woman's touch in the charm and attractiveness that do not characterize most business offices.
Fred J. Ammann of Edwardsville, Ill., a very progressive young man (for despite his forty-five years he is still young) belongs to two States, dividing his interests between Illinois and Missouri. An active member of the St. Louis Florists' Club, he is also most active in the affairs of the State Society of Illinois, being secretary of that society. Mr. Ammann has a modern range of glass located upon one of the most beautiful sites of Edwardsville, which under his good management is yielding splendid results. His stock is always of excellent quality, for, like any other progressive grower, he does not believe in postponing a thing until tomorrow if he can do it today. In other words, instead of letting a possible good thing go until some other fellow has proved its merits, he prefers to try it himself, and thus be in the market a year in advance of the conservative man.
Perhaps in no other State in the Union has horticulture received the impetus which has been given it in the State of Illinois. It was in Illinois that a State society of florists was first organized. This society does splendid work in more senses than one. Aside from bringing into its fold as many members as it can from every part of the State, and thus interesting them in the splendid work it is carrying on, it has induced the State legislature to appropriate a considerable amount of money for experimental purposes. The State University at Urbana, Ill., has a splendid department where, under the excellent management of Professor Herman Dorner, experimental work in all branches of horticulture and floriculture is being carried on with marked success. Their annual reports, I have been told, are eagerly awaited by no less an institution than Cornell University itself. The annual meetings of the State Society of Illinois, generally held in February, are events of great importance, not only to the florists of that State itself, but to florists of neighboring States as well. These conventions are held in the various towns of Illinois. The last one took place at Rock Island.
Other States might do well to follow the example of Illinois. The value of experimental work, work in which every florist is directly interested, can hardly be overestimated. The problems which arise, and the dilemmas with which every grower is confronted, are often of a nature which puzzles the most practical of them. Whatever may be said against a college education, and of the futility of book knowledge, certain it is that the greatest problems, industrial and otherwise, have been oftenest solved by men possessed of the knowledge of theories, and principles underlying these problems. If the grower has no definite knowledge about the nature of his soil, or the kind and amount of fertilizer required to supply its deficient elements, a little knowledge of chemistry might aid him materially. But since every florist cannot possibly alter conditions to suit his own needs, the best and only thing he could do would be to depend upon the experimental station which would soon clear up his difficulties.
On Establishing Experimental Stations, Etc.
The signs of the times point to the establishment of experimental stations in every State in the Union, for such institutions would be of incalculable benefit to the trade. I will go further and say that the time is coming when the florist will realize the necessity for giving his son the advantages of a college education, in order that the profession—and a profession it is—may be raised above the hap-hazard standard, if I may thus put it. The future success of our business, I can clearly foresee, will largely hinge upon a thorough knowledge on the part of the man conducting it of the details and theories, if you please, which seem to be so much ignored, or else often sneered at, by the practical florists of today. I do
