Central Railroad, which is largely devoted to seed culture; a portion is
used for cereals, and 500 head of cattle are kept. On the Fox Ridge farm,
through which the New York Central Railroad passes, where many seeds and
bulbs are grown, he has reclaimed a swamp of six hundred acres, making of
great value what was worthless in other hands, a kind of operation which
affords him much delight. His ownership embraces fourteen other farms in
this State, and also large estates in Michigan and Illinois.

The seed business is conducted under the firm name of Hiram Sibley & Co.,
at Rochester and Chicago, where huge structures afford accommodations for
the storage and handling of seeds on the most extensive scale. An
efficient means for the improvement of the seeds is their cultivation in
different climates. In addition to widely separated seed farms in this
country, the firm has growing under its directions several thousands of
acres in Canada, England, France, Germany, Holland, and Italy.
Experimental grounds and greenhouses are attached to the Rochester and
Chicago establishments, where a sample of every parcel of seed is tested,
and experiments conducted with new varieties. One department of the
business is for the sale of horticultural and agricultural implements of
all kinds. A new department supplies ornamental grasses, immortelles, and
similar plants used by florists for decorating and for funeral emblems.
Plants for these purposes are imported from Germany, France, the Cape of
Good Hope, and other countries, and dyed and colored by the best artists
here. As an illustration of their methods of business, it may be
mentioned that the firm has distributed gratuitously, the past year,
$5,000 in seeds and prizes for essays on gardening in the Southern
States, designed to foster the interests of horticulture in that section.

The largest farm owned by Mr. Sibley, and the largest cultivated farm in
the world, deserves a special description. This is the "Sullivant Farm,"