PREFACE 



WE were well pleased with the reception accorded our re- 

 vised edition of Sweet Peas Up-To-Date when published 

 in 1910, but since the list of varieties contained therein 

 was compiled so great has been the interest of hybridizers 

 and specialists in this beautiful flower, that new varieties 

 have been offered the public in bewildering numbers, 

 with the result that to keep our book really "up-to-date" 

 we feel that it is necessary to publish this new edition. 



Sweet Peas are a great specialty with us, neither 

 time nor money being spared in our endeavors to test 

 and try out all novelties as they are offered by European 

 and other Sweet Pea specialists. Our Sweet Pea trials 

 at Fordhook Farms in 1913 numbered 1133, many of 

 these being duplicated on Burpee's Floradale Farm in 

 California. We are thus enabled to find out for our- 

 selves just which varieties are worthy of perpetuating 

 and offering to our customers and friends. 



We have at Fordhook for the past eight years 

 been hybridizing the original winter-flowering varieties, 

 viz.: Burpee's Earliest of All (Christmas Pink), Burpee's 

 Earliest Sunbeams, Burpee's Earliest White, Burpee's 

 Re-selected Earliest of All, and Yarrawa, with the finest 

 varieties of Spencers, with a view to evolving a new race 

 of early or winter-flowering Spencers, and we are now 

 able to say that we have accomplished this even beyond 

 our most sanguine expectations, as we have now winter- 

 flowering Spencers in many exquisite colors, a number of 

 which we are offering this season; others will be intro- 

 duced as we work up sufficient "trued" stocks. We 

 anticipate that in the near future we will have this in- 

 valuable type to offer in all the colors now found in the 

 summer-flowering varieties. 



W. ATLEE BURPEE & Co. 



Fordhook Farms, December n, 1916. 



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