SOCIETY NOTES 
. 
_ A large dinner company were 
entertained at the residence of Mr. 
and Mrs. John L. Thorndike, West 
Manchester, last evening, the affair 
being in honor of Miss Olivia 
_ Thorndike’s birthday. 
Mrs. Mary W. Sampson closed 
her summer cottage at Manchester 
Cove Tuesday for the season. 
Mrs. Gordon Abbott of Boston 
has been paying a visit to her par- 
ents, Dr. and Mrs. Tiffany of Vir- 
_ ginia. 
---—«~*Miss Helen Taft’s debut is being 
__ planned for the middle of December, 
soon after her return from Panania, 
where she will go with President 
and Mrs. Taft. Mrs. Levi Z. Leiter 
will give a ball in her honor Janu- 
ary 3, and Mrs. John R. Mel-can 
will give ove on Januiry 14. 
Mr. and Mrs. Wm. J. Boardman, 
who left Manchester a few weeks 
ago, have arrived in Washington 
and reopened their house on P 
street. After leaving Manchester 
they spent the late autumn in 
Western Massachusetts. Mr. and 
Mrs. Boardman will go South, ac- 
eording to their annual custom, to 
pass part of the winter. 
Mrs. Oliver Ames and Miss Mary 
Josephine Amory are members of 
the committee, planning for Bos- 
ton’s new skating club, which will 
meet at the Arena, St. Botolph 
street, Tuesday and Friday after- 
noons during the scason from No- 
vember 15 to March 21. 
J. Henry Coulter of Boston and 
Manchester, the popular riding 
master, with stables at Magnolia in 
the summer, has made known his 
intention to compete in the world’s 
coaching Marathon from the Arrow 
Head Inn to Madison Square Gar- 
den, New York. Boston has never 
had a representative in this famous 
coaching joust and the fact that 
Harry Coulter will compete against 
the world’s best ribbon holders 
struck Boston horse enthusiasts 
with a good relish. Mr. Coulter 
has met with great success on the 
North Shore, and his four-in-hand 
was one of the sights of the shore 
* drives this summer. 
An amusing story is told of a 
dinner which Mrs. Levi Z. Leiter, 
who had the Endicott cottage on 
Neptune street, Beverly Cove, gave 
when the President’s yacht May- 
Among the men invited were Pass- 
ed Assistant Surgeon Cary T. 
Grayson and Lieut, Gilbert J. Row- 
oe eee ee ee ee a ee woe ee 
they ‘waded to shore and 
flower was anchored off Beverly. - 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Bi GPRS CLEP LALLA PEIRCE 4 
Our Weekly Letter From st j 
s : «-_ Washinginn 
AOL a EPG PILLS PLELECDL PLEO EES, PPLE EL, 
Special to the North Shore Breeze. 
Washington, © Nov. 2.—Talking 
about plant breeding reminded an 
official of the Department of Agri- 
culture that the Sitka Experiment 
Station is engaged in breeding ap- 
ples which will meet the climate 
conditions in Alaska. In spite, of 
the popular notion that Alaska is a 
region given over to the rigors of 
the Arctic regions, there are native 
crab apples growing there , and it is 
with these as a basis that the De- 
partment is experimenting. The 
most suitable commercial varieties 
have been crossed with the native 
Alaska species and now there are 46 
new varieties which are being pa- 
tiently tried out at the Government 
farm. When the excellent quality 
of apples raised in Washington, Or- 
egon and British Columbia are tak- 
en into account, it must be admitt- 
ed even by the layman that there 
is a strong probability of getting a 
fine line of apples especially bred to 
suit the conditions of the Alaska 
climate and soils. Already it has 
been demonstrated that currants, 
gooseberries and raspberries do ex- 
ceedingly well all along the coast 
region of Alaska, and the Agricult- 
ural Department is looking forward 
to making some distinct achieve- 
ments in other lines in the Terri- 
tory, which is advancing rapidly in 
agriculture. 
Expensive Land. 
Good land for growing bulbs is 
worth in the Netherlands from 
$1,557 to $2,433 an acre, says the 
Daily Consular Reports. The in. 
dustry has become so extensive that 
wherever a suitable pieee of land 
was available it was given over to 
oe 
oe 
11 
bulb growing. The export value of 
bulbs now amounts to about 
$4,000,000 a year. About 4,000 
persons are engaged in the indus- 
try. They are organized into a 
general federation,. consisting of 37 
groups, in the interest of which a 
paper is published twice a week, 
weekly exchanges are held during 
the trade season, novelties are ex- 
amined and reported on by a board 
of judges, and a trade council in- 
quires into and settles all trade dif- 
ferences. Exhibitions are held and 
exhibits sent to foreign countries. 
The United States is the third larg- 
est customer of the Dutch bulb 
growers, taking in 1909, 7,633,040 
pounds of bulbs, and selling to the 
Dutch something over one million 
pounds. 
Jap King of Potato Growers. 
The biggest grower ot potatoes in 
the world is a Japanese, of Stock- 
ton, California. He is known pop- 
ularly as the potato king. This 
Japanese, whose name is Shima, 
cultivates as much as 12,000 acres 
of the rich tule lands along’ the 
Sacramento River in one year. The 
potatoes there are more or less af- 
flicted with a disease known as po- 
tato scab. The Department of Ag- 
riculture made an investigation of 
this disease through its experts, and 
eame to the conclusion that the dis- 
ease could be treated successfully 
by fumigation of the seed potatoes 
with formaldehyde. Shima took a 
ereat deal of interest in the investi- 
gation by the agents of the Depart- 
ment, and last season he sent word 
that he would like to fumigate his 
seed potatoes. Inquiry being made 
regarding the quantity he would 
plant, he replied, 45,000 bushels. 
The Department sent a man to su- 
perintend the work of fumigation, 
in order that it might be thorough- 
ly accomplished. 
cliff of the Mayflower. At 7.55 
they arrived opposite Mrs. Leiter’s 
place to find that their launch could 
not get within 20 feet of the land- 
ing, and that the flats between the 
two points were covered with wa- 
ter. It was too late to return and 
go around by land, so the officers 
decided to brave the terrors of a 
footbath to be in time for dinner. 
So, with shoes and socks in their 
hands, and trousers well tucked up, 
retired 
behind some flowering shrubs to re- 
pair their toilet. Suddenly — there 
was a rush from the rear, and they 
were seized by men shouting, ‘‘ We 
have caught you at last!’’  Al- 
though they protested that they 
were ‘‘officers from the President’s 
yacht,’’ the energetic constable de- 
elared they were the burglars who 
had been making depredations on 
the North Shore. Finally they in- 
duced their captors to let Mrs. 
Leiter identify them. They were 
led to the kitchen, and there their 
hostess, much tothe amusement of 
their friends and the chagrin of the 
protectors of the place, vouched for 
the character of her barefoot 
guests. Half an hour later they 
were enjoying their dinner, as well 
as the joke, 
