* 



PREFACE 



WE were well pleased with the reception accorded our 

 revised edition of Sweet Peas Up-To-Date when pub- 

 lished 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 bewilder- 

 ing numbers, with the result that to keep our book 

 really "up-to-date" we feel that it is necessary to pub- 

 lish 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 five years 

 been hybridizing the original winter-flowering varieties, 

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

 Earliest Sunbeams, Burpee's Earliest White and Bur- 

 pee's Re-selected Earliest of All, 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, though 

 it may be a year or so ere we have sufficient stocks of 

 these to offer to the public. 



W. ATLEE BURPEE & Co. 



Fordhook Farms, December 10, 1913. 



4977 Jl 



