468 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In describing the next I think a quotation verbatim from my 

 notes, taken down on the spot, will speak as eloquently as anything 

 I could say, although the barest statement of facts : "An ordinary 

 town lot ; contains five large beds of well trained, luxuriant sweet 

 peas, one large bed of verbenas, one large bed of phlox, one large 

 bed of geraniums, one large bed of cosmos, one large bed of English 

 daisies, one large bed of dahlias — dahlias were also used as hedges 

 between front and back yards — one bed of chrysanthemums, and one 

 long bed of castor beans used as screen to vegetable garden. Hedge 

 of sunflowers and golden glow used as screen to chicken yard. 

 Large bed of coleus and caladiums, five rose bushes. Bed of ferns, 

 bed of tulips. Total, sixteen varieties of flowers, twenty flower beds. 

 Also large vegetable garden in back yard and fine large flock of 

 chickens. All taken care of entirely by one woman." 



The enumeration of the work of these women grows painfully 

 long, and yet there were so many who interested us it is hard to leave 

 them — in fact I could not even begin this paper until I had dis- 

 carded my notes entirely through mere superabundance of material — 

 and the memories crowd one another. There was the sweet faced 

 Scandinavian woman who struggled so hard with her limited vocab- 

 ulary of English words to express her thoughts and feelings. Her 

 yard proved her love of flowers, for it was one luxuriant mass of 

 blossoms, which she shared with us generously and expressed her 

 love for by saying, "A bin friend to flowers," a quaint expression 

 that delighted the committee, who then and there conferred upon her 

 the lasting title, "A friend to flowers," and have never since alluded 

 to her by any other nam.e. 



I hoped to describe the yards cared for by the boys and the girls. 

 We had, through our work in the Improvement League, learned 

 what was possible for a boy or a girl to accomplish, but were glad 

 to know that in this contest the yards cared for by them could com- 

 pare favorably with those cared for by the grown-up people, and 

 there were a number of them among the prize winners. As their 

 work has been described before in other connection, though, we will 

 pass on and allow the "lords of creation," the capitalists, to appear on 

 the scene — and how quickly money tells, and what a difference the 

 combination of strength and money — even if that is an income that 

 does not exceed $1,200 per year — does make, when compared with 

 the almost total absence of income and only a woman's strength! 

 First, there was the street car conductor who in a few weeks meta- 

 morphosed the hollow remains of a dumping ground into a perfectly 

 graded, sodded lot, with stone pavements, ornamental shrubs, beau- 

 tiful, enormous bed of flowers, ornamental little iron fence 

 marking boundary line at side of lot ; chicken yard and house that 

 were so neat and attractive that we were almost sorry that vines 

 were planted to screen them from view from the street. 



Then there was the brisk, busy man of affairs — a ward politician 

 perhaps — whose yard was brilliant with fresh paint — bright red 

 paint, too — and gorgeous flowers, who came out to say : "Mark it 

 high, and I'll divide with you." But unfortunately for all concerned 

 there were others in the district who had outclassed his efforts. 



