THE LARGEST ORDER FOR VEGETABLE SEEDS EVER GIVEN. 
We had the honour to receive the commands of the Right Honourable Lord George Hamilton, P.C., M.P., Her 
Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Council, to supply Two Hundred Tons of Vegetable Seeds for 
growing in the districts of Northern India threatened with scarcity. The urgency of the order demanded delivery 
in Bombay by a certain date, and only nine days could be allowed for selecting, packing, and 
shipping. We have since received the following gratifying notice of His Lordship’s appreciation of our services 
in the matter: — 
[ COPY. ] India Office, Whitehall, S.W., 
17th November , i8g6. 
Gentlemen, 
I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 6th instant, 
forwarding invoices for the additional seeds shipped by you on account of the Government of India from London and Marseilles on the 6th instant. 
Lord George Hamilton recognises with satisfaction the facilities and assistance you have received in organising these large and unaccustomed 
shipments from Her Britannic Majestfs Consul at Boulogne, the Customs Authorities at Folkestone, the Directors of the Peninsular and Oriental 
Company, and the Goods Managers of the South Eastern and Great Eastern Railway Companies. 
His Lordship also desires me to convey to you the expression of his appreciation of the promptitude and foresight shown by you in successfully 
carrying out so large a portion of the order of the Government of India, within the very limited time allowed for its execution. 
I am, Gentlemen, 
Messrs, jf. Carter Co., Your obedient Servant, 
High Holborn. ( Signed ) A. GODLE Y. 
“ TEbe TEtmes.” 
We understand that the Secretary of State for India has shipped some thousands of sacks of vegetable seeds suitable for growing in the districts of Northern 
India that are threatened with scarcity. The selection, packing, and shipping was accomplished by Messrs. Carter, the Queen’s seedsmen, London, in the short 
space of nine days. 
“ TTbe Standard.” 
The Secretary of State for India has shipped some thousands of sacks of vegetable seed suitable for cultivation in the northern districts of India. The 
selection, packing, and shipping of the seed were entrusted to Messrs. Carter, and the last consignment has just left England by steamer for Calcutta. 
“ TErutb.” 
The Secretary of State for India has entered into an arrangement with Messrs. Carter & Co., the well-known firm of seedsmen, to forward to India about 
£ 10,000 worth of root vegetable seeds, in order to avert the coming famine. These seeds are already on their way to India, and they will arrive just in time for 
sowing. I trust that there will be no hitch in their immediate distribution. 
“ Ube HhiUv ZEelegrapb.” 
Telegrams from the Viceroy and other official despatches have confirmed rumours that have been gathering for some weeks as to prospects of distress,' grave 
and widespread, in India, and the Indian Government, that great paternal and beneficent entity, which legislates, constructs, irrigates, and even thinks for some 
300,000,000 of the most curiously helpless folk in the world, is ready to meet it. This it will do, not only by the funds held in reserve for an emergency, which 
experience has shown is only too apt to recur at given intervals, and by huge relief works, but in unexpected and unconventional methods, as the distribution of 
seeds of quickly grown vegetables. For this purpose it placed very recently the most important and, indeed, colossal order ever given to the seed-growing trade, 
and at the present moment there are some tons of seeds of the quickest matured roots on the high seas on their way to Bombay. This contract was entrusted to 
Messrs. Carter, of High Holborn, but its execution evolved some diplomacy and discretion, for no business in the world is more sensitive to “scare” than this is, 
and the knowledge that such unprecedented quantities were required would have sent prices up at a bound, thereby inflicting an indirect tax which would have 
weighed very hardly upon the English market-gardener and cottager. The seeds will be sent chiefly to the North-West and the Punjab, where extensive systems 
of irrigation are available for their cultivation, and long miles of canals fed by the Five Rivers will water them. 
WE HAVE HAD BUSINESS RELATIONS WITH HER MAJESTY'S INDIAN GOVERNMENT SINGE THE YEAR 1849. 
Messrs. Carter beg to state that they give equal attention to an order for a single packet of seeds as to one of a greater extent. 
CARTERS’, 237, 238, & 07, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON.— 1898. 
