WESTERN NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 457 



and shipment of fruit. Pack carefully and tightly and keep cold. You then have the 

 very best conditions for keeping it. Science and practice come together there. 



Mr. Wing R. Smith asked Mr. Hale what he would do with men who never seemed 

 to find anything they liked or have a taste for? They should earn a living. 



Mr. Hale. — That is a hard question. If a man doesn't love to work or do anything 

 on earth, I would like to put him under a peach tree. I pity any person, man or 

 woman, who doesn't like to work. 



Mr. Root. — We have four or five hundred Italians working on the waterworks 

 conduit in our section, and we have been surprised to note their intelligence. I would 

 like Mr. Hale to tell of their efficiency. 



Mr. Hale replied that he had found that Italians have a love for fruits, plants, 

 flowers and trees. They handle them with skill, enjoy their work and are apt in their 

 work. Give them steady employment and they are more than willing to stay. I have 

 never seen any unkind spirit among them. They are most faithful, and I can recom- 

 mend them. In the South, negro labor is so cheap and efficient that we do not use any 

 other labor there. It is good help. 



Mr. Farmer: Can you put them off by themselves or do you have American 

 bosses? 



Mr. Hale. A boss of any kind is a good deal of a nuisance, if you put much 

 emphasis on the word "boss." We send them off by themselves, and, if they are green, 

 we send someone with them ; but as soon as they show they understand we do not 

 hesitate to send a gang off and never go near them, and we know there is no shirking. 

 I wouldn't employ a man that I couldn't trust out of my sight. 



Mr. Scoon: Did those orchards that were seeded down hold the moisture in the 

 very dry time as well as those which were cultivated through the season? 



Mr. Hale: In the orchards that were seeded down the fruit stopped growing, and 

 was as I referred to. It was an exceptional drouth and thorough cultivation was the 

 only one thing that saved it. 



SOME NATIVE FLOWERS FOR GARDEN CULTURE— WHERE TO GET 

 THEM AND HOW TO CARE FOR THEM.* 



BY C. C. LANEY, SUPERINTENDENT OF PARKS, ROCHESTER, N. Y. 



Wild flowers are delightfully described in George H. Ellwanger's " The Garden's 

 Story," W. H. Gibson's "Strolls by Starlight and Sunshine," and "Sharpeyes," in 

 Henry D. Thoreau's books, in Meeharis Monthly, and Garden and Forest, by John 

 Burroughs, and in Mrs. Wm. Star Dana's " How to Know the Wild Flowers." 



I wish that every school district m the State had these books and papers in their 

 libraries, that boys and girls might learn the names and many curious things about the 

 wild flowers that they see on their way to school, and in their rambles in the fields and 

 forests. A person who has learned to distinguish the different species of one genus of 

 plants or shrubs, — for instance the different species of dog-wood, — that the flowering 

 dog-wood and the tiny bunch-berry, the shrub called Kinnikinnik, the pigeon-berry, or 

 pannicled cornel, the red osier, the round-leafed cornel, and the blue dog-wood, all 

 belong to the same genus, and that the leaves of all, though considerably different, are 

 similar, and they all bear similar berries, though of different colors, has acquired a 

 useful lesson in the observation of common things that grow about 'nim. 



Partly for the purpose of studying shrubs, a collection of all the shrubs that will 

 grow in this [climate, has been started in Highland Park, one of the three parks of 

 Rochester. Though not a part of the plan, a collection of our native wild flowers and 

 ferns is 'being made, and planted in ground as nearly suitable to their requirements as 

 possible. The following is a partial list of the flowers planted: 



The hepaticas H. triloba and H. acutiloba are among the earliest plants to blossom 

 in the spring. The flowers appear before the leaves and are beautifully shaded with 

 all the delicate tints from the palest pink to lavender and purple. They are found in 

 dry stony soils in the woods, and are easily transplanted. The trailing arbutus, 

 Epigcea repens, follows closely the hepaticas in the order of blooming. This delici- 



* Although this paper relates to the native flora of Western New York, it has so macb in common with 

 Michigan, it is here included as a valuable contribution upon a too neglected subject.— E. C. R. 



58 



