18 



The Horists' Review 



V 



August 19, 1915. 



be remembered that San Francisco is as 

 far from San Diego, Cal., or Portland, 

 Ore., as Buffalo is from Chicago. 



The Trades' Display. 



It can not be said that the society 

 has lost anything at all by going to 

 , San. JFxanciaco «jc<;ept that- -the - trades^- 

 display is the smallest in many years. 

 This was inevitable. Most of those who 

 put up large exhibits, year after year, 

 -are located in the east. Their best dis- 

 plays are made close at home, or in a 

 city where the trade interests are large 

 enough so that practically the entire 

 exhibition can be sold to local buyers, 

 thereby saving the exhibitors the labor 

 and expense of repacking the stock for 

 shipment. Under the circumstances, 

 with, so great a distance and the cer- 

 tainty that the average visitor would 

 be inore intent on sightseeing than on 

 buying stock for fall trade, it could 

 not be expected that the trades' dis- 

 play would equal other years. That it 

 proved to be decidedl}- small was no 

 surprise. 



The convention is being held in Expo- 

 sition Memorial Auditorium, where the 

 entire east side of the fourth floor was 

 placed at the disposal of the society for 

 the week without cost. No finer accom- 

 modations could be asked. Meeting 

 room and exhibition hall are side by 

 sid-e, but separate. There is quiet. The 

 name of the building led many to suj)- 

 pose it to be on the exposition grounds; 

 instead, it is downtown, in the Civic 

 Center, the heart of things. 

 The Oarden. 



The convention garden is jirovin;; 

 something of a task. It was splendidly 



done ftt Minneapolis; so well, in fact, 

 that it inspired efforts to duplicate that 

 success under conditions by no means 

 equally favorable. The men have been 

 available — when yovi, stop to think of 

 it, it is remarkable how much talent the 

 S0£iety_can «omjnand — but loe«tioB,-soil 

 and stock have been lacking. At Min- 

 neapolis the garden was a square of 

 ground of just the right size right be- 

 side the convention hall. At Boston it 

 was marsh land filled in for the pur- 

 pose, some little distance from the hall, 

 while at San Francisco no available site 

 could be found nearer than Qolden Gate 

 park. The separation of the two parts 

 of the exhibition tends to weaken both 

 by causing a division of interest; the 

 better the garden is the more people it 

 j)ulls away from the meetings and in- 

 door display. This year the garden wias 

 good, but the counter attractions wete 

 too numerous for either garden or meet- 

 ing to hold the A'isitors for long. 



The Program. 



When the directors were planning the 

 ]>rogram they wisely took into consider- 

 ation the many things that would call 

 the members and the business sessions 

 were mapped out to be as few and as 

 brief as possible. As it was then put: 



"In view of the many and varietl at- 

 tractions of the convention ^nd conven- 

 tion city, the executive board decided 

 that it would be unwise to take up the 

 time of the convention with the reading 

 of essays. Realizing, however, the 

 value of the presentation of essays at 

 the society 's conventions, the secretary 

 was instructed to invite essays from 

 various gentlemen willing to prepare 



Robert C. Kerr. 



(Vlce-I'i-esMent-Kleot of the Society of Americiin Florlnts.) 



them, such invitations and the number 

 of them to be within his discretion, the 

 essays to be furnished to the trade pa- 

 pers for publication during the conven- 

 tion period, and to be printed as part 



01 the proceedings of the convention. 'i_ 

 - The followilig Assays were presented; 



"The Problems Attending the Es- 

 tablishment of Permanent Convention 

 Gardens," by Theodore Wirth, superin- 

 tendent of parks, Minneapolis, Minn. 



' ' The Necessity of National Publicity 

 to Advance the Interests of Commer- 

 cial J'loriculture in the United States," 

 by Albert Pochelon, Detroit, Mich. 



These papers will be found in this is- 

 sue of The Review. 



The Routine Business. 



Ufifortunately, the order of business 

 . brings the driest part of the program 

 * at tne time there is the largest attend- 

 ance. Practically everyone who goes 

 to the annual convention is present at 

 the opening exercises, which are set for 



2 p. m. They invariably enjoy the ora- 

 tory of the mayor or his silver-tongued 

 substitute, and they applaud the flo- 

 rist's reply. The address of the presi- 

 dent of the 8. A. F. is listened to with 

 respectful attention, if it is not too 

 long, but when the secretary and treas- 

 urer begin reading their lengthy statis- 

 tical reports, enunciating even so clear- 

 ly as do Messrs. Young and Kasting, 

 followed by multitudinous committee 

 reports, the members one by one tiptoe 

 from the hall, until only a little band of 

 the faithful remain. Would that some 

 parliamentarian might devise an order 

 of business that would put what our 

 theatrical friends call ' ' punch ' ' into the 

 order of business for the opening ses- 

 sion to stimulate interest in the subse- 

 quent proceedings. 



At San t'rancisco promptness is the 

 rule, and the first business session 

 opened on the stroke of the clock. Vice- 

 president MacRorie introduced the 

 mayor, Hon. James Rolph, Jr., to de- 

 liver an official welcome to the society. 

 He handed over the keys of the city 

 most eloquently, showing the great 

 amount of practice he is getting this 

 year in extending the official glad hand. 

 For the society ex-President W. F. 

 Gude, of Washington, made a felicitous 

 response. 



When President Welch was intro- 

 duced — and it was the first convention 

 of the S. A. F. in many years at which 

 such an introduction has been more 

 than a formality — he was greeted with 

 cheers so prolonged as to prove that 

 the popular Bostonian's fame had 

 spread across the continent, even to the 

 shores of the Pacific. Either that or 

 he had made friends wonderfully fast 

 in the few days he had been in the 

 convention city ahead of the gathering 

 of the clan. As soon as he could make 

 himself heard, Mr. Welch spoke a few 

 words of thanks for the ovation and 

 then read the carefully prepared dis- 

 cussion of the work and needs of the 

 society printed in full in this issue of 

 The Review. The address was, as usual, 

 referred to a committee, consisting of 

 George Asmus, of Chicago; Henry 

 Kruckeberg, of Los Angeles; E. J. Fan- 

 court, of Philadelphia; C. W. Ward, of 

 Eureka, Cal., and H. Plath, of San 

 Francisco. 



Secretary Young, of New York, who 

 has been in San Francisco a month pre- 

 paring for the convention, also was 

 greeted with applause when his annual 

 report was called for. He began with 



