10T) WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1900. 



here in America. It pays a greater interest on the investment 

 than any other branch of farming. 



The notable success of the few New England women formers 

 proves conclusively that education and brains are needed in the 

 business. Two young women in Compton, R. I., are examples 

 of college graduates going directly into outdoor work. These 

 women saw a chance to make money by supplying Newport's 

 epicures with dainties. Their spring lamb, young geese, and 

 hothouse grapes bring fancy prices, and there isn't an "ology" 

 that they studied but contributes in some way to their success. 

 Now that Secretary Wilson is studying over New England's 

 abandoned farms to see what they need to bring them back to 

 fertility and prosperity, he might do worse than advise giving 

 these deserted acres into the care of women. 



A flourishing little farm of three acres on the north end of 

 Lake Champlain produces yearly more than two and a half tons 

 of honey and 1,500 ducks, besides quantities of fruit, which is 

 marketed at the neighboring summer hotels. It is owned and 

 run by Miss Frances E. Wheeler, for several years a steno- 

 grapher and type-writer. It seems quite a change from a 

 stenographer's place in New York to the ownership and super- 

 intendence of a duck and bee farm. Yet in looking backward 

 the sense of harmony deepens between the two occupations. I 

 have grown to understand that it does not so much matter what 

 we do, as how we do it, that the qualities required for a suc- 

 cessful stenographer are equally necessary for a duck and bee 

 rancher. In both callings, if success is to be attained, ignorance 

 must be overcome by perseverance, tact and common sense. 

 Miss Wheeler learned stenography in the first class of the kind 

 formed by the Young Women's Christian Association, at No. 7 

 East 15th street. After several years of office work, her hands 

 became disabled, and the problem arose, how to save the little 

 family home at Chazy, N. Y., with its bee plant. 



Many women have been successful in growing tomatoes in 

 hothouses, being started in the fall from seed. For the house- 

 grown product, the price is sometimes as high as a dollar a 

 pound, and they continue to yield good profits to the grower 



