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Mat 8, 1913. 



The Florists' Review 



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19 



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Planting Out Asters for Seed at the Farm of James Vick's Sons, Rochester, N. Y. 



PLANTING ASTEBS FOB SEED. 



When one firm finds it necessary to 

 employ nineteen men, a number of boys 

 and sixteen horses in planting asters 

 for seed, some new idea of the extent 

 of the aster industry may be obtained. 

 That is what James Vick's Sons, at 

 Rochester, N. Y., do in the spring, arid 

 the accompanying illustration shows a 

 part of their force engaged in planting 

 fifty acres with aster plants. The illus- 

 tration pictures, by a singular coinci- 

 dence, just thirteen men and thirteen 

 horses at work in the field. There were 

 six more men, some boys and three more 

 horses at work elsewhere when the pic- 

 ture was taken. The view gives an ex- 

 cellent idea of the method used in 

 planting for seed on a wholesale scale, 

 and how rapidly the work may be ac- 

 complished may be readily understood. 



If only a fairly good harvest of aster 

 seed is secured from the fifty acres 

 planted, it would furnish seed sufficient 

 to set a border of asters on every state 

 line in the United States. It is esti- 

 mated that the field will grow a single 

 row of aster plants over 35,000 miles 

 long. 



COLEMAN'S OUTFIT. 



The accompanying illustration shows 

 the delivery teams of C. C. Coleman, 

 who is proprietor of the Arcade Floral 

 Co., Alma, Mich., also the end of a new 

 greenhouse just being erected, and some 

 of the packing crew. Mr. Coleman com- 

 bines all branches of the business, 

 growing vegetables as well as plants 

 and cut flowers. 



SCIENCE AND HOBTICULTUBE. 



[Extracts from a paper by Edwin Jenkins, of 

 r^nox, Mass., read before the Gardeners' and 

 Florists' Clnb of Boston.] 



Is a more scientific training for those 

 engaged in the practice of horticulture 

 desirable, or is it not? My answer is 

 emphatically in the aflSrmative. The 

 profession of horticulture is on the verge 

 of a great change along these lines of 

 technical training, and, as a straw indi- 

 cating the way the wind is beginning to 

 blow, we were told at one of the greatest 



agricultural and horticultural colleges 

 in the country that the services of every 

 student were engaged at good salaries 

 some months in advance of the date of 

 graduation, and that almost daily appli- 

 cations were coming in for trained men 

 to take charge of estates, of orchards 

 and of various forms of government 

 work. And the sad thing about this is, 

 that few of these men are fit to take the 

 various charges thrust upon them, but 

 more of this later. 



Contempt for Scientific Training. 



There has been and is now — though to 

 a less extent than formerly, perhaps — 

 an attitude of indifference and even con- 

 tempt on the part of most practical men 

 toward anything that smacks of science 

 or technical training. This is the same 

 kind of prejudice that formerly existed 

 toward all forms of labor-saving ma- 

 chinery. Sometimes we do not wonder 

 at this attitude w^ep we visit the horti- 

 cultural colleges oj;^£.^.Ave ^stppe-a to hire 

 some of the gradiM^s^ijt that does not 

 prove the idea of. scfeiqiific training to 

 be wrong, only that #h'e 'attempt to put 

 it into practice has bfie^'^poorly done. 



As a little illustration of the prejudice 

 referred to, if I am correctly informed, 

 even among the enlightened members 

 of this club it was boldly asserted that 

 a botanist and a good grower were two 

 incompatible objects, and recently the 

 strictly scientific method of attuning 

 the ear to slight gradations of sound 

 Indicating the moisture condition of a 

 potted plant was held up to ridicule and 

 withering scorn. 



Every Good Grower a Scientist. 



The trouble is that there has been a 

 misunderstanding of what this word 

 science stands for; it means, as I appre- 

 hend it, merely "knowledge reduced to 

 a system," and surely no one has any 

 quarrel with knowledge reduced to a 

 system; every good grower is a scien- 

 tist, whether he knows it or not. 



I know of no class of men who could 

 be more helped in their daily problems 

 by a scientific training than gardeners 

 and florists. Not a day but they are 

 confronted with some new or old fungoid 

 disease, some parasite preying upon 

 their plants; or it may be trouble with 

 [Oontlr^ned on pace 40.] 



lelivery and Packing Crew of the Arcade Floral G>., Alma, Mich. 



