A VISIT TO BIvOOMSDAIvE. 
27 
TURNIP.— Continued. 
Yellow Aberdeen . Sometimes called Scotch Yellow; oval in form, good 
keeper, rich yellow flesh. 
Golden Ball . A small yellow turnip, early ^nd sweet. 
Yellowstone ........... Round and yellow, green crowned; a choice sort. 
Amber Grlobe, Ked Crowned . . Named and introduced by us, differing from the green 
only in color of crowns. ' 
Amber Globe Green Crowned . Named and introduced by us, flesh golden yellow, 
valuable for table and cattle. 
Xiarge Norfolk A large green crowned, white fleshed sort, used foj 
cattle. ! . 
White Stone . . . . . A large white solid cattle turnip. 
Seven Top A hardy, producing a large quantity of leaves used foi 
greens. 
Dixie Land ............. Very hardy, planted for greens, similar to Seven Top. 
but making a fair tiulb. 
Southern Prize Used for greens and salad. 
Bloomsdale Swede ........ A round Ruta Baga without neck, flesh golden, crown 
purple; earliest and decidely the best of the Swedes, 
Landreths' Improved Swede . . A hardy oval, yellow fleshed, purple crowned sort 
solid and vigorous. 
Champion Swede ......... The best English Swede, not so early as Bloomsdale, 
nor so round. 
White Fleshed Swede ...... A good keeper, very solid, crown purple, flesh white. 
{'Prom The Florzsis' Exchange, July 13, 18^5.) 
This, the well-known seed farm of D. lyandreth & Sons, situate on the 
banks of the Delaware River, is twenty-five miles from Philadelphia, and two 
and a half miles above Bristol, Pa, This farm, now celebrated for fifty years 
as a seed growing establishment, was previously a farm enjoying wide reputa- 
tion as one of the largest and best located of any on the upper Delaware. It 
was in 1685, ten years after the first settlement in its vicinity, that James 
Claypole and Robert Turner, commissioners of William Penn, the tl^en pro- 
prietary governor, granted a patent for the land tp Andrew Robinson, the 
whole tract and all adjoining being then in primeval forest, and the native 
Indians living on the banks of the river called it Lenape Wihittuck. In 
1752, Bloomsdale was for a time occupied by Alexander Gradon, whose son 
was in 1776 a captain in Colonel Shea's regiment of the Revolutionary army, 
and an author of a book of memoirs of that period.. After a number of trans- 
fers it came, in 1797, into the possession of Lewis L,eopold Notnagle, whose 
father was physician to Prince Uxor, of Jena, Germany. Notnagle was the 
first to introduce the Lombardy poplar into America. In 1807 he ere;cted an 
enormous stone barn, which is still standing, and is the largest in the county 
— now used as a seed storage warehouse. It is a tradition that at the raising 
of it all the county was in attendance, the festivities continuing for three 
days. In 1815, Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, the philanthropist, became 
the administrator of the Notnagle estate. 
Here in colonial days was the celebrated Bloomsdale ferry, the principal 
Grossing between Philadelphia and Trenton. It was at one time during the 
Revolution held as a strategic point by the British forces. On the twenty- 
sixth of December, 1776, at this ferry 3000 Continental soldiers under the 
command of Generals Putnam and Cadwalader crossed over to Jersey as a 
support to Washington at Trenton, and many relics of these old historical 
days are to be seen around this locality yet. It was also at this ferry thai 
Aaron Burr crossed the second night after he had slain Hamilton. Later on, 
a frequent visitor to Bloomsdale was Joseph Bonaparte, who, after his pur- 
chase of land a few miles up the river on the Jersey shore, became infatuated 
with Bloomsdale; it presented to him more desirable features than the Bor- 
dentown estate ; the ex-king, however, was without money, his offering f 01 
Bloomsdale being an exchange of wild forest lands in the Adirondack forest 
regions. 5 
Just a few miles above Bloomsdale is Penn's Manor and Pennsbury farm, 
once the country home of the founder of the State. 
