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SEED ANNUAL 



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THE time for making the yearly purchases of seeds has come roimd again and we take pleasiire in placing in your 

 hands our Illustrated and Descriptive Seed Annual, which we believe to be better than ever before in the quality of 

 the subject matter and the variety and range of choice of Vegetable and Flower Seeds from which to make a selection. 

 Just here we wish to call 3'our attention to the fact that we attempt to make our Annual what it purports to be, an illustrated 

 and descriptive list of the things we offer. The cuts are made from drawings of photographs of the plants themselves and 

 are necessarily truthful. The descriptions are concisely .stated condensations of the notes taken on our trial grounds or else- 

 where, and are as accurate as words can make them. The cultural directions are such as extended observation and experi- 

 ence have "demonstrated to be generally applicable to the class of plants to which they refer. In short, it is our endeavor to 

 make oiu- Annual a useful manual of information, giving to intending purchasers a definite idea of the goods we handle, so 

 that they may readily select from among them such as are suitable for their use. We might adopt the too prevalent custom 

 of making exaggerated cuts and descriptions, representing plants which never did and never can exist and mislead thereby 

 for a time the unwary and inexperienced, but we do not believe that such methods can or ought to lead to permanent business 

 success. 



From the number of years we have been in business and the reputation we have for handling nothing but good and 

 reliable seeds it might seem unnecessary for us to repeat from year to year how our seeds are grown and what our facilities 

 are for handling them, but this Annual will fall into the hands of many new readers who will want to be informed in;these 

 matters, and our old customers are, of course, anxious to' keep posted as to any improvements which may be made from time 

 to time in our methods and equipments. 



In growing our seeds we make use of our Greenfield Seed Farms, just outside*the City of Petroit. They are under the 

 management of one of the oldest and most experienced seed growers in America, and are devoted largely to growing onions 

 and other crops which require two years to j/erfect their growth. They are fully equipped with buildings and machinery, and 

 barn-yard manure and commercial fertilizers are used without stint in order to get the most perfect growth and the largest 

 \ield po.ssible of everything planted here. The annual product of onion seed alone from these farms is from twenty to thirty 

 tons, which illustrates the magnitude of the crops grown. 



Realizing ever since we began the business the enormous influence the seed has upon the quality and character of the 

 resulting crop, we have alwa3-s used the greatest care in selecting our stock seeds, that is, the seeds from which the seeds we 

 offer are grown. In order to be in a position to grow as large a proportion of this stock seed on our own land as possible, 

 where it would be absolutely under our control, we bought a few years ago what is known as our Oakview Seed Farm, of over 

 two hundred acres within the corporate limits of the City of Pontiac, Mich. This farm is under the control of a competent 

 and skilful superintendent and is supplied with machinery and buildings for caring for and storing the crops grown. It is our 

 aim to grow nothing but stock seeds here and to this end the most rigid supervision is kept of the growing crops and nothing 

 but the most perfect and neare.st typical plants allowed to mature. Oftentimes four -fifths of a crop is thrown out and rejected 

 a-s unfit for stock seed purposes. 



As it took thirty tons of cabbage, sixty-one tons of beet, thirty-three tons of onion, one himdred and forty-seven tons of 

 turnip seed, twelve thousand bushels of com, fort}' thousand bushels of peas, and other varieties of seeds in like pro- 

 portion, to meet the requirements of our trade the past year, it is manifesth' impossible for us to grow all these amounts on 

 our ovra land, requiring as it does twelve to fifteen thousand acres annually to be used for this purpose. After we have grown 

 the stock seeds as above described, we have crops grown from them by reliable growers in America and Europe, under con- 

 tract, we retaining full control as to how the crops shall be planted, cared for and harvested. The different kinds of crops 

 are planted in such localities as experience and observation have sho^\Ti to be best suited to their proper development. By 

 careful directions, visits of inspection and the use of our Trial Grounds, we are enabled to grow seeds of the same excellence 

 in this way as those produced on our own farms. 



At our Trial Grounds on Ferry Avenue, in Detroit, a sample of each lot of seeds we handle is tested for vitality, to find 

 how many seeds in one himdred will grow, and also for punty and quality ot stock. These tests, along with the inspections of 

 the crops as they grow in the field, make it impossible for any of our stocks to deteriorate or become impure without 

 our speedily finding it out. Here also are planted samples of all the " novelties " introduced by other seedsmen and an^'thing 

 which is claimed to be new and superior grown by amateurs which they may send us. By this means we are enabled to 

 satisfy ourselves of the value of any novelty before it can find a place on our list. These grounds consist of about ten acres 

 and are under the management of a competent superintendent and are pronounced by disinterested observers to be the most 

 complete of their kind in this or any other courrtry. 



After the seeds are grown they must all be brought to our Central Seed "Warehouses, located on the comers of Brush 

 Street and Monroe Avenue (formerly Croghan Street). The warehouse built by us in 1K87 covers one-half a city block, 

 extending :3(K) feet on Brush Street and 120 feet each on Monroe Avenue and Champlain Street. It has six stories, besides a 

 basement, affording between seven and eight acres floor surface. 



Even with this large space, however, we had become so cramped for room to store and properly handle the increas- 

 ing quantities of seed needed to meet oiu" requirements, that we have built another large icarehoxtse by the side of our box 

 factory, the past year. This building faces Monroe Avenue. It is 85 feet wide, 140 feet deep, and has eight stories and a base- 



