PETER HENDERSON & CO.— INTRODUCTORY. 



How We ¥ejsJt $eeds. 



(Vieiv of a Section of our Seed Trials in Greenhouse.) 



Probably from the fact that our long experience as Practical Gardeners made us realize the neces- 

 sity more strongly than most seed dealers, we very early in our career as seedsmen inaugurated 

 the practice of testing all seeds before selling ; this we were enabled the more readily to do from our 

 possessing not only extensive grounds, but the best equipped greenhouse 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 systematized, that the past season it 

 required the entire use of one of our largest greenhouses for our seed tests during the fall and winter; 

 and afterwards in spring, in the open ground, we had set out many thousand plants representing the 

 stocks in Vegetable Seeds alone of over 900 growers. Our illustration above is a reproduction cf a 

 section of our Seed-testing Greenhouse as it appeared last winter. All these tests are carried on under , 

 the personal supervision of Peter Henderson and the other members of the firm, and, as the authcr 

 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. If, therefore, you can buy seeds as cheaply from us— and we 

 think that if you will compare prices you will find that you can— it will certainly be to your interest 

 to do so. Besides this we have an Experimental Garden, wherein we grow samples of all Novelties in 

 Vegetables and Flowers as they appear ; the advantage of tbis will be quickly seen, as it enables us 

 not only to judge of what is meritorious, but, what is far better, by this test to discard all varieties 

 with which, in our opinion, it is worse than useless to encumber our lists. 



