STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 135 



In the spring five came up, grew slowly, but were thrifty. The 

 next spring they were set out in the yard; ground around them 

 kept free from grass, and often stirred. The quince is proverbial 

 for slow growth, but those little trees bloomed the third year, and 

 the fourth year the largest bush bore five quinces! One afternoon 

 I went to town, and on ray return mother showed me her large 

 China bowl full of preserved quinces, clear as amber, and delicious, 

 saying, " You and L. said I would never see any fruit from that 

 seed. Here are preserves from them you both would like to eat." 



Boys and girls on farms should be encouraged to plant tree 

 seeds of all kinds known to succeed here. I shall never get over 

 the longing for the fruit and the nut-bearing trees in my old home. 



Are the winters getting more moderate? Along the roads the 

 dog-fennel is rampant. Old Father Finlay (of blessed memory) 

 used to say, " Methodism and dog-fennel were bound to take the 

 West!" Don't know about the first, but the last is under full 

 headway. It is not six years since it began to disfigure our fine 

 roads. How I hoped at first the winters would kill the vitalitj- of 

 the seeds; not a bit of it! Along the fences now are seen the 

 familiar herbs, catnip, hoarhound, and in some places even the 

 mullein. I scattered pennyroyal under the trees in the yard, and 

 now it abounds every summer, 7s the climate getting more mod- 

 erate? Am afraid not. The weather is a gay deceiver. What 

 can surpass our lovely Junes, which are beautiful enough to deceive 

 the very elect! And this autumn weather! We enjoy it iL fear 

 and trembling, for old winter may swoop down fiercely any day, 

 freezing us to the marrow. 



HORTENSE SHARE. 



November 24, 1882. 



President Smith. I am glad to learn that you have ladies assis- 

 ting in the meetings of your society. In Wisconsin our societies 

 have no meetings without papers or essays by them. We claim 

 the best corps of lady writers on Horticulture and home topics of 

 any State in the west, but would like to havej^our Minnesota ladies 

 compete with them. 



