A BLUE BOOK OF RARE GLADS 
5 
Needed— A New Standard of Gladiolus 
It might be well 
to say here a few 
words about the 
future of the glad¬ 
iolus industry as a 
whole and as a 
prospective busi¬ 
ness for many of 
our friends ar.d 
customers to en¬ 
gage in as a means 
of livelihood. Per¬ 
haps not all will 
agree with the 
author’s viewpoint 
but when mention¬ 
ed to many friends 
in person, nearly 
all have been 
unanimous on the 
points mentioned. 
Perhaps we might as well start with the actual expansion 
possibilities of the business. This lias been w'dely discussed 
and by many has been stated to be of limited end. I do not 
believe for myself that we have actually scratch'd the sur¬ 
face of the real expansion possibilities. When we consider 
that probably the largest mailing list in the country (refer¬ 
ring of course to gladiolus growers) is under a half million 
names, then we scon see that there are countless thousands 
of people who have yet to grow their first glads, and still 
more thousands who have grown glads in a limited way that 
will eventually grow them more abundantly. 
We should strive, of course, to educate people to the flow Q r, 
not meredy as a source of income, but for actual beauty. Few 
yet have become actually beauty conscious in regard to 
flowers, and until this is done, we will grow them for purposes 
that are not so stimulating. We might use the English people 
