j86 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



September, 



How to dry them bas yet got to be learned by 

 farmers. They will pick them up just as fast as 

 they fall and draw them to a factory, and when 

 they get there, they are pretty well up to pom- 

 ace ; whereas if they would peel these A pples at 

 home they would save them. Farmers could 

 save a good deal of money by taking one of these 

 small evaporators, takinff pains, bleaching it out 

 with brimstone. In answer to the question, 

 would it be profitable for a man to evaporate 

 Apples, I say yes. I have two thousand Apple 

 trees. If I had not a factory I would have a nice 

 little evaporator and use up the Apples that I 

 could not sell, that fell with the wind. The help 

 around there could peel up a good many dollars 

 worth of Apples of Apples that are now thrown 

 away. If the farmers would do the work well 

 they would get just as good a price as the Ameri- 

 cans. I put them up in five, ten, twenty-flve and 

 fifty pounds boxes. I ordered a great numy 

 paper boxes from Montreal. Instead of selling 

 them by the pound, the merchants would say, 

 "Here is five pounds." The cost of packing is 

 pretty hea\v in a public establishment of that 

 kind. The farmers could do that if they would 

 get the little 'paper bo.\-es. Put them in five 

 pound boxes, lay the first course nicely; learn to 

 be tasty and neat about it, and you will get a 

 real good price for your Apples— much better 

 than if you put them in 25 pound boxes; 10 pound 

 boxes, however, are very nice. Oftentimes mer- 

 chants would get 75 cents for five pounds. I 

 don't believe a farmer can grow berries and 

 evaporate them and make money out of them at 

 present, because there are so many dried berries 

 in the back counties that are picked and dried 

 because they can't be shipped here; and the 

 market is generally down to about 15 or SO cents. 

 Now, if you get four cents a pound for them 

 fresh you better sell them than undertake under- 

 take even to evaporate at that, because it will 

 take four pounds of berries under the most fav- 

 orable circumstances to make one pound of 

 evaporated berries, and nearer five pounds. In 

 large cities it is done. In Rochester a man has 

 30a acres and evaporates his Blackberries and 

 makes money out of them. We never could; we 

 gave it u p. 



Mr. Caston.— The equinoctial gales in Septem- 

 ber knock a great many Apples off the trees; 

 and they are some of the finest specimens, and if 

 you don't keep them you lose them, as Apples 

 are a drug in the market in the fall of the year; 

 and I think when people are a long way from the 

 canning factory, it they could evaporate they 

 would save a good deal that goes to waste. 



Mr. Boulter.— Thousands of dollars could be 

 saved to the country in that way. If a wind-fall 

 Apple is cut up right away, peeled, the core 

 punched out, put in the bleacher, and then sliced 

 up, the bruises will bleach right out— it won't 

 show in an evaporated Apple. 



Mr. Castdn.— How would 10 cents per pound 

 correspond with green Apples per bushel? 



Mk. Boulter.— The Golden Kussett Apple will 

 make about four pounds to the bushel. The 

 Snow Apiile will make less. 



Mr. DEMP.SEY.-Bleaching is exposing the Ap- 

 ples to the fumes of sulphurous acid. I would 

 ask any one to evaporate some Apples and not 

 expose them to the action of this acid, but try 

 thcni natural and see if they don't have the nat- 

 ural tlavor; then take some Apples that have 

 been bleached and cook them and taste them; 

 and lie will Hud that this bleaching process has a 

 tendency to toughen the Apple. Even though 

 you make them into pie, the toughness remains; 

 but if they are not bleached the Apple cooks and 

 swells up again just as nice as it come from the 

 tree, and you can detect the flavor of varieties 

 of those that are dried without the bleaching 

 process. I admit that the trade requires white 

 Apples and those men engaged in drying Apples 

 don't care whether the Apples is a white-floshed 

 Apple or a yellow-fleshed Apple. The saccharine 

 matter is what preserves the Apple, and there is 

 a certain amount of that which must be de- 

 stroyed by the actien of the sulphurous acid. 



Mr. Boulter.— I was under your impression 

 when we first started. It is the same way with 

 Hops. When I was in the Hop business, I went to 

 Torontu andtound I could not sell my Hops. I 

 was told 1 would have to put brimstone in. The 

 brimstone is driven off almost entirely liy the 

 heat. We bleach the Apple now as quickly as it 

 is peeled. I believe that the bleaching process 

 makes the Apple softer and better that it would 

 without bleaching. You cannot tasted a particle 

 of the brimstone, and I believe that is driven off 

 with the heat. If the trade says, " We have got 



to have that kind of an Apple," you may talk 

 till doomsday to tell a man you are selling better 

 than what he says he wants and what his cus- 

 tomers want. If they demand that kind of Apple 

 they have got to have it. 



American Society of Florists. 



\Abstravtfrom Pres. J. .V. Man's Address be/ore the 

 Society of American Floristi^, Aui/. 2n, 18Sy,l 



As workmen and artists we must show 

 that we are able to keep abreast of the times, 

 and the best possible opportunity for us to 

 do so is to meet and freely discuss all mat- 

 teas of interest. Wonderful strides have 

 been made in the making up of floral de- 

 signs alone, within the last ten years, and 

 other branches of our business have shown 

 equal advancement. This is very largely 

 due to the Society of Americin Florists; but 

 no one will deny that we have ample room 

 for improvement left. Let us then all unite 

 and try to carry on the good work, for to 

 elevate our business is to raise each and 

 all of tis on the plane of life. It may be well 

 to consider for a moment what elevating 

 our calling means. Higher art, broader 

 views, honorable and strict integrity in all 

 our dealings, and I know of no better means 

 of advancing it to this plane than the educa- 

 tion of young men who are to succeed us in 

 this business. 



Educating the Young. As we train the young 

 men and boys now in our employ, so in a great 

 measure will they conduct the future business. 

 Therefore we should be careful to start right. 

 To be a successful florist a young man should 

 have a fair school education, and in addition he 

 should ha\'e a natural taste and love for flowers. 

 This combined with a good business training and 

 strict application will produce the desired result 

 in most instances; and here I would like to give 

 a word of advice to the young man who wishes 

 to become a florist. The florist's path is not all 

 Roses without thorns; neither can you be a suc- 

 cessful florist without hard work, perseverance 

 and strict application to business. Very many 

 young men of to-day think they would like to 

 go into this business because itisnice easy work, 

 soon learned and lots of money to be made. 

 There can be no greater mistake. When you 

 start in business for yourselves, begin on a sound 

 basis by meeting your obligations on time, live 

 always within your income, incur no debts until 

 .vou can see your way clear to pay them. This 

 may be too slow for some but it is the only safe 

 way, and will save you many regrets in after 

 life. To learn the business requires a life-time 

 study. An old friend said to me that he had been 

 over fifty years at the business, but was only an 

 apprentice .yet. Our business is never learned 

 except by continued study. 



Many who have graduated from horticultural 

 schools, although well versed in the theory of 

 horticulture, are lamentably deficient in prac- 

 tical experience, and for some unaccountable 

 reason, ver.v few of them ever overcome the 

 difliculty. Herl)ert Spencer says " all our indus- 

 tries would cease were it not for that informa- 

 tion which men begin to acquire, as they best 

 may, after their education is said to be finished; " 

 and this is perfectly true of our business. Theory 

 is very pleasant to read, but if you wish to get 

 at the root of a tree you must take a spade and 

 dig until you get it. I do not b.v this wish to 

 convey the idea that I am not in favor of a good 

 training school; on the contrary, I think it would 

 be of great service to us. 



Public Exhibitions. These are another means 

 by which wc can learn an immense amount of 

 practical good. They are not onl.v educators of 

 florists, but of the whole public at large, and as 

 such we should do all we possibly can to advance 

 and extend them. I would earnestly- recommend 

 this society to use its best endeavors to extend 

 horticultural exhibitions where\cr possible, and 

 would suggest that the horticultural press of the 

 country could do still more in this direction. 



New Seedlings, In our haste we do not give 

 the time to this branch of the trade that we 

 ought. The new things we get from abroafl are 

 novelties only in name and not ^porth the i>aper 

 it takes to describe them. This is particularly 

 noticeable in many of the new Roses sent to us 

 from France of late years. Though there have 

 been s<ime grains among the chaff, very few are 

 suitable to imr climate. A wide and interesting 

 field opens itself for us. 



Business Methods. We. as a body, should take 

 some means to protect the trade against those 

 who buy goods, promising to pay at a certtun 

 time, and then utterly ignore the fact that they 

 owe anything to the party furnishing the goods. 

 There are many other loose practices in this bus- 

 iness. In every business with which I am ac- 

 quainted, except ours, any party allowing his bill 

 to go unpaid, expects to and does pay interest 

 (or all such time allowed, and no business can be 

 expected to succeed where one party uses the 

 capital of another without fair compensation. 

 All such abuses should be remedied by those 

 who wish to be considered honorable men. 



Nomenclature. The renaming of plants to 

 suit the sellers purpose is, to say the least, a very 

 objectionable practice. A flower needs only one 

 name, and that should be the one given to it by 

 the raiser or introducer; and to any one buying 

 an old variety at an advanced price, under a new 

 name, it is an injustice, and works against the 

 best interest of the trade all over the country. 



The National Flower. We shall have to handle 

 this subject with great care, as the matter has 

 already received much attention from the press 

 all over the country, and many of the leading 

 people of the Union have already voted on it. 



Betail Florists. We should use our best en- 

 deavors to protect the retail florist. From all 

 over the country I have received letters com- 

 plaining that the large wholesale growers are 

 selling to private gentlemen at the same prices 

 as to the retail dealers. This is undoubtedly a 

 hardship and injustice, and should have our care- 

 ful consideration. 



Express Charges. To make matters worse, the 

 express companies have now advanced the rates 

 aU over the country. Eight of the leading com- 

 panies have signed a code to charge a uniform 

 rate of five cents for each returned empty. This 

 will add considerable to the expenses of the cut 

 flower grower, and altht)Ugh the matter has been 

 laid before them very plainly, showing the in- 

 justice of such charges, yet no good has resulted 

 from it up to this date. From past experience I 

 have little hope of getting any reduction in the 

 charges for plants, but it is to our interest to 

 take every means to protect ourselves. 



Florists Hail Association, This has come to 

 stay, and the increased interest on the part of 

 the florists all over the country augurs well for 

 its future prosperity. To those not already in- 

 sured 1 would earnestly advise them to join it 

 before the close of this convention. 



Value of Time. It's better to do a small bus- 

 iness on a sound basis than a large one on a rot- 

 ten foundation. Time is of great value to us all; 

 many of us are apt to ask for an extension to 

 pay our bills, etc., but if we measure it right we 

 can find time for all things, and time to get to 

 this hall at the hour named in our programme; 

 then we shall have more leisure to enjoy the 

 beauties of this lovely city of Buffalo and its 

 surroundings, its grand park system, which justly 

 ranks among the finest in the country. 



CONDENSED GLEANINGS. 



Stem Rooting Dracaenas. The stem is prepared 

 by making a horizontal incision nearly half-way 

 through the stem, just below the lowest leaves, 

 and then an upward one, so as to form a tongue, 

 as shown in the enlarged drawing of the stem a, 

 then cut a thin wedge of wood, and put in be- 

 tween the severed part to throw it open. Now 

 tie some damp moss round the cut, so as to form 

 a ball of the size of a Cocoanut. This must be 

 kept moist until' the roots show themselves 

 through the moss, then gradually sever the top 

 off and put the roots, with a portion of the moss, 

 in a five-inch pot of good soil, and grow on in the 

 usual way in heat. A better plan, [lerhaps, is to 

 use a clean three-inch pot, and soU instead of the 

 moss. The pot in this case has to be sawed in 

 halves, and to have the drainage-hole enlarged so 

 as to fit the stem. Before putting the pot round 

 the stem two or three more stoutstakes, ikU must 

 be fixed at equal distances apart in the pot of the 

 plant to be operated on, and of sufficient length 

 to enable the sawn three-inch pot to be secured 

 to them. Fix the two halves of the three-inch 

 pot round the stem, as shown at cc and hb, bind- 

 ing some fine wire round its exterior to keep the 

 two parts together, then further sec^ure the up- 

 l>er rim of the pot at cc to the states, and also 

 carry three strands of the wire, as showji^ju the 

 sloping dotted lines, from the rim to an upper 

 part of the plant, for the ijurpose of preventing 

 the pot moving downwards when the soil is [ilaced 

 inside. The great point is to make the j>ot per- 

 fectly secure at first, so it cannot move and thus 



