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CARNATION MEN 



MEET AT CLEVELAND 



The Cleveland florists, keen competitors and wise cooperators, never 

 are so happy as when entertaining one or another of the national trade or- 

 ganisations. This week they have zvith them the American Carnation Society, 

 of long standing reputation as one of the most active bodies affiliated zvith 

 the S. A. F. 



lEST of the trade organiza- 



Ftions to hold a national 

 meeting after the war, the 

 convention of the Amer- 

 ican Carnation Society, its 



twenty-eighth, was 



^^A planned as a celebration of 



''VvJ democracy's victory, but 



'I it can not be said that the 



affair possesses any of the 

 characteristics of a jubilation; it is, 

 instead, a meeting of a band of quiet, 

 earnest men actuated by an interest in 

 common, the wish to keep abreast of the 

 latest developments in the business of 

 growing carnation blooms for market. 

 Cleveland, most centrally located of 

 the convention cities so far as this trade 

 is concerned, is within an overnight's 

 ride for four-fifths of all the florists in 

 the United States, but the attendance 

 from outside trolleying distance is con- 

 fined to « few dozens 

 of the carnation spe- 

 cialists; the wheel- 

 horses of the society 

 are there, from east 

 and west, reinforced 

 by the publicity com- 

 mittees of the S. A. F. 

 and members of the 

 board of directors on 

 the way to Friday's 

 meeting at Detroit, 

 but the rank and file 

 of the growers who 

 get their bread and 

 butter out of the car- 

 nation are at home, 

 helping with the work 

 in the houses. 



The Attendance. 



The attendance of 

 those who signed an 

 out - of - town address 

 on the register is sev- 

 eral times as large as 

 at Boston in the dis- 

 tressful conditions of 

 last January, but it is 

 considerably short of 

 the records of ten to 

 fifteen years ago, 

 when it was possible 

 to fill a special car at 

 Chicago for a carna- 

 tion convention as far 

 away as New York or 

 Boston or vice versa. 



That the attend- 

 ance is not so large 

 as the leaders of the 

 society, or the Cleve- 

 landers, had hoped 



OFHCERS ELECTED 



PRESIDENT 

 Theodore Dorner, - Lafayette, Ind. 



VICE-PRESIDENT 

 Chas.W. Johnson, Morgan Park, 111. 



SECRETARY 

 A. F. J. Baur, - - Indianapolis 



(Re-elected.) 



TREASURER 

 F. E. Dorner, '- Lafayette, Ind. 



(Ke-elected.) 



NEXT MEETING PLACE 

 Chicago - - January, 1920 



Charles S. Strout, of Biddeford, Me. 



(Presiding atLthls Week's Convention of the American Carnation Society.) 



does not imply a decline in the interest 

 taken in the carnation. Bather, it is 

 because of increased knowledge and im- 

 proved channels of information, factors 

 with which our other trade organiza- 

 tions also have to reckon — florists in 

 large numbers no longer travel long dis- 

 tances to attend trade conventions; a 

 large percentage of those who are there 

 have order books in their pockets. 



But in the affairs of the Carnation 

 Society it is to be considered that most 

 of the growers still are shorthanded, 

 that most of them are working harder 

 than usual, that traveling under pres- 

 ent conditions of service scarcely is a 

 pleasure and that the time since the war 

 closed is too short for word to have gone 

 out about novelties of outstanding merit 

 soon to be disseminated. Indeed, the 

 directors of the society, because of pres- 

 ent conditions, departed from precedent 

 in the premium list, 

 which was reduced to 

 a few special classes 

 and some for home 

 use, while no program 

 was arranged for the 

 business meetings. 



Optimists All. 



Everything was un- 

 der one roof, that of 

 the HoUenden hotel, 

 the exhibition staged 

 at 1 p. m., January 

 29, when the judges 

 began work; the pub- 

 lic admitted by cards 

 issued by the Cleve- 

 land Florists' Club at 

 8 p. m., when the first 

 business session open- 

 ed. The annual din- 

 ner is to be the clos- 

 ing feature, occupy- 

 ing the evening of 

 January 30. 



These carnation 

 specialists are not 

 only optimists, they 

 are enthusiasts. A 

 year ago, amid the 

 difficult conditions 

 which then prevailed, 

 they could see noth- 

 ing wrong with the 

 carnation which was 

 not also wrong with 

 all other flowers; to- 

 day they assert that 

 the carnation is the 

 leadet of them all, 

 the most popular and 

 highly prized flower 



