IOWA NOTES. 



THE season's outcome FLOWERS AS EDUCATORS AT A CAMP-MEETING IN NATURE'S SANCTUM SANCTORUM. 



HE weathei^ this season 

 has been cold beyond 

 experience. Ordinary 

 crops have suffered 

 severely, small grain 

 having been kept 

 damp by the constant 

 rains, and the corn is 

 sadly behind, owing to 

 the cold. Apples have 

 been blown off in large 

 quantities, plums suffered from the curculio, and 

 peaches, where protected during the winter, weak- 

 ened by the fruit setting too thickly. Yet, notwith- 

 standing the spring's promise, there will be, from 

 present appearances, apples enough to do through 

 the winter, and plenty of plums of late varieties. 

 The Miner, with us, seems to stand opposition the 

 best thus far, but the Wolff is commending itself, 

 this and last season, by its hardiness and abundance 

 of fruit. My opinion is, however, that nothing de- 

 rived from our native varieties will ever equal the 

 blue plums of the east. Those of California, to my 

 palate, are tasteless and insipid, not beginning to 

 compare with either the Wolff or De Soto. We need 

 to use the sprayer to fight the insect pests, both on 

 apples and plums. Everything in the shape of a 

 sour cherry does well on the prairies. I shall try 

 sweet cherries by laying them down during the win- 

 ter. If they do well, a half-dozen trees will amply 

 repay all additional trouble and labor. 



The flowers about the house have been delightful all 

 summer long. The excessive moisture has caused them 

 to grow rankly and bloom profusely. The country being 

 new, but little has as yet been done on the farms in this 

 .direction, or in the towns either. I believe that I have 

 ■more varieties by far, and finer flowers, than are to be 

 found in our county town. However, we are mending 

 in this respect. I took a bouquet to camp-meeting yester- 

 day that was the wonder of all who beheld it. I left it 

 there ; it was an educator. There were auratums eight 

 inches across and profoundly deep and fragrant ; double 

 balsams ; asters so fine that the ladies did not recognize 

 them as such ; a Dinsmore rose that brought out a chor- 

 us, " O, what a beauty"; star-eyed perennial phloxes; 

 perennial larkspurs, matching the blue of heaven ; a 

 monstrous spike of Hydrangea grandijlora, the like of 

 which was not to be found in a circumference of miles ; 



and many another, with pansies galore. That bouquet 

 will be a blessing to several communities. "Consider 

 the lilies, " says the Word; and when I departed, the 

 injunction was being followed to the letter. 



" If God hath pleasure in a flower. 

 Though such a little thing ; 

 A simple breath of sun and shower, 

 So short its tarrying — 

 Why may not I my chalice bring 

 And drink delight from the same spring, 

 And midst Jehovah's gardening 

 Enjoy a sacred hour? " 



But a few rods from the house commences a grove 

 some four acres in size, which I am letting grow at its 

 own sweet will. The trees are, many of them, 50 feet 

 high, intertwined with bitter-sweet, grape vines and other 

 llianas, until in many places the sun finds it difficult to 

 struggle through to the ground. A former owner was 

 too lazy to cut it down, and I have been thankful for it. 

 He, like his log cabin, has gone from the remembrance 

 of the neighborhood. Hither I stroll to enjoy commun- 

 ion with unzoned nature. It is astonishing how prolific 

 she is in such nooks. The Indian turnip is turning a 

 scarlet, the berries of the bitter-sweet are full grown, 

 and the grapes are taking on a blush of blue. The plums 

 along the edges are turning red, there are windfalls of 

 wormy hickory-nuts ; the robins wait impatiently the 

 ripening of the wild cherries. It is a veritable saiiitiim 

 sancioruiii. A fox squirrel has taken his abode here, and 

 in winter I keep him sleek by slipping nubbins behind 

 the vines that trail up to his nest. He knows me, and 

 so do many of the birds, I believe. The common prairie 

 lily lifts its cup to the sun in the outside fringe of the 

 hazel roughs, sometimes four on a stalk. In an open 

 space one day this summer, I came upon one of the love- 

 liest lilies I ever saw. It was a little darker than the 

 tiger lily, recurved, with brown spots and of good sub- 

 stance. The stalk was three feet high, and bore two 

 flowers ; its leaves were in whorls some distance apart. 

 I transferred it to the house. It shall not waste i»s 

 beauty upon fox squirrels, polecats, cuckoos and whip- 

 poor-wills ; it is mine. 



In many places prickly ash tries our patience sorely, 

 but I don't see' how we could get along without it. It 

 only grows in woods, and this is a little bit of primitive 

 forest. It is true that it is doubtful whether there is a 

 tree in it over 30 years old, but there is time before it, 

 and it grows and does duty splendidly. Here I find the 

 red-eyed vireo, and criticise its artistic nest. The white 

 and black warbler hops down on the lower branches and 

 eyes me curiously. I never miss Madam Whip-poor- 

 will ; and in the edges the quail. I suffer no shooting on 



