RARE AND HARDY SHRUBS 45 



county. By throwing that out Butler was elected. Since that time we 

 have been voting regularly as clock work. 



Our first apples in Nebraska were free from worms. Nine-tenths of 

 all the fruit was perfect, but in those days we had thousands of birds, 

 quail, prairie chicken, ducks and geese, and we lived sumptuously on 

 them until they were all gone. We now pay our money for spray pumps 

 that cannot compete with our feathered friends in keeping the enemies 

 of our fruit down. 



In conclusion I would like to give you some experiences of the fifty 

 years in Nebraska, but my paper is already too long, so I will give you 

 but one of my introductions to buffalo wallers, as they were called in 

 those days. 



In December, 1858, one morning a gray wolf came between our stable 

 and house (we had no barns those days) and my brother-in-law and I 

 mounted horses and gave it a chase. There was a light snow on the 

 ground, filling the draws, and we thought we had the wolf. I took a short 

 cut across a draw to head him off, when my horse found a buffalo waller. 

 He lit with his frone feet on the other bank and his hind part dropped 

 straight down in the snow. The ice on my seat, being on such a slant, 

 I couldn't hold it, and I went down, I guess to see what was the matter. 

 The horse scrambled and finally got out with me holding to his tail. I 

 have always thought I started to grow grey hair from that introduction, 

 but maybe not. 



The President: I am sure that we are all glad to hear Mr. Swan's 

 paper, which gives the horticultural history of our state for the last 

 fifty years. We can hardly realize that it is only within these fifty years 

 that our state has grown up to be one of the great producing states of 

 the Union. 



I understand that Mi\ Bruning, who was to give a talk on the sub- 

 ject of "Rare and Hardy Shrubs and Flowers" is not here but that he 

 has sent a paper to be read before the Society. His paper is as follows: 



Rare and Hardy iSIinibs and Flowers. 



W. H. Bruning, Cedar Bluffs. 



At the request of some of our members I will write a few lines on 

 flowers, but I want to say right now that this is not to be taken as an 

 advertisement for I do not care to sell any plants or seed, but I do want 

 to improve what we now have and get more new hardy flowers. 



In my travels in the forests I find some new hardy flowers, that we 

 can use to cross on some that we now have., I found a perennial, Snap- 

 dragon that is a beauty; it grows 2 to 3 feet high with a spike of flowers 

 16 to 18 inches long, each flower two inches long, % of an inch in 

 diameter, light purple color, blooms with the Peonies. And a perennial 

 Verbena, that we can use to cross on our anuals. The lupin, also a 

 perennial, red and very showey, the foliage is a silvery white. I found 



