"^v . ■ ■, /■ 



July 4, 1907. 



The Weekly Florists* Review. 



27 



The Banquet to the American Seed Trade Auociation at Hotel Attor, New York, June 26. 



splendid efforts and for the magnificent 

 way in wliich they were carried out. 



The Banquet. 



Nearly 200 attended the banquet. The 

 menu was superb, the music charming 

 and the occasion one of great enjoyment 

 to all. Patrick O'JNIara was the toast- 

 master and at his best, keeping everyone 

 in good humor. 



President Wood was the first speaker. 

 He named a liost of seedsmen who were 

 looking younger than the first day he saw 

 them and advised as the secret of per- 

 petual youth the honor of the presidency 

 of the society. He spoke of the spirit of 

 optimism in the seedsmen everywhere and 

 urged its continuance. 



Capt. Landreth, of Philadelphia, was 

 introduced as "the man whose name was 

 a household word. " " The Nestor of the 

 seed trade and its dean," was Mr. 

 O'Mara's characterization of C. L. Allen, 

 "the old man eloquent." Mr. Allen gave 

 a humorous address and cast his mantle 

 on Prof. Johnson, of the American Agri- 

 culturist, declaring him to be "full of 

 good nature, sound sense and practice." 

 Professor Johnson gave a long and elo- 

 quent speech, full of witty stories and re- 

 plete with information concerning south- 

 ern horticulture and California and the 

 northwest with its immigration and 

 Jamestown and its history. 



W. J. Stewart" spoke for the S. A. F. 

 and Albert McCullongh, of Cincinnati, 

 was eloquent in reminiscences. Charles 

 P. Braslan, of San Jose, Cal., gave an in- 

 teresting address, referring to Peter 

 Henderson 's prophecy as to the seed and 

 bulb possibilities of his state. 



In response to the toastmaster 's eulogy 

 of Canada and its future, S. E. Brige"-. 

 of Toronto, gave a fine address. :Mr. 



Briggs has been a member of the asso- 

 ciation twenty-one years and is an ex- 

 president. 



W. P. Stokes gave an interesting ad- 

 dress on the enjoyment of friendly per- 

 sonal intercourse, the value of fraternal 

 association and the delightful entertain- 

 ment afforded the society by the New 

 Yorkers. He proposed a toast to Wm. 

 Aleggatt, one of the oldest members of 

 the society. 



C. N. Page, of Des Moines; S. F. Wil- 

 lard, of Wethersfield; Henry Nungesser. 

 of New York, and S. Groot, of Enk- 

 huizen, Holland, were the final victims of 

 the toastmaster, who was given carte 

 blanche and sprang toasts on unsuspect- 

 ing victims until about everybody present 

 had taken his medicine. 



J. Austin Shaw. 



HELPS FOR THE SEED TRADE. 



Talking on the topic, "What the De- 

 partment of Agriculture Is Doing for 

 the Seed Trade," Dr. Beverlv T. Callo- 

 way, chief of the Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, at the seed trade conven- 

 tion at New York last week, outlined 

 some of the more important work of 

 his department and explained the rela- 

 tions of this work to the seed trade. In 

 addition to that part of the address 

 printed in last week's Review, Dr. Gal- 

 loway sa'd: 



Agricultural Exploration. 



The agricultural exploration work of 

 the department, as an example, calls for 

 the services of experienced men, to go 

 into various parts of the world in search 

 of new and promising crops. The re- 

 sults achieved by M. A. Carleton, in 

 securing grains from Russia and other 



parts of the world for use in this coun- 

 try, were mentioned as an illustration of 

 the importance of sending practical men 

 upon explorations of this character. Mr. 

 Carleton had made grains a special study 

 for twenty years, and he was able to 

 select varieties of wheat which produced 

 last year in the United States about 50,- 

 000,000 bushels, valued at about $37,000,- 

 000. The work of an agricultural ex- 

 l)lorer now in China was illustrated, pic- 

 tures of fields of poppies, used for the 

 manufacture of opium, and of Chinese 

 vegetable gardens being shown, together 

 with interesting illustrations of the meth- 

 ods of handling the important soy bean 

 crop. 



Particular attention was called to the 

 Japanese salad plant, udo, which is han- 

 dled and served much like celery, and 

 is proving a promising plant for use 

 upon the tables of Americans. 



About $.5,000,000 worth of matting is 

 imported every year, and the department 

 is trying to establish the manufacture 

 of matting from a Japanese grass which 

 is readily grown here. As the types of 

 juncus used for matting do not come true 

 from seed, it has been necessary to se- 

 cure a large shipment of these plants 

 from Japan, and they are now in suc- 

 cessful cultivation in California. Ma- 

 chinery has already been perfected for 

 weaving this grass, by which an Ameri- 

 can operator can produce as much mat- 

 ting in a day as is made by an oriental 

 in thirty days. 



Improvement of Grasses. 



The work upon the improvement of 

 timothies inaugurated by Dr. A. D. Hop- 

 kins has resulted in securing some val- 

 uable types, including a mammoth form 

 called the Stewart, or Mammoth, which 

 is also an extra-early type. In all^ Dr. 



