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The Florists' Revkw 



AUGDBS 20, 1914. 



where there is a florist, in his efforts 

 to create and stimulate an interest in 

 school and home gardening. If but a 

 small number of his appeals find a 

 responsive chord, much will have been 

 accomplished through his efforts and 

 activity. Mr. Hammond's enthusiasm 

 induces me to express the wish and 

 hope that a goodly portion of the es- 

 sence of his teaching will be absorbed 

 with profit by members of the society 

 under whoa.e banner he is making his 

 laudable campaign. 



Gardening, under one name or an- 

 other, above all, means order and clean- 

 liness, and I have often wondered why 

 it is that so many of our commercial 

 establishments are such striking exam- 

 ples of disorder, neglect and ugliness, 

 in place of order, neatness and attrac- 

 tiveness. I have seen some excellent 

 examples of well-kept, attractive com- 

 mercial establishments in the vicinity 

 of our convention city of today, and I 

 hope that they will bring home, to some 

 of those in need of this reminder, the 

 truthfulness of the saying that "we 

 might with profit practice ourselves 

 what we try to teach." 



Tariff and Legislation. 



As I am not engaged in the commer- 

 cial business of our trade, I believe 

 you will forgive me if I admit the fact 

 that I have given no special attention 

 to tariff and legislation as a part of 

 my official duties. I feel that my ap- 

 pointees to that important committee 

 are able, and have taken good care of 

 the interests entrusted to their care. 

 Our society never had a more efficient 

 and faithful officer as chairman of any 

 committee, of whom we could say with 

 such propriety that he is the right man 

 in the right place, than our friend, 

 William F. Gude, chairman of the tariff 

 and legislation committee and our rep- 

 resentative in Washington, D. C, his 

 home town. I venture to say that he 

 has, at all times, made all the hay he 

 could for us while the sun was shining, 

 and that every bit of it is under a 

 waterproof roof. 



The Smith IVIemorial. 



We should indeed do our best to erect 

 an appropriate memorial to our beloved 

 departed leader and friend, William 

 Robertson Smith, to whose efforts alone 

 is due our possession of a national 

 charter, the only one ever granted by 

 the United States Congress to any such 

 organization. 



W. F. Gude, chairman, reports that 

 his committee is most favorably in- 

 clined to recommend that this memo- 

 rial shall be in the form of a horticul- 

 tural school or garden, conducted along 

 more practical lines than most existing 

 institutions of this character have so 

 far followed. To assist in such a plan 

 of practical education, which would 

 surely have met with the approval of 

 him whom we wish to honor, would 

 indeed be the most appropriate form of 

 tribute we could give to him and his 

 memory. 



Every horticulturist, professional and 

 amateur, employer and employee, should 

 willingly and readily contribute his 

 mite towards such a worthy object. It 

 behooves our organization to take the 

 lead in this movement, and through 

 united action we shall earn and receive 

 the moral and financial support of the 

 national government. Many progress- 

 ive and influential men outside of our 

 profession and from all parts of the 



country, who are also great admirers 

 of the man whose memory we wish to 

 perpetuate, will gladly aid us. We can- 

 not expect to carry out so large and 

 far-reaching an undertaking through 

 our own resources alone, but we not 

 only can, but must take a leading part 

 in its launching as well as in its de- 

 velopment. For this work we should 

 prepare ourselves and I venture to make 

 the following suggestions: First, that 

 the W. B. Smith memorial committee 

 be made a permanent standing commit- 

 tee, similar in appointment, service and 

 number to the national flower show 

 committee; second, that this committee 

 be instructed not only to further the 

 financial and other interests pertaining 

 to the creation of a memorial as out- 

 lined, but that it also formulate for its 

 own guidance a plan of work by which 

 it would become an acceptable advisory 

 board to the authorities under which 

 the W. R, Smith memorial garden or 

 school of practical horticulture would 

 eventually be conducted; third, that the 

 committee be requested to consider and 

 report to the society within reasonable 

 time the possibility and advisability of 

 creating a professorship, to begin with, 

 at some leading horticultural school, to 

 be endowed by our society, whose pur- 

 pose would be to inaugurate the prac- 

 tical methods and means of teaching 

 we desire to have adopted at the pro- 

 posed memorial school. 



That we shall get the moral and ac- 

 tive support of our national govern- 

 ment in this or any other worthy under- 

 taking, if we go about it in a right, 

 business-like, progressive manner, I feel 

 doubly assured by the ready assistance 

 given us for the rose test garden now 

 established on government land at 

 Arlington Farms. 



I wish it distinctly understood that 

 my suggestions in connection with the 

 proposed W^. R. Smith school are not 

 intended to cast the least reflection 

 upon the efficiency of any one of the 

 many excellent state colleges which 

 have rendered us in the past service of 

 inestimable value in many directions. 

 Besides the services rendered through 

 their regular courses of study of horti- 

 culture and its branches, they have 

 always given us willing, efficient h^p 

 through the holders of our official posi- 

 tions of botanist, entomologist and 

 plant pathologist. I wish to call your 

 special attention to the suggestions of- 

 fered in the communication of Pro- 

 fessor W. E. Freeman, plant patholo- 

 gist of the University of Minnesota. 

 His suggestions, in the main, embody 

 the idea that we ought to inaugurate 

 a policy of permanent constructive 

 work in our scientific researches en- 

 trusted to those officers. I believe he 

 is absolutely right. This work could 

 eventually be entrusted to the staff of 

 the proposed W. R. Smith school, which 

 would in itself be an assurance of the 

 carrying out of the policies suggested 

 by Professor Freeman. 



Our Convention Gardens. 



I can truthfully say that in all my 

 professional life I have never experi- 

 enced more pleasure and satisfaction 

 than in the success of our convention 

 gardens. The willing, enthusiastic and 

 efficient work of our Boston friends, 

 and the support given by the progress- 

 ive exhibitors represented in the out- 

 door plant exhibit at the last and this 

 year's conventions, conclusively prove 

 to me that I am not mistaken in placing 



the value of those gardens as secondais 

 only to that of our flower shows. 



Our trade exhibits are most valuable 

 and are, to a great extent, the mainstay 

 of our conventions, but I have alwaya 

 ielt that they are a trade exhibit puie 

 and simple, interesting and instructive 

 only to the trade itself. They show us 

 all progress made from year to year in 

 everything we need in our business iu 

 all its many ^details. Our aims, hov. - 

 ever, should go farther. We must sho'v 

 ourselves, and the public as well, what 

 we have achieved, and we must educate 

 the latter through such appropriate ex- 

 hibitions to make use of our labors, 

 our knowledge and our experience to 

 improve, beautify and better the home 

 surroundings. We must show them how 

 it can be done. Our mission must be 

 to help them, and we cannot help them 

 without helping ourselves. 



I sincerely hope that the convention 

 garden will become a permanent fea- 

 ture of our conventions, and since it is, 

 as I believe, the adopted policy of our 

 society to select its convention cities 

 from its own point of view of possible 

 advancement and benefit and not from 

 one of offered entertainment and out- 

 side attractions, I trust that the pos- 

 sibilities offered by cities for such ;i 

 convention garden will always be a 

 strong factor in deciding where the 

 convention shall be held. I believe 

 that the present method of financing 

 this undertaking will, in most instances, 

 be the most feasible one, and that under 

 all circumstances the society should as 

 sume full responsibility and control of 

 it, financially and otherwise. 



Affiliation. 



I have studiously gone through the 

 messages of my predecessors of the last 

 twelve years and find that the prob- 

 lem of affiliation has been in the mind 

 of most of them in one form or another. 

 My personal belief is that the different 

 kindred associations, organized for the 

 advancement of the specialized 

 branches of our profession to whicli 

 they are devoted, are better able to 

 attend to those interests than any ap- 

 pointed committee of the national so- 

 ciety possibly could be. 



Your board of directors has given 

 this important question careful consid- 

 eration, and I believe that the plan 

 submitted through the suggested amend- 

 ments to our constitution and by-laws 

 represents the best solution of this long 

 pending question, at least for the pres- 

 ent. I sincerely hope that the great 

 majority will approve the plan as pre 

 sented and that the recommendation of 

 the board of directors will be adopted. 



The main object of affiliation at this 

 time is to establish such relative and 

 representative connections between the 

 national society, kindred associations 

 and clubs as will afford united action 

 on questions of general importance, ami 

 this I believe the proposed amendment- 

 would bring about. 



The International Union. 



Through Leonard Barron our atteu 

 tion has been called to the International 

 Union of Professional Horticulturists of 

 Europe, organized for the purpose of 

 protecting the .interests of commercial 

 horticulture involved in questions of 

 tariff and other legislation, and pro 

 viding for the registering and nomen 

 clature of plants and all other matters 

 pertaining to the advancement and pro 

 [CoDclnded on pan 46.1 



