1807 



c.i.i'ANixc.s IN Hi;iv cn/ruRK. 



CI I 



• THE GREAT SEEDSMEN OF PHILADELPHIA 

 AND VICINITY. 



I was tireatly pleased to discover the pleas- 

 ant relations that exist between all of the Phil- 

 adelphia seedsmen. Burpee, I.andreth, John- 

 son ^c Stokes, IMaule, and Dreer were all 

 visited ; and instead of clashing or conflicting, 

 each seems to occupy more or less a field all 

 his own. For instance, Landreth .i^/'oa'.? seeds 

 on his great farm, perhaps more than any 

 other institution of the kind in the world. 

 Crreer has the most extensive and up-to-date 

 XireiifiOKSfs, filled with tropical plants. Bur- 

 pee is the great originator or introducer of new 

 and improved vegetables, although all of them 

 grow more or less in this line of work, and so 

 on through the list. 



IMy first visit was at Burpee's. Their large 

 building with its many offices was, as a natu- 

 ral consequence, quiet and still for the most 

 part, at this season of the j'ear ; but I could 

 not lielp admiring their arrangements and ap- 

 pointments for doing a large business with 

 speed and dispatch. Mr. Burpee himself was 

 absent in Europe at the time of my visit ; but 

 I was very kindly given most complete direc- 

 tions for reaching Fordhook ; and while I was 

 waiting for a train at that beautiful depot, 

 Spring Garden, I greatly enjoyed looking 

 about me. This depot is on an elevated plat- 

 fonu above the streets. In fact, it is almost 

 an elevated community ; and trains are com- 

 ing in and going out so constantly that one 

 wonders what it can all be for. The appoint- 

 ments and arrangements to prevent mistakes 

 and accidents are most wonderful. While I 

 was viewing these things a fine-looking young 

 man came up, evidenth- in some ha.ste, and, 

 touching his hat, said : 



"Is it my pleasure to be addressing Mr. A. 

 I. Root?" 



I smiled while I assented, and then asked 

 him what he knew of A. I. Root, anyhow, for 

 I considered myself an entire stranger in a 

 .strange land. He said he had just learned 

 that I was in the city, and that I had started 

 out to Fordhook Farm ; and although he had 

 just come from there he said it would afford 

 him great pleasure to go right back and show 

 me around. I remonstrated a little about 

 making .so much trouble ; but he would have 

 his own way. 



All along our route I was again impressed 

 with the beautiful surroundings in the way of 

 homes and homelike decorations. At Lands- 

 dale, where we changed cars, on a little bit of 

 green lawn belonging to the depot building I 

 saw the finest piece of bedding, with ornamen- 

 tal foliage-plants, that it has ever been my for- 

 tune to find anywhere. It was morning, and 

 the dew was not yet off the plants ; and when 

 my eye caught it I made a start of surprise. 

 The center-piece was a round bed perhaps ten 



feet across ; tl'.en radiating from this center 

 were ten oblong beds about the sha])e of 

 a cucumber seed. They radiated from the 

 center-piece like the petals of a flower. These 

 l)eds were, may be, twenty or twentj'-five feet 

 long. The out.side, next the grass, was, if 

 I remember, a line of what I should call 

 "dusty miller." Then came another line of 

 dark -purple colei, and inside of this was a 

 center of golden bedder ; and the golden hue 

 was so bright and vivid that it almost made 

 one think of a flame of fire or a most bril- 

 liant patch of .sunlight. Now, this alone 

 would have been to me fascinating ; but, 

 sprinkled all along the dividing lines between 

 the golden and purple colei, were geraniums, 

 in two colors, in bloom, the deep dark red 

 contrasting strongly with the lighter pink. 

 The whole thing burst upon me exactly like 

 strains of music. Why, I do not think it is 

 too extravagant to say that, for the time being, 

 I was almost entranced. 



I wonder if there are other people like my- 

 self. I have attended great concerts, and lis- ' 

 tened to classical music from some of the 

 great scholars, without feeling very enthusi- 

 astic ; but when I was in Atlantic City waiting 

 for dinner, after my bath in the salt water, I 

 was startled by strains of music of wonderful 

 pathos. I discovered that it came from a lit- 

 tle Italian girl who was playing on some sort 

 of accordion. She was grotesquely dressed 

 with a quaint sort of cap or covering for her 

 head. This covering was made of dilTerent- 

 colored soft fabrics ; and the head-dress, with 

 the dark complexion and eyes underneath, 

 gave me a thrill. Why, it se-med as if I never 

 listened to strains of music more beautiful. 

 Then when a childish voice broke in a little 

 later, I stood drinking in the great flood of joy 

 that filled my soul, wondering how it came 

 that God saw fit to send these thrills to me so 

 unexpectedly. Well, it was just the same 

 way wnth that beautiful bed of bright colors, 

 with its vivid entrancing background of green. 

 I purposely turned away several times to see 

 if, when I looked back again on the beautiful 

 scene, it would give me such a thrill. 



In talking with Mr. Dreer afterward about 

 his great greenhouses he said he thought the 

 railroad companies were doing a grand thing 

 in the way of educating the world in general, 

 by these beautiful " object-lessons." He said 

 many a farmer, while traveling, had, to his 

 knowledge, made resolves that he too, when 

 he got home, would have a little bit of lawn 

 and some of those handsome plants. 



Now, before I take you to Fordhook Farm 

 let me remind you that we are indebted to W. 

 Atlee Burpee for some of the most popiilar and 

 valuable vegetables now known to the world. 

 First, and perhaps best, Burpee's bush lima 

 bean. Why, we hardly .sell pole limas now at 

 all since this has become to be well known. 

 Burpee's vSure-head cabbage has become a 

 household name, alnio.st ; and the self-blanch- 

 ing celery, introduced in 1884 — why, what 

 would the world do without it at the present 

 time? We might say almost the same thing 

 of the Emerald Gem melon. The white Vic- 

 toria onion has been one of our favorites for 



