18.»7 



(;i.i;.\XIN('.S IN BEE CULTURE. 





A VISIT TO LANDRRTHS' GREAT SKED-KARM. 



I made another blunder here in not havin.i^ 

 an adequate i-^ea of my undertaking-. When 

 we reach'^d tlie station, and were informed 

 it was onl}- a mile to I.andreths' farm, and a 

 ,s^ood nice walk, frieiiTl Selser and I decided to 

 go on foot because w> had been sitting all the 

 morning. Well, we did get on to the Landreth 

 premises after walking about a mile : but it 

 was fully another mile on tlieir own premises 

 before we got into the heart of the business. 

 What I should have done was to procure finst 

 a livery, e.specially .since my arrangements 

 permitted me to spend only two or three hours 

 at the place. When you undertake to visit a 

 garden that covers something like two square 

 miles, you have a pretty big amount of travel 

 on your hands, even if you take only a hasty 

 look at the different fields of different crops. 

 A great many times we are disappointed when 

 we get really into grounds that w'e have read 

 about in seed catalogs: but in this case it was 

 just the other way. I had no conception of 

 the immense size of the Landreth plantation, 

 the number of buildings, the number of hands 

 employed, the different kinds of machinery, 

 etc. Some of the buildings are quite old, it is 

 true ; but many of them are very pretty, and 

 the grounds, as a rule, are nicely kept in 

 beautiful order. A great stone warehouse, so 

 old that it is covered with English and Japan- 

 ese ivy, especially attracted my attention. It 

 is 2.00 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 3 stories 

 high, and was built a good many j-ears ago. 



A little later, when I was asking them how 

 they managed to cure their onion-sets so they 

 kept from freezing, and also kept dry, I was 

 told they were all placed in this great stone 

 warehou.se after the weather becomes too 

 severe to leave them in the lofts which I will 

 describe presently. When I inquired if they 

 ever used fire heat to dry them out, the reply 

 was, "Oh! no, no! c5nions and onion-.sets 

 must be kept just as dry as possible. They 

 must be dry, and at the same time cold; and 

 the old stone warehouse that keeps out frost 

 without the aid of any artificial heat is ju.st ' 

 the place to keep onion-sets from either freez- 

 ing or sprouting." 



Long before we got to the center of business 

 I told friend vSelser that there was an odor of 

 something that, although familiar, I could not 

 quite recall to mind what it was. After sniff- 

 ing the air several times, however, I ejaculat- 

 ed, "Oh! radish seed — that is what I have 

 been smelling ; and w'hen we get a little fur- 

 ther you will find they have been thrashing 

 out radish pods to get the .seeds." When we 

 got along far enough, that is exactly what we 

 found they were doing. 



I was greatly interested in their arrange- 

 ments for curing onion-sets ; and in a little 

 time we saw, away off in the distance, almost 



as far as the eye could reach, field after fu'ld 

 covered with queer little structures that looked 

 like chicken-coops — the letter A .sort. I .said 

 to myself, " Wliy, the Landreths can not be 

 in the poultry business to such an extent as 

 this, surely." Then I found that these were 

 trays on which the sets were cured after being 

 sifted from the dry earth. Each tray holds 

 two bushels of .sets ; and two trays are set 

 together, letter A fashion, only not quite so 

 tall. The trays are put in a long string, 

 touching each other where they rest on the 

 ground, and touching each other aLso where 

 thev fit together above ground, soirething 

 like this : 



This permits the air to pass all around un- 

 der the trays as well as over the surface. It 

 also admits the sun on all sides. I do not 

 know what they do when it rains, but I sus- 

 pect they manage to get them under cover, 

 at least to a great extent, before any rain 

 comes on them. W'hen they are suflFieiently 

 dry they are put into large sacks and piled up 

 high on wagons made on purpose, w'ith slop- 

 ing sides. I should have said that, in their 

 business of growing onion-sets, thev use some- 

 thing like 20,000 trays. Although I did not 

 measure the trays I should think they are 

 perhaps 2>^x3 feet. The bottom is thin light 

 lumber, w4th some cracks to let the air 

 through, the said cracks being too small to let 

 even small onion-sets get out. Their crop this 

 season will amount to about 80,000 bushels. 

 Now, do not get the idea that I mean eight 

 thousand. It is really eighty thousand bush- 

 els. They sometimes sow for onion-sets as 

 much as 8000 lbs. of onion seed, and 250 men 

 are frequently employed in caring for the 

 crop. After the onion-sets are hauled in on 

 these great wagons, they are put through a 

 machine run by a steam-engine that sorts out 

 the different sizes. I believe the orthodox 

 size for onion-sets is not over }\ inch in di- 

 ameter ; but they can be as small as you 

 choose — the smaller the better. Those that 

 are over =i inch in diameter are sold at a less 

 price, and many are used for pickles. Those 

 still larger are sold for table use for whatever 

 they will bring in the market. 



After being passed through the machine 

 the sets are elevated by horse power up to 

 different lofts in barnlike buildings made on 

 purpose to store them. The floors in these 

 lofts are made .so close together that one has 

 to stoop over in walking about. There are 

 plenty of windows so the hot air of an August 

 day may circulate through and under all the 

 floors. The sets are stored on the different 

 floors, say from four to six inches deep; and I 

 never .saw a prettier sight than .some of the 

 Bloomsdale pearl onion-sets — miniature on- 

 ions, perfectly ripened, and thej- were indeed 

 veritable "pearls." lam not sure but they 

 were handsomer to my eye than would be the 

 real pearls glistening in the crov.'us of royalt}'. 



Like ourselves, the Landreths have discov- 

 ered that it is cheaper to have their own 

 repair-shops than it is to depend upon any- 

 body else for repairing their implements. In 

 fact, all the wagons, carts, and other vehicles 



