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Januabt 20, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



525 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION 



The American Carnation Society Holds a Successful Meetins^ and 



a Splendid Exhibition. 



President, Peter Fisher, Ellis, Mass. 



Vice-President, A. H. Dunlop, Toronto, Ont. 



Secretary, Albert M. Herr, Lancaster, Pa. 



Treasurer, Fred. Dorner, Jr., Lafayette, Ind. 



PUCE OF MEETING FOR 1906, BOSTON, MASS. 



What can we do to propitiate the God 

 of Storms? Since time immemorial the 

 weather man has been safe in forecasting 

 the choicest samples of cold and snow 

 for that spot of all others in our whole 

 great country known to be favored by 

 the American Carnation Society for its 

 annual meeting. This year was no ex- 

 ception to the rule, but thanks to favor- 

 ing train schedules no exhibitor was so 

 late as to be debarred from staging his 

 stock save Richard Witterstaetter, whose 

 train was behind a wreck due to the 

 storm and who arrived at 1:15, six hours 

 late, with one of the grandest lots of 

 blooms ever brought to an exhibition. 



Most of the exhibits came in on the 

 early morning trains, a couple of hours 

 late, but by 10 o 'clock the exhibition hall 

 in the Auditorium was a scene of such 

 activity as is only witnessed when a 

 great exhibition is to be staged under 

 pressure of time. By 1 o'clock all was 

 in readiness and the hall cleared for the 

 judges, who were W. N. Eudd, Wm. Nich- 

 olson and Eugene Dailledouze, the latter 

 taking the place of Wm. Scott, who was 

 prevented by illness from being present. 



The great banquet hall is an ideal spot 

 for such an exhibition as that of this 

 week and the display was worthy of the 

 great industry which it represents. In 

 quantity of stock exhibited it did not 

 more than equal the record set last year 

 at Detroit, but for quality it has never 

 been approached. Indeed, in point of 

 quantity nothing was left to be desired, 

 for the room was filled. Competition 

 was keener than ever before. In the 

 class for 100 white there were eleven en- 

 tries, but only four varieties were repre- 

 sented, and the quality of each exhibit 

 was of the very best. It was noteworthy 

 that Lady Bountiful and Wolcott de- 

 feated White Lawson. In the class for 

 100 pink there were eight exhibits, six 

 of which were Mrs. Lawson, which won 

 both premiums. Possibly more interest 

 centered in the reds than in any other 

 of the general classes. Five varieties 

 were shown, first premium falling to Car- 

 dinal and second to Bobert Craig. There 

 were also five entries for the Lawson 

 medals and five better vases were never 

 shown in any exhibition. The gold medal 

 fell, as last year, to Fiancee, the silver 

 medal to Robert Craig and the bronze 

 medal to My Maryland, the splendid 

 white brought from so great a distance 

 by H. Weber & Sons. The Chicago Carna- 

 tion Co. was the largest exhibitor and 

 largest prize winner. 



A feature of the exhibition was the 

 preponderance of what may be termed 



new sorts. Not a great many varieties 

 which have been on the market more than 

 a year or two were shown, and there were 

 dozens of seedlings never before exhibiteo 

 to the American Carnation Society. The at- 

 tendance was up to the best previous 

 records and the hall was comfortably 

 filled by critical growers, the general pub- 

 lic not being admitted. 



The first business session was called to 

 order at 8:30 Wednesday evening, by 

 President Rudd, of the Chicago Florists' 



liberties extended by the city's repre- 

 sentative. 



Mr. Budd then introduced President 

 James Hartshome, who after acknowl- 

 edging his reception, read his address, 

 which was as follows: 



President's Address. 



What little I wish to say to you must 

 be fragmentary, owing to my desire to 

 avoid boring you with a tiresome address. 

 We meet today in our fourteenth annual 

 convention. My predecessor has said, 

 did he believe in signs and omens, he 

 would be fearful of the success of his, 

 the thirteenth annual meeting. Now, I 

 would say, were I a believer in them, I 

 would be fearful of what was going to 

 happen to me, as I have the honor of 

 being your thirteenth president, but if I 

 may judge from the many old-time faces 

 before me and such a goodly sprinkling 

 of enthusiastic new ones, the welfare of 

 our society and the success of this meet- 

 ing is not going to suffer on that ac- 

 count. Some of you have come a thou- 

 sand miles or more to pay homage to, 

 dare I say, the queen? Well, to many of 

 us the carnation is queen of flowers. 



This society has done a great work 

 since its organization in promoting these 

 exhibitions, offering prizes and certifi- 

 cates for new as well as old carnations, 

 thus making our hybridists work harder 

 than ever to keep pace and meet the 

 ideals of our judges. Without this so- 



Peter Fisher, Ellis, Mass., President-Elect American Carnation Society. 



Club, who introduced Howard S. Taylor, 

 City Prosecutor, and the Mayor's per- 

 sonal representative. He said that in 

 Chicago forty-three languages are spoken, 

 and he was delegated, and desired to be 

 understood as welcoming the society in 

 every one of them. Mr. Taylor spoke 

 most entertainingly for fifteen minutes. 

 E.Xjr. Hill was introduced to respond to 

 the address of welcome and was given a 

 greeting which bespoke his wide popu- 

 larity in the trade. He spoke briefly and 

 pledged good conduct in return for the 



ciety, I am afraid we would still be plod- 

 ding along in a marking-time fashion, as 

 we were fifteen to twenty years ago. It 

 is just fourteen years ago since the dis- 

 semination of the once great carnation, 

 Daybreak, which really marked a new 

 era in camationdom. While several good 

 varieties made a bid for our favor in the 

 following year, it was nine years before 

 Mr. Fisher gave us Mrs. Lawson, the 

 next real sensation. After that came 

 Prosperity, a variety that is still in a 

 class by itself on account of its distinct- 



