Evening star., 1938-09-25
Capital Sidelights
By WILL P. KENNEDY.

Louisiana is on the way to a new in
dustry through the initiative of Repre-
sentative Joachim O. Fernandez with the
cooperation of William A. Frederick, in
charge Of the United States Botanic Gar
den. and all the people are thereby
promised new Eastertime beauty. Mr..
Fernandez, lifelong flower lover, mem
Der of the House Appropriations Com
mlttee. who takes much interest in the
Botanic Garden and is helping to build
1t up, conceived the idea of having the
Creole lily intensively cultivated for the
Easter trade. He consulted with Mr..
Frederick and induced him to 20 to New
Orleans and see for himself what the
opportunity might be. The first result is
that Mr. Frederick is enthusiastic over
the proposition and has secured 1000
selected bulbs with which he hopes to
make surprising Easter show in the
main conservatory Of the Botanic Gar
den. Last year the Easter lily show was
said to be the finest ever held in this
country, but Mr.. Frederick declares en-
phatlcally that he will have a much
better one this year with Creole lilies"
The Creole lily is identical in general
appearance to the usual Easter lily of
the Erabu variety, but Mr.. Frederick de-
scribes 1t as having "outstanding quail
ties, pre-eminently greater than any of
the bulbs we force along the Atlantic
Coast States for the Easter period" He
points out that "the flowers are larger,
much more clean and of brighter white,
while the foliage of the plant is darker
green and heavier than any other lily in
the Easter trade, even SURPRISING the
Erabu lily. Those outstanding qualities"
he continues, seem to have sufficient vir-
tue to predestine the growth of the Creole
lily in the Mississippi delta as business
or Industry of outstanding merit. Gil
matte and soil conditions are ideal for
proper development of this lily bulb,
and I venture the prediction that this
may be made great horticultural asset
OF the State. Hundreds of acres are
available for such use, and I know of
no other place where they could have
the same development. I understand
that adequate financial support is being
arranged. had chance to get pano-
ramic view of several thousand Creole lily
plants in the conservatories of Herman
Farley, leading florist and landscape es-
tablishment in New Orleans, which
amazed me-"
Representative Fernandez is very hope
ful OF aiding his people with a new in
dustry. and he assures the residents of
the Capital and their Easter guests of a
grand show, which will at the same time
give cultural impetus to our new in
dustry."
Republican leaders are already busy
figuring out the prospects of a larger
percentage OF. representation on the i'm
portant House committees-so confident
are they of making very substantial gains
in the November election. When either
party gets such a heavy majority as the
Democrats have had for the last several
years they have to have many places on
the committees so as to be able to find
assignments for all their party members,
and at the same time they are faced
with the necessity Of keeping committees
from becoming unwieldy, and conse-
quently they reduce the minority quotas
on the committees. Take two commit
tees as an Illustration: Ways and Means
and Rules In the Goth Congress, when
there were 247 Republicans and 1873 Dem
ocrats in the House, the Republicans had
Is places on Ways and Means and the
Democrats 10, and on Rules it was 8 to 4.
This percentage was maintained during
the 10th and list Congresses while the
Republican membership climbed to 267
and the Democratic membership declined
to 163. The same proportion was re-
tanned in the 72d Congress, when the
Democrats came in with 220 as against
nd ivot hn
when the Democrats had 313 to 1T Re-
publicans. Then in the 74th Congress,
when the Democrats had 322 House mem
bers to 103 Republicans, the proportions
OF committee memberships were changed.
On Ways and Means the Democrats took
18 places to for the Republicans and on
Rules they allowed the Republicans to
retain four places, but enlarged the COM
mittee to provide two more places for
Democrats. That same proportion was
held in the 18th Congress, when the DEM
ocrats had 333 members, Republicans SO,
and there were l3 other party adherents.
~
Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia,
while Congress is not in session and poll
tics Is not calling, has an important pri-
vate business that gives him abundant
diversion, because it is labor of love as
well as profit. He is rated as the worlds
largest apple grower. Incidentally he is
devoted to outdoor exercise and noun
tain climbing, besides taking an active,
personal interest in a newspaper which
he publishes. But about apples. In one
tract, the Rosemont orchard, near Berry,
vile, Senator Byrd has m apple show
covering 1.400 acres, row upon row, miles
long, Of Grimes Golden and Jonathan
trees. All IN all, he has q fruit empire
of about 1900 acres, or more than 200,-
600 trees. New orchards are being added
each year and more young trees are set
out. His crop this year is estimated at
900 bushels, or more than twice as
much as all the other orchards in the