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DscBMBEa 19, 1918. 



The Florists^ Review 



13 



Mr THE GROWERS AT GHENT jff 



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WHAT WAR WROUGHT. 



First News In Two Years. 



During the last two years of German 

 occupation the Belgian plantsmen, who 

 in peace times SLTu^j^fJly shipped thou- 

 sands of cases of aMiMs and other stock 

 to American florist^were cut off from 

 communication with their customers and 

 their fate was unknown. Interest natu- 

 rally was keen, because there is no re- 

 tail florist or plant grower in America 

 who has not handled Belgian stock, felt 

 the effect of shutting it off during the 

 last two years and wondered if the 

 grower had suirvived and would be able 

 to "come back." The trade's interest 

 has not been lessened by the announce- 

 ment that the Federal Horticultural 

 Board will prohibit the entry of Belgian 

 plants after June 1, 1919. 



The moment the armistice was signed 

 efforts were started to get into com- 

 munication with the growers around 

 Ghent and news of them and their in- 

 dustry of world-wide connections now is 

 coming out. 



An Azalea Grower's Story 



"Yes," wrote one of the Ghent grow- 

 ers on evacuation day, "we are once 

 more free from the enemy, free from 

 four long years of cruel oppression, free 

 from unceasing threat and unbearable 

 arrogance, free from continual and in- 

 cessant robbery. From free people that 

 we were we had become slaves, and since 

 then we only have learned the real mean- 

 ing of the word ' Liberty. ' ' ' 



"What has become of the nurseries 

 and nursery trade? You know the pros- 

 perity of our place before the war, you 

 have seen year after year the rapid de- 

 velopment of the nursery trade and you 

 are a true witness how the houses and 

 grounds were kept clean and held in a 

 good state. What a painful impression 

 it would make on you if you came and 

 saw our nurseries now," wrote Jules de 

 Puysseleyr, of Loochristy, to the English 

 Horticultural Advertiser. "What a de- 

 cay ! What a ruin ! The houses, not be- 

 ing painted these four years, and no 

 putty being at hand, have suffered much 

 from sun, rain and wind and hardly keep 

 together. Especially the old houses are 

 totally dismantled and are not fit to 

 shelter plants during winter. 



' ' The stock of plants has become small 

 and many a nursery has no plants at all. 

 At the beginning everyone thought the 

 war would not last long, that it would 

 soon come to an end, and so everybody 

 kept his nursery and stock of plants in 

 good order. In 1915, however, people 

 seeing that the war still lasted, that 

 there was no selling of plants, no fuel 

 to be got and that the leaf -soil and other 

 necessary materials became scarce and 

 expensive, threw their plants away and 

 started to grow vegetables. In 1916 and 

 following years the selling of plants be- 

 came worse and worse, the prices lower 

 and lower, fuel scarce and exceedingly 

 expensive, so one after another, espe- 

 cially the small nurserymen, gave up 

 growing plants and went in for vege- 

 tables. I dare say that at this time the 

 half of the nurserymen in our place have 



NO HELP FROM U. S. 



The plantsmen at Ghent, that 

 great horticultural center of Bel- 

 gium, look to America for assist- 

 ance in re-establishing their indus- 

 try, but they will be disappointed 

 — they have not yet heard that 

 the Federal Horticultiiral Board, 

 a part of the United States Gov- 

 ernment, has decreed no more Bel- 

 gian azaleas, bay trees, palms or 

 other plants shall be permitted en- 

 trance here. 



To make the Belgians imder- 

 stand why we bar their products 

 will not be easy; the statement 

 that our authorities (but not the 

 trade) fear disease or devastating 

 Insects in their soil will seem to 

 them incomprehensible — they will 

 suspect it as being camouflage, 

 covering the real reason, although 

 they know we have not yet been 

 able to grow for ourselves the 

 azalea, their principal item of ex- 

 port, that we need them as they 

 need us. 



no plants at all. Palms have nearly dis- 

 appeared, the old stock is almost sold 

 out and there is no young stock at hand. 

 Araucarias are scarce; thousands of 

 stock plants have been thrown away and 

 few young plants were raised. Ehodo- 

 dendrons look rather poor, for year after 

 year these were not taken care of. 



"As to azaleas, the great specialty of 

 our place, some stock is left in a few 

 nurseries, but the selection of varieties 

 has totally disappeared. Some of the 

 best English selling varieties, such as 

 John Llewellyn, President Osw. de Kerk- 

 hove and J. B. Varonne, are hardly to 

 be found. The chief varieties in cul- 

 ture and in stock are Mme. Petrick, 

 Mme. Vander Cruyssen and Vervseneana. 

 Besides, these plants are not in form, 

 growth and strength similar to what 

 they were before the war. All the plants 

 are about one year backward in growth. 

 For instance, an azalea that was salable 

 after three years of cultivation before 

 the war, looks now as a plant 2 years old 

 and is not salable at all. The young 

 stock of azaleas fails totally and it will 

 be a long time before the growth of this 

 valuable plant is at the height of its 

 normal cultivation. 



The Chief Difficulties. 



"Perhaps the chief cause of trouble 

 was lack of coal. In 1914 and the first 

 half of 1915 everybody could buy coal, 

 but thereafter, the mines and coal trade 

 falling under German control, coal was 

 not to be got any more. Now and then 

 a small distribution was made to the 

 nurserymen, but not half sufficient and 

 of inferior quality. Therefore we had 

 to put our plants in as few houses as 

 possible, cover them with old mats and 

 heat the houses with wood, ashes and a 



few coals. You can imagine the effect 

 this had on the plants! After each win- 

 ter thousands of azaleas perished. 



"A second cause of trouble was the 

 failure of new leaf -soil. At the beginning 

 of the war we had free passage all over 

 the country, but soon a passport was re- 

 quired to move about (which was sel- 

 dom given, notwithstanding good pay- 

 ment), and we could not bring the leaf- 

 soil from the places where it was to be 

 found. At the same time the horses 

 were taken away for the German army, 

 the vehicles were requisitioned and 

 necessary materials could not be trans- 

 ported except at exorbitant prices. So 

 it came that the plants, always being 

 transplanted in old and used soil, could 

 not set forth new roots, did not grow, 

 remained stunted plants and at last per- 

 ished. 



"We might have helped the plants 

 with some good manure, but there was 

 none. The best manure we used for 

 azaleas before the war was malt-radicles, 

 but these were not to be got with money, 

 not even with gold, so dear to the Ger- 

 mans. The German army wanted these 

 for food for the horses and, the malteries 

 being under their control, nothing of 

 this precious manure could be obtained. 



"Another serious obstacle was lack of 

 hands. Many people were engaged in 

 our army. Of those remaining, the ten- 

 der-hearted Germans conscripted young 

 Belgian people and compelled them to 

 work for the German army against our 

 own country. So we had to help our- 

 selves with boys and women' and the 

 work was not half done. 



Exporting During the War. 



' ' At last I must say a word about the 

 exportation of plants during the war. 

 In 1914, the exportation being normal, 

 plants were sent to all countries except 

 Germany. In 1915 the Germans prohib- 

 ited us to send plants to their enemies, 

 especially to England and France. How- 

 ever, I am pleased to say that a good 

 many plants traveled to England via 

 Holland and the Germans were not 

 clever enough to prevent this. Mean- 

 while an avalanche of German nursery- 

 men invaded our nilrseries and, with 

 ridiculous prices, tried to buy our plants 

 and make a good profit out of them in 

 Germany. The German government, 

 however, had limited the import of 

 plants in Germany; every German nurs- 

 eryman was only allowed to import one- 

 third of the plants he used before the 

 war. America imported as usual, but 

 plants generally traveled in bad condi- 

 tion. In 1916 the trade was very bad. 

 Germans bought some plants, but at the 

 lowest possible prices. England likely 

 got no plants at all, and the exportations 

 to America that year were disastrous, 

 not half the plants reaching their des- 

 tination in good condition and not half 

 the amounts of invoices being paid. 

 Sweden, Norway and Denmark have 

 been good customers all the time and 

 plants traveled well to these countries. 

 The years 1917 and 1918 were the worst 

 of the war. 



"I am pleased to let you know that 

 the nurseries in Ghent and vicinity have 



