A Humorous Story Featuring Horticulture Teacher Louise Klein Miller

"Louise had been telling a crowd of pupils about the different insects that attack plants and warned them especially against the malevolent San Jose scale."

July 22, 1938

On this day, the St. Cloud Times ran a story about a horticulturist named Louise Klein Miller.

Louise, at the age of 84, was retiring as supervisor of Cleveland's Memorial Gardens - after supervising them for over a quarter of a century.

The first woman to attend Cornell University's School of Forestry, Louise became the landscape architect for Cleveland schools; she was the only female landscape architect working in an extensive city school system.

While researching Louise, I ran across a delightful story about her time teaching horticulture in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle out of Brooklyn, New York

"[Louise] had been telling a crowd of pupils about the insects that attack plants and warned them, especially against the malevolent San Jose scale.

She suggested they go to the school library, get a book about it, and read about Its habits and the remedy for checking its career.

One young woman went to the librarian the next morning and said she wanted something about the San Jose Scale.

"Without even looking up from her desk, the Librarian said, "Go to the music department."