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78th Meeting

The meeting at Magnolia July 17th 1877 was unusually
small. Nearly one half of our members were absent, which
perhaps was owing to their not having exhausted the labor, &
overcome the fatigue of harvest. As guests we had,
EP Thomas & Wife, W^m Lea & wife, Sam^l Steer, Hannah B
Slabler & Mrs.Berth; & we did not bigin business any earlier
than has been our want for some time. Beulah Thomas
bought a box of very fine Kitatinny Blackberries, & Pattie
Slabler a pretty boquet, & the first ripe tomatoes we had seen;
their tomatoes have an enemy, a greenish, brownish
worm, which eats into the fruit causing is it to decay; a
sample of which was exhibited, busy at its work of destruction.
We were called to order by B H Miller foreman,
& the minutes of last year read. Then we inspected
the gardens; there were not as many fine roses in bloom
as we have before seen at this place, but the plants showed a vigorous
growth, which care unaided by bone dust cannot give

We noticed too in this beautiful enclosure, many of
the old time flowers, such as were so loved & tended by our
mothers, but which have long since vanished from our gardens
& been supplanted by other & tenderer plants.

The vegetable garden gave promise of better things than
when last we visited it. The celery plants were uncommonly
fine & healthy looking. On the north side of the house
a great improvement had been made, with a lattice screen
& a stump arrangement, for propagating cuttings or keeping