•. NOVELTIES .-. AND .-. SPECIALTIES . 



NEW AND DESIRABLE BEETS. 



^I^URPRISE. 



Perfecjeo HalfL on a 



An exact Photographic Copy from Nature of two entirely new Beets, now offered for the first time. 



JOHNSON <& STOKES' NEW SURPRISE BEET. 



See also Colored Illustration painted from Nature, on back of this book. 



In offering this unparalleled new and distinct variety we can assure our customers that we not only- 

 have a great " Surprise " for them, but a genuine prize. After an exhaustive trial for the past three 

 seasons on our Bucks County farm, where it was originated, and also from the unqualified recommenda- 

 tions of several of our Philadelphia truckers, to whom we gave the seed for trial, we pronounce it 

 without exception the Earliest Beet ever produced. Its table qualities are much superior to any variety 

 vnth which we are familiar, the flesh being unusually sweet, fine grained and tender, retaining its fine 

 blood-red color when cooked. It has the very small top of the well-known Egyptian variety, which 

 admirably fits it for growing under glass, as well as in the open ground, but unlike the latter, it retains 

 its faultless quality, even after it has lost its leaves from age. While the Egyptian has heretofore been 

 about the earliest sort obtainable, it is a well-known fact that its poor quality often rendered it unde- 

 sirable, and that it is not marketable at all in its middle and later stage of growth, owing to its tasteless, 

 hard, woody nature, and disposition to crack open. These defects, as well as all others, are entirely 

 absent in the New Surprise. It will prove a " Money Grower " to every market or private gardener 

 who plants it. Pkt., loc. ; oz., 20c.; X lb., 6oc.; lb., |i2.oo. 



FORD'S PERFECTED HALF-LONG BEET. 



This new variety is the result of many years careful selection by Mr. James Ford, one of the 

 oldest and most successful of Philadelphia market gardeners, and who is well-known to ijaost of our cus- 

 tomers as the originator of the now celebrated Ford's Mammoth Podded Lima Bean. It has many 

 valuable and distinct points of merit not possessed by any other existing sort. The color is several 

 shades darker red than the well-known Philadelphia Perfection and Bastian Half-Long sorts, while it is 

 so uniformly thoroughbred that the beets are almost exact duplicates of one another in color, shape 

 and size. It is also earlier than any other Half- Long sort, being ready to market a few days after the 

 Early Turnip varieties, while as a fall and winter beet it has no equal, as none other can approach it in 

 keeping qualities. We offer seed grown by the originator. Pkt., loc. ; oz., 20c.; % lb., 50c.; lb., I1.50. 



