Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1890-11-20
RAISES SEEDS AND BULBS.

hNiSEo S1G1S FNtNo ~ @oo'
flow California Woman Developed
Large and Profitable Business.
In little town in Southern California
there dwells 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 a 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 loving and intelligent
mother. But the time came when the
children had so grown that she was re-
leved from the chain of engrossing
duties that tic young mothers hands,
and in their home she felt the need Of
many little articles of luxury that are a
necessity to persons of education and
taste. She had not the money to pro-
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 a
certain column of little magazine an
Exchange" column in which all sorts
of articles were offered in ex-
change for bulbs and plants and
curiosities. 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 children's
and her husbands help she had kept
their little garden SO skillfully cult
waited and so rich in bloom that il
had been the admiration of the vii
lage.
Here then, was her opportunity. She
at once placed herself in correspondence
! 80
attracted her attention, and found &
ready market for all the curios ant
plants she could spare. The demand:
for the first were soon exhausted, bu
the market for roots and plants, instead
of dwindling, grew steadily, month aftel
month and year after year. BY degrees
she became known to one or two promi
nent Eastern florists, probably chief,
through her Gala lily bulbs, which the,
discovered were so much finer ant
healthier than any they could raise tina
they we're glad to engage all that sh,
could furnish them. She was, probably
the first person in California to shi,
Gala lily bulbs in any quantity to East
Si II liOl1SlSs tuu az Stu ItCClNtu v
e piece for the bulbs, price whicl
grew less and less az the market becam
better supplied; but when the deman,
for the callas was supplied, other plant
and seeds took their place.
Soon the time came when her littl
garden could no longer meet the de
mands made upon it, and several acre
were purchased in the outskirts of tn
town, lighthouses were erected, nurserie
started and the lady embarked in tn
calling of a floriculturist.
The business is young one still, bu
it rests on sure foundation, for ever
step has been carefully taken, and Their
is no speculation about it. The childre
bright, talented, industrious youn
people now trending on manhood an
womanhood-are active partners in tn
establishment and devote to it all tn
time they can spare from their studie
It employs several men all the yea
round. and ityields an income that wi
steadily increase.
The lady who has conducted her ON
enterprise to such successful issr
points out the fact that nearly millio
dollars annually leaves the Unite
States to purchase foreign plants ar
seeds and bulbs, and that almost all
these importations might be supplied
California, and by the women of Il
State if they will only have the enere
and courage to establish similar garden
San Francisco Examiner