GENERAL TRADE EDITION 
Dic=DUNG 
There is no soil, however barren and unproductive, that cannot, by well digging and dunging, be made 
fertile and eat lapted from Cervantes’ DON QUIXOTE, Part II, Chapter XII. 
Sales and Service Bulletin 


VOL. 10 
WAYLAND, MICHIGAN, U. S, A., SEASON OF 1941 


FIELD NOTES 
It is comparatively easy to find a 
market for a few thousand dahlia 
roous but when you have more than 
660,C00 plants, as we have this year, 
the problem of disposing of this crop 
is one that starts not at harvest time 
but at planting time. While there 
are several thousand varieties of 
dahlias we normally limit ourselves 
to about 700 of these, about 200 of 
which are standaid varieties in pop- 
ular demand throughout tne countr 
ry and the balance newer varieties 
which are eitner being tried out, or 
having been tried are being grown 
on to build up stock which will en- 
able our customers to list) them at 
popular prices in the near future. 
Naturally, witia so many varieties, it 
is impossible to grow all of them in 
equally large quantities, nor would 
such a plan be feasible as some of 
the standard varieties which are list- 
ed by nearly all our custiomers have 
to be grown in lots of 10,000 to 
20,000 plants while of ot‘aers a thou- 
sand plants prove ample to supply 
the demand. Usually we do not list 
any variety of which we have less 
than 300 plants, although we ‘lo 
sometimes let part) of our crop of a 
new variety go before the variety 
appears in our list. 
Because of these facts we like to 
have our customers visit us and make 
their selections from blooming plants 
where possible. Blooms are always 
at their best from September Ist. 
until frost and we really believe it 
is worth anyone’s time to make the 
trip to see them. 

Among the hundreds of dahlias 
which have been listed on the Honor 
Rolls during the past several years 
‘how many have survived to a point 
where even so few as 5,000 roots 
are available from all sources? I 
do not believe more than a dozen 
such can be named. Surely there 
must be something wrong with the 
scoring or rating system which does 
not show any greater endurance than 
this record. Dahlias don’t go out of 
style or deteriorate so why is it that 
the Honor Roll dahlia of today is so 
often forgotten tomorrow? 

Mr. McPhail of the Texas Depart- 
ment of Agriculture made tests of 
dahlias last year and reports the fol- 
lowing results: . 
“The old stand-by varieties led in 
value of bloom and keeping quality. 
This is also true as to productivity. 
Jersey’s Beauty, Ver Warner, Jean 
Kerr, Jane Cowl, Avalon, Maude Ad- 
ams, Pride of California, Blue Jer- 
sey’s Beauty and Sagamore took the 
heat and withstood the ravages bet- 
ter tan other varieties. 
“Varieties not grown generally in 
the southwest which made a notable 
showing included Cavalcade, Kath- 
leen Norris, Kentucky, Monmouth 
Champion, Omar Khayyam,, W'‘nite 
Wonder and White King.” 

NO, 1 
The class of dahlias known as “‘min- 
iatures’’, being those of all types 
whose blooms range from 8 to 5 in- 
cnes in diameter, seem to be quite 
popular among some of the leading 
dahlia specialists. We have had con- 
siderable demand for these datnlias 
which we have been unable to fill, 
because, to be perfectly frank with 
you we are afraid of them. It is a 
very simple matter to stock up with 
any particular variety or type of dah- 
lia but it sometimes becomes an en- 
tirely different problem to dispose 
of such dahlias after you have spent 
several years building up stock that 
runs into thousands of plants whic 
may no longer be in demand. We 
want to give our customers every- 
thing in the dahlia line that they can 
sell but we believe it is to their in- 
terest as well as out own to keep 
away from fads so far as possible 
and stick by the kinds which have 
endured for years and will undoubt- 
ly continue in favor for years to 
come. 
Mr. Morgan T. Riley makes this 
pertinent remark in an article pub- 
lished in the Flower Grower. “For 
dahlias that have won once can win 
again. They not only can but they 
do.”’ 
In this same article Mr. Riley gives 
an extended list of of the dahlias 
that have won the prizes. Among 
these dahlias we find that Hunt’s 
Velvet Wonder is the most frequent 
(Continued on Page Three) 
