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this year was better tbaa this Committee has ever passed 



judgment upoa. There was more taste disphiyed, showing 



past hibor has had its lesson. 



Mrs. M. L. Alden brought us a basket that was a whole 



chapter of good words. And why? Not because it contained 



the most blossoms — far from it ; but because each blossom 



seemed to find its complementary color, and had just room 



enough, and no more, for the radius of its beauty. We do not 



always have the best of her garden, for she never forgets her 



church and its fairs, but what she brings is sure to be nice, as 



was her vase of gladiolus. 



It seems as if we were truly blessed in baskets this year, 



Miss Amy Foster bringing three, which quickly took the first 



prize ; — one of fringed petunias from seed, which were a 



marked attraction for their beautiful colors and deeply fringed 



corollas ; another of verbenas, which was a tine variety ; while 



the third, of zinnias and asters, made up the collection. 



Mrs. Charles Williamson brought us the greatest number of 



blossoms in one basket,— one of our farmer's wives, — showing 



the farmer's wife can have time for work outside the kitchen, 



Many of her plants were hard to raise, thus telling there had 



been no careless planting there ; also, a wax plant, which was 



admired for its luxuriant growth and healthy appearance. 



Mrs. A. and C. White each had a fine basket of cut flowers. 



Mrs. H. S. Pratt brought us such a number of beauties, we 

 would like to see the garden from which she culled them. It 

 must be a bower of taste and sweetness, if she could lay on our 

 table such a beautiful wreath, as she exhibited, with colors 

 blending so completely. The large clusters of dark heliotrope 

 and light blue verbenas shaded in with the rest, while here and 

 there a little white blossom peeped out, giving the right eff'ect. 

 Mrs. P. also presented a fine cross of variegated ivy and 

 fuchsias, which made a fioe matchpiece for one from C. M. 

 Bourne, of darker green ivv and cut flowers. 



