118 
The Glad Philosopher’s 
Musings. | 
Here in democratic America, where 
public men are considered as mere 
servants of the people and not their 
rulers, great liberties are taken with 
their names, and every popular presi- 
dent of the United States has had vast 
crops of babies named in his honor by 
faithful adherents of the winning 
political party. Lacking offspring elig- 
ible for christening, some of these 
enthusiastic admirers have honored in- 
stead their domestic animals, and so 
many a dog of both high and low de- 
gree has gleefully wagged his tail and 
bounded forth to meet his master at 
the call of “Abe” or “Teddy.” 
Breeders of flowers have a distinct 
advantage over parents of children in 
the matter of naming offspring. The 
proud father who selects some such 
heroic name as Hannibal, or George 
Washington, or Grover Cleveland for 
his new-born son may live to see him 
grow up to be a mollycoddle, but he 
cannot be censured for having taken a 
chance in hopefully bestowing a name 
worthy of a manly man. The christ- 
ener of the flower is already acquainted 
with every characteristic of his crea- 
tion, and so has no excuse for deliber- 
ately handing out a misnomer. 
Disseminators of new varieties should 
not be in too big a hurry to name 
them, and should be considerate enough 
to refrain from adopting for mediocre 
varieties names that are only fitting 
for those of pronounced merit. The 
great war our country is now engaged 
in will bring into prominence certain 
heroes to be honored, and there will be 
probably altogether too much haste on 
the part of some well-meaning but 
over-impulsive hybridizers to rush in 
and appropriate great names for new 
seedlings that in some cases should 
never have been named at all. To 
name any flower not prominently bold 
in type, or whose bloom is not distinc- 
tive, or one that has any considerable 
amount of white or yellow color after 
any distinguished American army gen- 
eral, is sentimentally incongruous and, 
to say the least, most inappropriate; and 
it probably should be considered a duty 
encumbent on the various nomencla- 
ture committees to refuse to sanction 
priority for names of persons great in 
public life for varieties that are con- 
spicuously unworthy of such high 
honor. 
There is considerable commercial 
value to a popular name. Our gov- 
ernment forbids the use of our country’s 
flag for commercializing in business. 
Should not our country’s heroes also 
have protection? Common courtesy 
at least demands that their names be 
not used without their consent. 
Did you ever notice how a stranger 
can come into a community and im- 
Obc Slower (Grower 
mediately climb into a social position 
for himself and family that they never 
could have attained had they been born 
and reared there? There is often a 
tendency for too much haste in bestow- 
ing honors upon seedlings that have 
not as yet stood the test of time and 
fully proved their merit. 
The owner of this country place writes us 
that during the Daffodil season in the spring 
of 1918 he opened his place to the public 
and collected nearly $1600 which was turned 
over to the Y. M. C. A. war fund. This was 
arranged by making it known through the 
columns of the newspapers that the grounds 
would be open to visitors for four days dur- 
ing the height of the Daffodil season for an 
admission charge of $1.00 which included 
the serving of a lunch of tea and cake, the 
gross receipts to go to the Y. M. C. A. war 
fund. Besides the money collected for ad- 
mission several hundred dollars’ worth of 
blossoms were sold at a price of from 25c. 
November, 1918 
To secure the best germination from 
Gladiolus cormels they should be sep- 
arated from the corms as soon after 
digging as possible. The cormels should 
not be allowed to become dried whereas 
the corms should be moderately cured 
or dried before storage. Therefore, 
the sooner they are separated after 
digging the better. The bulblets are 
best stored in moist sand or sandy earth. 
to 75c. per bunch of 25. In spite of the 
fact that the weather on two of the days set 
apart for the opening was inclement and the 
further fact that the opening of the Liberty 
Loan drive occurred about the same time, 
the sum realized was considerable and visi- 
tors were well pleased, a number of them 
coming out a second and a few of them, the 
third time. We publish this information 
hoping that the suggestion will prove useful 
to others who have interesting country 
places where money could be raised for a 
patriotic purpose as well as much good ac- 
complished in an educational way by allow- 
ing the puhlic access to same. 
The Glad Philosopher. 
A Daffodil planting on a country estate near Cincinnati, Ohio. Those in the 
foreground are Mrs. Langtry while these in the background are Stella and 
Duchess of Brabant. The owner hopes to naturalize the Daffodil to his sur- 
roundings and climate. 
