68 



HORTICULTURE 



July 24, 1920 



HORTICULTURE 



EstabUshed by WllUivni J. Stewart in 19(H 



Vol. XXXII 



July 24, 1920 



No. 4 



PrBtlSirED WEEKLY IN 



HORTICULTRE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

 739 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. 



EDWARD I. FARRINGTON, Editor. 



Telephone Fort Hill 3694 



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Entered as second-claes matter December 8, 1904, at the Post Office 

 at BoBton, Mass., under the Act of Congress of March 3, 18!)7. 



It is not strange that growers find themselves 



Hail somewhat agitated every time they see dark 



Losses clouds rising in the sky indicating the possible 



approach of a hailstorm. A number of these 

 storms have been experienced in different parts of the 

 country the past week, one of them having swept over New 

 England. This particular storm traveled along a very 

 narrow path but left destruction wherever a greenhouse 

 was even whipped by its tail. And when the owners came 

 to replace the glass they found that it cost them a pretty 

 penny. 



We know of one large grower who suffered from the 

 storm but was fortunate enough to have a suitable amount 

 of glass packed away in the cellar. This glass cost him 

 $1.50 a box when he bought it. It was a fortunate purchase 

 for when he went into the market to get enough extra 

 glass to complete the repairs, he was obliged to pay $10.50 

 for it. With such prices prevailing and the labor costing 

 as it does, the setting of new glass is a costly operation 

 Of course if the grower is a member of the Florists' Hail 

 Association he is not such a heavy loser, but many grow- 

 ers, especially in New England, prefer to take their chances 

 and in the case mentioned there was no insurance to help 

 offset the high price which had to be paid for glass. 



It seems to me that we have never known 

 Convention a time v/hen so many well-known florists 

 Dates have remarked that their convenience and 



inclination would be served very much bet- 

 ter if the S. A. F. convention were held at some other sea- 

 son. They complain that they find it diflicult to make the 

 train journey to a large city and concentrate on business 

 methods in the month of August. That is the month which 

 is chosen by a large number of florists for their vacation 

 month. To attend the convention they have to leave the 

 woods or the seaside where they are gathering up renewed 

 energ>- for the next season's business and spend a more or 

 less uncomfortable week in the trains and hotels. Natur- 



ally enough the families of these men dislike to have them 

 break into their vacation in this way and their wives do 

 not feel like accompanying them. This season we are in- 

 formed a number of well-known faces will be missed from 

 the convention at Cleveland for the very reason outlined. 



If the conventions were held in October, they say, they 

 would be glad to attend and no doubt would gain much 

 valuable experience and information as a result of doing 

 so. They all recognize the value of the conventions and 

 hope for a large attendance, but state their belief that the 

 cooler month will be welcomed by all hands. This is espe- 

 cially true in the case of members who live a long distance 

 away and have to spend two or three days en route each 

 way. 



Of course there is nothing new about this proposition. 

 It has been talked up many a time in the past, and some 

 members have argued for a change to the spring of the 

 year. There are several reasons, though, why fall seems 

 to be more desirable. It is hard for the growers to get 

 away just before Easter, and the Easter date is such a 

 variable one that no regular week could be decided upon 

 as the date for each year. 



All in all. the fall seems more suited for a coHvention 

 of this kind, and October comes after the hot weather is 

 gone, but before the storms of winter interfere with travel. 

 It seems quite possible from what we have heard that the 

 matter of changing the convention date will come up at 

 the coming session in Cleveland. 



.Now that industries in the cities are shut- 

 Young men ting down or going on part time, will there 



needed be an increasing tendency on the part of 

 young men to seek work in greenhouses or 

 on private estates? The answer to this question will have 

 an important bearing on horticulture. The need of young 

 men in all branches of the business is urgent, and appar- 

 ently the situation across the water is the same, so that 

 no relief can be expected from that quarter. A writer in 

 the Horticultural Trade Journal of London has the follow- 

 ing to say: 



"Some time ago 1 remarked that there seemed to be 

 very few young men coming along to fill the thinning ranks 

 expert propagators and growers of the best classes of 

 plants, and during the past week or so I have had evidence 

 from several different sources that it is a verj' difficult task 

 to find a man to take a responsible position on a nurserj-. 

 Of course just now there is similar difficulty in many other 

 trades, for reasons we very well know, but it seems to me 

 that in horticulture we are drifting along without making 

 real effort to remedy matters, and yet there is a good deaJ 

 that might easily be done. 



'^Vv'hat I should like to see is a real Horticultural 

 Trades' Exhibition at which one of the leading features 

 would be competitions with generous awards to nursery 

 workers. Practical demonstrations of grafting, budding 

 and various methods of propagating different classes of 

 plants. Potting competitions, competitions in packing 

 trees, cut flowers, and various other of the nursery hands* 

 skilled tasks would be the sort of thing to make a feature 

 of. With some encouragement of this kind to set up an 

 ideal and strive for it the young fellows in nurseries would 

 attain a proficiency that would abundantly repay all cost 

 of such an undertaking, and the advantage would be mu- 

 tual to employer and employee when it came to filling an 

 important berth. The man who had proved himself before 

 practical judges to be expert at his particular job would 

 find that proof a valuable asset." 



