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* 1893 
, Seed Annual 
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EARLY every seed buyer examines during the year from one to several dozen of the catalogues issued by the 
various seed houses. To all such will naturally arise the question of their relative worth as reliable guides 
to the selection of varieties of vegetables, flowers, grain, etc., best suited to the purchasers' various needs. In 
■ presenting you this our Illustrated and Descriptive Seed Annual for 1893, we beg of you to bear this ques¬ 
tion constantly in mind as you look it over and carefully study its contents. The cuts are made from draw¬ 
ings of photographs of the plants themselves and are truthful representations of them. The descriptions are 
concisely stilted condensations of the notes taken on our trial grounds or elsewhere, and are as accurate as 
we can make them. The* cultural directions are such as extended observation and experience have 
demonstrated to be generally applicable to the class of plants to which they refer. In short, it is our 
endeavor to make our Annual a useful manual of information, giving to intending purchasers a definite idea 
of the goods we handle, so that they may readily select from among them such as are suitable for their use. We might adopt 
the too prevalent custom of making exaggerated cuts and descriptions, representing plants which never did and never can 
exist and mislead thereby for a time the unwary and inexperienced, but we do not believe that such methods can or ought to 
lead to permanent business success. • 
HOW* OUR SEEDS ARE GROWN. 
From the number of years we have been in business and the reputation we have for handling nothing but good and reli¬ 
able seeds it might seem unnecessary for us to repeat from year to year how our seeds are grown and what our facilities are 
for handling them, but this Annual will fall into the hands of many new readers who will want to be informed in these 
matters, and our old customers are, of course, anxious to keep posted as to any improvements which may be made from time 
to time in our methods and equipments. 
In growing our seeds we make use of our Greenfield Seed Farms, just outside the City of Detroit. They are under the 
management of one of the oldest and most experienced seed growers in America, and are devoted largely to growing onions 
and other crops which require two years to perfect their growth. They are fylly equipped with buildings and machinery, and 
barn-yard manure and commercial fertilizers are used without stint in order to get the most perfect growth and the largest 
yield possible of everything planted here. The annual product of onion seed alone from these farms is from twenty to thirty 
tons, which illustrates the magnitude of the crops grown. 
Realizing ever since we began the business the enormous influence the seed has upon the quality and character of the 
resulting crop, we have always used the greatest care in selecting our stock seeds, that is, the seeds from which the seeds we 
offer are grown. In order to be in a position to grow as large a proportion of this stock seed on our own land as possible, 
where it would be absolutely under our control, we bought a few 3 r ears ago what is known as our Oak view Seed Farm, of over 
two hundred acres within the corporate limits of the City of Pontiac, Mich. This farm is under the control of a competent 
and skillful superintendent and is supplied with machinery and buildings for caring for and storing the crops grown. It is our 
aim to grow nothing but stock seeds here and to this end the most rigid supervision is kept of the growiug crops and nothing 
but the most perfect and nearest typical plants allowed to mature. Oftentimes four-fifths of a crop is thrown out and 
rejected as unfit for stock seed purposes. 
OUR CONTRACTS WITH GROWERS. 
As we use hundreds of tons of vegetable, flower and grain seeds each year, it is manifestly impossible for us to 
grow all these amounts on our own land, requiring, as it does, twelve to fifteen thousand acres annually to be used 
for this purpose. After we have grown the stock seeds as above described, we have crops grown from them by 
reliable growers in America anil Europe, under contract, we retaining full control as to how the crops shall be 
planted, cared for and harvested. The different kinds of crops are planted in such localities as experience and 
observation have shown to be best suited to their proper development. By careful directions, visits of inspection 
and the use of our Trial Grounds, we are enabled to grow seeds of the same excellence in this way as those pro 
duced on our own farms. 
