206 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



new settlement — the home grounds surrounding many of these 

 new houses have not always been kept with tidiness. It was be- 

 cause of this air of slackness, and because of urgent suggestion on 

 the part of certain women of our settlement, that the association 

 began to cast about for some stimulus to neatness that should be 

 general and possibly epidemic. 



A committee appointed for this purpose arranged a contest for 

 a series of prizes to be offered for the best kept lawns of various 

 sizes, for the best show of shrubbery, for the neatest, most at- 

 tractive back yards, for the prettiest flower garden, for the great- 

 est improvement in home grounds and for the best kept vacant 

 lot'. About forty prizes in all were offered. The contest was well 

 advertised by personal letter and through the city papers. But in 

 spite of all the attractiveness of the offers, there was at the start 

 no very general entry for competition. It was necessary for the 

 enthusiastic ones to keep talking about the matter to their less en- 

 thusiastic neighbors in order to get life into the movement in time 

 to begin the work of gardening. Applications for competition kept 

 straggling in till well along in June, and when the beauty of com- 

 petitive gardening began to show forth along our streets there 

 were many good people who wished they had been waked up 

 earlier. Now that the season is over it can be seen that the in- 

 terest in keeping the home grounds neat, and the desire for flowers, 

 for shrubbery and for the knowledge of how to grow them success- 

 fully, has been immensely stimulated by this prize competition. I 

 venture to say that on one or two of our streets there was this 

 season a better care of home grounds than could have been found 

 in any other part of the city where householders do their own 

 lawn and garden work. The improvement over the previous season 

 was most obvious. 



This unusual beauty of the gardens suggested to some of the 

 women that a flower show for the neighborhood would be a most 

 excellent supplement to the work of the association. A committee 

 was formed, and the suggestion put into operation. In spite of 

 the fact that the show was held about a week too late for the best 

 bloom of the gardens, and in spite also of the fact that for twenty- 

 four hours preceding the show there fell and was hurled from the 

 heavens rain water in barrels, so that the gardens looked on the 

 morning of the show like a wreck at sea, the show was held and was 

 in reality a display of remarkable beauty. It was the only flower 

 show held in the city of Minneapolis this season and was not much 

 behind the great flower shows given down town in previous years. 

 Financially also it was a success, leaving so goodly a sum in the 

 treasury and so good an impression on the neighborhood that the 

 temporary organization was made a permanent one. The Inter- 

 Lachen Flower Association has been organized for the purpose of 

 promoting annual flower shows and perennial flower sentiment in 

 Linden Hills. 



