6 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



one dollar this y^ar to help the society (one dollar is the annual 

 membership fee). It can then do better work and more of it, and 

 you will receive the benefit. 



Florists are professional men, or should be, just as much as 

 physicians or surgeons, some of them being specialists in growing 

 some particular varieties, just the same as aurists and occulists are 

 specialists in their line, and some institution should furnish diplomas 

 for the successful completion of a prescribed course in floriculture. 

 As I have said before, florists ought to be teachers ; but to become 

 successful as such, they must get entirely rid of that old idea thaf 

 gardeners have banded down to each other as a legacy, that theirs 

 is a knowledge of mystery and to tell one solitary thing the}' knew, 

 would simply be giving the thing away and this would soon make 

 an empty pocket-book and they woald lose their importiace as well. 



The late Peter Henderson realized the folly of this idea and 

 taught the people how to cultivate plants and instead of becoming a 

 pauper or losing position, see the immense business and wealth he 

 accumulated and those who mourned his death reached from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific. 



While our florists may realize the fallacy of this disposition they 

 are at a disadvantage about overcoming it for in this State there are 

 no florists' organizations ; while in other states the florists' clubs are 

 an invaluable aid for exchange of experience, ideas and socialities, 

 furnishing as they do, seasons for debate, essays, lectures and exhi- 

 bitions. In this State all the aid we get is from the management of 

 State, county and town fairs. The benefit we derive is rather 

 indirect and comes with long intervals and we are of little benefit to 

 them, or at least, less by far than we would be, did we have an 

 organization of our own to keep our enthusiasm up the year round. 



Then, too, many of us disregard botanical names, this is wrong ; 

 but the mother of a dozen children vs^ould be just as sensible to say 

 she'll raise them without names, because she can't remember what 

 the minister christened them, as the florist to grow his plants with- 

 out names. 



It does very well for a pelargonium to be called Lady Mary, 

 Martha Washington, Lxdy Washington, Paa-iy Geranium and more 

 of a similar character in any certain locality, but, perhaps, outside 

 that particular neighborhood people would be puzzled to know what 

 was meant by them. Many people don't know that what we call a 

 geranium is a pelargonium and not a geranium at all ; geraniums 



