Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

national floral emblem. We do support Congressman Judd's resolution. We do oppose the adoption of the rose as the floral emblem of the Nation.

We would like to associate ourselves, I believe, Mr. Congressman, with what Congressman Judd has said. He very eloquently stated our view, our consideration of the matter. We would urge the approval of the committee of Congressman Judd's resolution. I would hope that our statement might be made a part of the record.

Mr. JONES. Without objection it will be inserted.

(Mr. Zimmerman's prepared statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL GRANGE, PERTAINING TO THE SELECTION of the FLORAL EMBLEM OF THE UNITED STATES, BY GORDON K. ZIMMERMAN, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, JUNE 30, 1958

We appreciate the committee's interest in establishing an official floral emblem for the United States of America. Ours is one of the few major countries of the world, which has no official floral emblem. It is, therefore, fully appropriate that we immediately select a national flower for this purpose.

However, in the selection of a national floral emblem for our Nation, we should keep several points in mind. (1) To be truly representative of America, the flower suggested should be of American origin; (2) it should be a flower that is grown in every State in the Union; (3) it should represent a plant or crop which has made a major contribution to the economy of America; (4) it should have a long historical association with this country; (5) it should not be a flower of beauty alone, but instead should be from a plant which has made an outstanding contribution to the development of America; and (6) it should represent America more than any other country of the world.

The corn tassel is the one flower with all these prerequisites. Corn is a native of America. Corn is raised in every State of the Union. ́ Corn is our largest crop; it is our oldest and most valuable crop. Just as corn provided the sustenance for our early settlers, it provides a livelihood for millions of Americans today.

Corn is the very basis of America's great livestock industry. It, more than any other crop, has helped to make America the best fed nation in the world. It, more than any other crop, has made others throughout the world envious of our position.

Corn is not only of paramount importance in America's agricultural economy, but in addition has enabled us to make tremendous contributions to the economy of many other countries throughout the world. Through our abundant production of this American crop we have helped feed starving millions throughout the world.

In no garden of the world can we find a sight more beautiful than a field of waving corn tassels on a summerday.

For these and other reasons, delegates to the 90th Annual Session of the National Grange, held in Rochester, N. Y., in 1956, passed a resolution which reads, "We recommend that the Grange seek the enactment of legislation which would declare the corn tassel as the national floral emblem of the United States of America corn being symbolic of the agriculture of our 48 States, native to our soil, and the object of cultivation for centuries, both by the red man and the farmer of today."

Thus, the Grange is opposed to legislation which would designate the rose as our national floral emblem. Instead, we earnestly recommend that the committee consider and approve House Joint Resolution 360 by Congressman Juddor similar legislation which would designate the corn tassel as our national floral emblem and which would pay just tribute to America's greatest crop.

Mr. SMITH. Do you have a compilation of the flowers of the individual States?

Mr. ZIMMERMAN. No, sir; I don't have it handy.

Mr. SMITH. If I may interrupt the questioning, there was a suggestion made to me by one of my constituents which I think has value and is worthy of the consideration of the committee. In view of the fact that we are a Union of 48 States, if we are going to consider the idea of a national flower, it ought to be a bouquet of the flowers of

the 48 States, rather than one individual flower. I propose and ask the committee consider that idea.

Mr. JONES. You might introduce a resolution to that effect. Mr. ZIMMERMAN. We may make a distinction, Mr. Chairman, between the national flower and the national floral emblem. Τ would emphasize that it isn't quite a popularity contest either. The elements of uniqueness, native Americanism, if that is the word of the object in mind, is to be considered. I suppose if any one were to take a poll of the most popular bird in the United States you wouldn't come up with an eagle. My guess would be that a robin, bluebird, or another of the birds would be a more popular bird. I won't quarrel a moment with the notion that the rose is the most popular flower. I personally prefer carnation but I won't argue the point.

Our view, in the Grange, is that from the point of view of uniqueness, value, its native qualities, that as an emblem that does symbolize the country, that the corn tassel is just without competition. Our argument, or advocacy goes to that point. We have no hard feelings about the rose.

Mr. JONES. Thank you.

Mr. LESINSKI. I believe you know something about the history of the rose. I know that a lot of fruits have come over from Europe, like the citrus, apples, and others, and the Indians have produced a lot of vegetables popular in this country, like the melon, squash, and the legumes. Can you tell us the history of the rose? Do you know the difference between the native rose and the import rose? The rose which I believe the American public today understands as the rose is the import.

Mr. ZIMMERMAN. I believe Mr. White was referring to the gentleman up here rather than myself. I wish I were qualified to tell you, sir.

Mr. JONES. I think the gentleman coming up next can do that. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman.

Mr. Hutton.

STATEMENT OF SIDNEY B. HUTTON JR., VICE PRESIDENT, CONARD-PYLE CO., WEST GROVE PA.

Mr. JONES. If you will give the reporter your name and your association that you represent.

Mr. HUTTON. Yes; thank you, Mr. Chairman.

My name is Sidney B. Hutton, Jr., and I am vice president of the Conard-Pyle Co., of West Grove, Pa. Today I am here as a representative of All-America Rose Selections, a business association of the Nation's leading rosegrowers in support of House Joint Resolution 514, a resolution to designate the rose the national flower of the United States.

Our organization would like to support House Joint Resolution 514, sponsored by the Honorable Hugh Scott, from my State of Pennsylvania.

I would like to tell you something about the rosegrowing industry and the people it serves.

More Americans are growing roses today than at any time in history and their annual purchases of plants alone exceeds 76 million. Our best estimates indicate that the Nation's rose gardeners number

between 45 million and 50 million, or nearly one-third of our total population.

The industry itself has come a long way during the past 20 years. In 1938, many of the growers established a testing system for newly developed kinds of roses, and this has been instrumental in improving the quality of the merchandise sold to the public. The idea was started because so many rose varieties were available to the publicmore than 5,000—that it was patently impossible for the consumer to make an accurate judgment on what to buy.

In view of today's emphasis on the concept of consumer research, I would like to point out that our industry, as long ago as 1930, adopted the idea that the producer ought to take a look at the products to be sold to the public. To a large degree, the buyer of roses regards the professional nurseryman as an expert-and is apt to buy almost anything he recommends. That he was often disappointed by net results is a matter of historical record, because advertising claims do not guarantee good roses. For instance, one almost perfect rose might grow beautifully in warm climates, but in the severe climates of New England and other Northern States, it was unable to stand the winter.

To eliminate this guessing game on the part of the consumer, and to stimulate the development of new kinds of roses which would grow well in any soil or climate, All-America Rose Selections developed a system for pretesting roses before their introduction. Special gardens have been set up in different climatic sections of the Nation, and new kinds of roses are carefully observed under actual growing conditions for more than 2 years. Each is marked on 15 different counts under a uniform point system, and only those varieties achieving the highest scores are selected for introduction. Appropriately these are called All-America Roses.

When you consider that one of these roses is finally selected as the best of some 200,000 seedlings, after 10 years of testing-the last 2 being the difficult All-America trials-you can see that nature has received a valuable assist from science to make today's roses the finest in history.

It is estimated that America's population may reach 250 million by the turn of the century. This means that millions of new homes will be built and that there will be millions of new gardens to beautify our landscape. And I think it is safe to predict that in most of these gardens the place of honor will be accorded to the loveliest of all flowers-the rose.

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this subcommittee today.

Mr. JONES. Thank you.

Do you want to answer Mr. Lesinski's question?

Mr. HUTTON. I shall try. The rose, as we have it today, is made up of bloodlines from all over the world. In the roses you see in those vases, there will be bloodlines tracing back to China, to France, to all countries of Europe, to Japan, to the United States. It is perhaps comparable to our dairy cattle of today, which in many cases have been bred from native strains brought in from all over the world, some of which have been American, so that the result of any of those roses has some American blood. It does not have all.

It is a method of selection and crossing, to get the most desirable individual characteristics in each kind.

Mr. LESINSKI. Is it not true the American rose as such is a shrub and it would not be comparable to a garden variety of rose? It is a very spiny, large plant? Really the American rose as such, as a native rose, is not a spiny thing; is it?

Mr. HUTTON. No, there are 35 different American roses. Some would grow so high and spread, others would climb. Others would be in a bush form. Some would be spiny. I know of one kind that has no spines. In other words, the 35 are all different. They are different colors. Some are pink, some are white, some are red.

Mr. LESINSKI. The point I was driving at, the American rose as generally known in this Nation today, is not the original rose of this Nation.

Mr. HUTTON. No.

Mr. LESINSKI. Actually, tulips came from Asia and were developed quite thoroughly in the southern parts of Europe and eventually centered in Holland and Belgium. There are over 3,000 varieties of those alone. They are imported to this country.

Mr. HUTTON. Yes.

Mr. JONES. Mr. Smith?

Mr. SMITH. No questions.

Mr. JONES. One question has come to my mind ever since this resolution was introduced.

If we are to have a national flower, naturally that flower would be pictured from time to time. I have always asked the question, and I have never gotten an answer, as to what would the picture of the rose be representative of? Could there be any standardization? Mr. HUTTON. I think it would be unfortunate to say that the rose, the national flower, is any specific variety or perhaps even color. As to form; yes. That would be for an artist to decide.

Mr. JONES. An artist has depicted a rose on the front of the magazine.

Mr. HUTTON. That is right.

Mr. JONES. Do you think something like that would meet the specifications?

Mr. HUTTON. I do. I think it would be the form rather than any other feature of it that would make it unmistakably the form of a rose. Mr. JONES. We are getting close to the time the House will go into session.

Are there any other individuals who would like to make statements? Mr. SWECKER. I would like to ask leave to file a statement on behalf of the American Rose Society.

Mr. JONES. Please give your full name and whom you represent. Mr. SWECKER. J. Preston Swecker, the American Rose Society. Mr. JONES. Thank you.

Mr. LESINSKI. Mr. Chairman, one further question: The corn tassel was mentioned here today. Is that a flower?

Mr. HUTTON. No; it is a part of a flower. It is the male part of the corn flower and the female part is the corn silk that is actually on the ear of corn.

Mr. LESINSKI. Then it could not be considered as a flower?

Mr. HUTTON. No.

Mr. JONES. Dr. Judd made a pretty complete statement about that, as did Miss Cairns. You will have the opportunity to read that testimony.

Mrs. MARTIN. The rose is the flower of the month, June.
Mr. JONES. Who designates that, Mrs. Martin?

Mrs. MARTIN. I don't know who does it.

Mr. JONES. I imagine the nurserymen or floral associations.
Mr. HUTTON. No; it is an old saying.

Mrs. MARTIN. Roses can be obtained every day of the year.

Mr. JONES. Thank you very much.

The committee will be glad to give consideration to the statements which have been filed. We will meet and try to have a larger number of our members here next time.

The committee stands adjourned.

(The following statements were filed subsequent to meeting:)

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT J. MCINTOSH

Mr. Chairman and honorable members of the subcommittee: I appreciate the opportunity to present this statement in support of House Joint Resolution 625, the resolution which I introduced for the purpose of designating the rose as the national flower of the United States and which is identical to the resolutions introduced by my colleagues, Representatives Ralph J. Scott and James C. Davis. Our country, Mr. Chairman, stands out as the only major power in the world that lays claim to no national flower. I am not acquainted with the circumstances under which other countries have made such designations, but I am confident that, among the reasons, there prevailed the feeling that a national flower could function as a symbol of the country-similar to the primary symbol, the flag. And this is the reason why I introduced my resolution.

The rose is found the world over. Americans, wherever they may travel throughout the world, will find the rose, and it will remind them of their country. A national flower will serve as an inspiration to the young generation-and what could be more proper than to identify the blooming strength of our country with the queen of all flowers, the rose.

In selecting the rose for this purpose, we honor the oldest and fairest of flowers. It has been associated with the earliest history of our country. When the Mayflower landed at Plymouth on a lovely June day, it was recorded that "the shore was fragrant like the smell of a rose garden, and the happy children gathered strawberries and single wild roses. An early visitor noted their presence in New Amsterdam, and they were also grown in the gardens of old Virginia, New England, and South Carolina. In his Book of Physics, William Penn writes about the 18 rose bushes he brought back from England. He told of their beauty and medicinal virtues. To this day, his heirs annually accept a single red rose in payment for rent on certain Pennsylvania properties.

George Washington was one of the earliest rose hybridizers in America. There are plants at Mount Vernon, named Martha Washington and Mary Washington. Rose hybridizing got an early start in America. A South Carolinian named John Champney created Champney's Pink Cluster in 1810, and the Rev. William Harrison of Trinity Church in New York originated Harrison's Yellow about 20 years later.

By the Civil War, hybridizing techniques had improved, and Robert Buist published a Manual of Roses which listed some 900 varieties. Another author contributing to the literature on roses was the noted Francis Parkman who wrote the Book of Roses about his hobby.

Today, the rose is by far the favorite flower of Americans. A national poll made a few years ago indicated that Americans preferred the rose by almost 21 to 1. More than 40 million Americans grow and display roses each year. I take pride in the fact that the city of Mount Clemens in my district is the largest producer of roses under glass in the United States; the 20 million blooms per year make it the fifth largest rose producer in the United States.

Mr. Chairman, no other flower, in my opinion, could better symbolize the greatness and strength and energy of our country. I therefore, hope it will be possible for your committee to give favorable consideration to the resolutions that have been introduced for the purpose of designating the rose as the national flower of the United States.

« ZurückWeiter »