country. One is at 

 the New Y'ork Experiment Station at 

 Geneva, under Prof. F. H. Hall; the 

 other at the St. Paul (Minn.) Experi- 

 mental Farm, under Prof. Le Roy 

 Cady. Prof. J. B. Norton, of the Mary- 

 land Agricultural Station, and others 

 are experimenting with numerous va- 

 rities and all types. 



We think that we will be able to 

 dve the dahlia world, in our quarter- 

 ly bulletins, some interesting and valu- 

 able information during the coming 

 year, and anyone having anything in- 

 teresting to communicate is invited to 

 send it to the publisher of the bulletin. 



The reports of secretary and treas- 

 urer followed, as below: 



Report of the Secretary. 



The support that the American 

 Dahlia Society has received since its 

 inception in New York on May 10, 

 1915, has been eminently encouraging. 

 To the end of August, 1916, the total 

 paid-up membership was 244, being 

 169 active members and 75 associate 

 members. 



The first annual show was held on 

 September 24 and 25 in the Museum 

 of Natural History, New York city. 

 With all flowers that are cultivated 

 entirely out of doors there is always 

 a large element of risk owing to peri- 

 ods of bad or unfavorable weather. It 

 happened that the period of three 

 weeks immediately preceding the ex- 

 hibition was the hottest and driest of 

 the whole summer and autumn, ter- 

 minating in violent thunderstorms 

 with rain, which'-destroyed the flowers 

 of several of the large growers. De- 

 spite these drawbacks the show was 

 a good one and was attended by 35,000 

 visitors. 



Early in the present year a change 

 was made necessary in the secretary- 

 ship of the society owing to the in- 

 creasing pressure of Mr. Joseph J. 



