GARDENERS' COMPLAINTS-; 
29 
final ripening being done by being laid upon scaffoldings in tbe seed barns-. 
Parsnips are looking remarkably well this season, a large batcb of the Blooms- 
dale being very well grown, and pure. Then there are also crops of pump- 
kins, peppers, eggplant, tobacco, and especially noticeable is fifty acres of 
radish shooting to seed, and promising 1000 pounds to the acre. 
On the Jersey shore, on the other side of the river, and as an auxiliary to*- 
Bloomsdale, is Reedland farm of 140 acres. On this farm are grown see* 
crops of cabbage, turnip, beet, watermelon, canteloupe melon, tomato, egg- 
plant, okra and onion sets, the two farms being managed as one. 
The experimental or trial grounds, which occupy so prominent a positiois 
with some seed firms, are here well worthy of a visit, as they are most exten- 
sive, admirably laid out, and exceedingly well kept. Thousands of samples^ 
each with its distinct serial number, are seen. Of each sample there are two* 
rows in small things ; these rows are about five feet long, and each lot of 
vegetables is an object lesson in itself ; for instance, in a batch of curled 
lettuce out of ten samples, each from a different source, and each with 
distinct name, there was scarcely any difference — not sufficient in any way 
to warrant a distinct name being given. The trials of peas covered full one- 
half an acre, and were all sown in parallel rows, each of thirty feet in length, 
and classified in batches of early, medium and late. The sugar peas were 
very interesting, one new variety having, a pod fully four inches long. This- 
experimental garden must be a rare opportunity for a young seedsman, or an 
experienced one, either, and may be compared with a chemist's laboratory. 
The farm buildings, with the one previously noted exception, have all been, 
erected for the purposes for which they are used, and in the summer receive 
the unthreshed seed crops to be completely dried before threshing, which 
makes a round of successive operations during July, August and September. 
In the winter they are used as seed warehouses, affording on their ample 
floors an enormous aggregate of storage surface. Another very important 
point is the buildings are entirely separated, thus admitting of a wide sepa- 
ration and isolation of seed stocks in storage. 
Bloomsdale is also a commercial establishment, as it also receives all the 
seed stocks grown on contract or acquired by purchase. Nine-tenths of all 
crops are packed here for their final destination, the packing operations at 
the Philadelphia warehouse being very insignificant in comparison with the 
work done at the farm, where it is contemplated to greatly extend the pack- 
ing and shipping facilities by the erection of new structures. 
An interesting feature is that nearly all the prominent operatives employed 
are living on the farm, there being some forty large tenant houses, and many 
of these families have lived tipon the farm for thirty years and some nearly 
forty years. 
....Gardeners' Complaints.... 
It often happens that merchants selling seeds are complained to by market gardeners 
that this seed or that seed has not sprouted, and, as a rule, the merchant sits down and writes 
us to the same eflfect without stopping or attempting to investigate, or await further results. 
A few days ago we received just such a letter from a merchant in Virginia, and three days 
later received from him the following : 
" I regret exceedingly that I was misled by truckers in regard to the germination of your 
Royal Cabbage Lettuce Seeds, and I now find that they were impatient, unreasonable, and 
their reports entirely untrue,, as I sowed your seeds in a box on the 2d of this month and 1 
find them up well this morning, and. besides, one of the men who had this seed told me, noS 
ten minutes ago, that his was up too thick, and that others in his section told him yesterday 
thatit was now coming np nicely; andil now write to apologize to your firm, as I feel very 
sorry for what I said two or three days ago. believing, as I then did, from the reports of so 
many, that the seeds were worthless " 
And yet this merchant said he would never purchase another I^ettuce Seed from Landretk.. 
He certainly makes honorablse reparation; many do not do that. 
