Evening star., 1923-09-23

would be replete with the names OF
many District women who are win
ming livelihoods and luxuries in ex-
traordinary ways, for, in fact. the
achievements of several of them are
so remarkable as to have attracted
attention in all parts of the United
States, and even abroad.
These Washingtonians in their
hours of ease have plotted. schemed
and contrived to make their pet
dreams and favorite hobbies come
true. They have worked valiantly
diligently and well TO efficaciously
consummate the novel plans they
have devised for the upbuilding OF
queer business enterprises. The prof
liable results that they have OBJ
tanned are prominent among the won
sders Of Washington, which many OF
our permanent population have never
even heard of.
The largest lily farm in the world
project which raises a hundred diff
1erent varieties of lilies and annually
sells thousands of these beautiful
howeri, is owned and actively oper-
ated by a Washington woman who
lS one of the most expert lily grow
ers in America.
A neet of thirty-flve of the finest
limouaines and vouring cars that are
available for hire in the District OF
Columbia was the property of another
energetic business woman who has
gradually popularized and expanded
her novel enterprise.
One of the most successful raisers
OF ferrets in the United States is
the title which yet another Washing
ton woman has earned as a result OF
successful activities in the breeding,
training and sale of these arch enc
mics of the destructive rat family.
Then there are women who are rails
ing and selling fancy dogs of pluto
cratic ancestry.
Others among our newest class of
American voters are rearing and
training Persian and Angora cats for
exhibition and sales purposes
Several years ago a crippled girl
who lived on South Carolina avenue
embarked in the unique trade of
raising and selling canary birds. This
girl was incapacitated for clerical or
Stenographic labors. Notwithstand-
ing, she had to support herself
Finally she struck on the novel
scheme of breeding canaries, of teach
ing the birds to sing melodiously and
Of marketing the merry little war
hlers at profitable prices among
Washington residents
Since the demise of this clever self
tutored bird expert several other
Washington women have success
fully engaged in the canary-raIsing
business. The demand for the feath-
cred songsters is always keen. They
sell for good prices, As soon as the
amateur gains experience in the
"A to lizard" of canary culture she
usually is able to realize an attrac-
tive annual income from her extraor-
dinary occupa tion.
X " X
NNE Washington lady has made a
~ speciality of homemade candies
the kind that you cannot purchase at
any confectionery store in the land.
She has experimental with unusual
mixtures and called to her aid re-
markable ingredients, with the result
that her candies are now famous by
word-of-mouth publicity among the
congressional set, the Army and Navy
society leaders, and even at the White
House. These sweets are never ad-
verttsed commercially. Most Wash
ingtonians never have heard of them.
of oil hot L.
insufficient to fill the demand for her
superior sweetstuffs
The lily farm which attracts ex-
pert 1oriculturists and horticultur-
lists from all parts of the world con-
sists of twenty-nine ponds which
constitute a water garden of approxi-
mately nineteen acres. Overnight.
Mrs. Helen Fowler. who at that time
knew nothing more about the COM
plexities of lily growing than you or
/, inherited Americas champion lily
farm on the death of her father, A.
W. Shaw. Determined to continue
the novel business, Mrs. Shaw went
right out in the hothouse and field
and learned the different phases of
the work first -handedly. She indus
triously studied every publication and
treatise on lily growing she could
find. She experimental, crossed diff
ferent varieties. hybridized and ulti-
mately developed a number of new
strains of blue, rose and white lilies
which at present are unexcelled in
this country.
BY conservative and progressive
business methods, Mrs. Fowler has
widened her marketing field until
she ships cut lilies and roots as far
north as Portland. Me-, as far south
as Macon, Ga, and as far west as
Chicago.
During the summer season Mrs.
Fowler can be found as early as 5
o'clock out about her lily ponds, su-
peryfsing the work of cutting the
daily crop which ranges from $500
to 5000 flowers during the height of
the picking season. She superintends
the washing. sorting and packing of
the flowers in pasteboard boxes. They
are shipped by parcel post special de-
livery.
In her water gardens. Mrs. Fowler
also raises twenty-five different va
rieties of such aquarium plants as
cabomba, milfoil and anacharis, which
she also markets by mail in all Sec
tfons of the United States. She an
nualIy sells thousands of lily roots
at prices which range from 25 cents
to s25 a root. Her lotus beds yield
about 500 flowers daily during the
Towering season, while she also
makes a speciality of night -bloomers