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Status: Indexed

H/4/1948-1-

The Cedars

April 1948

In the Spring a gardener's fancy turns to
thoughts of fruit and flower.

Catalogues tell garish tales of corn and bean
and rosy bower;

Let's not forget to place our trust in bended
knee and perspiration's power.

The sun hardly sets on New Year's day before we
begin to pore over seed catalogues and to dream of
nice things to come from our gardens. There is
plenty of time later to remember droughts, weeds and
bugs. One of the satisfactions of our horticultural
experiences is the encouragement of the Horticultural
Society. It was almost warm enough for us to sit on
the porch at the Cedars, where the first meeting of
the 1948 season was held.

The President called us to order and the
minutes were read. Helen Hallowell, first reader,
raised our hopes about The Conquest, a golden-
fruited, stoneless plum, also used as a prune.
Burbank performed the wizardry and the general public
as but to wait for its appearance.

There is an experimental little magazine
called Organic Gardening, from which Lofton Wesley
read of the results of the building up of humus in
the hilly farm of one Neil Martin. Each year that
pioneer in agriculture has added loads of leaves,
grass, weeds, straw and manure to his clay soil.
Within three years the water sank in, instead of
running off with the topsoil, his heavy crops
withstood droughts because the humus retained all
moisture, and what is more, he does not have to
use sprays and dusts.

Few members recognized the Crown Imperial
standing up in the midst of Millwood's mertensia.
The latter was exceptionally pretty. Edward Iddings
digs it up and resets it every four or five years.
Especially interesting were the boxes of
woods plants from Glen Lauder, which included sturdy
ground pine, dainty club moss, sweet little hypaticas,
blood roots and anemonies.

Homestone might well have bragged about their
six rows of potatoes already planted. Tanglewcod
pea vines are up, for they brought one to prove it.
Their smooth, winter-kept potates, parsnips and
onions are an example to us, as are their exhibits
of parseley and rhubarb.

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mbrockway

This image marks the beginning of minutes for the year 1948.

mbrockway

Minutes mention an experimental magazine called Organic Gardening.