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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST^ 



wooden construction? This question was 

 answered by Mr. O. G. Johnson, of King- 

 ston. A portion of some of these papers 

 has been given in this issue, and the re- 

 mainder will be published in The Horitcul- 

 turist from time to time. 



The meetings were all presided over by 

 President E. Mepsted, of Ottawa. At the 

 opening session an address of welcome was 

 given by Mayor J. A. Ellis, of Ottawa, who 

 referred to the pleasure it gave him to wel- 

 come those present to the city. This plea- 

 sure, he said, was intensified by the fact that 

 he considered himself an amateur horticul- 

 turist, having always, taken much delight in 

 the cultivation of flowers. Referring to the 

 exhibit of Groff's seedling gladiolus, made 

 at the convention by Campbell Bros., of 

 Simcoe, Mayor Ellis claimed Mr. Groff is 

 probably the most successful grower of this 

 variety of flowers in the world, and he hoped 

 that his marked success will encourage other 

 Canadian florists to strive to do equally as 

 well. A suitable response was made by Mr. 

 James McKenna, of Montreal, who referred 

 to the enjoyable nature of the convention 

 held in Ottawa four years before. The ob- 

 ject of the Canadian Horticultural Associa- 

 tion, he claimed, is to encourage a greater 

 interest in flowers and to raise and improve 

 the present standards. 



In his annual address President Mepsted 

 referred with pleasure to the marked differ- 



ence in the membership and influence of the 

 association to-day as compared with what it 

 was when the association met in Ottawa 

 four years ago. While the fight has been 

 a slow and up-hill one, the members have 

 persevered, until now the association is on a 

 sound basis. A strong effort, he thought, 

 should be made to get more gardeners to 

 join. Now that the association has held 

 its annual convention in most of the princi- 

 pal cities, President Mepsted suggested that 

 smaller cities might be visited so that a 

 greater interest in floral matters might be 

 aroused. Referring to the matter of duty 

 on azaleas and carnations, Mr. Mepsted 

 said : " The minister seems to think the 

 matter too small a one to deal with. The 

 time is now ripe for our association to take 

 the matter up energetically. The plant 

 trade has made rapid strides, the only draw- 

 back being the want of uniform standards. 

 There is no reason why this cannot be ob- 

 tained, as there are not so many florists in 

 the leading cities as to make this impossible. 

 There has been no over-production of plants 

 during the last two or three years, as the 

 supply has hardly been equal to the demand. 

 The relations between employer and em- 

 ploye are of a satisfactory nature, but there 

 seems to be a scarcity of plantsmen, which 

 is a decided disadvantage. The employer 

 is somewhat to blame for this, as in all other 

 lines of business; employers develop their 



Exhibit of Perennials and Gladiolus at the Florists' Convention. 



The flowers here shown were grouped in front of the platform at the Florists' Convention and made a fine display. They include 150 

 distinct varieties of perennials, including 55 varieties of perennial phlox, shown by Mr. Macoun, of the Central Experimental Farm. The 

 exhibit bore evidence of the wonderful improvement that that has been made in the.se flowers in recent years. 



