worth more and costs more than its weight in gold. This pollen is transferred to the pistils of the 
single flowei-s, their own stamens being first removed. It is thus easy to miderstand why some 
kinds of flower-seeds are not cheap. Most of this work is done at what is called the Home 
Place, consisting of about twenty-five acres, nearly two miles east of the center of the city, on 
East Avenue. 
Five miles north from Rochester, towards Lake Ontario, and within two miles of its shore, 
near a station known as Barnard's, on the Charlotte branch of the New York Central railroad, 
is situated VicFs Flower-Farm. It consists of sixty-five acres, and possesses much natural 
beauty. A deep wooded ravine runs 
irregularly through its centre, and through 
this winds a little spring-fed stream, which, 
near the centre of the farm, widens into 
a lakelet of several acres, which empties 
itself over a little fall of six or eight feet. 
This water is used for the washing of seed, 
an operation which the artist has sketched 
for us. It is also pumped by a windmill .nto 
large elevated tanks, and from these is dis- 
tributed through iron pipes over the entire 
grounds. And by convenient arrangements 
for attaching hose an acre can be watered in 
a very short time, so that the plants here are 
never allowed to suffer from drought. The 
soil is a sandy loam, the timber in the neigh- 
borhood mainly chestnut and oak, and here 
are grown those plants that flourish best in a 
warm soil. Perhaps the largest field devoted 
entirely to one kind of flowers, at the time of 
our visit, was one filled with Dahlias, and con- 
taining six or more acres. It was supposed 
to include every variety known of real merit, 
and the display was gorgeous. Next in im- 
portance, perhaps, were the Asters, of every 
form and color, from the little dwarf bouquet, 
a mass of flowers six or eight inches in 
height, to the great Washington, bearing 
flowers four or five inches in diameter on 
plants four feet in height. Each color is 
planted separately, and at distant points, to 
prevent mixture. 
T?he Phlox Drummondii, a native of 
America, luxuriates in this light soil, and no 
other flower, we think, produces such a 
solid unbroken mass of color — an acre of 
scarlet, an acre of white, and pink, and so 
on through six or seven different varieties, 
and as many, colors, without a single mixture of color, or break, or barren spot to mar its 
splendor. Several hundred pounds of this seed are grown every year. The seed saved for 
distinct colors is gathered from the middle of each acre, and early in the season : the remainder, 
though saved separate later in the year, is used only for mixed colors. To make a good " mixture"' 
it is necessary to grow the colors separate in this way, for if mixed seed is sown those varieties 
that seed freely will soon "run out" the weaker kinds. Although many other kinds of seed are 
grown in small quantities, the Aster, Phlox, Dahlia, and Tuberose seem to be specialties. 
Several convenient houses have been erected for growing the plants which are afterwards 
transferred to the open fields, (a view of some of these Avill be observed,) and scores of frames are 
FERTILIZING THE LARGE-FLOWERED PETUNIAS. 
