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May 11, 1916. 



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The Florists^ Review 



21 



OBITUARY 



Alfred Mltting. 



From San Jose, Cal., comes word of 

 the death there, April 30, of Alfred 

 Mitting, known to florists, seedsmen 

 and nurserymen the country over 

 through the extent and diversified char- 

 acter of his business dealings. 



Mr. Mitting, a native of England, 

 was 58 years of age. He first became 

 known to the trade when he conducted 

 a greenhouse establishment at Morris, 

 111., specializing on young stock for 

 growing on, in which line he was one 

 of the pioneers. Removing to Cali- 

 fornia, he located at Santa Cruz, where 

 he quickly built up a large business in 

 bulbs, especially callas and gladioli, 

 shipping great quantities to the trade 

 in the east. Encountering what he con- 

 sidered a favorable opportunity to 

 capitalize the results of his efforts, he 

 sold out and removed to Holland, Mich., 

 where he did business in the nursery 

 line under the title of the Berrydale 

 Experiment Gardens. Returning to 

 California after a few years, he again 

 started in business at Santa Cruz, this 

 time with his son. This venture, how- 

 ever, was short-lived and the family 

 removed to San Jose, where an effort 

 was being made to resuscitate the fam- 

 ily fortunes. 



Mr. Mitting had some loyal friends 

 in the east. He is survived by his wife 

 and two children, Ernest De Eoo Mitt- 

 ing and Flora Birdie Mitting. 



Robert Haentze. 



Robert Haentze, mayor of Fond du 

 Lac, Wis., "a big friend of the people" 

 and head of the E. Haentze Co., died 

 at his home in Fond du Lac on the 

 morning of May 5, after an illness of 

 nine weeks from kidney disease. When 

 Mr. Haentze was elected Fond du Lac 's 

 mayor, the first executive to put into 

 effect the commission form of city gov- 

 ernment, he relinquished active man- 

 agement of the E. Haentze Co. It is 

 said the sudden change of occupation, 

 from hard work at the greenhouses to 

 the office of mayor of Fond du Lac, in 

 which position he was unable to exer- 

 cise sufficiently, was instrumental in 

 making the disease more acute. 



The deceased was born in Fond du 

 Lac, February 29, 1868, a son of Ernest 

 Haentze, one of the pioneer florists of 

 Wisconsin. He attended the public 

 schools until he attained the age of 14 

 years, when he laid aside his books and 

 assisted his father in the florists' busi- 

 ness. The work proved so interesting 

 to the young man that he decided to 

 make it his vocation. Upon the retire- 

 ment of his father some years ago, lie 

 became manager of the business, and 

 through his untiring skill and zeal the 

 business prospered greatly. 



In 1892 Mr. Haentze married Mary J. 

 Binning. It was not until 1906 that 

 he became interested in politics. In 

 the spring of that year he was made 

 alderman and subsequently served on 

 several important city boards and coun- 

 cil committees. In 1911 he became Re- 

 publican candidate for the office of 

 mayor, but was defeated. Four years 

 later, however, the people having by 

 popular vote approved the commission 

 form of government, Mr. Haentze was 

 urged to run for office again as an 



advocate of the new form of municipal 

 management. After a whirlwind cam- 

 paign Mr. Haentze was elected by a 

 good majority. 



Mr. Haentze at the very start of his 

 term won the respect and friendship of 

 the people he served, by his thorough- 

 ness, his honorable practices and fair 

 dealings. So popular did he become 

 during his brief period of office that his 

 illness of nine weeks was watched with 

 almost a personal interest by everyone. 



The funeral was held May 8 and was 

 one of the largest attended ever held 

 in the crty — the entire city participated. 



Fraternally Mr. Haentze was identi- 

 fied with the B. P. O. E., the I. O. O. F. 

 and the L. O. O. M. Besides his wife, 

 he is survived by his father, one sister 

 and four brothers, Edward, Charles, 

 Richard and Ernest. 



Herman Newbold Bradshaw. 



Herman Bradshaw, of Ossining, N. 

 Y., who for forty years wholesaled his 

 stock in New York city, died last week. 

 He was born at Madison, N. J., and 

 learned the business with his father, 

 who died in 1902. Mr. Bradshaw spe- 

 cialized in lilies. 



fair body of soil on the lawn, I would 

 simply (lig up the bare spots and re- 

 seed them at once. You will find Ken- 

 tucky blue grass a splendid grass to 

 use. Add a little fancy redtop and 

 Rhode Island bent to it. The fact that 

 the lawn burns out in spots may be 

 due to thin soil at these particular 

 places, or to rocks coming near the 

 surface. Occasionally white grubs, the 

 larvae of the May beetle, attack lawns, 

 eating the roots of the grasses and 

 making the lawns perfectly bare in 

 spots. Frequent rolling with a heavy 

 roller will kill many of these, as they 

 come quite near the surface. Feed the 

 lawn well, using a mi;cture of fine bone 

 and wood ashes, or pulverized sheep 

 manure. Each of these is cleanly and 

 an excellent grass fertilizer. C. W. 



LAWN BABE IN SPOTS. 



We have- a good customer whose lawn 

 is dying out in a great many places. 

 It is located on fairly high ground and 

 there is not enough shade to keep the 

 grass from growing. The grass does 

 not seem to turn yellow, but there arc 

 a great many bare spots. What can be 

 done for this? Manure was put on the 

 lawn over winter, but did not seem to 

 help any. - F. & F.— Wis. 



GLADIOLUS SHOW SCHEDULE. 



The greatest gladiolus show in the 

 history of the trade in America and 

 quite possibly the largest exhibition of 

 the flower ever staged anywhere in tho 

 world, will take place at Boston August 

 11 to 13, when the American Gladiolus 

 Society will join with the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society in demon- 

 strating the wonderful advance the gla- 

 diolus has made in recent years. It will 

 be the seventh annual exhibition of tho 

 national organization. A preliminary 

 premium list has been issued. Intend- 

 ing exhibitors may obtain copies by 

 addressing H. Youell, secretary, 538 

 Cedar street, Syracuse, N. Y. 



Laying manure on lawns is poor 

 policy. It furnishes some nutrition, 

 but at the same time fills the lawns 

 full of noxious weeds. It is also un- 

 sightly and unsanitary. If there is a 



Utica, N. y.— The first thing E. T. 

 McQuivey did after leasing a branch 

 store for Easter week was to call at 

 the newspaper offices and order good 

 display ads telling of the arrangement. 

 Mr. McQuivey believes in keeping his 

 own customers as well as his competi- 

 tor's customers posted as to his doings. 



Fort Worth, Tex. — A florists' busi- 

 ness has been established at 413 Hemp- 

 hill street by Mrs. M. B. Jones. 



Mount Sterling, Ky. — David Harris, 

 who left several months ago to take 

 charge of a large greenhouse at Jack- 

 son, Tenn., has returned to town with 

 his smile to stay. 



Memphis, Tenn. — Johnson & Son, 

 Memphis, have placed an order with 

 the American Greenhouse Mfg. Co., 

 Chicago, for two houses 35x125 feet 

 and four 20x75 feet, of pipe-frame con- 

 struction. 



Asheville, N. C. — Allison's Flower 

 Shop will hereafter market home-grown 

 stock, for it has secured the West Ashe- 

 ville Greenhouses and the services of 

 Shelby Griffith, formerly of Pittsburgh, 

 who will be in charge of the houses. 

 Work has been begun on a number of 

 improvements to the property and re- 

 pairs and additions will be made. 



Blackwell, Okla. — Paul Winkler, for- 

 merly with Bobbink & Atkins, of Ru- 

 therford, N. J., and A. J. Burt, of Spo- 

 kane, Wash., expects to go into busi- 

 ness for himself here about June 1. 



Faducah, Ky. — Inasmuch as William 

 Lydon supplies gravestones of granite 

 and marble for cemeteries, Jie may as 

 well supply plants and flowers for the 

 graves. This occurred to Mr. Lydon 

 last winter, and now there is a green- 

 house near his stoneyard well filled 

 with stock for Memorial day business. 



Lexington, Ky.— J. F. Keller, presi- 

 dent and manager of the John A. Kel- 

 ler Co., is chairman of the florists' di- 

 vision of the Board of Commerce and 

 recently gave a talk before the asso- 

 ciation on the extent of the florists' 

 business in Lexington, in Kentucky and 

 in the United States. His facts and 

 figures gave many of the local business 

 men a quite new idea of the impor- 

 tance of the trade. 



