

^mm 



TRAVELS AMONG 



BRITISH TRADE 



Keenly observing as he went, this leader among American growers 

 fmmd much of interest and instruction in his visits among greenhouse 

 establishments across the water, whence he has just returned. To give read- 

 ers of The Revieiv the benefit of these observations, he has written these notes. 





URING a recent trip to 

 Europe, I had the pleasure 

 of renewing some old ac- 

 quaintances, and it was 

 particularly with the idea 

 of giving Review readers 

 an idea of horticulture in 

 Great Britain that these 

 notes were planned. The 

 question everyone asks me 

 since my recent return from Europe is, 

 "Are the growers getting back to pre- 

 war conditions?" England has been 

 noted for many years as a great horti- 

 cultural center, and it has been a matter 

 of conjecture as to how far the war has 

 set back the profession as a whole. Un- 

 questionably, the war had a big in- 

 fluence. Many nurseries plowed up one- 

 half to two-thirds of their entire stocks 

 to convert the acreage 

 into food crops, an 

 act rendered neces- 

 sary by the submarine 

 blockade an"d the fact 

 that the government 

 demanded the elimi- 

 nation of many things 

 not necessary for the 

 life of the nation. 

 Nursery stock, such 

 as small trees, will 

 not return to normal 

 condition for years. 

 One grower, however, 

 suggested to me that 

 perhaps the effect was 

 good, as much stock 

 was eliminated that 

 should have been 

 burned down or de- 

 stroyed years ago. 



Back to Normal. 



Coming back to my 

 own end of the busi- 

 ness, the florists' end, 

 it may, I think, be 

 safely stated that 

 conditions are almost 

 normal. A year ago, 

 owing to shortage of 

 production on every- 

 thing, stock was 

 bringing a greatly en- 

 hanced price, but at 

 the present time 

 prices are more near- 

 ly approaching pre- 

 war figures. I did not 

 have time to see 

 many of the larger 

 growers because my 

 time was limited and 

 I had many things to 

 do in a short while. 



By CHARLES H. TOTTY. 



One of the best known men in floricul- 

 ture in England is W. E. Wallace, of 

 Eaton Bray. Mr. Wallace came over 

 here some years ago and picked up the 

 best things he could find in American 

 carnation seedlings and at the present 

 time he grows some 125,000 carnation 

 plants. About half of the varieties are 

 seedlings of his own raising and the 

 other half American kinds, such as May 

 Day, White Enchantress, Delight and 

 Scarlet Glow. His own seedling, Enid, 

 a scarlet-crimson, is everywhere in the 

 market considered the best thing in its 

 color. Romeo, another scarlet-crimson, 

 is also a productive and profitable va- 

 riety. There is much more call in Eng- 

 land for crimson varieties than there is 



in this country. When Mr. Wallace is 

 in crop with his carnations, he will cut 

 as high as 4,000 or more dozen per day. 

 His flowers are distributed all over Eng- 

 land. Before the war he shipped many 

 blooms to the Paris and Brussels mar- 

 kets, but now, of course, the continental 

 'trade is all gone. Mr. Wallace, before 

 his visit here in 1912, grew roses consid- 

 erably, but he has since entirely dis- 

 carded them in favor of the carnation. 

 Mr. Wallace, in conversation, show- 

 ing the foothold horticulture has on the 

 public mind, related the curious fact 

 that during the war, until the revolution 

 in Russia, roses were shipped every week 

 to St. Petersburg by way of Bergen. 

 Trotsky and his present followers, so far 



as he could learn, 

 requisitions for 



Charles H. Totty. 



have not put in any 

 roses, or carnations 

 either, and it looks 

 as though trade 

 with Russia will not 

 soon be resumed. 



The week before 

 my visit Mr. Wallace 

 was appointed the 

 local county magis- 

 trate and, to use a 

 colloquialism, he is 

 the "big bug" in his 

 own town. He has re- 

 cently purchased a 

 farm of some 500 

 acres, on which he 

 has established a milk 

 herd of cows, and he 

 will also try breeding 

 fine horses. 



Debt to America. 



Mr. Wallace is gen- 

 erous enough to con- 

 cede the debt he, in 

 common with other 

 English growers, owes 

 to American carna- 

 tions. While, as stated 

 before, more than 

 half his place is given 

 over to his own seed- 

 lings, still it is to the 

 American blood on 

 which he worked that 

 in a large measure is 

 due his success with 

 seedling carnations. 



His packing shed is 

 the most complete 

 and best arranged I 

 have ever seen any- 

 where. Several novel 

 ideas incorporated in 

 it were entirely his 

 own and we will leave 

 them for Mr. Wallace 



