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38 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



August 20, 1908. 



Chrysanthemum Golden Glow. 



(Photographed August 12, 1908.) 



CHRYSANTHEMUM GOLDEN GLOW 



It seems that each season chrysanthe- 

 mums come in earlier and earlier, and it 

 is only natural that the growers should 

 strive to be early, because the early stock 

 has brought excellent prices for several 

 years. Monrovia, coming in at about the 

 time the asters went out, lias paid the 

 growers handsomely. 



This year the (;. C. Tollworth Co., 

 Milwaukee, has set the pace for early 

 mums with Golden Glow, which was 

 ready early in August. The accompany- 

 ing illustration is from a photograph of 

 some blooms cut August 12. The picture 

 gives a good idea of the character of tlie 

 stock, which is reported to have sold ex- 

 cellently. The Pollworth Co. says its 

 chrysanthemum season this year will last 

 from early August until Christmas. 



STATE FLORISTS' ASSOQATIONS. 



By Albert T. Hey, Western Springs, III. 



[Read before the Society of American Florists, 

 In convention at Niafcara Falls, AnRust 18 to 21, 

 1008.) 



1 have been called upon to talk to 

 you this morning on "State Florists' 

 Associations, Their Value and the Rela- 

 tion They Should Bear to the S. A. F." 

 1 believe the best interests of this great 

 .society can be better accomplished and 

 more fully developed by systematizing 

 its work, and the greatest good to the 

 largest number can be secured through 

 state societies that can individually take 

 up the work and develop what is most 

 suitable for their localities. 



To give you an idea of wliat these so- 

 cieties can do, I will give you a brief 

 review of the work accomplished by the 

 Tllinois State Florists' Association. 



The Illinois SUte Society. 



After a year of prelimrnary "^ork the 



present organization was formed, and 

 elected J. F. Ammann, of Edwardsville, 

 111., as its first president. From that 

 time the work was carefully planned and 

 the first important step undertaken was 

 to secure a definite and separate depart- 

 ment for floriculture at our Tllinois Ex- 

 perimental Station, believing this would 

 bring further benefits in its train. 



The next (juestion was how to raise 

 funds to carry out the work. The exec- 

 utive committee set to work; a bill was 

 framed and presented to the Illinois 

 legislature, becoming a law and giving 

 us $15,000 for the purpose stated. 



The bill provides for an advisory 

 board appointed by the president of the 

 society, consisting of five members of the 

 association, with the dean of the college 

 as chairman, whose duty it is to advise 

 and consult with the university officials 

 as to what shall be done at the station, 

 and the results so far obtained show 

 that they have attended strictly to their 

 business. 



Illinois Experimental Station. 



The Experimental Station is located at 

 Urbana, in oonnection with the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois. The plans and speci- 

 fications which appeared in the trade 

 papers you probably are acquainted with. 

 The houses will be planted with carna- 

 tions this season and the work will be 

 chiefly in fertilizers, umJer the direction 

 of Prof. H. B. Dorner, son of the vet- 

 eran carnation grower of Lafayette, Ind., 

 who has been placed in charge of the 

 Experimental Station, with capable as- 

 sistants. 



When the officers of the college saw 

 what our work meant and the amount of 

 practical good it was going to do, they 

 became enthusiastic and, in addition to 

 our appropriation from the legislature, 



donated to the cause out of the college 

 funds the magnificent sum of $7,000, 

 making a total of $22,000 to help carry 

 on the good work, and by this, I assure 

 you, our association was highly grati- 

 fied. In addition to this the college 

 officers tendered the services of the En- 

 tomological Department and sent out 

 one of their men to take up the question 

 of thrips, which has been doing an im- 

 mense amount of damage in the rose- 

 growing district, and have since detailed 

 him on the special work of studying 

 insect life and giving instructions in the 

 different ways of fumigation, etc. 



At an early date a bulletin will be 

 issued which will be of value to all. 



First Experimental Work. 



Our first year's experimental work was 

 done in greenhouses rented ffom Wash- 

 burn Bros., in Bloomington, 111., by Pro- 

 fessor Beal. This was mostly in the test- 

 ing of the different commercial insecti- 

 cides, and when this bulletin is issued it 

 may be a surprise in the varying analy- 

 sis in these preparations tested. 



We expect soon to see a course in 

 floriculture established at the university, 

 covering soil analysis, a study in insect 

 life and a practical training in green- 

 house construction and heating, making 

 a school which we have long dreamed of 

 for our boys. 



Now, there are other important things 

 that a state society can do. Nearly every 

 state has a state fair, and did you ever 

 realize or stop to think that you can 

 reach the masses more quickly at a state 

 fair than at a flower show? We took 

 up this idea and thought it out in this 

 wise: The people who go to a flower 

 show are, as a rule, flower-lovers and 

 generally know just about what they are 

 going to see, but the every-day, ordinary 

 people do not go to these flower shows, 

 but will go to their state fair. 



State Fairs as Edticators. 



Now, nearly every state fair has a 

 floricultural department and thete are 

 hundreds of people who never visit a 

 greenhouse or even see one, and never 

 have flowers in their home or garden. 

 They see these flower and plant displays 

 and it creates a desire to have some in 

 their home, which sentiment might have 

 lain dormant forever if they had not vis- 

 ited the state fair. 



In a great many of the state fairs this 

 department is looked upon as one of 

 the side lights, and whose fault is it 

 but our own? Our state society took 

 this up, went before the State Board of 

 Agriculture with our statistics, showed 

 them the importance of our trade, im- 

 pressed upon them the idea of cultivat- 

 ing the beautiful and elevating the taste 

 of the people. This was hard work — to 

 get it through the heads of our farmer 

 friends. Farm crops and cattle they un- 

 derstood, but did not realize that flowers 

 cost money to grow and when the exhi- 

 bition was over it was a dead loss to the 

 exhibitor, but if some ordinary- hog went 

 in and came out with a blue ribbon, he 

 was worth so much more, but the flow- 

 ers, why, of course, they did not amount 

 to anything. 



We finally gained our point and se- 

 cured $1,000 to the Illinois State Fair in 

 premiums, also revised the list and 

 gained an important recognition in the 

 appointment of a practical florist as 

 assistant superintendent of the floricul- 

 tural department. Through the efforts 

 of this society the premium list stands 

 on an equal basis with any of our great 



