March, 1907 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



105 



n* 



The Story of Seeds that Grow 



SEEDS! Tiny, insignificant-looking little things, not often beau- 

 tiful in themselves, and yet so potent with bottled-up vitality, 

 so instinct with images of the beautiful, rare and useful things 

 into which they are capable of expanding! Humble as they are, 

 they yet form the basis of one of the greatest business en- 

 terprises of the twentieth century. They are too often 

 regarded by the busy world as among the necessary things 

 of no particular moment that must be looked after somehow 

 by somebody, but are not to be thought of seriously. 



The busy world never made a greater mistake. Even the 

 tiller of the soil who furnishes the marrow and substance 

 of the busy world aforesaid, who, as it were, stokes the 

 engine of civilization and supplies what energy it possesses, 

 is too apt to regard with little care the seeds that he puts 

 into the ground. Not so frequently nowadays, it must be 

 acknowledged, as in times past, for one of the prime points 

 which the following little story will try to bring out is the 

 immense educational value to the agricultural and horti- 

 cultural classes of the years of careful, scientific labor 

 spent upon seeds by W. Atlee Burpee & Co. at their 

 various growing centers. 



It is a fascinating story. Man working hand in hand 

 with nature — not forcing her, but coaxing her to reveal 

 her secrets, leading her into new and better paths, devel- 

 oping in her work higher usefulness for human needs — 

 this has been the first principle of the Burpee seed-growing 

 business for thirty years. 



Let us take a few peeps at how this is done. 

 Burpee's Seeds come from all over the globe. From 

 nearly every section of the United States, from England, 

 Germany, France, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Japan, where- 

 ever particular varieties of flowers and vegetables are found 

 to have their best habitat and are assured of their highest 

 degree of vitality, a never-ceasing stream of purest seeds 

 is yearly pouring into the big Burpee warehouses in Phila- 

 delphia, thence to be redistributed to thousands upon thou- 

 sands of planters. But the chief producing points of parent 

 stocks are the famous Fordhook Farms, near Doylestown, 

 Pa., among the fertile hills of Bucks County, and Bur- 

 pee's Sunnybrook Farm, near Swedesboro, N. J., in 

 Gloucester County. These farms at all times are under 

 the keen eyes of Mr. Burpee and his assistants. They are 

 among the most quietly busy places in America and are 

 brimming over with interesting stories to those who can 

 so far throw off" the fetters of civilization as to get their 

 ear down close to Mother Nature. 



careful. The quantity of work involved is immense. As an instance, 

 from September i, 1904, to May 15, 1905, there stood recorded upon 

 the farm's books 16,086 vitality tests. The results are noted and tabu- 

 lated and compared just as assiduously as in the case of the trial 

 grounds. Connected with the greenhouses is a group of frames for 

 special tests, hybridization and other purposes. 



— Extract from "The Story of Seeds that Grow." 



How We Know " Burpee's Seeds Grow" 



SOME years ago, the firm adopted as its motto the 

 snappy phrase, "Burpee's Seeds Grow" — a motto 

 which the experience of growers in all sections of the 

 world has shown to be true as gold. We shall now 

 take a peep into the greenhouses, just south of the office 

 building, and see why it is that this statement can be made 

 with such persistent confidence year after year. In a nut- 

 shell, the firm is enabled to say that Burpee's seeds grow be- 

 cause they know so. In the greenhouses vitality tests are 

 made of every variety of seed listed in The Farm Annual. 

 The labeled packages are sent up from the Philadelphia 

 warehouses, and one hundred seeds are planted for each test. 

 It is by the percentage of this number that sprout and make 

 their way through the soil that the character of the seed is 

 judged. There is no alternative — the seed must grow; oth- 

 erwise it is condemned. All tests are made in the soil, the 

 seeds being planted at regulation depth, blotter tests being 

 regarded as unsatisfactory in disclosing the true vitality of 

 the young cotyledons. No heat is used, excepting in winter, 

 when the temperature of the greenhouses is kept at natural 

 summer proportions. Here, as in every other branch of 

 the work, the attempt is made to surround the seed with 

 such an environment as it would find in nature. 



These vitality tests are regarded as a most important ele- 

 ment conducing to the success of this great industry. Cer- 

 tainly they may be ranked as among the most laborious and 



♦From The Story op "Seeds that Grow," written by E. J. Wheelock, 

 author of "A Year's Work at Fordhook." 



^SSSJri BUSH LJMAS 



Nature has surely surpassed herself.' In a single season 

 has outstripped all efforts of man. In fact, such distinct new 

 types have never even been dreamed of before ! 



To learn just what they really are and how they were 

 discovered, kindly study pages 10 to 15 of The Farm Annual 

 for 1907. They are undoubtedly the two most unique anc 

 "Greatest Novelties of the Age." 



is an entirely " New Creation.' 



The pods are truly enormous in 

 size, borne in great abundance upon bushes two and one-half 

 feet high by two feet across. The beans are both 

 thicker than those of the popular Burpee's Bush Lit 

 strain of the large White Pole Lima. 



FordhooK Bush Lima. ™w„fii- get - he 



been seen before. It is the first and only stifB_ 

 form of the fat "Potato Lima." Both podsar 

 are twice the size of Dreer's. Thorburn's or H 

 Bush Lima and more than half again as large : 

 Challenger Pole Lima. 



The Burpee-Improved 



$1115 in Cash Prizes 



"Five 

 Finest" 



With one prize of $150, and several of $50 

 each, we will pay a total of $ 1 1 1 5 on these 

 Two New Bush Limas,-iee Burpee's 

 Farm Annual for 1907. 



are sold 

 only in 

 sealed packets. Each packet con- 

 tains twelve perfect hand-picked 

 beans. Per pkl. 25 cents; 5 

 pkts. for $1.00, postpaid,— 

 assorted as desired. 



These Bush Limas 



New 

 Flowers 



For 25 Cts. 



BURPEE- IMPROVED 

 BUSH LIMA,— 

 Life-Size 



BURPEE'S 

 FLORENCE 

 SPENCER. 



We will mail, — as a 

 special advertising offer, 

 -one regular fifteen-cent 

 packet each of the charming 

 Variegated Queen Tall 

 Nasturtium, the first of 

 Burpee's New " Royal-Race " of 

 Variegated-Leaved Tall Nastur- 

 tiums, — Burbank's New Crimson- 

 Flowering Eschscholtzia, — 

 Burpee's Hercules Giant Pansies, — 

 the gigantic orchid-flowered new pink 

 Florence Spencer (see illustration) and the 

 richly colored Evelyn Byatt Sweet Pea. 

 Purchased separately these five packets would cost 

 seventy-five cents. All five packets mailed for 25 

 cts.; or, five assortments (in all 25 packets) for $ I .OO, 

 eparate addresses if requested. 



Four 1908 Advance 

 New" Novelties FREE! 



every one who orders direct from this advertise- 

 ment we will send Free,— if asked for, — any one 

 with a 50c. order, any two with a dollar order, or 

 all four with an order for $2.00. These Novelties, 

 not yet cataloged by us, but on which we offer 

 Cash Prizes for advance trials, are : New A tneri- 

 can Dwarf Bush Nasturtium. "Ashes of Roses " 

 — The New English "Beacon " Sweet Pea, — New 

 American Thick-leaved Gigantic A/uslard, and 

 a grand New Early Hard-Head Butter Lettuce 

 from Germany. 



BURPEE'S 1907 

 FARM ANNUAL 



Leading American Seed Catalog" 



The "Silent Salesman" of the world's largest mail- 

 order seed trade. An Elegant New Book of 200 pages 

 with hundreds of illustrations from photographs, it CEETkC THAT" fT5 t\t 7 

 tells only the plain truth about the very best J E E U J lflAl bKUW. 



It describes Grand Novelties in Flowers and Vegetables of unusual importance, which 

 cannot be obtained elsewhere. If interested, write to-day,— Mention This Paper, — 

 and the book is yours. 



W. ATLEE BURPEE S CO. 



Seed Growers, Burpee Building, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



BOOB 



