-ViT' 



■V="..,"T»nWW. 



-.jo.: ■*L^i^^'i''i: 



NOTEMBBB 24, 1904. 



The Weekly I^orists^Revicw. 



JAMES WHEELER. : i j 



James Wheeler, the new vice-president 

 of the Chrysanthemum Society of Ameri- 

 ca, was born at Britford, near Salisbury, 

 Wiltshire, England, in a district famous 

 for high-class hams and bacon as well 

 as foi good gardens, on February 7, 1865. 

 In Novenrt)er, 1876, when only a boy of 

 twelve, he commenced his horticultural 

 career in the well known gardens of 

 Longford Castle, the property of the 

 Earl of Eadnor, first working for three 

 years under his father, who was fore- 

 man of the extensive flower garden and 

 pleasure grounds for twenty-seven years. 

 He next worked in the kitchen garden 

 for one and a half years, following this 

 with an apprenticeship of two years in 

 the greenhouses under H. W. Ward, one 

 of the best practitioners of that day and 

 now an extensive market grower for the 

 London market. 



After leaving Longford Castle, he went 

 north and worked for two years under 

 John Mclntyre, Woodside, Darlington, in 

 the county of Durham on the estate of 

 Mrs. Gurney Pease. Mr. Mclntyre was 

 one of the best growers of specimen 

 plants in the north and won many prizes 

 at the exhibitions. After leaving Darl- 

 ington, he sailed for America, arriving 

 at Boston in March, 1885. He worked at 

 the one-time famed estate of S. K. Pay- 

 son, Belmont, for two years as fore- 

 man, and for eight months as head gard- 

 ener, leaving there in October, 1887, to 

 take the superintendency of the Joseph 

 H. White estate, Brookline, Mass., where 

 lie is still located 



Mr. Wheeler has been a member of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 for a number of years and has been a 

 member of the plant and flower com- 

 mittee for several years. He is also a 

 member of the committee of arrange- 

 ments, in which capacity he renders the 

 society much valuable service. He has 

 been one of the largest and most success- 

 ful exhibitors of cut flowers and plants 

 during the greater part of his stay in 

 Brookline. He has served on the Boston 

 committee of the C. S. A. since its in- 

 ception. As a seedling raiser he has 

 been quite successful, J. H. White, a 

 good white variety, and Mrs. J. H. 

 White, crimson, being two of his best. 



The Boston Gardeners' and Florists' 



James Wheeler, 



(Vice-president Chryeanthemum Society of Ann erica and President Gardeners' and Florists' 



Clnb of Boston.) 



Club has always found a staunch sup- 

 porter, even in its darkest days, in Mr. 

 Wheeler and will undoubtedly prosper 

 under his presidency, to which he was 

 elected November 15. Perhaps it may in- 

 terest some to know that the subject of 

 this sketch is both a total abstainer and 

 a non-smoker, as well as a good church- 

 man. We do not believe hs is given to 

 athletics, bowling or shooting and can- 

 not be in any sense classed as a 

 "sport"; he is a good family man, a 

 good gardener and a credit to his call- 

 ing. W. N. Craig. 



RAISING SEEDLINGS. 



. Is it Profitable? 



I have been asked many times by 

 visitors at our greenhouses, after looking 

 over the beds of seedlings in their various 

 stages, whether it really pays to raise 

 seedlings, and often we are asked as to 

 liow the fertilizing is done, etc. To 

 the first question we always answer, 

 * * Yes and no. ' ' If you raise a ten- 

 thousand-dollar variety every few years 

 and a few of lesser value between, then 

 it pays handsomely, but if you raise a 

 lot of seedlings haphazard and save every 

 ^'ne that is not absolutely worthless and 



fill your beds with them year after year 

 you will most certainly lose money on 

 the operation. That it pays those who 

 go at it systematically and with perse- 

 verance no one can deny. As you can see 

 if you lode about, nearly every lead- 

 ing variety we have today was raised 

 by some grower who makes a specialty 

 of seedlings. Now and again we get a 

 fine variety from some grower wtio hit 

 it by chance, but they are few when com- 

 pared with those offered by the special- 

 ists who raise seedlings each year and 

 cross fertilize with a definite end in 

 view. 



That it is expensive, besides requiring 

 unlimited patience and work, these men 

 can tell you. They earn all they get 

 out of it. Seedling raising, while it is 

 fascinating is a nerve racking business. 



No grower meets with as many disap- 

 pointments as the hybridizer and certain- 

 ly no calling could require more con- 

 scientiousness nor a stronger heart than 

 his. If you will stop to consider what 

 a small proportion of the seedlings that 

 are raised find their way onto the market 

 and how few of these again prove worth 

 growing for profit you will get an idea 

 of what it costs to produce a first-class 

 variety. 



Few Are Meritorious. 



I am sure that I am very conservative 

 when I say that at least 100,000 seedlings 

 are raised each year from carefully hand- 

 fertilized seed. Out of these perhaps 

 one-third will be housed and given room 

 and care the first winter, enough to plant 

 a good-sized range of houses. About 

 three-fourths of these are dumped and 

 about one-fourth are tried the second 

 year, from six to twenty of each kind, 

 taking up more room than the first year. 

 For the third season's trial the num- 

 ber of varieties is again cut down to 

 about one-tenth while the quantity of 

 each is greatly increased, using up at 

 least as much room as the year before. 

 By the fourth year, when the varieties 

 have been thoroughly tested, it will 

 be found that out of all those seed- 

 lings there are perhaps twenty-five that 

 are worth disseminating and out of these 

 perhaps one-half will be found really im- 

 provements over existing sorts. That 

 means that perhaps one out of every 4,000 

 seedlings finds its way onto the market 

 and one out of about every 8,000 is 

 found to be really first-class. I have 

 known men who raised many thousands of 

 seedlings but have to their credit only 

 one or two varieties disseminated, but I 

 also know of men who have raised only 



