FBBBtJART 5, 1914. 



The Florists^ Review 



19 



tHE CLEVELAND CONVENTION 



AFTERMATH OF THE CARNATION GROWERS' EXHIBITION 



The Review told the story of the meetins: so com- 

 pletely last week that little remains to be said 



|N his address at the open- 

 ing of the Cleveland con- 

 vention, printed in full in 

 last week's issue of The 

 Review, President Brown 

 threw out a number of sug- 

 gestions with regard to the individual 

 work of the members in producing and 

 marketing their crops, as well as to 

 the work of the society. The address 

 was referred to a committee consisting 

 ■of S. J. Goddard, Wrii. Nicholson and 

 W. N. Kudd, which later submitted the 

 following well-worth-reading report: 



"We feel that the taking of an act- 

 ive executive part in the exploiting and 

 management of a strictly local exhibition, 

 by this society, is likely to lead to seri- 

 ous complications in the future. On the 

 other hand it is the duty of the society 

 to encourage in all feasibleJ'^ways the 

 public exhibition of the carnffiion every- 

 where. For these . reasons your com- 

 mittee does not. favor the award of a 

 cup or other trophy of large value at 

 the New York exhibition, as creating a 

 precedent for similar demands from 

 ■ other parts of the country in future, 

 which demands could hardly be met. 

 Your committee recommends that one 

 silver and one bronze medal be offered 

 for competition at the New York ex- 

 hibition and that the society, when 

 proper application is made, offer sim- 

 ilar medals at other exhibitions where 

 it is shown that such exhibitions are 

 of sufficient importance to warrant such 

 offer. 



' ' The question of the color^ine in the 

 pink classes having been set ;for special 

 discussion need not be considered by 

 this committee except that your com- 

 mittee would recommend, no matter 

 what color divisions may be ado|)ted, 

 that the judges be authorized, at any 

 time when convinced that a mistake has 

 been made in any entry in the pink 

 classes, to transfer the exhibit wrongly 

 entered to the proper division of the 

 pink class and to consider it therein 

 without prejudice, the same as though 

 it had been originally so entered, 



"It seems to your committee that 

 slumps or gluts in the market are oc- 

 casional but inevitable conditions to be 

 met in growing and marketing perish- 

 able crops. It might be well to sug- 

 gest to the grower the advisability of 

 more strictly and carefully grading and 

 culling his product at such times. 



"We believe that the marketing of 

 carnations carefully packed in boxes is 

 to be recommended for the better 

 grades and in markets which will ac- 

 cept flowers so packed. 



"We doubt that carnations are losing 

 either in fragrance or keeping quali- 

 ties. It is true that some varieties are 

 more fragrant than others — this has al- 

 ways been the case. It is certainly 

 true that flowers produced during the 



comparatively sunless winter months 

 will never be so fragrant as in late 

 spring or early summer, when the sun 

 is approaching its maximum in intens- 

 ity of effect, 



"Your committee feels that the de- 

 terioration which occurs in carnations is 

 largely due to bad or overintensive cul- 

 tivation and especially to improper 

 methods in the selection of cuttings and 

 their ^.handling. We believe it quite 

 possible to build a variety up by care- 

 ful cultivation and especially by con- 

 tinued intelligent and careful selection 

 in propagating. 



"It is surely to be regretted that 

 more of the men interested in the grow- 

 ing and sale of carnations have not be- 

 come members of this society. Other 

 societies perhaps are making no better, 

 if as good a showing. We feel that 

 there is no way of largely increasing 

 our membership except by the slow and 

 sure way, through the active and con- 

 tinuous efforts of our members with 

 their individual friends and acquaint- 

 ances. 



"Your committee is hardly inclined 

 to admit that we have exhausted the 

 possibilities of development in the car- 

 nation in any direction, even in size." 



The report was adopted by the so- 

 ciety, the recommendation with regard 

 to permitting the judges to transfer to 

 its proper section any exhibit wrongly 

 entered in the pink classes being ex- 

 tended to apply to any color or class. 



The Best Keeper. 



With the idea of encouraging the ex- 

 hibitors to try for keeping quality, 

 Fred Burki offered a prize of $10 to be 

 awarded at the close of the show to the 

 vase of flowers that liad stood in best 

 condition. One of the judges remarked, 

 early in the show, that the award would 

 go to Pink Delight, "everybody knew 

 that before we came here," and it did 

 — to the Pink Delight with which Pres- 

 ident-elect Goddard won first prize in 

 the class for 100 flesh pink. Another 

 judge said afterward that all five of 

 the vases of blooms considered by the 

 judges were Mr. Goddard 's. 



It was apparent that some of the ex- 

 hibitors, having- the Burki prize in 

 mind, had cut their flowers underdone 

 and there was some criticism on the 

 floor of the convention because the 

 judges had made awards to these flow- 

 ers over fully developed blooms. Peter 

 Fishei:, F. A. Friedley, F. H, Lemon, 

 W. N. Rudd, A. F. J. Baur, A. J. Gutt- 

 man, E. G. Gillett, K. A. Stroud, Eu- 

 gene Dailledouze and others gave their 

 views. Some of the speakers seemed 

 to think half open flowers were not 

 entitled to award, while others inclined 

 to the belief that the judges were jus- 

 tified if they considered an exhibitor's 

 underdone blooms better than the other 



fellow's fully developed flowers, E. A, 

 Stroud suggested that better judging 

 might be had if the full board of six 

 judges passed on each class, instead of 

 working in threes, as has been the cus- 

 tom. W. N. Eudd disagreed with this, 

 asserting that the larger the board the 

 less the sense of individual responsi- 

 bility for the result. Eugene Daille- 

 douze thought the judging would be 

 better if the rule about clearing the 

 hall were more rigidly enforced, so it 

 was put on record that hereafter even 

 the newspaper men are to be barred 

 while the judges are at work. 



Carrying Plants a Second Tear, 

 In the discussion of A. T. Pyfer's 

 paper, led by Peter Fisher and Joseph 

 H. Hill, it was the consensus of opin- 

 ion that it does not pay to carry carna- 

 tion plants a second year. Mr. Pyfer 

 had not recommended it, except in spe- 

 cial cases. C. S. Strout said it paid him, 

 in Maine, where he has a good summer 

 demand, and others mentioned special 

 cases, such as with shy bloomers and 

 varieties that have been kept cut back 

 to produce cuttings, but the general 

 report was that nothing is gained, the 

 quality of the blooms produced in the 

 second year being poor, the plants un- 

 gainly, a prey to disease and a harbor 

 for insects. Mr. Pyfer was given a 

 vote of thanks for his paper. 



The CJost of Growing. 

 So many members of the American 

 Cannation Society keep careful records 

 of production that the figures of blooms 

 per plant presented in Joseph H. Hill's 

 paper aroused far less comment than did 

 the closing paragraph, in which he at- 

 tempted to set forth briefly the cost 

 of producing the cut. It developed that 

 a great many of the members had under- 

 taken to ascertain what a flower costs, 

 but that they had failed to Secure any- 

 thing more valuable than niental exer- 

 cise. President Brown undertook to 

 get discussion on the essays read by 

 appointing members to start the talk. 

 To lead the discussion on Mr. Hill's pa- 

 per he designated W, N. Rudd and S. J. 

 Goddard. Mr. Rudd asked to be ex- 

 cused, but Mr. Brown insisted, so Mr. 

 Rudd responded with a general declara- 

 tion of the futility of the average cost 

 record; he declared them to be value- 

 less except in rare instances because 

 flower growing ever is an art and never 

 can become a science, figures of cost 

 never being alike for any two years. 

 He commended records of production as 

 showing the relative blooming qualities 

 of varieties, but ^g^wixthat insofar as 

 finding what it costs to carry a plant 

 through its life, it never can be done, 

 the best figures never being anything 

 more than an average. Other speakers 

 agreed, Mr, Hill, in explanation, said 

 that carnations exclusively are grown 



