THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
319 
coal ashes and broken stone are best. The usual way of 
making good foot-walks is as follows: The material is 
gathered in a convenient place and is heated in a box 
having a sheet iron bottom and mounted on a few 
stones. As the stuff is made hot it is thrown in a heap 
on a mixing board and melted asphalt or gas tar 
is poured over it and the whole well shovelled over 
until thoroughly incorporated, no more tar being used 
than will merely coat the material and be absorbed by 
it. The path is properly graded and dug out three or 
or four inches; dry coarse gravel is first laid down and 
the prepared material is spread two inches thick and 
well rammed down. It is smoothed as well as possible 
and then dusted over with dry sand or fine ashes, and 
rolled Until a hard smooth surface is made. This soon be¬ 
comes like rock and no weeds or moss will grow upon it. 
Another way is to make a concrete of water-lime with 
gravel or ashes or both. These materials are put in a 
heap and wetted. One barrel of water-lime is mixed 
with three barrels of sharp, clean sand, dry, being 
shovelled over back and forth several times to get a 
thorough mixture. A portion is then mixed with water 
into a thin, soft mortar and five parts of the wet gravel 
or ashes are well mixed with it, so that every fragment 
is coated with the combining mortar. This is impor¬ 
tant for obvious reasons. This concrete is spread on the 
graded walk and beaten down with a rammer until the 
moisture gathers on the surface. Some of the dry sand 
or cement is then scattered over the surface to absorb 
the moisture and the surface is smoothed over with a 
plank rubber having a sloping handle to work it back 
and forth with. In a few days this is hard and becomes 
harder with time. By making divisions of thin strips 
of wood or tarred paper the cement may be laid down 
in blocks, square or diamond shaped, and for extra good 
walks the blocks may be colored by mixing the finish 
coat with brown or gray or other colors alternately. 
— Exchange. 
SEED GROWERS. 
PART VI. 
D. Landreth & Sons, Philadelphia. 
In visiting the Bloomsdale Farm, the headquarters of 
Landreth & Sons’ seed industry, the casual observer, 
if an agriculturist, would be no less amazed at the vast 
acreage devoted to Seed-growing, and the number of 
buildings required for curing, cleaning and storing the 
crops, than with the neatness, systematic arrangement, 
and well-ordering of the whole establishment for the 
purposes to which it is devoted. At the same time 
great surprise would be manifested that the vast 
amount of Seeds there produced could ever be con¬ 
sumed. The practical seedsman, the scientific horticul¬ 
turist, or the person who has made rural aesthetics a 
study, would manifest an equal degree of amazement, 
but. it would be of a far different character. In ap¬ 
proaching the place the growing crops, so healthy and 
clean, would, indeed, excite his admiration, but upon 
entering the gates and looking over the lawn, bushels of 
grain and tons of seeds are for the time forgotten, and 
the soul, the imagination, is fed. What an arboretum! 
We know of none that will compare with it for variety 
and number of noble specimens, and of itself contains 
twenty-five acres. 
This place has a history, but how little known. Who 
knows the history of all these noble trees ? Who saw 
them in their seed form, and lovingly planted and 
tended them? The whole earth has contributed to this 
collection of evergreens and deciduous trees and 
shrubs, and the contributions have been well cared for. 
It was not for business or for the hope of gain that 
drew from every clime the thousands of beautiful forms 
which are here to be seen. It was the love of the beau¬ 
tiful in nature that called them together, and has cared 
for them. What a rare treat to look at that venerable 
top-broken and rugged aboriginal Pine, whose branches 
have swung to the winds of two hundred years. And 
that old Pear tree, whose life history covers so long a pe¬ 
riod of time. Many generations of happy children have 
sported under its branches, and eaten of the rich, ripe 
fruit so cheerfully furnished—there it stands, strong, 
hale, and hearty, typical of beautiful old age. Again, 
we see knurled old Apple trees, gigantic Walnuts, noble 
Tulip trees ; the Abies Douglassii and Nobilis of the Pa¬ 
cific coast; the trim, proud Cephalonian Spruce, and 
the graceful trees of far-off Japan, all happily blend¬ 
ed, forming one of Nature’s most perfect harmonies. 
Such collections are indeed uncommon, but a still 
greater rarity is to see them understood and appreci¬ 
ated. 
Although the hands that long years ago planted these 
noble forms are at rest, the love that planted, and 
watched over them still lives, and is the richest inherit¬ 
ance that children can have or enjoy. It is an essential 
element in all horticultural business transactions, in 
fact, no man that is not a lover of plants, in all their 
varied forms, can appreciate or understand them ; and 
without a full and clear understanding of a plant, its 
nature, habit and manner of growth, its successful cul¬ 
tivation is a matter of chance, rather than the result of 
knowledge rightly applied. To be a successful seed- 
grower a man must be thoroughly interested in all that 
belongs to the plant world, that beautiful and varie¬ 
gated carpet with which Nature has overspread the 
earth, and which is ever changing its character, as the 
seasons roll on. It is the love of‘the beautiful in the 
plant, that makes the business of seed-growing an in¬ 
teresting one; therefore, as Victor Hugo truthfully said, 
“The beautiful is as useful as the useful—perhaps more 
so.” 
It is an uncommon thing in this country to see gen¬ 
erations following the same line of industry for a cen¬ 
tury, each adding to the combined intelligence, indus¬ 
try and practical experience the new ideas and prin¬ 
ciples that evolve from the scientific experiments and 
observations and the indomitable perseverance of to¬ 
day. Such an example, however, we find in the firm of 
DAVID LANDRETH & SONS, 
whose business operations show in a marked degree a 
