HORTICULTURE 



Vol. XXXII 



SEPTEMBER 11, 1920 



No. 11 



THE TALK OF THE TRADE 



There is every indication that Snap- 

 dragons will prove as popular with the 

 public this season as in the past years. 

 In any event, many growers are propos- 

 ing to devote considerable space to 

 these flowers. They seem to pay espe- 

 cially well as a spring crop. It is 

 true that of late years difficulties have 

 attended the growing of Snapdragons, 

 and yet the grower who is careful us- 

 ually gets good results; and if he has 

 his flowers in the market early enough 

 he is certain to make a good profit. 



I find that New England delegates to 

 the S. A. F. convention at Cleveland 

 come back enthusiastic over the out- 

 look for the success of the Grower's 

 Association. I doubt If anywhere in 

 the country, unless it be in Chicago, 

 have the new organization's plans been 

 accepted more spontaneously. No doubt 

 Secretary Ammann will be in New 

 England again this winter, and in that 

 event it is to be hoped that he will 

 make a longer stop, taking advantage 

 of the opportunity to get out among 

 the growers' houses. Wherever Mr. 

 Ammann goes he arouses enthusiasm 

 because of his forceful and eloquenf 

 manner of talking. 



In his talk at Cleveland Secretary 

 Ammann brought up several points 

 which appealed, I find, to growers not 

 only in New England but also in other 

 parts of the country. I refer to his 

 discussion of plans for collecting pub- 

 licity funds. He pointed out that while 

 in many communities already organ- 

 ized in a cooperative way, funds are 

 readily collected on a percentage plan, 

 and that the plan works well where 

 sales and purchases go through the 

 commission houses. He went on to 

 show, however, that many other grow- 

 ers throughout the United States sell 

 their own products direct, either at 

 wholesale or retail or both, and that it 

 is not an easy plan, or in fact a feasible 

 practice to apply the percentage plan 

 of collection to such growers. The 

 National Growers' Association meets 

 this situation by putting into its con- 

 stitution a clause that an amount 

 equal to not less than one dollar per 

 thousand square feet of ground cov- 

 ered with glass shall be collected for 

 local dues, and that an amount equal 

 to not less than fifty per cent per 



thousand square feet of ground cov- 

 ered with glass owned or controlled by 

 members of any local unit shall be 

 paid as dues into the national organiza- 

 tion annually. Of course this does not 

 mean or say that every local district 

 shall collect on the square foot basis. 

 It can use any plan the members may 

 adopt, the square foot plan, the per 

 cent plan, or a direct assessment per 

 member. Each local district can de- 

 cide for itself as to method so long as 



the lump sum collected is equal to the 

 amount stated. I think this covers a 

 point which has been discussed more 

 widely than any other matter having 

 to do with the publicity campaign. 



.John C. Meyer, of the Meyer Green 

 Thread Co., of Lowell, tells me that he 

 has been having an excellent trip 

 through the White and Green Moun- 

 tains. The trip was made by motor, 

 and Mr. Meyer says that he is now 

 back at the mills ready for another 

 season's work, turning out their fam- 

 ous silkaline and threads. I under- 



WELL GROWN SNAPDRAGONS 



