Set'tkmhkr. J 921 



(M.KAXrXGS TN BEE CULTURE 



gram caine to Mr. Seahrodk reading some- 

 what as follows: 



"We want two carloads of lettuce such 

 as you have been selling us, delivered here 

 tomorrow night in New York City. Can 

 you make it? ' ' 



The reply was "All right. You can have 

 your lettuce." 



When I read the above I said to myself, 

 ' ' I am going to see that great truck farm, 

 Providence permitting. ' ' 



Just one thing more: The article went 

 on to state that from the time that boy 

 went with his father to the country store 

 he began experimenting along the lines of 

 "hif/li-l)ressiire gardening." As he grew in 

 experience he began using fertilizers at a 

 rate before unheard of. For several years 

 he worked in company with his father; but 

 his father actually got scared at the 

 amount he was jiaying for manure and 

 other fertilizers for just one acre of ground. 



Now, friends, as Mr. Selser was with me 

 on my travels in New Jersey, and espe- 

 cially in Philadelphia, and on account of 

 my defective hearing, I will let him tell 

 things in his own words as to where we 

 went and what we saw. 



On July 8 we visited a number of the bogs con- 

 taining: 600 acres in all of cranberries, which were 

 out in liloora and fruit. The berries grow on lit- 

 tle single shoots, hardly big enough to be called a 

 bush Cabout .S to 5 inches high). They are siib- 

 .iect to a number of insect pests, which are overcome 

 by flooding the bogs two or three times during the 

 season, as can be easily done from the adjacent 

 dams. Tliere is. however, a blight or fungus which 

 attacks the fruit. The State has now an immense 

 .$.■5,000 high-power sprayer, which produces 1,000 

 pounds pressure to the square inch. This was op- 

 erating at 600 pounds pressure and throwing the 

 spray, which looked like a fine snow, about 300 

 feet. Mr. Chambers, a son-in-law of Mr. White, 

 was as.sisting the State authorities in operating 

 the sprayer. The hose, 1 i/i inches and very heavy, 

 has to be taken apart in sections and carried thru 

 the bog by two or three men. 



We then returned to Mr. Hornor's by wav of 

 Camp Dix, where several hundred West Point 

 cadets were in camp. We saw only a couple of 

 them. These buildings, which during the war were 

 occupied by some hundred thousand men, are of 

 frame structiire but not in very good condition. 

 The Government has recently purchased this ground 

 and e.xpects to establish a permanent camp at this 

 place. 



At Finley. N. .T.. n"ar Bridgeton. on July 8, we 

 visited the Charles F. Seabrook cucumber planta- 

 tion. We met the manager, Charles F. Seabrook, 

 and W. W. Olev. general manager of the New .Jer- 

 sey State Experiment Station. We were conducted 

 bv auto thru the extensive orchards and vegetable 

 fields. The farm has 2.000 acres devoted to fruit 

 culture and 1 500 acres devoted to berries, vege- 

 tables, etc. They have a nursery and grow their 

 own *rpps. When thev buy them, they send Mr. Oley 

 into all parts of the United States to select all their 

 renuirements. Among the young one and two year- 

 old apple trees they are growing a succession of 

 bu.sh lima beans. At the present time thev have 

 SOO acres in beans. They are .iust erecting a 

 vinery — a large building in the center of the bean 

 district containing six new, improved machines for 

 shelling and cleaning the lima beans. The vinery 

 will start operating soon, and the beans are so 

 planted that the.se machines will be in continuous 

 operation from now until fall. They put these 

 beans up in cans. 



We were then conducted to their cucumber 

 liouses. six in all, where thev are now shipping 

 cucumbers to the value of $300 a day. .^t the 

 present time they are getting $1.25 a dozen. They 



have shipped this seascm $4,000 worlli of cucum- 

 bers. Mr. Seabrook's uncle conducted us thru this 

 establishment and showed us bees in specially con- 

 structed hives at each opposite end of each green- 

 house with an entrance both in the greenhouse and 

 on the outside. They arranged the greenhouse by 

 taking away some panes of glass adjoining the in- 

 side entrance for the bees. TJie top row of glass 

 <in the entire greenhouse is always left open so 

 that no bees are lost by getting out and going to 

 the wrong hive. Mr. Seabrook claimed that this 

 removing of glass adjoining the hive was the latest 

 method, which absolutely insured the success of 

 the bees returning to each hive, where prior to that 

 hundreds were lost in the greenhouses. This day 

 they were taking off the supers which were filled 

 with honey. I told them of one fruit-grower in 

 New Jersey who had offered $500 for the rental of 

 ion colonies of bees among his orchards for three 

 weeks next year. He felt that this was very im- 

 portant, and said that another season he was going 

 to see that they had a big quantity of bees well 

 distributed, and would increase them from year to 

 year as the trees grew to fruit-bearing. 



We then visite.d the ice plant and cold storage 

 warehouses connected with a pre-cooling plant 

 where they were shipping ont cabbage, after it was 

 pre-cooled. which insures perfect delivery no matter 

 how hot the weather is. They were turning out 20 

 tons of ice that day. Adjacent to the cold storage 

 and ice plant were 200 acres of berries and vege- 

 tables under irrigation. They were then harvest- 

 ing large fields of onions, and were shipping two 

 to three carloads of onions everv day. It was a 

 beautiful sight to see the Italians cleaning the 

 onions and packing them in hampers for shipping. 

 After the cucumbers are taken out, lettuce is plant- 

 ed, followed bv radishes. They ship 17 carloads 

 of lettuce out each day to various markets. 



The perfect irrigation thru the pipe sy.stera was 

 a wonder to Mr. Root. Mr. Root was simply 

 ama/ed, and enjoyed every minute at this wonder- 

 ful i)lantation. Mr. Oley was exceedingly solici- 

 tous that Mr. Root should have a full explanation 

 of every part of this plantation that he wished. 



On July 9 we visited the Foster Exhibition Pa- 

 vilion where Airline is to have an exhibit in their 

 north window on the board walk for two weeks 

 over Labor Day, beginning Aug. 27. The ladv 

 secretary was very anxious to meet Mr. Root, and 

 expressed her opinion that it was a marvelous thing 

 that he should be the head of such a successful cor- 

 poration and continue to be so active up to the age 

 of 82 years. 



We took a wheel chair and had an hour and a 

 half's ride up the board walk to the inlet. We saw 

 the thousands of bathers on the beach and the aerO' 

 plane b'oat-s taking passengers at intervals along 

 the ocean front. On returning to our starting 

 point and paying for our hour and a half's ride 

 at the rate of 75 cents an hour, the pusher claimed 

 we owed him 25 cents each an hour for his work. 

 We inquired of the officer and the proprietor, both 

 of whom evaded the subject, showing that there 

 was a general concerted action on the part of the 

 rmshers of these wheel chairs to fleece the public. 

 However, the proprietor was forced to acknowledge 

 that the rate he charged included the pusher: and 

 on further investigation he stated he paid the 

 pusher 40 cents for pushing the chair during the 

 time we ofcupied it. Therefore, we refu.sed to pay 

 him anything additional, for which we received 

 somewhat of a blackguarding by the pusher him- 

 self. We felt like informing the niavor of the city 

 that their officers were in league with this imposi- 

 tion, but concluded our time would not permit. We 

 returned to Philadelphia on the two o'clock train, 

 going direct to .Tcnkintown. and in the evening 

 visited Willow Grove Trolley Park. This wonder- 

 ful place is well policed and visited every day by 

 seventy to a hundred thousand people. We listened 

 to the evening concert by Victor Hubert's orchestra 

 (getting a front seat) in which Mr. Root was in- 

 tensely interested. Benches surrounded the audi- 

 torium and were scattered for acres in every direc- 

 tion, seating many thou.sands of people. 



After seeing the many amusements in the various 

 parts of this park, we visited Venice, in boats, 

 traveling for 10 minutes thru canals and streets 

 representing the variou.s parts of this wonderful 

 city. From tlieiT we went to the lake, where the 



