INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 537 



sometimes sold in Indianapolis for $4.50 and $5.00 per bushel. When I 

 began to market strawborrios. boxes for them were not used here, and 

 they were picked and sold as wild berries were. The first quart box fac- 

 tory I ever heard of was in Burlington, N. J., from whence I obtained a 

 supply of excellent boxes. The first marked iiuprovement in the black- 

 berry was the Lawton, which was sent out in 1857. Kittatinny followed 

 it, and was generally considered better. Snyder, on account of its hardi- 

 ness and productiveness, has for some years been the most popular market 

 variety. 



In my Indiana home I grew all ordinary field crops, but my most 

 pleasant hours were spent among my flowers and straw))erries. Among 

 flowers, roses and the common white lily (Lilium Candidum) were my 

 favorites. I first saAv the latter in a neighbor's garden in Washington, 

 and after noting its beauty and fragrance, my first thought was that it 

 was the finest of all bulbous flowers. My beds of flowers were beautiful, 

 but to many they seemed out of place with their rude surroundings, and 1 

 suspect that some of my neighbors thought I was sliglitly "daft" in some 

 of my ways. But I sometimes met with an enthusiastic sympathizer. 

 Carriages in 1S59 were but seldom seen on my road, l)ut one, on a summer 

 day, while passing my place, stopped while I was among my flowers and 

 a gentleman of fine appearance and most graceful manners emerged from 

 it and expressed his astonishment at seeing such beautiful flowers in such 

 a wild place. He passed on, but what he said made a di^ep and pleasant 

 impression on my mind. It is always safe to praise a flower grower's pets. 

 Twenty years later I again met that gentleman at a meeting of the Indi- 

 ana Horticultural Society. I first attended the annual meeting of that 

 Society, in 1877, which was held that year in Purdue University, and 

 thereby greatly added to the pleasure of my later life; for it has 

 indeed been a pleasure to know and associate with the pure-minded, 

 genial and intelligent men and women who have composed that body. 

 W. H. Ragau, long the efiicient Secretary of that Society, first induced 

 me to become one of ils members — for which I owe him many 

 thanks. At that meeting I identified the gentleman who twenty years- 

 before alighted from his carriage near my garden and so warmly admired 

 my flowers in the person of Sylvester Johnson— a man of most agreeable 

 presence and for many years one of the Society's most eflicient presidents. 

 My meeting with him was a most agreeable surprise, and was the begin- 

 ning, I believe, of a friendship which time only strengthens. I then, for 

 the first time, met Dr. Allen Furnas, one of the most kind-hearted and 

 genial men I ever knew, wlio always seemed to carry sunshine witli him. 

 -and who was the possessor of a vast store of horticultural knowledge, 

 which he was always anxious to impart to a novice. He was cheerful and 

 witty, but his wit, like tliat of Charles I.amb. contained no sting. He was 

 then quite old, but stalwart and very alert. He died in California a few 

 years ago, where he removed to benefit his wife's health. A photograph of 



