2 PETER HENDERSON & CO.—INTRODUCTORY. 
Our Seed and Plant Warehouse, 
which has long been the largest in the City of New York, we found in 1882 to be so inadequate for our business, 
that, in that year we added to our area by securing the premises, No. 37 Cortlandt Street. Our two buildings 
now give us a space equivalent to thirteen floors, each 25x 128 feet. With our increased facilities, we can still 
better systematize our business, so that the filling of orders will, if possible, be more prompt than ever, besides 
allowing us to give more and more of our personal attention each season, not only to the seed testing and trials at 
our grounds, but to the close supervision of our growing seed crops all over the country, It will thus be seen that, 
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as far as possible, every precaution is taken that the ‘‘ stock” of seeds we offer shall be as represented. 
Our Gardens in Jersey City are within forty minutes’time, by Ferry Boat 
and Horse Cars, from our Seed Stores, 35 and 
37 Cortlandt Street, New York, where a card with plain directions of ‘‘ How to reach the Nursery” will be given 
to any one applying. 
Parties wishing to see Peter Henderson personally will find him at the Green-houses till 12 M., and at his 
office in New York from 1 to 3 P. M. 
Seeds and Piants for Export — Our trade now extends far beyond 
* the confines of this continent, our goods 
being sent to all parts of the globe. This export business, especially in Seeds, has with us reached such 
proportions that we pay special attention to all such orders, giving particular care to the packing and forwarding. 
Answe rs to Correspondents. ,: are in receipt of hundreds of letters 
annually, asking for information on sub- 
jects connected with Horticulture. These we shall always be pleased to answer, provided that each question is 
put clearly by itself, leaving a sufficient blank space beneath the question for our answer. This plan not only 
saves us time, but the answer is more intelligible to the party in want of the information ; and unless inquiries 
are so put, we shall not consider ourselves required to reply, as we have no time to read long letters, 
How We Test Seeds. 
On the last page of the cover will be found portrayed an interior view of one of our Green-houses, which in 
the season is devoted exclusively to testing samples of the many hundred varieties of Seeds we have for sale. It 
was our experience as Practical Gardeners that probably made us realize the necessity for this more strongly than 
most Seed dealers ; for very early in our career as Seedsmen we inaugurated this practice of testing all Seeds before 
selling. We were enabled the more readily to do so from our possessing not only extensive grounds, but the best 
arranged Green-house establishment in this country, which gave us opportunities at all seasons to carry on the 
practice. From the comparatively small tests begun in 1872, this practice has extended and become so systemat- 
ized, that the past season it required the entire use of one of our largest Green-houses for our seed tests during the 
fall and winter ; and afterward in spring, in the open ground, we set out many thousand plants, representing the 
stocks in Vegetable Seeds alone of over 1000 growers. All these tests are carried on under the personal supervision 
of PereER HENDERSON and the other members of the firm; and as the author of ‘‘ Gardening for Profit” has had 
as long and as varied an experience as most men in operations connected with the soil, it will be seen that we are 
placed in a position to judge not only as to the germinating qualities, but, what is of far more importance, the 
purity of, and the kinds of Seeds best suited for all gardening purposes. Besides this, we have an Lxperimental 
Garden, wherein we grow samples of all Novelties in Vegetables and Flowers as they appear. The advantage of 
this will be quickly seen, as it enables us not only to judge of what is meritorious, but, what is far better, to discard 
all varieties with which, in our opinion, it is worse than useless to encumber our lists. 
¢ . —The question is repeatedly asked us if we guarantee 
About Warranti ng Seeds. or warrant Seeds. We beg to state most emphatically 
that we donot, and our employees have strict orders never todo soinany case. Though well believing that the Seeds 
we offer are unsurpassed in quality, yet our practical experience of many years as Market Gardeners and Florists 
has fully assured us of the fact that crops may fail, no matter how fresh or pure the Seed sown to produce them 
may be. Failure of germination of Seed may result from causes that the utmost care from the most experienced 
cultivators cannot control, and the maturing of crops also repeatedly fails, so as to be a total loss, from causes that 
no human power can avert. Hence, to guarantee Seeds to invariably produce a perfect crop would be little short 
of quackery. 
