Present Condition of the Nurseries of 
France and England 
Address to Garden Club of America 
Colony Club, New York 
March 17th, 1920. 
John C. Wister 
We have heard much in this country of the effect of the war on 
our own nurseries, of the shortage of labor and of nursery stock, 
stories which at best are discouraging, and at their worst appear to 
prophesy the end of all garden work. Let us stop and think a moment 
of what effect the war must have had in France. Consider that France 
with a population of httle more than one-third that of our country has 
lost in battle, killed or crippled, nearly two million men, or as many as 
our entire American Expeditionar}^ Forces, and that if we had lost 
men in the same proportion it would have meant the death, or per- 
manent disablement of over five million men, a number equal to the 
entire number of men who serv^ed with the American ]\Iihtary serv- 
ices at home or abroad. And even this is not all that is interfering 
with the normal industry of France, for today she is raising an army 
of two million men for defense against future attack by Germany. 
If we were to raise an army in the same proportion it would mean 
withdrawing from industry nearly nine miUion men, or to almost 
double our great effort during the war. 
You can see that all industry of France must be nearly wrecked, 
and it seems a miracle that nurseries which might be regarded as 
non-productive industries, have survived at all. The fact that they 
have survived, I beheve to be due to three causes: 
First, the universal love of flowers in France; second, the small 
size of the nurseries and the fact that the nursery business is almost 
entirely a family business; and third, the fact that the French peas- 
ant women are wilhng and able to do the heavy work which was 
formerly done by the men. 
The first of these reasons may seem trite to the members of the 
Garden Club of America who have seen the gardens of France 
before the war and who realize how much our American gardens owe 
to the skill of French gardeners and plant breeders. I was constantly 
impressed, however, by the fact that four and a half years of war did 
not stop the French people from growing their flowers, and I saw 
during my eighteen months in France beautiful flowers being grown 
from the Atlantic coast up to within five or ten miles of the German 
hnes. I remember particularly being in the city of Tours, the Satur- 
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