F. C. Hornberger, Home and Garden Service 
5 
The New England Glad Society’s 
great, new Year Book entitled, “The 
Gladiolus” will be worth in my estima' 
tion $5.00 to any flower lover’s library. 
It will sell at book stores for $1.75 per 
copy; you will get a copy free with your 
membership which will cost you only 
$1.00; let us forward same for you. See 
our offer elsewhere. 
The A.G.S. makes its claim that the 
aim and object of “registration” is to 
prevent duplication of names, and in 
their rules, state that they will not regis - 
ter a name already well known in com- 
merse, but they have already registered 
(two) of my variety names that were 
well known in commerce prior to 1930. 
We introduced AFLAME in 1924'25 
and Kunderd introduced his A-FLAME 
in 1929. The A.G.S. at once registered 
the name for Kunderd and when I ap' 
plied for the registration of our variety 
they refused me stating that the name 
had been registered for Kunderd. 
FACTS OR THEORY? 
I have in mind a grower who devoted 
over oneTialf of his 1934 catalog to gen' 
eral discussion and advice. I am sure 
much of it was mere assumption. Such 
persons, because of certain experiences 
which they “dovetail” together, con' 
elude that their ideas are facts. I have 
always realised that scientific fact must 
be proven in a very definite way; it is 
the result of very careful and exact ex' 
periment that works out the same way 
each time, under the same identical con- 
ditions. As conditions of soil and cli- 
mate are so variable, and each section 
has a vastly different soil and climate, it 
must follow that any worth while facts 
must be the result and conclusion of a 
number of honest investigators located in 
widely different sections of the country. 
For that reason when I say that “Sports” 
are more common than many realize, I 
have the work of a host of tireless inves- 
tigators to back up my claim. That is 
much different then the statement of 
this grower who states, “Sports are so 
extremely rare that they would never 
turn up in one garden out of a hum 
dred.” That statement is mere “assump' 
tion”; this man assumes that because he 
has not experienced many sports in the 
range of his particular environment, that 
they must be very rare. 
Plants as large, hardy and supposedly 
difficult to change as an apple tree, all 
come within the range of variability. 
This law is well understood by scientific 
breeders and investigators; read our 
various articles on this subject in this 
catalog. Our Geneva, N. Y. experiment 
station reports that there are now over 
sixty (60) known sports of the Stark 
“Delicious” apple, and all of you who 
know apples, realize the “Delicious” is 
one of our modern apple productions. 
This same grower says that there is “un- 
stableness” in many Glad varieties; let 
me say that there is more or less unsta' 
bleness in practically all kinds of plants, 
trees, seeds, bulbs, etc. Each one of them 
is a plant in some form or other, but this 
unstableness is nothing more or less than 
the variable law in all plant life that 
causes change, often evolutionary 
changes without the aid of crossing or 
hybridizing, either by man’s intention, 
by insects, wind or other causes. These 
“sports” are often distinct improve' 
ments, a “stepping up” or on the other 
hand a retrogression or an inferior plant 
may result; often it may be practically 
the same except that some minor change 
like color alone will result. 
It seems to be a well established 
“hobby” among many growers to just 
assume that all radical changes in color 
are caused by fertilizer, hot sun, adverse 
climatic conditions, etc., and that they 
are “all” but temporary changes that 
disappear as soon as conditions become 
more favorable. Of course this line of 
reasoning is the result of “mere assump' 
tion” because if these men had experfi 
mented for years, segregated these 
plants by themselves, put them under 
separate labels, grew them in such man' 
ner for years, and noted how their in' 
crease would appear, then their conclu' 
sions would harmonize with the conclu' 
sions of our scientific men. There is a 
