OURAL 
£ctrtfuRy£ 
EXCELSIOR 
41 PnrU Row, New York 
82 UulTalo St., RoclivHter, 
) @2.00 PER YEAR. 
( Single No., Eight Cents 
(Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S70, by O. D. T. Moore, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.] 
be remarkably pure 
and healthful, and 
\ the soil moderately 
\ productive, I conclu- 
\ ded to come at a ven- 
\ ture—allliough I was 
\ not acquainted with 
\ a living soul nearer 
\ than Knoxville. T 
\ have been here near- 
' ly three months, and 
so far am well- satis¬ 
fied,—in fact, well 
pleased with, the 
change. I came for 
my health. 
The soil of this ta¬ 
ble land is a sandy 
loam, with aclaysub- 
soil, and all under¬ 
laid with a sand rock, 
Avhicli frequently 
crops out, exposing 
X large surfaces where 
there is a gentle slope 
of the ground. Limu- 
■kX stone is not found ex¬ 
cept in Lhe valleys 
|»^X> and deep ravines. 
The surface is undu¬ 
lating, broken by 
deep gullies, through 
which How rapid 
streams of crystal 
water. There arc 
many springs, and 
X.X.^X^v till the water is soft. 
' v In various localities 
^ |V* are mineral springs, 
N some of which are of 
-> great medicinal 
\Xv value; one in this 
vicinity being strong- 
X. ly chalybeate, and 
the use of its waters 
is said to have cured 
many of chronic dis¬ 
eases, which I do not 
doubt, as there arc | 
living witnesses hero. 
The whole surface 
of the country, ex¬ 
cept the clearings, 
which arc few and 
small, is covered with timber, which is rather 
light on the ridges, but heavy in the valleys 
and on the hill-sides. The smallness of the 
timber on the highest portions of the land is 
owing, in a great measure, to the fires which 
have prevailed, in former years, as 1 am told, 
in a manner similar to the prairie fires of 
the West. Many of the largest chestnuts 
now standing are half burnt off at the ground, 
and many are standing entirely dead. The 
timber consists of oaks, chestnut, poplars, 
pines, walnut, hickory, maples, &c. 
All kinds of fruits and vegetables are said 
to do remarkably well here. Corn will bring 
a fair crop; buckwheat docs well; wheat 
will probably not flourish until special fer¬ 
tilizers arc applied to the soil, though the 
climate is well adapted to its production. 
The winters are open and mild—plowing, 
and other kinds of out-door farm work being 
carried on almost all the time. The popula¬ 
tion is sparse, school houses and churches 
few in number. The natives arc kind and 
obliging neighbors, but thriftless, shiftless, 
and behind the age in everything like im¬ 
provement. Northern families are now set¬ 
tling here rapidly. There are, within two 
miles of this place, about a dozen families 
which have recently come from the North, 
and within the same area not more than two 
or three families of natives. We have a good 
school of twenty-two pupils, taught by a 
Northern gentleman. 
Improvements are but just beginning to be 
made. There are scarcely a score of frame 
or board houses in the county; but a half- 
dozen at least will be erected in this neigh¬ 
borhood the coming spring, preparations for 
which are now being made. Our mails come 
twice a week from the East, and twice from 
the West. The nearest railroad stations are 
thirty miles distant on the east, and fifty 
on the west, making transportation here 
both difficult and expensive. But this will 
he remedied in lime, as undoubtedly the 
Cincinnati and Chattanooga Railroad, and 
also the Tennessee and Pacific, will, ere 
long, divide this plateau, the one passing 
through from north to south and the other 
from east to west. The price of land, unim¬ 
proved, varies from one dollar to ten dollars 
per acre.—W. C. Condit. 
Government LimuIn In Krdmn. 
b. Stern menu writes:—“In Kansas 
there sire still immense bodies of Govern¬ 
ment. and railroad lands, many of them the 
best, in the State, open for pre-emption or 
purchase. The policy now pursued of not 
putting Government lands into market for 
some years after they have been opened for 
settlement is highly advantageous to actual 
settlers, since it prevan la speculators getting 
possession of large tracts of the choicest 
lands. In Ellsworth county and further 
West, no one can acquire a title to Govern¬ 
ment land except by settling on it.” 
Of the climate he says:—“ The atmosphere 
is dry and bracing. We have but little snow 
during the fall, winter and early spring. We 
are remarkably exempt from colds, catarrhs, 
and lung diseases. The Eastern border of 
Kansas is elevated about 1,000 feet above 
tide water. 1 suppose the average elevation 
is about 1,500 feel. Our average tempera¬ 
ture is about the same as that of Maryland, 
though we correspond more nearly in lati¬ 
tude with that of Virginia. 
“ In winter the prevailing winds are from 
the North ; in summer from the South, and 
are often peculiarly hot and parching. Their 
withering effect upon vegetation is in great 
part prevented l»y heavy dews and by our 
soil being retentive of moisture. 
“ In 1807, the average rain-fall in New 
York was 42.00 inches, while in Kansas it 
was 88.49 inches. Of this there fell ill the 
latter State, in the months of May, June and 
July, 18.08 inches, being nearly two-thirds 
of the fall of the entire year. From this it 
appears that while Kansas is not injured by 
wet seasons, it generally has sufficient rain 
to mature its crops, especially those that 
ripen in summer. I do not consider fall 
crops as sure as they are in more eastern 
States, though they are often very abundant, 
and seldom proved an entire failure. Our 
rainy season, consisting of the last spring 
and the first two summer months, has this 
peculiarity, that our rains manage to fid I so 
as seldom to interrupt the labors of the 
farm. Last summer was a pretty wet sea¬ 
son for this region, and yet our rains nearly 
all fell at niglit so a8 but twice to interfere 
with the labors of the day. As the country 
In 1842 Mr. Buss 
connected himself 
with a firm in Spring- z'' 
field ,Mass., then deal- / 
ing mainly in drugs, / 
groceries, grass seeds, / 
etc.; but bis love of / 
flowers anil plants / 
was such that as op- / 
portunity opened in / 
the rural suburbs of 
that beautiful town, 
ho could no longer 
restrain himself, and 
of course a garden 
was the result, at¬ 
tracting its visitors 
by hundreds, as I 
have before written. 
The call of visitors, 
as well as of corres- L 
pondents by letter, 
for seeds, soon in¬ 
duced a resolve to 
make seed-growing 
and selling an item of X, 
business. lie there- "IPPli 
fore invested Jive dol- ' 
/bur*, iu the best of 
flower seeds and 
saved wliat lie knew 
to be fine in bis own 
grounds. These were ’ 
soon sold, the stock /fgEESj 
replenished, again 
sold, and so on, until ’ _ 
there came with the 
call for seeds, a de- 
mand for plants, 
trees,shrubs, etc., in- 
ducing the construe- 
tion of a green or 
propagating house \ 
and the extension of ^kv ‘X 
the garden or nursery \ x 
until it became a pop- f 
ular and well known 
establish ment all 
over the laud, and its 
business cares so ex- 
| acting that in 1865 
the garden and green 
house was sold to 
Olm Brothers. 
In 1853 Mr. Buss visited Europe for the 
purpose of making business acquaintance 
and arranging for the future transmission of 
seeds and plants ; and it was about Ibis time 
also that he extended the knowledge of his 
possessions and his offers to the public, by 
wide-spread and liberal advertising. His 
first catalogue of seeds was issued in 1849, 
and was then attached as part and parcel of 
a drug business; but the following year the 
drugs were omitted, and the catalogue, em¬ 
bracing the whole of four pages, was issued 
alone; this was again followed, the succeed¬ 
ing year, by one of twelve pages, and Ibis 
again added to, year by year, until at this 
time, 1870, his catalogue numbers over one 
hundred and twenty pages, profusely illus¬ 
trated with truthful representations of all 
the choicest, leading flowers and vegetables 
known, while, in its text descriptive, no 
work of the kind surpasses, if it even equal 
it, iu this or the old country. 
The question is doubtless frequently asked, 
“ How can these seedsmen afford to publish 
such expensive books and dispose of them 
at a price so much below their actual coat?” 
The answer is two-fold. In the first place, 
it is a perpetual advertisement in the house¬ 
hold. In the second, it must be remembered 
that the bulk of a seedsman's business, as 
regards sales, is confined to two or three 
months, and that with almost every order 
for seeds comes a corresponding fist of ques¬ 
tions respecting the sowing of the seeds, the 
after care of the plants, etc., to which cour¬ 
tesy demands reply. The printed catalogue 
is then the answer, and at once saves the 
nbustriul §R 
POPULAR SEEDSMEN, 
BY F. R. ELLIOTT, 
Itciijuinin Kins Bliss. 
It has been, by many, supposed that the 
cheap postage law ou seeds and plants gave 
1 ho first impetus to a wide-spread dissemina¬ 
tion of the same; but while we acknowledge 
its favorable influence, we must go back of 
it and note the taste of our American people, 
which increasing, or rather developing, with 
their wealth, caused them, nolens totem, to 
have that which the good God designed to 
lead them constantly to remember that all 
beyond this earth is beautiful beyond com¬ 
pare, and in their garden of flowers here, they 
were only serving an apprenticeship the bet¬ 
ter to enable them to enjoy the future Garden 
of Paradise, laid out, dressed, and kept for all 
who love Mini. 
B. K. Bliss, whose name and history we 
now record, it appears was early educated in 
this love and belief; and, although appren- 
tieed when supposed to have arrived at an 
age of usefulness to the compounding of 
drugs, his early, innate love of nature, com¬ 
bined with the instructions of his mother, 
and the impress of a country life made upon 
a youth passed among the intelligent, God- 
fearing and loving people that then inhabit¬ 
ed Springfield, Mass., induced him, as soon 
as circumstances, according to the foresight 
of a New England education, would permit, 
to embark in a garden of his own, which 
soon, by Us floral beauty, attracted the at¬ 
tention and admiration of hundreds of visi¬ 
tants. The record of the career of this seeds¬ 
man shows that the cheap postage on seeds 
was a necessity, and grew out of the de¬ 
mand of the people. 
It was in 1853 that B. K. Buss first dis¬ 
tributed seeds through the mail, although 
the then high rates of postage precluded the 
sending of any but flower and the choice 
sorts of vegetable seeds; yet the people 
wanted them, and this intelligent, energetic 
man hesitated not to play his part in a free 
distribution of what by Uieir culture, growth 
and developing beauty, inspires, elevates, 
and Improves those whom God himself has 
called to dress and keep on this earth a Gar¬ 
den of Eden. 
The records of the Rural New-Yorker 
also show that its Conductor had an early 
loving interest for the people at large,—I 
beg pardon for this interpolation, but it is 
part of my present record,—for in 1855 he, 
D. D. T. Moore, entered into a compact 
with B. K. Buss, whereby each person who 
obtained a specified number of subscribers 
for the Rural New-Yorker received a 
certain amount of flower seeds; and thereby 
said publisher not only assisted in the eleva¬ 
tion and advance of refinement, but lie gave 
to the seedsman a notoriety as a business 
man, that otherwise could not have been ob¬ 
tained by years of advertising. 
The ancestors of B. K. Bliss were from 
England, and first settled in Springfield, 
Mass., whence they removed, in 1817, to 
Onondaga, N. Y., where, October 4th, 
1819, B, K. Bliss was born. In 1821 the 
family returned to Springfield, Mass., where 
the ordinary, yet systematic schooling of 
New Englanders, which makes them world¬ 
wide renowned, was given the hoy until he 
was fifteen yeai’s of age, at which time he 
was apprenticed to a drug firm in Boston, 
witli which he remained eight yearn, rising 
from pestle pounder to business manager. 
The firm was one wide awake to their own 
interests, and aware of the value of printers’ 
ink,— i. e., advertising,—ami in the contracts 
for such work, Mr. Bliss was mainly intrust¬ 
ed, thereby giving him a full and true knowl¬ 
edge of its merits and advantages, of which 
he has not failed since to avail himself. 
time and labor of one person, whose services 
could not be had at less, propably, than 
three-fold the cost of the printed catalogue. 
But, to return to our main subject of Bliss, 
which, in accordance with Scripture, has in¬ 
creased and multiplied to such an extent that 
the narrow confines of Springfield, or even 
New England, could not longer suffice; but 
with a view to more full expansion, develop¬ 
ment and dissemination of his seeds, we find, 
in 1867, B. Iv. Buss of Springfield, Mass., 
transferred and transformed to B. K. Bliss 
& Son of New York, where, in October of 
that year, they opened their trade at 41 Park 
Row. From this place they are now, as we 
write, preparing to remove to, and occupy, 
the four stories (twenty-five by one hundred 
and fifty feet each) of the building designated 
as No. 23 Park Place, and illustrated on 
page 257, where, having one of the largest 
and most convenient seed stores in the 
United States, I bid them God speed in all 
that is good and useful to mankind. 
tftttr Qtpaxtnunt 
WHAT CORRESPONDENTS SAY. 
From Cumberland Co., Tenn. 
Tnis place is on the celebrated Cumber¬ 
land table land, near the center from east to 
west, and nearly on the air line between 
Knoxville and Nashville. I had never been 
on this mountain before bringing my family 
here; but believing the air and the water to 
RE vans Agt 
BRANT ‘ N Y 
