Every illustration and every description that appears in this, our annual 

 publication, is as accurate as we have been able to make it. It is a fact much 

 to be lamented that of late years it has become almost the universal rule m 

 catalogue-making to publish illustrations and descriptions with the sole 

 object of selling seeds or plants, and not with the purpose of giving the 

 reader any correct idea of what the Flower, Vegetable or Fruit offered was 

 really like. By excluding this catchy" feature from our Guide, we fully 

 realize we do so at the cost of losing many orders that would be secured by 

 our following in the footprints of others. But every reform must have a be- 

 ginning, and we have such an unbounded faith in the discrimination of the 

 American public, and its appreciation of the simple truth plainly told, that we 

 have no fears but that we will be abundantly supported in our efforts. 



Since the last issue of our Guide important additions have been made to 

 our business. The most important, perhaps, is the purchase of the entire busi- 

 ness and good will of the M. B. Faxon Company, Saugus, 

 Mass. We have also largely increased our facilities by the 

 purchase of additional land and the erection of additional 

 Greenhouses. 



To insure our patrons seeds that will grow," w^e have 

 tested those of every variety offered. This has been done 

 by a natural test in the earth (not by the usual laboratory 

 method), and any that showed indications of weakness have 

 been promptly discarded. Further than this, we test in 

 grounds arranged for the purpose, and under the supervi- 

 sion of a horticulturist, who by training and instinct is 

 specially fitted for the work, by actual blooming or fruit- 

 ing every variety of Flower and Vegetable we catalogue, 

 and every novelty we can obtain. 



Believing as we do in beginning at the bottom of things, 

 we have made no exception in the production of our Guide. 

 We not only have artists to make drawings for illustrations 

 upon our grounds, printers who set the type and pressmen 

 to do the printing in our own printing house, but the paper 

 used (of which twenty tons are required for the first edi- 

 tion) was made especially for it. Even the type em- 

 ployed was manufactured expressly for the work. 



