174 



GARDENING. 



Feb. is, 



SCIENCE FOR ITS OWN SAKE. 



Last Jul}' I had the pleasure of visiting 

 and inspecting Fordhook Farm, near 

 Doylestown, Pa., the large seed testing 

 grounds of Messrs. W. Atlee Burpee & 

 Co., of Philadelphia., Pa., the moving 

 spirit of which is the head, Mr. W. Atlee 

 Burpee. 



No one who has not visited Fordhook 

 can form any conception of the magnitude 

 of the operations carried on there, nor 

 properly appreciate the fact that became 

 at once apparent to me, that the motive 

 that kept up this large experimental farm 

 was purely "science for its own sake." 

 To one who for the first time surveys the 

 broad and lovely expanse of land that is 

 given up to purely altruistic work, there 

 comes this quickening doubt: "Why?" 

 One hundred and twenty acres of Penn- 

 sylvania's most fertile and genial soil 

 devoted to a work that returns almost 

 nothing of a cash value for the vast out- 

 lay yearly of men, money and materials, 

 not to count the expenditure of the per- 

 sonal attention which Mr. Burpee gives 

 to it. 



One can be pardoned for this one doubt, 

 for where else can one find similar work 

 being done under similar conditions? 

 Other seedsmen have stretchesof grounds 

 upon which trials are conducted, but the 

 trials are the minor part, the production 

 of marketable seeds being the principal 

 work carried on, and "trials" being only 

 an incident. It is not so at Fordhook. 

 The amount of marketable seeds grown 

 there is very small; so small that 1 was 

 greatly astonished at the amount when 

 the figurts were given to me by Mr. Dar- 

 lington, the general manager, in compar- 

 ing them with the total amount handled 

 yearly by the firm. 



If one were to ask Mr. Burpee the 

 motive governing him in all this he would 

 no doubt reply that to be certain the seeds 

 will grow we must test all of them before 

 marketing them. But while this is no 

 doubt the exoteric reason, the real rea 

 son, as it appears to an unprejudiced 

 observer, is an innate love of investiga- 

 tion and scientific research that is happily 

 wedded to an allied business venture, the 

 success of one depending closely on the dil- 

 igence with which the other is pursued. 



The principal results have been the im- 

 provement of varieties of vegetables and 

 flowers, the introduction of new ones and 

 the carrying on through years of tests for 

 different fertilizers for different soils, and 

 the proper forage and food plants for 

 each section of the country. The results 

 gained in these lines have far outstripped 

 those gained by the Government Agricult- 

 ural Department. Whether Mr. Burpee 

 is one cent the gainer for the work car- 

 ried on at Fordhook is much to be 

 doubted, but that the farmer, gardener 

 and florist are cannot be controverted. 

 The science of hybridization owes more 

 than is known to theextensive operations 

 in that line carried on at Fordhook. I 

 do not think any establishment in this 

 country can show as many successful 

 tests made as the records here show. 



It is with the feeling that such work 

 should be recognized by the horticultural 

 and agricultural world in the same spirit 

 with which Mr. Burpee carries it on that 

 these lines are written. 



Roaring Spring, Pa. S. A. Hamilton. 



FLOWERS 



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FARM 



/Salzer'w Seeds grow and prouuee!\ 



f John Breider, Mishicott, Wis., astonished) 



J the world growing 173 bn. of Salzer's Silver i 



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35 pkgs. earliest vegetable 

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STRAWBERRY 



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Address 



THE CARTER 

 MFG. CO., 



^JACKSON, MICH, 



If 



n ■ pri a Newconsignm nt 

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50 lbs. or over at l'c. , 



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s 



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PROFITABLE 



FRUIT CULTURE 



Important adjunct ami a val- 

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16 Ovid St.. SENECA FALLS, N. Y. 

 Mention Gardening. 



g^^^E^EE^^E 



PALACE CAR OR HAND CAR. 



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PAGE WOVEN WIRE FENCE CO., Adrian Mich 



When writing mention Gardening. 



