Adqust 18, 1010. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. . 



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THE ROCHESTER 



CONVENTION 



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TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE 

 SOCIETY OF AMERICAN FLORISTS. 



THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD AT BALTIMORE. 



OFnCERS FOR 1911: 



President, GEORGE ASMUS, Chicago, IIL 



Vice-president, R. VINCENT, Jr^ White Marsh, Md. 



Secretary, H. B. DORNER, Urbana, IIL 



Treasurer, VM. F. KASTING, BoHalo, N. Y. 



Kochester has been an extremely busy 

 city this week. Its Convention hall 

 has been full and running over; its 

 hotels have been full, and also run- 

 ning over, and its people have been 

 full — of interest and hospitality, for 

 the S. A. F. means more to Rochester 

 than it does to many cities. Rochester 

 is known as the Flower City; its nurs- 

 ery interests are greater than those of 

 any other city in the United States, 

 and probably in no other town in 

 America, no matter what its size, does 

 a greater proportion of the people come 

 into close personal acquaintance with 

 the interests which go to make up the 

 Society of American Florists and Orna- 

 mental Horticulturists. So Rochester 

 was glad to be full— full of florists. 



All that could have been asked of 

 Koehester was a little more room — a 

 little more room in Convention hall, a 

 biiilding that Rochester thinks quite 

 sizable, but the aisles became decid 

 e<l!y congested when the crowds got 

 in -and a few more rooms in the hotel 

 ofli.tially selected as headquarters; 

 hardly anyone got in there unless he 

 'la.l spoken in advance for his accom- 

 modations. 



i'-ut it was a great convention — the 

 gf' Ttest ever. The way the east turned 

 out was an inspiration — to candidates 

 as well as officers and the west. Bos- 

 ton and New England came with a 

 ^p1 gation of over seventy people, and 

 Nev York city's special train carried 

 the largest partj^ the metropolis ever 

 na^ sent to a convention — the way they 

 '•n-d up at the clerk's desk at the 

 Sc' oca hotel Monday evening re- 

 minded one of the box office at the 

 Polo grounds when the Cubs are about 

 to claw the Giants. New York, flori- 

 'iulturally as well as in many things 

 otiierwise, is the greatest state in the 

 ^fion, and the attendance of up-state 

 ^orists was extremely large, and Phila- 

 ''^'phia and Pennsylvania were heavily 

 •"^presented. The regulars met many 

 "e\v faces; as usual, the bulk of the 

 attendance was from a radius of two 

 ^^ three hundred miles, and the west 



was far outnumbered. Chicago had a 

 good representation; Milwaukee sent 

 a fine delegation, and Cincinnati 

 showed up well, but otherwise the 



western representation was scattering; 

 there was one man from San Francisco, 

 two from Denver, one from Winnipeg 

 and several from St. Louis, but from 

 beyond the Mississippi not many. 



The Rochester people had looked to 

 the minutest details, so naturally had 

 arranged witii the weather man for 

 cool, pleasant nights even if the days 

 were a little bit warm, as becomes 

 August, but nothing in the week's 

 weather to encourage the idea of aban- 

 doning the summer meeting date. 



The business sessions were held in 

 a hall adjoining the exhibition, and 

 proved exceptionally interesting. The 

 society is just now passing through a 

 period of important change. The tend- 

 ency to split up into separate societies 

 with many meetings has run its course 

 to the usual extreme, and amalgama- 

 tion is now the order of the day; 

 everybody talks it and, apparently, 

 everybody wants it. Also, a number 

 of changes in the form of organization 

 seemed ripe and were thrashed out at 

 this meeting in connection with the 

 proposal to change the date of the an- 

 nual meeting. President Pierson made 

 a splendid presiding officer, having had 

 wide experience in the work in other 

 bodies of which he is a member. He 

 is ma3'or of Tarrytown and also presi- 

 dent of the school board there. 



Opening Session. 



The first business session of the con- 

 vention was called to order with com- 

 nienilablo ]>romptness on Tuesday after- 



George Asfflus. 



(President okH't Soeiety of American Florlsta.) 



