353 



HORTICULTURE 



May 1, 1920 



HORTICULTURE 



BstBblliked by WlUlun J. Stewart U 1»<M 



Vol. XXXI 



May 1, 1920 



No. 18 



PUBLJSHED WEIBKI.T BT 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 78 Devonshire Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 

 Telephone Fort Hill Sea4 



ADVERTISING KATES: 



Per Insh, SO Inches to pace flM 



IMlooiuit on Contracts for oonseoutiT* lBS«rtloBS, as follows: 



One month (4 times). 6 per cant.; three months (IS times), 10 

 Mr eent. ; six months (26 times), 20 |^er eent. ; oae year (52 times), 

 it p«r eent. 



Face and half pag:e spaced not censecntlTep rates es application. 



SUBSCRIPTION BATES: 



One Year, Id advance, 11.00; To Foreira Oenntrles, 9K.00; To 

 Canada, $1.50. 



■»ter«(J as neeond-elais matter December «, 1804, at the Post Office 

 at Boston, Haaa., under the Act of Concreaa ef Uarch 3, 1867. 



To comply with a new Post Office requirement, when 

 writing to HoBTicroxTUBE, please use the following form: 



HORTICULTURE, 78 Devonshire Street, Boston 9, Mass. 



The city of Boston is (Jivided into districts, and each dis- 

 trict is numbered. If you will observe the number allotted 

 to HoBTicruLTUBE, it Will facilitate the delivery of mail to 

 this office. 



We congratulate the officers of the S. A. F. 

 S. A. F.'s on their new quarters in New York City. It 

 New is not surprising that Mr. John Young, the effi- 



Quarters cient secretary, is very much pleased with 

 the change. In the old Siegel-Cooper Build- 

 ing on West 18th street the headquarters force have much 

 larger quarters in a location which will be very convenient 

 for everybody. The staff is now well located in the new 

 quarters and no doubt visitors will be welcome. 



E>fforts have been made in several of the 

 Mothers' larger cities to carry on a somewhat exten- 

 Day sive co-operative advertising scheme for 



Advertising Mothers" Day. Unfortunately the results as 

 a rule have not been equal to those antici- 

 pated. For some reason florists do not seem to have recog- 

 nized the opportunities offered by Mothers' Day, although, 

 of course, there is always the same disinclination among 

 certain members of the trade in each locality to pull in har- 

 ness ^vith their fellow craftsmen. We understand that a 

 somewhat elaborate scheme of co-operation for advertising 

 purpose which have been planned for Cleveland have either 

 fallen through or been temporarily suspended because of 

 failure on the part of the florists to get together in a whol- 

 ly amicable and helpful way. This is apart from Mothers' 

 Day advertising, but the difficulty experienced in getting 

 concerted action applies to that day as to all occasions. 

 'Even in Philadelphia, where the Mothers' Day movement 

 started, no great enthusiasm seems to be shown. 



The publicity bureau of the S. A. F. has done some 

 work to arouse florists throughout the country, but seems 

 to have confined itself mostly to the middle west, paying 

 little attention to New England. 



Coming as it does, half way between Easter and Me- 



morial Day, Mother's Day ought to offer an occasion for 

 much profitable business, but the kind of business which 

 must be worked up by publicity. This needn't be entirely 

 confined to newspapers, either. We conceive that if all the 

 street car conductors should be given a buttonhole carna- 

 tion, with the explanation that it was because of Mothers' 

 Day, much interest would be aroused. The law of sugges- 

 tion would be set working, and many other people when 

 they saw the display and learned the reason would hasten 

 to get a buttonhole carnation, too. 



After all. though, it may be well to emphasize the 

 fact that carnations are not the only flowers permitted on 

 Mother's Day. It will make better business to have it un- 

 derstood that buyers are encouraged to choose such flowers 

 as the mothers whom they intend to honor in particular 

 are or were fond of. In the middle west i)eonies are fea- 

 tured on Mother's Day. and there are plenty of other 

 flowers, gales of which can be encouraged. 



Railroad delays have proved embarrassing and 

 Railroad costly to many florists throughout the country. 

 Delays but it is not the florist alone who has suffered 

 from these delays. Nurser>'nien whose biggest 

 shipping season is now on have been badly handicapped. 

 Planting plans have been wholly disarranged and more or 

 less stock en route has been lost or ruined. John Watson, 

 secretary of the American Association of Nurserymen, has 

 recently issued a bulletin to members of the association in 

 which he calls attention to a notice sent out by the Ameri- 

 can Railroad Association Commission on car service. This 

 notice reads as follows: 



Complaints in considerable volume are reaching us and 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission as well, from nursery- 

 men in various parts of the country, indicating that there 

 is little uniformity among the various roads with respect 

 to exempting nursery stock, a. highly seasonal and semi- 

 perishable commodity, from embargoes. 



To establish a uniform practice, it appears to be im- 

 portant at this season, and it is therefore suggested, that 

 whenever general embargoes are placed which exempt food, 

 feed, perishable freight, live stock and fuel, that such 

 seasonal articles as field and garden seed, seed grain and 

 nursery stock, be considered next in order of importance 

 to receive preference in transportation. 



Mr. Watson calls attention to the special emphasis 

 placed on nursery stock in this notice and says that the 

 action was taken as a result of conferences with the secre- 

 tary of agriculture, the interstate commerce commission, 

 and at the request of various members of Congress. 

 Nurserymen themselves while laboring under great diffi- 

 culties because of shortage in labor are doing everything in 

 their power to fill their orders promptly. Moreover they 

 are having a tremendous business this season in spite of 

 higher prices. If buyers are unable to get their stock the 

 fault is the railroad's. 



■Something was said earlier in the year 



High Priced about the strange fact that farm machinery 



Tools and tools were being kept down to the 



old level of prices. Apparently, however, 

 things have changed. Certainly the upward tendency has 

 set in strong. This will be noticed by anybody who at- 

 tempts to buy any simple tools for garden work. This 

 applies even to wheelbarrows. Truth to tell, it is hard to 

 btiy a wheelbarrow at any price in some places, and deal- 

 ers say they have difficulty in renewing their stock. One 

 dealer happens to have a large supply of bodies, but is 

 unable to get the wheels to go with them. It seems to be 

 wise for all of us to make our old tools serve as well as 

 possible this season. 



