As this book is unrolled, thousands of people will exclaim, “ A new Seed Catalogue from Fh 
M. Ferry and Co ! more beautiful even than that of last year, and sent free to every applicant ! 
Is the trade so enormously profitable that they can afford to distribute gratuitously so beautiful 
and costly a book simply as an advertisement ? 1 he number of firms who have failed, or aban¬ 
doned the business as unprofitable, and the fact which is evident to the careful observer, that the 
following pages are too carefully prepared, and the whole book too nicely gotten up to pay as a 
simple advertisement, give a negative answer. Nor do we claim that it is issued solely for benev¬ 
olent motives; but the fact that we, in company with every other seedsman in England and 
America find it necessary to annually send out such a book indicates that there is something in 
the trade which demands it. How then does this business differ from others? We answer, first in 
the nature of the goods iiandi/ed. 
Among the thousand and one articles offered by the general merchant, there is scarcely one 
whose value and purity an expert cannot detennine by inspection or some quickly and easily 
applied tests, but it is rarely the case that any true idea of the purity and value of seeds can be 
formed from the most critical examination of the sample. We may judge of its vitality Xpy tests 
requiring but a few days to complete, but its real value can only be known from the full develop¬ 
ment of the plants, a test that requires most careful attention through several months. T hus the 
purchaser is ignorant of the real value of what he is buying, except as he learns it from the seller. 
Nor is this difference in value of slight importance. There is not an article of trade where qual¬ 
ity is relatively of greater importance than in this. Seeds are in one sense the raw material from 
which the vegetables and flowers are to come, but unlike the inert wood and iron which the work¬ 
man shapes into more or less costly articles according to his taste or skill, seeds are living organ¬ 
isms , containing within themselves possibilities and limitations of development immutably fixed 
before they left the parent plant; no culture, no combination of favorable or unfavorable condi¬ 
tions can change the tendency towards a certain character which was wrapped up with the tiny 
plantlet within the seemingly lifeless seed. Comparatively few people realize the full force of this. 
To many, all Red Wethersfield Onion seed is equally good, if it is only unmixed and it will all 
grow, yet we found a difference of over 400 per cent, in the market value of the product of the 
same length of drill sowed with different*stocks of this variety, thinned to the same number of 
plants to the rod, and treated in every way, as far as possible, precisely alike. We have said few 
realize the importance of good seed, but every year widens the circle of those who, by careful 
study and costly experience, have learned that here at least the best is the cheapest, and that suc¬ 
cess or failure depend very largely upon the quality of the seed they plant ; qualities which can¬ 
not be seen in the seed itself, and can only be predicated from the history of its growth. Such 
men rightfully demand of the seller all possible information in regard to the seed they purchase, 
and it is to meet this demand that we publish our catalogue. 
A second reason grows out of the rapid increase and improvement of varieties, each suited to 
certain conditions of soil, climate or market ; and the gardener’s success frequently depends upon 
a wise selection of sorts best suited to his wants. The man who plants Early Kent Peas because 
he succeeded well with them two years ago, has no right to complain if a better informed or more 
enterprising neighbor plants Ferry’s First and Best and with no better care is enabled to gather 
and market the entire product in two pickings, clear off the vines and put in a second crop, 
while the Kents, although furnishing a few pods as early as the other, are still green and growing 
