50 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
December, 1916 
ANNUAL CONVENTION DEC. 12-14 
The third day was devoted to 
framing a Constitution and By- 
Laws which will be submitted to 
all who were present at the 
meeting and possibly published 
in different horticultural jour- 
nals. A tentative organization 
was formed and officers elected as 
follows: President, W. N. Hutt, 
North Carolina, Professor of 
Horticulture in the College of 
Agriculture; Vice President, A. 
W. Latham, Minnesota, Secre- 
tary Minnesota Horticultural So- 
ciety; Secretary, E. R. Lake, 
Washington, Secretary American 
Pomological Society, and L. B. 
Magid, Orchardist, Atlanta, Ga., 
Treasurer. These officers will 
serve only until the first regular 
meeting is called and the Con- 
stitution and By-Laws adopted. 
Under the proposed constitution 
membership in the Congress will 
consist of members of all na- 
tional, district and state horti- 
cultural societies and associa- 
tions that apply for membership 
as well as individuals who may 
not be connected with any such 
organization. 
The voting power rests with 
delegates selected by the various 
societies. The fee for individual 
membership will probably be 
fixed at one dollar and the 
association membership at $25 
to $100, which fee will make all 
the members of such association, 
automatically, members of the 
Congress. 
Primarily the Congress will be 
commercial in spirit. 
The promotion of legislation in 
the interests of horticulture was 
the foremost thought in the 
minds of the majority of those 
participating in the movement. 
It was shown by Prof. Hutt, who 
has compiled statistics on the 
subject, that there are above 
fifty thousand persons in this 
country who are members of 
state horticultural societies. 
Another fifty thousand may 
easily be counted as members of 
national organizations such as 
the Florists, Nurserymen, Nut 
Growers, etc. 
If the strictly commercial or- 
ganizations such as the Pacific 
Coast Apple Growers and the 
Citrus Fruit Associations unite, 
it will mean at least fifty thou- 
sand more. Leaving out of ac- 
count individual members this 
means one hundred thousand 
members all interested in a 
common cause and united for a 
common purpose. A high moral 
standard is assured by the char- 
acter of the organizations which 
will be affiliated. 
One of the prominent men of 
Washington, whose vocation is 
law and avocation horticulture 
said: “I can conceive of no 
movement holding greater pos- 
sibilities for the advancement of 
horticultural interests than this 
one.” 
The movement is inaugurated 
under most favorable circum- 
stances and the writer believes 
it will succeed. 
Appetizers for the Winter 
Months 
J. T. Raine 
Many of the people living on 
the farm or in the small village 
are content to go without “green 
stuff” on their table from the 
middle of Nov. or the 1st of Dec. 
until March, when with a very 
little trouble plenty of fresh 
vegetables might be had. How 
often the housewife sighs for a 
little of some fresii vegetable to 
break the monotony of the meal 
of canned vegetables and cured 
meat? They think that fresh 
vegetables are only for the people 
near at hand to the great forcing 
houses or the large cities, when a 
veritable garden could be main- 
tained within their own houses 
supplying the table with many a 
dish usually considered utterly 
impossible at that season. The 
house cellar or any other cellar 
can, if properly handled, be made 
to supply plenty of the highest 
quality rhubarb, asparagus, chi- 
cory, seakale, and other greens. 
How welcome in the spring is 
the first rhubarb pie, especially 
if the apple crpp the preceding 
year has been a failure and the 
store of fresh fruit long been 
depleted? The wise man of the 
house sees to it that he may be 
served with this delicacy from 
Christmas time on until the out- 
door crop is over. Ask the lover 
of the tender asparagus shoots 
and he will tell you that the 
season is entirely too short. You 
say canned asparagus but the 
canned material cannot compare 
in any way with the fresh 
vegetable. Yet with a little 
judicious use of the cellar the 
asparagus season can be length- 
ened by several months and ob- 
tained at a time when other 
fresh goods are hard to get. 
In the forcing of most of these 
materials light is not an essential, 
but in fact quite a detriment to 
the production of crisp juicy 
stalks. The essentials for forc- 
ing rhubarb are a dark place 
with little or no light, a temper- 
ature of 40 to 65 degrees al- 
though a variation of 40 to 85 
may occur, and moisture in not 
too large an amount. The cellar 
is almost an ideal place for the 
(Continued on page 60) 
