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Z31)e Slower ©rower 
1 PUBLISHED MONTHLY ON THE FIRST OF THE MONTH BY I 
MADISON COOPER, CALCIUM, N.Y. j 
FOR BOTH AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL FLOWER GROWERS 
I Subscription Price : OUR MOTTO: Canadian and Foreign | 
| $1.00 per year. Special favors to none, and a Subscription Price | 
| 3 years for $2.50. square deal to all. $1.25 per year. | 
r 
Growers are invited to contribute articles or notes over their own 
signatures, but the Editor reserves the right to reject anything which 
in his judgment is not conducive to the general welfare of the business. 
Copyright 1920 by Madison Cooper 
Vol. VII November, 1920 No. 11 
“ He who sows the ground with care and diligence acquires a 
greater stock of religious merit than he could gain by the 
repetition of ten thousand prayers.” ■ — ZOROASTER. 
Reading and Education. 
Education is not mere schooling. It is the training and 
developing of one’s individual faculties and gifts. This 
may be done more thoroughly through acquiring the read- 
ing habit. It may be safely said that in not a single case 
has a man made a notable success of any particular life 
work without continuing his studies after leaving school or 
college, through the following up of a consistent and per- 
sistent but perhaps not necessarily systematic course of 
reading. There is little danger that one will read much of 
a seriously detrimental nature. Most reading matter is of 
an educational and helpful nature and even the daily papers 
may be of great service in educating along general lines. 
The reading habit should be acquired at an early age 
and the young should be encouraged in every possible way 
to become readers. There is no objection to light fiction 
for the young if of a harmless character as this encourages 
the reading habit and as the individual becomes older read- 
ing of a more substantial character will naturally be taken 
up. 
Madison Cooper. 
Has Gladiolus America Deteroriated ? 
An item from the Florists’ Exchange, which will be found 
on page 179, opens a very interesting subject. Do Gladioli 
or other flowers deteriorate? We imagine that this sub- 
ject could be discussed pro and con by many different peo- 
ple and no conclusion arrived at. It is our impression that 
certain flowers do deteriorate unless they are kept up by 
careful culture and selection. In fact, we believe that most 
anything in the vegetable kingdom will do this. Cultiva- 
tion under average or inferior conditions leads to natural 
deterioration. It could not be otherwise. 
In case of Gladiolus America, which is under discussion, 
is it not more probable that the rapid improvement in 
quality of the newer varieties of Gladioli has been such 
during recent years that America has been left in the rear ? 
A good spike of America is a fine thing, but there are so 
many stubby and short spikes now that it gives one a bad 
impression of America. It is possible that Gladiolus grow- 
ers are not as thorough and painstaking as they were when 
America was first introduced, but force of circumstances 
probably accounts for’ neglect in many ways, shortage of 
help being the most important. 
November, 1920 
At present no one in particular is interested in keeping 
Gladiolus America up to its highest quality. It is grown in 
large quantities in a wholesale way and not given the best 
of culture. Naturally under these conditions it will dete- 
riorate. The same would probably happen to most any 
variety under the same circumstances. 
Advertising. 
Some growers of flower stocks do not appreciate the 
necessity of advertising during prosperous times. They 
seem to feel that it takes all their energy to fill orders, and 
that it is a waste of time and money to advertise for more 
business. 
This is a very erroneous conclusion and it will be noted 
that those concerns who advertise continuously and con- 
sistently regardless of business conditions and regardless of 
whether they have plenty of orders or not, are the ones who 
continue to be leaders. Heavy advertisers who later be- 
come small advertisers or no advertisers at all, are prac- 
tically admitting that they cannot keep up with competi- 
tion, and it is the history of business that younger and 
more progressive concerns who advertise judiciously, push 
out the older and more conservative ones who do not or 
will not understand that a successful business built up by 
the assistance of advertising, must continue to advertise in 
order to retain its leading position in the trade. 
Spasmodic or irregular advertising is of doubtful value, 
but continuous and persistent advertising is seldom a poor 
investment. Any consistent judicious plan if followed out 
is more than likely to prove satisfactory to the advertiser. 
The successful advertiser is the one who keeps at it. 
Madison Cooper. 
New Varieties of Flowers. 
The avalanche of seedlings which Mrs. Austin mentions 
in her Talks this month is worthy of consideration. She 
points out that those who produce seedlings should keep 
themselves posted on what is being done by others. It is 
surely little short of folly for any hybridizer to attempt to 
introduce new varieties without knowing what others have 
done, by maintaining a test plot for the trying out of new 
varieties. Some hybridizers are so busily engaged in 
producing thousands of new things each year that they do 
not even attend the flower shows We have some contempt 
and more pity for any such. What we say does not apply 
to Gladioli only, but to the producer of seedlings in any 
branch of floriculture. Don’t try to introduce new varieties 
unless you know what is already on the market of a similar 
character. Ignorance cannot be tolerated in this connec- 
tion and it will not “stand the test of time.” 
“ The great task of pioneering and bringing the land un- 
der the plow has, for the most part, been accomplished. 
The people of this nation are no longer content with the 
attainment of the three primary necessities— food, clothing 
and shelter. They demand in addition that the food shall 
be the product of many climes ; that the clothing shall befit 
their station and work ; and that the shelter shall not only 
provide bodily comforts but that it shall be surrounded by 
trees and shrubs, not alone for the shade and protection 
they offer, but for the pleasure they afford as they express 
life’s great drama in the passing of the seasons.” 
— (Sec. of Agriculture Meredith in The American Rose Annual.) 
Slower (Brower 
