320 
THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
happy blending of the ideal and the actual—marked 
characteristics in the founders of the business. The 
aesthetic taste of the second Landretli is plainly shown in 
the vine-clad warehouses, in which their productions 
are stored and prepared for market, and the ^neatness 
which pervades all their business operations; while the 
extent of the firm’s business leaves no question as to the 
method in which it is carried on. We do not propose 
in this article to speak of the extent of the Messrs. Lan- 
dreth’s business or their methods of conducting it—how 
they put up their seeds for market, or the varied manip¬ 
ulations through which the seeds pass from planting 
until the product is ready for market. These are busi¬ 
ness matters interesting only to themselves. It is the 
intelligent care given to their productions of which we 
wish to speak, and which cannot fail to instruct and in¬ 
terest all of our readers who are the fortunate possess¬ 
ors of gardens. 
The growing of seeds is an important industry, and 
one little understood, even by those who sell them in 
large quantities. The importance of having seeds that 
will, with proper cultivation, produce what is expected 
of them cannot be overestimated. Upon the seed in 
great measure depends the farmer’s and ^market gar¬ 
dener’s success. It is a fact well known, that when the 
best seed is sown, there is ofttimes failure or partial fail¬ 
ure of crops, owing to climatic or other influences un¬ 
favorable to plant development. It is also a fact, that 
worthless seed will not, under any circumstances, pro¬ 
duce a good crop, and that the sowing of such means 
failure in every instance. Another fact is known to 
observing seed planters,and that is, that American grown 
seeds are more vital than imported, and, when germi¬ 
nated, produce plants which naturally thrive under an 
American sun; another .advantage over the foreign 
grown article matured in the damper atmosphere of Eng¬ 
land or France. Hence, the importance of having seed 
that is vital and that will yield a crop true to name and 
description under ordinary circumstances. We do not 
wish to underrate the intelligence or integrity of seeds¬ 
men in general or in particular; but we are compelled to 
say, that there is no business so little understood by those 
■who pursue it as the seed trade. To buy and sell seeds 
does not make a man a seedsman, any more than to buy 
and sell a chromo would make a man an artist, or the 
buying and selling of books would make a man an au¬ 
thor. A seedsman is not a mushroom creation, unheard 
of to-day, and fully developed to-morrow. On the con¬ 
trary, the seedsman is of slow growth; the knowledge he 
must possess, is only to be acquired by years of patient 
industry, close observation, careful comparison, and by 
constant selection of and experimenting with his various 
production r. It is impossible for a man to be a good 
seedsman without a natural taste and inclination for hor¬ 
ticultural pursuits. Without this taste no man can learn 
to distinguish a slight variation from the true type in 
any vegetable form. This is the most important work 
the seedsman has to perform, as upon it the whole char¬ 
acter of his productions will depend. We saw the 
strongest evidence of this love the moment we stepped 
upon Bloomsdale Farm, and the farther we advanced the 
more fully convinced we were that the love for beauti¬ 
ful in the grass, the shrub and the tree, was a natural 
one; it was generic, and would be manifest in all their 
productions, arrangements and appliances. In this 
opinion we were not in the least mistaken, as we shall 
endeavor to show our readers. 
THE BLOOMSDALE FARM 
is on the Delaware River, about twenty miles above 
Philadelphia. It contains nearly 600 acres, its length 
being two miles, and its width half a mile. The soil is 
a rich, sandy loam, with a gravelly sub-soil, and for 
general farming purposes there is none more suitable. 
With the river on one side, the canal on the other, and 
the Pennsylvania Railroad running through the centre, 
the facilities for receiving fertilizers and for shipping 
productions could not be better; and, as $25,000 worth 
of fertilizers is often consumed in a single year, this is 
an important item. 
The annual plantings on this farm average about as 
follows: Eighty-five acres in Onions for sets and seed; 
150 in Cabbage; 150 in Turnips in variety; 25 in Radish; 
40 in Beets; 4 in Parsnips; 20 in Lettuce; 20 in Spinach; 
20 in Pole Beans; 15 in Water Melons; 15 in Canta¬ 
loupes; 25 in Cucumbers; 20 in Squashes; 40 in Toma¬ 
toes; 4 in Okra; 2 in Egg Plant: and 2 in Peppers. The 
remainder of the farm is principally devoted to Peas, 
Beans and Corn; these are mainly grown for trial and 
stock seed only. The most useful and interesting fea¬ 
ture of this farm is the Trial Ground, where all their own 
as well as the “novelties” of other seed growers are 
given a crucial test, in order to ascertain the intrinsic 
value of tlie productions, before the seed is offered for 
sale. As a matter of fact, the Bloomsdale Farm is but 
little else than a trial or test farm, as it is here that all 
their stock seed is grown. It is not to be supposed that 
this farm yields other than a small proportion of the 
seeds they sell. Excepting in a few instances, the pro¬ 
ducts of the farm are not for the purposes of sale, but 
to grow plants of various kinds, from which the best 
selection is made for seed. And herein lies the secret 
of successful seed-growing, viz., careful selection, which 
is a labor of far greater magnitude than is generally 
supposed. The number of tests on their grounds this 
year, is 8,243, of which 170 are of Water Melons, 180 of 
Cantaloupes, 90 of Cucumbers and 89 of Squashes. 
They also have very interesting trial grounds for vines, 
upon which are tried various remedies for the destruc¬ 
tion of insect pests. Just over the river is situated Lan- 
dreth’s Jersey Farm, known as “Reedland” on which 
the same processes of seed-culture are pursued with 
the same systematic care. 
Vegetable forms are constantly changing, and new 
varieties are annually sent out. Many of the forms that 
were “ novelties” but a few years since, are no longer 
known in the trade, and their places are filled by “new 
varieties,” that will in their turn die out to make places 
for other aspirants for public favor. All new forms are 
either “ sports,” or the results of cross-fertilization. In 
either case, the operation of working up a new variety 
of any vegetable for purposes of sale, is a slow one, and 
one that requires great patience, keen discrimination, 
and an eye accustomed to the work. For example, the 
writer noticed on his Long Island farm, to-day, a head 
of Cabbage remarkable alike for size, form, texture, 
habit of growth, united with extreme earliness. Be¬ 
cause of its distinct character, it will be carefully pre¬ 
served for further experiment. Next season producing 
seed, that seed will be sown for a second crop of plants 
