The Iola register., 1890-11-07
RAISES SEEDS AND BULBS.
Vow a California Woman Developed a
Large and Profitable Business.

ryow a Californla Woman Developed a
Large and Profitable Business.
In little town in Southern California
there dwells a cultured and refined
woman who has opened new occupa-
ton to the women of the State. She is
an enterprising and successful horticul-
turist, and her profits for this season
yield an income that would represent
quite munificent sum lying idle in
bank or invested in four per cents.
The manner in which this lady has
built up her business is in itself val
liable lesson to those who may wish to
follow in her footsteps. She came to
California the wife of comparatively
poor man, who had his way to make in
the world. A small family of children
came to them, and to these she gave the
devotion of a loving and intelligent
mother But the time came when the
children had 80 grown that she was re-
lieved from the chain of engrossing
duties that tie young mothers hands,
and in their home she felt the need of
many little articles of luxury that are
necessity to persons Of education and
vide books and pictures and little ele-
gancies to grace their daily life, and
with woman's ingenuity she set her
brain to work to devise some manner of
procuring these without any large ex-
penditure of money. She found in
certain column of a little magazine an
Exchange" column in which all sorts
of articles were offered in ex-
change for bulbs and plants and
cifriosities. In the course of the home
training she had given her chill
dren she had encouraged their in
terest in the natural sciences by
long walks along the beach and excur-
sions to the woods, and they had brought
back from these trips wealth of natur-
al curiosities, shells and delicate ferns,
sea weeds and all the curious wash of
the sea, as well as rare ferns, birds
nests, beautiful MOSES, seeds and plants
from the woods. She had always been
flower lover. and with her ehildren's
and her husbands help she had kept
their little garden SO skillfully culti-
waited and SO rich in bloom that it
had been. the admiration Of the vii
lage.
Here, then, was her opportunity. She
at once placed herself in correspondence
with several whose offers of exchange
attracted her attention, and found a
ready market for all the curios and
plants she could spare. The demands
for the first were soon exhausted, but
the market for roots and plants, instead
of dwindling. grew steadily, month after
month and year after year. BY degrees
she became known to one or two promi-
nent Eastern florists, probably chiefly
through her Gala lily bulbs, which they
discovered were so much finer and
healthier than any they could raise that
they were glad to engage all that she
could furnish them. She was, probably,
the first person in California to ship
Gala lily bulbs in any quantity to East
ern florists, and at first she received 81
piece for the bulbs, a price which
grew less and less as the market became
better supplied; but when the demand
for the callas was supplied, other plants
and seeds took their place.
Soon the time came when her little
garuen cOulu no longer meet Jne ue-
mands made upon it, and several acres
were purchased in the outskirts of the
town, hothouses were erected, nurseries
started and the lady embarked in the
calling of floriculturist.
The business is young one still, but
it rests on sure foundation, for every
step has been carefully taken. and there
is no speculation about it. The children
bright, talented, Industrious young
people now trending on manhood and
womanhood-are active partners in the
establishment and devote to it all the
time they can spare from their studies.
1t employs several men all. the year
round. and it yields an income that will
steadily increase.
The lady who has conducted her own
enterprise to such a successful issue
points out the fact that nearly million
dollars annually leaves the United
States to purchase foreign plants and
seeds and bulbs, and that almost all of
these importations might be supplied in
California, and by the women of the
State if they will only have the energy
and courage to establish similar gardens.