4 
D. M. Ferry &. Cos Descriptive Catalogue. 
2,400. Here, too, seeds are tested as to vitality, a sample from every lot of seeds received being 
counted out and planted and a record made of the percentage that will grow. Intermediate 
between the I rial Grounds and the Seed Farms proper are several parcels of land devoted to 
the development of improved stock seed. Whenever, in visiting crops, we see a plant of noticeably 
superior quality, we save the seeds ^produced by it and plant them by themselves in one of these 
gardens; and if the product is found to be superior, it is saved and grown by itself as a com¬ 
mencement of a new or improved stock. In this way we are each year improving our seeds. 
Small Paper Bag Manufacturing Room. 
But having secured a crop of pure and well grown seeds, the work is but half done; for they 
must now be distributed in small quantities to those who may want them. No one can appreci¬ 
ate, without experience, the difficulty of so distributing the hundreds of varieties the trade now 
demands, without mistakes of labeling or mixing of samples, and it certainly cannot be done 
without the best facilities for the work. In this respect we thijik we have the advantage of any 
seedsmen in America in our 
Central Seed Store and Warehouse, which occupies one-half of the 
block bounded by Randolph, Croghan, Brush and Lafayette streets, extending 300 feet on Brush 
and 120 feet on Croghan and Lafayette streets. It has a handsome exterior of stone and brick, 
is four stories high, with a well lighted and ventilated basement under the whole. The aggregate 
area of the several floors is between four and five acres, and all is used in the handling rather 
than the storing of our seeds. Our large store house at the farm, and arrangements with our 
growers enabling us to store our seeds so that they need be in the central building but a short 
time. The interior arrangements are very complete and convenient as may be iudged by the 
illustrations of several of the rooms, and which we think are sufficiently comprehensive to render 
any further explanation unnecessary. Directly opposite our central store is 
Box r actory. It is a three story building, in the same architectural sivle 
as the warehouse, and especially adapted to the manufacture and repair of our boxes of which 
we have in use over 250,000. Here, in the busy season, 100 men are at work with various ma¬ 
chines designed especially for us, and capable of doing everything from the sawing of the lumber 
to the sand-papering of the finished boxes. We annually manufacture over 700,000 feet of lum¬ 
ber, much of it black walnut, into about 35,000 boxes. 
C^tir Canadian liranoll* Tor the accommodation of our Canadian friends we 
have a branch establishment at Windsor, Ontario, opposite Detroit. Although connected by 
telephone, and but a few minutes’ ride from our central store, this is an entirely distinct estab¬ 
lishment. The stocks, which are essentially duplicates of those used in the States, are im- 
