Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women - Wise Acres Yearbook (Ambler, PA)

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students of this school are living examples of those virtues which are the best corrective of extravagance, of the illusions of luxury, and of that feverish activity which soon wears out body and soul.” It tfas also a great pleasure to have Miss Beatrice Williams, a graduate of this school in June, 1918, with us. She is now connected with the American Committee for Devastated France and is in this country on a mission to Washington. She gave a most interesting and vivid talk on the splendid undertaking in which she is active in France. Upon the completion of her mission to the United States Miss Williams will return to France to continue this worthy work. White Leghorns at his home for several years, still maintains a flock Clark’s Green, and Miss Elizabeth Swing, of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, were presented with diplomas by the President of the Board of Directors, and one of the founders of the school, Miss Jane B. Haines. . After the presentation of diplomas and congratulatory remarks Miss Haines announced that Miss Sarah B. Fogg, of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, editor of “Wise-Acres” during her Junior year, had earned the Honor Scholarship for her Senior year, which is offered annually by Miss Marion Reilly—a member of the Board of Directors—for her excellent school average. Miss Irene Geiser, of Waynesboro. Miss Elinor Matthews, oi tors—for her excellent school average. Miss Haines also announced that a debt approximating $27,000.00 had been most generously cancelled by those who made the- loans; that these loans in large measure were made at the time that the dormitory, cottage, farm house and greenhouses were built; and that no interest had ever been charged upon them. She expressed the gratitude of the Board of Directors and the School for this cancellation which amounts to a large gift. WISE-ACRES congratulates the School upon the possession of such friends and wishes to express its own warm appreciation to those who have thus made the future of the School assured. In closing the exercises, Miss Elizabeth Leighton Lee, Director, expressed the appreciation of the school to the graduating class for their gift of dogwood trees. Then, upon her invitation, the gathering enjoyed a social hour of tea before the school formally closed for the winter holidays. H. F. 8

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IN APPRECIATION For somewhat over two years it has been our good fortune to have Miss Edna C. Thomas as an instructor in subjects of poultry, farm animals and farm crops. Her knowledge was both scientific and practical, her method of imparting it exceedingly interesting, and a touch of humor added spontaneity to her words. Courses in both American Colleges and European Schools gave her excellent scientific training, and her own place of thirty acres, “Cheeryneuk Farm, in Eliot, Maine, had given her ample experience for ten years. Miss Louise Metzger, her able assistant, threw her whole en-ergy into her work. Her ideals of accomplishment were high, and she was a happy exponent of the dignity and joy of manual labor. We understand that Miss Thomas and Miss Metzger expect to unite their fortunes in a farming or poultry project. We wish them all good luck and hope that the name of “Cheeryneuk Farm” may follow them to their new home and be a good omen for the future. E. L. L. COMMENCEMENT The mid-winter commencement of the School of Horticulture was held Friday afternoon, December fifteenth. There were over a hundred people present to enjoy the address given by Dr. Maurice Francis Egan, late Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to Denmark. In speaking of agriculture and horticulture as taught in the Danish Schools, Dr. Egan stressed our need for a return to simplicity and the right use of our leisure hours. He said: “The real aristocracy of any country is made up of people who are in love with simplicity. Who, then, are the real makers of our nation ? If you think they are the men you send to Congress, you are mistaken. The real builders of the prosperity of our country are those who, like the graduates and students of this school, are learning to revere the elements of life, to learn the value of well-ordered leisure and the worth of simplicity. A garden, for instance, even the little garden of the city, is an excuse for leisure, and for leisurely thought. N’obody can be greatly bored or really unintelligent who cultivates a garden. The advantages of the simple life are not always seen in our country because we devote ourselves too much to instruction and too little to education. “Just as culture does not depend upon wealth, so intelligence, which includes the quality of seeing life clearly, is not the result of instruction, but of judicious education. Our young folks go abroad to finish an education that was never even begun over here. The 7

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TREES IN WINTER To really know a tree we should be familiar with its winter aspect. When deprived of leaves the characteristic framework of our deciduous species is best revealed. We should choose the cold months, then, to accurately study the buds, branches, and trunk. If we walk leisurely from Rose Valley to the School of Horticulture, as the writer has many times done, we may pleasantly note the trees of the wayside. Several species of the ailanthus greet us on the right as we leave the trolley. The outline is bold and rather coarse against the sky and the smooth trunks present a suggestion of strength which is belied, however, by the soft wood. This tree is called the 'Free of Heaven by the Chinese, who cultivate it about their temples. The ailanthus occurs again at Susquehanna Road, where the suckering habit is shown by the many saplings growing around the parent tree. To the left, along Butler Pike, just after leaving the car, is seen a row of sugar maples, with many upright branches, slender buds and seamy, rather deeply furrowed bark. They grow beside the silver maple, which is distinguished from the sugar maple by branchlets turning slightly upward at their ends, clusters of accessory buds, and grayish flaky trunk. The Norway maple grows just opposite, with head tending to roundness, larger reddish buds, and closer grained, darker bark, and beyond, on the left, at the edge of an old private property, we may contrast the ash-leaved maple or box elder, with the sycamore maple growing beside it. The former always presents green or greenish branchlets, while the latter is characterized by larger green buds and fruit in drooping racemes, held most of the winter. As if arranged to aid the student of maples, the red maple, too, may be observed standing out prominently south of the gravel pits, with lighter bark becoming smooth upward and even whitish, sometimes, rather simulating the trunk of the beech. Again, on the right, just after leaving Rose Valley, appear two young sweet gums. This charming tree, of grayish bark, often smooth above, shows corky ridges along the branches and almost through the winter on fertile specimens retains the collective fruits hanging like prickly balls. North of the gravel pits there is a small grove of straggling and scraggly black locusts and a fine isolated black locust with grayish, deeply furrowed bark and thin pods held far aloft on the irregular branches, grows beside the road south of the cemetery. The hemlock offers a touch of feathery green at Susquehanna Road, and, after the long open stretch beyond, we pass a line of mazzard cherry trees on the left, showing the dark glossy bark stripping off in horizontal layers, and followed by a fine row of pin oaks holding many of their leaves throughout most of the winter. The pin oaks end with a graceful specimen tree representing a form of the European white birch of exquisite trunk and habit and, paus- 9