392 



H a T 1 C U L 1' U K E 



May 11. 1920 



HORTICULTURE 



Butablliihed bj WtUlam J. Stewart la lOM 



Vol. XXXI 



May 15, 1920 



No. 20 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



HORTICULTURE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 78 Devonshire Street, Boston, Maes. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 

 Telephone Fort HUl Se04 



AOVERTI8IMO KATES: 



Far Ineh, 80 Inohee to pace flJUt 



Dlsoeant on Contraots for oonseontlTa Inaertloaa. aa foUowa: 



One ntoBtli (4 tiroes), 6 per cent.; thTc« months (18 times), 10 

 far eent. ! six montli* (86 times), 20 par eeat.) osa jear (CS times), 

 M per aent. 



Pare and half paee space, not conseaatlTo, rates ea applloatlon. 



SCBSCBIPTION RATES: 



One Tear, In advance, (1.00; To Foreira Csontrles, fS.OO; To 

 Canada, *1.£0. 



tetared as second-elass matter December 8, 1904, at tbe Pott Office 

 at Boston, Mass., under the Act of CsBgreas ef Uareb S, 1867. 



On another page appears an interesting arti- 

 Patented cle dealing with the registration of new plant 



Plants varieties. This article was written by Miss 

 Grace Sturtevant, of Wellesley Farms, Mass., 

 a woman who has become famous as an Iris specialist, and 

 especially in the hybridizing of this plant. For a long time 

 the matter of protecting novelties has been discussed in 

 the English trade press and among English gardeners. 

 The matter has also been taken up in this country to some 

 extent. In the American Rose Annual for 1920 Mr. J. Ed- 

 ward Moon, president of the American Association of Nur- 

 serymen, has a valuable contribution dealing with this 

 subject. Mr. Moon, who as everybody knows is an active 

 nurseryman in the third generation of successful work, 

 has given much attention to this particular question, and 

 has expressed to us much the same thought as that which 

 he elaborates in the rose annual. 



Mr. Moon points out that in almost any other line or 

 work nobody would feel like producing an article that 

 could not be protected by patent rights or at least secured 

 by a trade mark. He feels that no astute business man 

 would by an advertising appropriation back an unpatented, 

 untrademarked, unsecured manufactured article of any 

 kind. In the horticultural world nothing of this sort has 

 ever been attempted, and it Is common knowledge that 

 men who have spent years and much money in bringing 

 various new plants to successful development, have had to 

 divide their profits with others who have obtained speci- 

 mens of the new plants and propagated them so rapidly 

 as to secure a stock early enough to be on the market al- 

 most coincident with that of the original. Many people in 

 the trade believe that this is the chief factor in discourag- 

 ing plant breeders from original work. On the other hand, 

 there are those who claim that this is more of an excuse 

 than any valid explanation. It depends largely upon the 

 point of view. 



Unfortunately Mr. Moon chose rather unwisely when 

 he submitted Rosa Hugonis as a case in point. It would 

 appear from his article that Rosa Hugonis was introduced 

 to the trade through the Arnold Arboretum. As a matter 

 of fact, the Conard & Jones Co., if we are correctly in- 

 formed, obtained its stock from the Veitchs, the English 



concern, and did so quite independently of the Arboretum. 

 Of course other nurserymen were perfectly at liberty to 

 follow their example. 



Still, there seems to be much point to Mr. Moons ar- 

 gument that if the originator or introducer of a novelty 

 could sell exclusive rights of propagation to a given con- 

 cern for a term of years, it would serve to stimulate the 

 propagation and dissemination of worthy new things. It 

 is a suggestion of Mr. Moon that the different concerns be 

 allowed to bid on such novelties and secure the exclusive 

 propagation rights tor the ordinary patent term of seven- 

 teen years. This, as he argues, would allow the purchaser 

 an opportunity to secure the proper financing of the enter- 

 prise so that the plants could be put upon the market in 

 great numbers, backed by adequate advertising, and given 

 wide dissemination with reasonable assurance of getting 

 IjacI; the sum total of the investment, with a fair degree 

 of profit. 



Unfortunately obstacles seem to come up when the de- 

 tails of this scheme are considered. That this plan or 

 some similar one is simmering in the minds of many grow- 

 ers is evidenced from the article of Miss Sturtevant, who 

 writes from quite a different angle from Mr. Moon, and 

 yet with the same object in view. It will be noted that 

 the newly formed Iris Society is likely to take up the 

 question in an official way. 



One useful tendency which is noted abroad and which 

 might well be adopted in this country is the bracketing of 

 breeders' names after the name of all novelties and newly 

 introduced varieties. This in itself is a step In the right 

 direction, and if the great army of amateur gardeners can 

 be interested in the whole proposition, it is quite probable 

 that some definite and workable scheme for the protection 

 of the originators and propagators of new plants will be 

 evolved. 



Apropos of the above paragraphs we should 



Expressing like to say that it would be a splendid 



Opinions thing for horticulture in this country if 



those in the trade, as well as advanced ama- 

 teurs, would write more freely for the horticultural publi- 

 cations. In recent numbers of the English papers we find 

 three well written contributions from American writers; 

 the one from Miss Sturtevant is one, and another is that 

 of Mr. B. Hammond TrScy, of Wenham, Mass., also repro- 

 duced in this issue. It seems td be quite the proper thing 

 to send in gratuitous contributions to the English papers, 

 setting forth one's point of view on various matters per- 

 taining to plant growing. All sorts of discussdons are car- 

 ried on in the English trade press, ranging from those 

 which have to do with the wages of gardeners to highly 

 technical matters concerning rare plants. Now the num- 

 ber of similar contributions whach come to publications of 

 this country are very few in comparison, and they deal 

 more largely with matters of business progress than any- 

 thing else. Why is it that there isn't more general and 

 hearty co-operation? The columns of our papers ought to 

 be filled with letters or short articles taking up the differ- 

 ent questions which are sure to be warmly discussed when- 

 ever a group of commercial growers or private gardeners 

 get together. Such discussions are sure to be helpful and 

 an opportunity is being missed because they are not in- 

 dulged in more freely. 



With flowers at their present prices it is wise economy to 

 .■liniinate white carnatons from the observance of Mother's Day. 

 next .'^iniilay. Mothers have other uses for their dollars now. — 

 Springfield Republican. 



It will be news to many that mother is in the habit 

 of buying her own flowers for Mothers' Day. Maybe the 

 lad who wrote that paragraph is like a lot more of us who 

 speak first and think afterwards. 



