The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-11-12
RAISES SEEDS AND BULBS.

How "a California Woman Developed Q
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 a munifcent 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 theNtime came when the
children had so grown that she was re.
lieved from the chain of engrossing
duties that tie a 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 oxcur-
sions to the woods, and they had brought
back from these trips wealth Of natur-
al curiosities, shells and delicate ferns,
sea weeds and ell the curious wash Of
the sea. Is we'll Is 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 culti-
waited and SO rich in bloom that 1t
had been the admiration of the viii
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 we're glad to engage all that she
could furnish them. She was, probably,
the first person in California to shiu
Gala lily bulbs in any quantity to East.
ern florists, and at first she received 81
piece for the bulbs, q 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
garden could no longer meet the de
mands made upon 1t, and several acre.
were purchased in the outskirts Of the
town, lighthouses were erected, nurseries
started and the lady embarked in thu
calling of 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 children
bright. talented, Industrious younl
people now trending on manhood an,
womanhood--are active partners in tn
establishment and devote to 1t all tn
time they can spare from their studies
1t employs several men all the yea
round. and it yields an income that viii
steadily increase.
The lady who has conducted her ow
enterprise to such successful issu
points cut the fact that nearly millio
dollars annually leaves the Unite
States to purchase foreign plants an
seeds and bulbs, and that almost all {
these importations might be supplied i
California, and by the women Of tn
State if they will only have the energ
and courage to establish similar garden'
San Francisco Examiner.