112 Ol)£ Slower (Brower November, 1918 
Otye Slower (Brower 
f PUBLISHED MONTHLY ON THE FIRST OF THE MONTH BY I 
f MADISON COOPER, CALCIUM, N.Y. j 
I FOR BOTH AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL FLOWER GROWERS I 
I Subscription Price : OUR MOTTO: Canadian and Foreign 1 
§ ji 00 per year. Special favors to none, and a Subscription Price | 
1 3 years for $2.00. square deal to all. $1.25 per year. | 
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. 
Copt/viffht 1918 by Madison Cooper 
The contents of THE FLOWER GROWER, formerly "The Modern Gladiolus 
Grower’’ are covered by general copyright. Permission is given to editors to use not 
more than one-third of any article providing proper credit is given at the beginning or 
end of such quotation, as follows: ’’From THE FLOWER GROWER, Calcium, N. Y" 
Special permission necessary for reprinting illustrations, tong extracts or articles entire. 
Vol. V November, 1918 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. 
The Reading Habit — All Should Acquire It. 
If this question of whether he could read or not were 
put to the average individual, he would, of course, answer 
yes, but the meaning of the question is not whether we can 
spell out the words ; the question is do the words after they 
are spelled out mean anything to us, and are we able to 
apply our minds to the subject we are reading about ? All 
of this is preliminary to suggesting that the most of us have 
not the reading habit. 
The editor has been quite surprised, and even almost 
disgusted at times, when attending the flower shows to 
have people come and ask simple questions about growing 
flowers that are answered in almost every issue of The 
Flower Grower. Many people are willing to spend money 
for flowers and for bulbs to grow flowers, but yet are unwill- 
ing to pay the small price of $1.00 per year for a magazine 
which will tell them more about growing flowers than they 
can secure in any other way. Such people, we assume have 
never been taught, or have never taught themselves, the 
habit of reading instructive and useful literature. It is, we 
believe, pretty well understood and acknowledged that 
Americans generally are readers of light fiction and the 
daily papers, and further than this they will not go. 
The habit of reading, not of light fiction and the daily 
papers, although the daily papers are a necessity, but of 
reading useful and instructive magazines and books should 
be acquired early in life by all. In these days when enter- 
tainment is the chief aim of so many, the acquiring of the 
reading habit seems to be difficult and there are few among 
the younger generation who really know how to read. 
This lament is a mere statement of fact without any 
positive suggestion of a remedy, but it is a fact neverthe- 
less which must be acknowledged. A few people acquire 
the reading habit after they reach maturity, but those who 
pass their thirtieth year, we will say, without acquiring the 
habit of reading useful matter, are, as they grow older, 
more than likely to take up useless fiction and matter of a 
lighter character which is of questionable value. 
Let it be the aim of those who read to test every piece 
of reading matter which comes to their hands as to whether 
it is instructive, whether it teaches a lesson, or gives useful 
information. If they put this test to what they read they 
will likely soon determine that the great bulk of printed 
matter is almost useless and some of it worse than useless. 
It is true that it is more difficult to acquire the habit of 
reading useful matter than it is to read light stuff, but one 
should persist in the determination to read only, or at least 
chiefly, those things that have positive permanent value. 
The young should be encouraged to read and they should 
be given time enough for reading. Necessarily the young 
must be started on light reading, but they should not be 
allowed to continue this indefinitely, and should be fur- 
nished with selected matter of an advanced character as 
they grow older. The daily papers and especially the Sun- 
day papers are, except for the editorial, news and tele- 
graphic departments, worse than useless for instruction and 
development of the individual. More papers and magazines 
devoted to the arts, sciences, horticulture, agriculture and 
kindred subjects should be read systematically and con- 
tinuously. 
Acquire the reading habit and be sure you read rightly. 
Madison Cooper. 
Advertising. 
We have in hand, too late for publication in this issue, 
an unsolicited article entitled, “ How an Amateur Feels 
About Advertising.” He suggests that growers of com- 
mercial flower stocks are neglecting a golden opportunity 
by net properly utilizing the columns of The Flower 
Grower, not only during the selling season from fall to 
spring, but throughout the year. He also offers some con- 
crete suggestions as to just what commercial growers 
should say in their advertising. It is really not altogether 
a question of telling about goods for sale, but the advertisers 
should tell about their business and methods of culture, 
etc. They should also tell about their own special varieties, 
not necessarily of their own origination, but those varieties 
that they know to be of special merit, so that readers of 
The Flower Grower may become familiar with them. 
This can be done during any season of the year so that 
when the actual selling time arrives, readers are acquainted 
with the new varieties and ready to purchase same. 
This article is prepared by one who knows, who is really 
a purchaser every year and one who understands what 
train of argument appeals to the buyer. We think so much 
of the common sense of this little article, which comes un- 
solicited and is written by a man who is well qualified to 
offer suggestions from practical experience, that we pro- 
pose to put it in type at once and send it to every adver- 
tiser, calling special attention to it. We also commend it 
to the attention of all readers of The Flower Grower. 
Those who are purchasers of flower stocks of any kind will 
do well to note the suggestions contained in this article. 
Amateur growers of today are the professional growers of 
tomorrow. 
" What’s in a Name?” 
One of our good friends writes us in well chosen words 
that he has found “Glad” growers splendid and friendly 
people and that he believes that there is something in the 
name which seems to filter into the constitution and dispo- 
sition of the individual. Well, there may be something 
about growing the Gladiolus that makes people glad. We 
will admit there is no flower that will give more satisfaction 
for the amount of time and money expended and under 
such circumstances one who grows the Gladiolus is likely 
to be glad he undertook the work. 
