Our Annual Letter To You And How It Has 



Been With Us. 



DEAR CUSTOMERS :- 



I am thankful to be favored with the 

 privilege to write this, another annual 

 letter to you, but am frank to say that 

 I utterly fail to find words to write to 

 express to YOU MY appreciation of the 

 many favors bestowed upon me the past 

 season. Surely no other mail order con- 

 cern in the world has tried harder to 

 please their customers than we have. 

 But we are still striving to do even 

 better things for you. With your many 

 kind letters you have encouraged us on 

 to do this. You have caused us each 

 j'ear to largely increase our acreage and 

 facilities, and to you we give a great 

 deal of the credit of our success. The 

 season of 1911 has not been the best for 

 plant growth, owning to the long drought 

 which prevailed with us from May the 

 first until August the first. We lost 

 many acres of plants entirely, but we 

 were fortunate in setting the majority 

 of our plants in the fall, which saved 

 us and has ca'jsed us to have a fair sup 

 ply of plants. We have had favorable 

 seasons since August 1st, and will 

 have a crop of plants fully up to our 

 standard, as far as quality is concerned. 

 In writing this catalog I am trying to 

 t'.'v.- :->ii tb • plain facts as I have 

 found them in regard to the different 

 viiriitifs 7 am still striving hard to 

 better the Strawberry World. Xo time 

 or o.x))<-n.>-«' U- considered. We have a 

 trial j.lot !his season of three acres, 

 nearly on.' bunded new varieties, which 

 we believe to be the largest and most ex 

 pcn.sive trial bed ever grown by any 

 one in the business. This plot has been 

 W;i1i.'h€d by me daily from the time 

 the i);ants were set until now and will 

 b.^ carefully watched until the last fruit 

 is gathered. Surely this service should 

 be worth something to you, and you are 

 welcome to it. This is my duty. I owe it 

 to you for your many kind favors to 

 me. It is known by a great many of my 

 customers that a variety that does well 

 in one locality will not always do well in 

 others. I have always tried hard to learn 

 the behavior of all different varieties 

 sent out by us in the different states. 

 This information is always given to our 

 customers gladly, and many limes ena- 

 bles them to make a perfect select ion. ( 'f 



all the .small fruits the strawberry ap- 

 pears to be one of the most suscepti'.jle 

 to changes of environment not only due 

 to a different locality but also due to wide 

 ly varying climatic changes. This probably 

 is due to the comparatively small root 

 .system of the plant which is quickly af- 

 fected at times by unfavorable weather 

 especially as the ripening season approach 

 es. The water supply is the greatest 

 importance. It is stated that in 100 lbs 

 of ripe fruit there is 85 to 95 lbs of 

 water, so as the irrigation syst<^m is ad 

 vanced this problem of picking out va- 

 rieties will be greatly lessened. 



Owing to the smallness of this catalog 

 we are compelled to omit many of 



the testimonials sent us. I would haA'e 

 every one here if I had the space. Several 

 pages will be devoted in our 1913 book, 

 testimonials alone just as they were sent 

 us unsolicited. 



IT WILL PAY \0U 



I want to say to the grower who has 

 never had plants from us that no other 

 nursery exercises more care to serve cus 

 tomers satisfactory, while better stock 

 than ours can not be bought. 



Let us show you what we can do. Our 

 business methods will please you, while 

 the quality of our stock will be far be- 

 yond your expectations. 



We know how to grow THOROUGH- 

 BRED STOCK. We use the same meth- 

 ods in growing our THOROUGHBP.ED 

 PLAXTS.Like begets like, same in 

 plants as in stock. Better pay ten dol- 

 lars for one thousand plants of Thorough 

 bred stock than S3t one thousand common 

 field grown plants if they are given to 

 '. ou. The kind of saving that you save 

 on the common stock ite not to our 



liking. When you deal in common stock, 

 this saving,! think, is added to the wrong 

 side of your ledger.Our plants are cheap 

 enough in price. We do not think that 

 we will have any falling out about the 

 price. Thanking you in advance for 



your many pa.st favors, and soliciting 

 your future orders which will have our 

 same careful and prompt attention. 

 I am, Yours very truly, 



E. W. Townsend, Pres. 

 The Fair Dealing Nurseryman. 



Salisburv, Md. 



