68 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



our troops paraded in Paris on the 4th day of July the ei\'iHans 

 along the line of march ran out and handed flowers to the fighting 

 men. I have seen it, you have seen it, in the motion picture films. 

 The people with one accord in giving expression to their joy wanted 

 to "say it with flowers." 



Flowers have carried their messages of consolation into the hos- 

 pitals. There w^ll be a difPerent response when the men again 

 meet flowers around their own homes. If they are not met with 

 flowers don't ;you think they will be missing something, these 

 hundreds of thousands? They will look for them; can we afford 

 to let their home coming discover us down at the heels? 



It seems to me that chief effort in holding on to and developing 

 the latent possibilities here met, is very largely in the hands of 

 those gentlemen who are also destined to reap the greatest benefit. 

 I mean the various branches of the horticultural trade. It may 

 be fairly questioned whether in the past the dealer has done his 

 share in fostering and developing the market before him, but, 

 however that may be, he must in the future do more to cultivate 

 his market. 



The florists have set a good example in their combined publicity 

 campaign and their insistence upon the thought that whenever you 

 have anything to say you can "say it with flowers." The same 

 kind of concrete idea should be put behind the publicity work of 

 the allied branches. Publicity — advertising — is a big factor in 

 the business world of to-day. 



The dealer in horticultural products has not yet learned the good 

 business sense of putting himself in the customer's shoes. The 

 average seed or nursery catalogue does little to help the prospective 

 customer. As e\adence let me introduce a letter MTitten by a 

 prominent business man on Fifth Avenue, New York City, and it 

 is representative of others. For obvious reasons I have substituted 

 A and B for definite names: 



"I have bought A's seeds for a number of years, but I was 

 drawn to B because his catalogue is so much better than A's; that 

 is, the arrangement seems more intelligent. 



" How on earth is a man like me to buy seeds from the kind of 

 catalogues that are sent out by the seedsmen? These do not 

 seem to be wi'itten for either the plain simp like myself or the market 



