594 



...hii- 



• tlU' 



::iiuncnt 



Patronu." 



I ><;i\ tli.ii (til ^" •! t'li-ilnoKs Is the 



for thtB 



-iiiiiily lire 



I . ll;> kuuwIcdKO of 



xtil, Imcl or IndilTer- 



tul lo.ks; 



tlu' iliou- 



Mli l.liw" !• llKO of 



lh>- Kiiouicilge of 

 j.. .,,,,..! ,,. ..< various varieties; 



tlii'ir ailaplablllty lu ccrtulii soils and 

 rlliuatlc condllloiiB. 1» not a knowledge 

 that Is KalntHi In a day. It is a life 

 work, and more than life worlt for 

 anyone. Consequently, the hit-and- 

 miss or would-be seedsman has no 

 place In the real seed huslness. It will 

 be admitted that there are compara- 

 tively few people possessed of this 

 knowledge. 



Conditions of transportation also 

 preclude the possibility of complete 

 stocks beiiiL- iLuiiil In every locality 

 and in <• "u; so that centers 



must Ik- • 'I for collecting the 



countless (huusunds of varieties. 

 These centers must become the centers 

 of distribution for the reason I have 

 already mentioned. One can readily 

 see that these conditions cannot Ije 

 met in every community, — conse- 

 quently, a man who desires to pur- 

 chase seeds should avail himself of 

 this concentrated knowledge. He 

 should not gamble a year's effort 

 against an indifferent product. For 

 this reason he must turn to the cen- 

 ters that are recognized as reliable 

 sources of supply. This automatically 

 constructs a mail-order business, be- 

 cause he cannot make the journey to 

 these remote centers to make the in- 

 dividual purchase. He takes unto him- 

 self the service of the mails: he or- 

 ders his seed by mail: it goes to him 

 by express, freight or parcel post. 



The detail of a mail-order seed busi- 

 ness is almost endless. As stated be- 

 fore, these seeds are gathered from 

 every section of the world. With the 

 House of Burpee, as they are collected, 

 samples are drawn from each and 

 every variety, also from many stocks 

 of the same variety. These samples 

 are drawn for several piiriioses. First, 

 for a germination lest in which we 

 determine just what proportion or per- 

 centage of the seed will germinate or 

 grow. This germination test is con- 

 ducted by the process of counting out 

 one hundred seeds. Two or three 

 trials of the same variety are made, 

 so that the results obtained in any par- 

 ticular hundred seeds does not of 

 necessity characterize the entire lot. 

 Samples are drawn from top, bottom 

 and middle of the package.s or con- 

 tainers: so that the loniijosite result 

 shows pretty well the character of that 

 particular lot. Purity tests are con- 

 ducted on the identical lots the follow 

 Ing summer. We know not only what 

 proportion of the seed will grow, but 

 whether the variety is true to type in 

 growth, color, formation and many 

 other points. 



This is a part of the world's greatest 

 mail-order seed business that the lay- 

 man might consider a burden — still it 

 is the seedsman's conscience. By this 

 he knows whether he is right or 

 whether he is wrong. The detail con- 

 nected with this is tremendous. It 



II tt irncuLT U HE 



May 1, !!tl5 



. iiiiiiir. . iiiIIpsr ontrles. endless rei'- 

 orclH, that hip over from mic year \i- 

 the utiicr. It Is u curious fact thai 

 some see<ls are better lifter three or 

 four years than they are If planted 

 Immedialely. This is perhaps demon 

 Htratcd U'st in the iiurscry buslnesH. 

 although it is eqtuilly applicable l» 

 vegetable and Mower seeds, but in the 

 nursery buHlness it Is the common 

 practice to carry peach pits or seed 

 one whole year l)efor<' planting. I'ecu 

 liar changes and conditions ripen the 

 seetls and eliminates the weaklings, 

 and the ones thai survive give a stand 

 of the very best. In other words, it 

 is a case of "the survival of the Ill- 

 test" anil automatically eliminates the 

 undesirables. II is the practice of (he 

 conscientious and fore-handed seed 

 houses to carry not only one ijui '" 

 some instances two years' stock ahead, 

 where the vitality warrants, so that 

 they may know by means of records 

 that what they offer lor sale is ex- 

 actly what they represent it to be. 



This leads to another phase of sell- 

 ing seeds by mail — the creation of the 

 catalog. This brings many other in- 

 teresting features — that of selecting 

 the subjects to be illustrated; the pro- 

 duction of proper photographs photo- 

 graphed at exactly the right time and 

 under the right conditions, so that the 

 resulting cut or illustration may faith- 

 fully picture the variety illustrated, 

 the production of colored paintings 

 for the lithographed or colored cataii-f, 

 illustrations, the production of the 

 covers, the endless detail of mailing 

 the catalog — this all runs into the 

 thousands. The House of Burpee dis- 

 tributed for 1915 approximately 1.200.- 

 1100 catalogs. Perhaps when all the 

 various issues are taken into consid- 

 eration we have distributed many 

 more, but this in itself requires an 

 item of paper amounting to almost a 

 half million pounds. Tills does not 

 include the weight of the catalog en- 

 velops or the fillers, so that we might 

 safely say that in this one business 

 there is approximately three-quarters 

 of a million pounds of paper used in the 

 various catalogs. On one of these cata- 

 logs (an issue of approximately 600,000) 

 the postage is tour cents: on another 

 (an issue of approximately 100,000) 

 the postage is four cents; on another 

 issue of approximately 600,000 the 

 postage is one cent: — so that you can 

 see the item of postage on the catalog 

 alone is no mean sum. 



The process of filling the pockets, 

 their storage, the intricate and deli- 

 cate machinery used in this exacting 

 work, would furnish the material for 

 a largo book. The housing, feeding 

 and caring for the large numl.er of 

 employees is another feature. 



The advertising in connection witli 

 a mail-order seed business is an enor- 

 mous item involving the expenditure 

 of many thousands of dollars. Colored 

 pages on the Country Gentleman. , 

 Country Life in America, The Garden i 

 Magazine, McCall's, Literary Digest, 

 Mother's and many other magazines 

 with large circulations cannot be pur- 

 chased with a dollar bill. W'hole 

 pages in black-and-white in many of 

 the other magazines whose rates run 

 from five hundred to two thousand dol- 

 lars a page are no small item; but 

 collectively they have produced a busi- 

 ness whose orders run into the thou- 

 sands each day. Various forms and 



Michelfs Primula Seed 



I'KIMI l\ CM|VK>MS ( kinrw r„m,..., 



U Tr. Tr. 

 Vkt. ricl. 



Mli'hi-ll- rrlir MUlurp. All 

 .veil lil.-iellii).- ..f all rulor»..»0.00 11.00 



.\ll>u .MuKnlllra. White 00 1.00 



( hlawli'k IUmI. Ilrlk'lit red OU I.OO 



llurlie«iii. Willie with tdllf^ of 



riiKV <iiriiiliie, jelluw eye «0 l.tXl 



IlLlllorii lUiir. Go 1.00 



KeriiKcliiii NplfnilPDl. CrImiOD .6U 100 

 l<i>..\ lliirii. I'llik 00 1.00 



PSIMIL/V OBCORICA aiOARlEA 



A (jrmt liii|iriivciiiiiil over the old 

 l.vpe; llo«er« iiiuih liirger. 



Trade I'kt. 



l.llBrlim. IMIe lilac 10.00 



K«*rniff<lna. L>oep crimsOD 00 



l(iN.ni. I'Ink M 



Alliii. White M 



ll.vhrlilu .Mlii-d M 



FRIMtU MALACOIDBS 



I.lliu-. Tr, I'kt W.80 



All>a. White. Orlg. pkt 20 



Itonra. Ijight rose to rnrmlne rose. 

 iirlg. pkt. IS 



AI.O .11 oiber $r<u>ii.bl< SEEDS. BUBS. rU>TS 

 .^,1 SI PPtlES 



I-ATEST \\IIOI.K8AJ.E C>ATAIyOti 

 AM) IMIKK LIlST. KKKF FOB 

 TIIK AHKINO. 



HENRY F. MICHELL CO. 



518 Market St./Phlla. 



I'lIK llt'CiS ABK BUST 



NIGO FUME LIQUID andPAPER 



Prepaid to Your Door 



1 Gal. Can 910.S0 M: Oal. C&n... «A. 



288 SheetH I'apir 1 



144 ShfvtH I'uprr 4 



ROMAN J. IRWIN,' 



08 West 28lh St. 

 NEW YORK 



NEW CROP SEEDS 



FOB FLOBI8T8 

 Aak for ISIS CatalorvM 



Joseph Breck & Sons Corp. 



Seedftmen 



47-54 No. Market St., BOSTON, MASS. 



"SEEDS WITH A LINEAGE" 



Seeds with a generation of flneat 

 flowers and vegetable! back of tbem — 

 carefully selected — really tested. 

 Write today for Catalog- 

 CARTER'S TESTED SEEDS, Inc. 



166 Chamber of Commerce Bldr. 

 Boaton, Masff. 



It is our BUSINESS to supply 

 you with 



SUPERIOR GLADIOLI 



JOHN LEWIS CHILDS 



FLOWERFIELD, L. I., N. Y. 



Whan writing to adoertimert kindly 

 mantion HOPTICVLTURE. 



styles of advertising have been tried 

 and all have shown points of value. 



The value of horticultural material 

 imported into New York during the 

 week ending April 17. is given as fol- 

 lows: Manure salt. $15,652; fertilizer, 

 $4,835; nitrate of soda, $599,895; clover 

 seed, $18,579; gr^ss seed. $14,678; 

 trees and plants, $30,717. 



