94 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Martha Washington's garden at Mt. Vernon was laid out in 

 squares, triangles, hearts and other devices, each separate bed 

 bordered with box, a garden wherein she delighted to work. 



The Nation owes an immense debt of gratitude to a woman, a 

 Mrs. Pickens of South Carolina who for many years labored 

 unremittingly for the restoration of Mt. Vernon ; with the aid of 

 Washington's papers and the help of the gardener she was 

 enabled to restore this picturesque and historic old garden. 



In these modern days we have heard a great deal about " The 

 Man With the Hoe," but the "Woman With the Hoe" is rapidly 

 coming to the front and not only with the hoe but the saw, 

 pruning knife, wax and scions for fruit growing as well as 

 gardening seems especially adapted to women. However to any 

 one who is desirous of making a specialty of any particular line 

 of small fruit I would say, " First, consider carefully your soil, 

 elevation and distance from a prospective market before invest- 

 ing in what may prove to be an uncertain crop with only an 

 indifferent market for your products." For instance, currants 

 with us under apparently the most advantageous circumstances 

 are never to be depended on as a fruit for profit. Early in May 

 we had three rows each seventy-five feet long in full bloom, the 

 bushes bending heavily with the weight. We awoke one morning 

 to find there had been a severe freeze during the night and 

 leaves and blossoms were frozen stiff. By carefully spraying 

 each row twice with cold water before the heat of the sun had 

 begun to thaw them out we hoped that the injury would prove 

 slight, but alas ! the cold the next night was more intense and 

 while spraying the next morning icicles an inch in length would 

 form all over the plants ; we saved the foliage which was our 

 chief aim in spraying and a small quantity of fruit. 



In our next neighbor's garden on sandy loam and in close 

 proximity to a large stream the currant bushes suffered no 

 injury, the elevation above ours so slight as to be scarcely 

 perceptible. Fortunately it was too early in the season to affect 

 the strawberry crop. The strawberry it seems to me is the one 

 small fruit for women to raise and it requires the most work too. 

 Leave your beautifully clean rows for three weeks and then 

 behold them ; weeds galore have sprung up ; the runners are 

 every where except in the right place, and you feel at times that 

 if you were sure of the munificent sum of ten cents a day for 



