^AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



of all kinds of seeds? With agricultural resources and 

 facilities practically unlimited, we lead and excel in 

 farm products generally. We not only produce all 

 the seeds of grains and grasses (introduced here from 

 abroad) required by ourselves, but also ship great 

 quantities to Foreign countries, owing to our producing 

 them so cheaply. We have cheaper and better land 

 than has Europe, and a greater diversity of climate and 

 soil. And besides all these advantages we have what 

 goes without saying, an abundance of American intelli- 

 gence, energy, application and pride to enable us to 

 produce at lesser cost than in Europe, and at a good 

 profit to ourselves, the very highest grades of all varie- 

 ties of seeds for the vegetable and flower garden, for our 

 own use and the outside world as well. But after all 

 the plain truth of the matter is, what is really required 

 to promote the seed-growing industry in our nation is 

 simply a display of American enterprise and knowing 

 how. 



In seed-growing as in every other art, it is attention 

 to a particular line specialization that insures success. 

 The misfit, the visionary and the ' ' all-around man ' ' 

 are all too likely to fall into the same class when results 

 are under consideration. But the specialist "gets 

 there. " Be a specialist ! 



It is to stimulate in our farming community the 

 spirit just named, that this work, believed to be the first 

 published, in any country, treating especially of seed- 

 growing for commercial purposes, has mainly been 

 prompted, and in the hope that it will furnish the infor- 

 mation required for the occasion the volume is launched 



upon its career. 



THE AUTHOR. 

 Marietta, Pa., October 1, 1905. 



