294 



HOETICULTUEE 



February 28, 1914 



HORTICULTURE. 



VOL. XIX 



FEBRUARY 28, 1914 



NO. 9 



PUBLISHED WEEKL,Y BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING CO. 

 11 Hamilton Place. Boston. Mass. 



Telephone, Oxford 293. 



WM. J. STEWART, Editor and Manager. 



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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. 



CONTENTS Page 



COVER ILLUSTRATION— American Hollv 



NOTES ON CULTURE OP FLORISTS' STOCK— Bed- 

 ding Geraniums — Begonias, Lorraine and Cincinnati 

 — Bouvardia — Lily of the Valley for Easter — Propa- 

 gating Violets — Shading Palms and Ferns — John J. 

 M Farrell 293 



A. M. HERR'S REFLECTIONS ON THE RECENT 

 CARNATION MEETING 295 



THE BEST TREE FOR THE WEST— (7. S. Harrison 295 



COVER ILLUSTRATION 295 



CLUBS AND SOCIETIES — Illinois State Florists' 

 Association — Nassau County Horticultural Society — 

 Society of American Florists — Lancaster County 



Florists' Club 296 



Club and Society Notes 296-300 



DURING RECESS— Rochester-Buffalo Bowling— Nau- 

 sau County Horticultural Society — Gardeners' and 

 Florists' Club of Boston 297 



SEED TRADE— Chicago Seed Notes— Notes 302 



OP INTEREST TO RETAIL FLORISTS: 



New Flower Stores — Steamer Departures 304 



Flowers by Telegraph 305 



Establishment of a Prosperous Lady Florist, Illus- 

 trated 307 



OBITUARY — Henry Meyn — Truxton Craven — Stephen 

 McHale— S. H. Warren 307 



FLOWER MARKET REPORTS: 



Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, New York 309 



Philadelphia, St. Louis, Washington 311 



GREENHOUSE CONSTRUCTION AND HEATING — 

 F. J. Elder 316 



MISCELLANEOUS: 



Visitors' Register 300 



Some Fine Melons — Illustrated 300 



Greenhouses Building or Contemplated 300 



New Corporation 302 



News Notes 302-305 



Philadelphia Notes — St. Louis Notes 306 



Washington Notes— Chicago Notes 306 



Fires 307 



Personal 311 



New Wholesale Houses 311 



"News Letter No. 1" is the first issue of a 



Bug monthly series to be issued by the Federal 



catching Horticultural Board on topics connected 



with the enforcement of the Federal Plant 

 Quarantine Act. This issue concerns itself with the 

 records of the insect pests and fungous diseases inter- 

 cepted during the past year on imported nursery and 

 florists' stock, as reported by State Inspectors or the 

 Inspection Service of the Board. The lists as given in 

 this first issue are in two separate series, one arranged 

 as reported by States and the other by countries of 



origin of the pests enumerated. It would seem from 

 this document that certain of the States are much more 

 diligent than others in detecting objectionable insects 

 on stock received within their borders. For instance, 

 the District of Columbia intercepted 52 instances of 

 infestation, California 4-± and Massachusetts 27, whereas 

 all the other States stand very low on the list, New 

 York reporting only 3, one of which, however, was the 

 dreaded gypsy moth — the only case of its importation 

 reported for the year. Belgium and Holland furnished 

 the greater number of infested plants. 



Should our clubs and societies — 

 Problems in especially those in which the corn- 



finance and credit mercial element is well repre- 

 sented — take up the matter of 

 busiuess credits as an issue, and is there a practical way 

 in which these organisations can help to promote and 

 bring about a higher standard of business ethics than 

 now prevails? This query will be variously answered, 

 no doubt, but as to the need for improvement in this 

 direction there can be but one conclusion. An approx- 

 imate summing up of the business reverses as reported 

 from time to time in the columns of the florist trade 

 papers would seem to show that, despite the greater pre- 

 cautions said to be exercised and the variously devised 

 restrictions on reckless credit giving, the sum total of 

 losses through failures is today fully as large as it has 

 been at any time in the past and the amount of uncer- 

 tain and uncollectable accounts on the books of the aver- 

 age dealer shows no shrinkage as the seasons pass along. 

 Whether the crash comes in a concern whose unreliability 

 has long been common talk or from one of reputed finan- 

 cial ability and unsuspected until the bolt has fallen, 

 when the facts come out we often find listed with the 

 heavy losers parties who have been among the most vehe- 

 ment remonstrants against the extending of unguarded 

 credit. 



It is readily realized that this 

 Conditions fact as above stated may be in a 



to be reckoned with large measure due to the great 

 inherent weakness of the plant 

 and flower growers' business — the perishable nature and 

 ephemeral value of its products which repeatedly brings 

 the producer or dealer face to face with conditions that 

 impel even the most conservative, either openly or 

 covertly to ignore all rules of prudence and jump into 

 the game of chance, unloading goods on a doubtful cus- 

 tomer, as an alternative preferable to seeing the stock 

 go to w'aste. Like the man "on the water wagon" it is, 

 as often as otherwise, simply a question of being con- 

 fronted with a temptation sufficiently great which de- 

 cides when he shall tumble off the wagon. And the 

 same fleeting value of the goods which makes him anx- 

 ious to unload must again be reckoned with when the 

 seller seeks to enforce payment of his account and finds 

 that there is nothing of any value on which to levy. In 

 a business so beset with pitfalls into which the wary as 

 well as the unwary tumble and retumble "The best laid 

 schemes o' mice and men, Gang aft agley," and it is plain 

 that the rules and methods which make for safety and 

 financial assurance in other forms of mercantile enter- 

 prise will here often fall short of accomplishing their 

 purpose. The remedy which will effectually safeguard 

 the interests of the horticultural trades cannot be devised 

 in an hour or a day and, as before said, there may be 

 divergent views as to whether the trade organizations as 

 at present constituted are capable of giving any prac- 

 tical assistance. Yet the subject is a vital one and well 

 worthy of a place among the serious problems awaiting 

 thoughtful attention. 



