Club Minutes: Horticultural Society, 1918-1925

The Highlands May 6, 1919 March ? The fierce winds of March had not susided on April 1st, for they literally blew eleven families of the Horticultural to Avalon where the first meeting of the season was held. Let it be said that seven of these members had past their 80th birthday. As is the custom, our April meeting was held in the middle of the day, & we all seemed to be on hand at the proper time. Notwithstanding the happy feeling of meeting together again, there was a shadow which hovered over us_ for the deep sorrow which has come to Fair? Hill is shared by all of us and while Donald was not a regular attendee of the Horticultural we will not soon forget his friendly hand-clap & the cordial welcome we received from him when we met at dear Fair Hill. Our love from the meeting was expressed in a beauiful note of sympathy-

written by Cousin Margaret Magruder & forwarded to the family by the Sec. The minutes of the October meeting were read and accepted. Cornelia Bentley read an article on the new vegetables you can grow. "In his charming book on gardening, Mr. Charles A. Seldon complains that with the average garden the garden sesaon begins with a radish and ends with a turnip, whereas it ought to begin with a plan made when the days begin to lengthen in Dec. Obviously Mr. Seldon had not tried the Japanese radish, or he would have rejoiced that gardening could begin with a radish. This stranger from Japan is a giant, the biggest one we raised in our garden weighed two pounds & a half, including the top. Then the Japanese climbing cucumber was mentioned, hanging as it does, on the fence, & the Chinese cabbages too. Also the Mexican black corn is welcomed from the south." Gladys Brooke read in Charles F. Kirk's place, an article from the Scientific American, on

H/4/1919-3the Electrification of Seeds. Mr. Fry, an electrician, is revolutionizing the art of agriculture, & has turned his attention to the electrification of seeds. This seems a wonderful discovery to some of us of the "old school" & when we learn there is a notable increase in the yield from the electrified seed, we feel that wonders will never cease. We thought the weather we had been having far surpassed any former days, for the cold & winds of March seemed never to end_ but when cousin Roger Farquhar made a memoranda of the cold weather of previous days, we shivered anew, & some of us almost gave up in despair, Hannah Stabler told of an ice-house being filled with plum at Edgewood in April, & at a meeting years ago, specimens were frozen in route to Rock Spring But we will take fresh hope, for "Now that the winter's gone,the earth hath lost Her Snow white robes; and now no more the frost Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;

But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth, And makes it tender: makes in hollow tree The drowsy cuckoo & the bumble bee. Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring In triumphs to the mold, the youthful spring: The valleys, hills, and woods in rich array Welcoming the coming of the long'd-for May. Now all things smile.

The Forethought pretended she had not understood that she was not released from her job, so had no report for April. It did not take very long to count the poultry report, 224 chickens from fine families against 60 chickens in April 1918, so we are "going up". Let us give three cheers for the fine families, Brooke Grove, The Cedars, Rockland, Tanglewood, & The Highlands who searched their gardens, their cellars or their deep-{cuts?} & brought good, very good specimens for the early spring season. Cousin Ellen Farquahar's sturdy little potted tomato plant looked very much as if it had been bought at some green-house,

or else she must have been sitting up at nights to care for it!! The committee on arrangements gave the places of meeting for the coming year as follows - April - Avalon May - The Highlands June - The Cedars July - Brooke Grove August - Cloverley Sept. - Edgewood Oct - Mrs. Magruder & Mrs. Davis will entertain The Horticultural at Knowlton.

Helen Hallwell was appointed to collect 15 (cents) year dues from each family - quite a drive - let us hope she will go "over the top"! A communication was read from Margaret Baucroft in which she said as Norwood could not entertain the Horticultural this season she felt they might be keeping the place of some one else, & she thereby tenered their resignation. This came as a shock to the members, who would not hear of such an action and as we knew "Norwood's place