FOREWORD 
This our regular annual Catalog is presented to you, with some additions and 
changes, we have added a few new departments, which we intend to develop and 
enlarge in the future, all the new merchandise we are offering, is of the highest 
quality and the finest workmanship, we trust that we may have your orders for this 
select new line of products, we are sure there is none better sold. 
Prices are some higher this season due to several causes, chief among them is 
the very extensive nature of the drought conditions in many sections of the country, 
which has caused a pronounced shortage of bulbs, in particular the larger sizes of 
the better varieties. You will note that our list this season, represents the most 
popular varieties, selected because of their adaptability to our section of the coun- 
try. This Catalog, and price quotations, cancels all previous lists and prices. 
Our Open Forum 
Under this head we will discuss all topics of general interest to the growers 
and lovers of the Gladiolus. It makes no difference if you are a small grower, or a 
large one, or even a novice or beginner; you will find something of interest in this 
department which we intend to enlarge, and continue in the future. 
Under our present day specialization, 
we have forgotten much of the good ad' 
vice of our early, pioneer Horticulturists 
who always maintained that we should 
secure our plants and bulbs as near home 
as possible; that is we should use stock 
that has been grown as nearly identical 
to our conditions as possible. We all 
know that taking a plant out of its native 
environment and forcing it into a new 
and often more adverse situation often 
results in much loss, often in stunting, or 
very poor growth. We call it getting 
the plant acclimated, which means indue' 
ing the plant to adapt itself in a short 
time to an entirely new situation as 
regards soil and climate; this holds good 
for all kinds of bulbs, roots, seeds and 
trees. All are subject to this law; a 
simple illustration is to examine tomato 
plants that have come up outside in the 
spring. You will find them very stocky, 
tough, wiry and hard, and able to stand 
much severe weather, and climatic 
changes. Compare them with greenhouse 
plants. You can take the same variety 
that has been grown in the greenhouse, 
and if you wish to plant them outside 
before the weather has become very 
mild, you must “harden them off”; that 
is adjust the plants by degrees to the 
changed environment. 
We have found our greatest loss from 
varieties brought from distant parts of 
the world; we have imported many new 
varieties from Australia and other coun¬ 
tries; very few have proven very suc¬ 
cessful except when grown under irriga¬ 
tion in warm or mild sections of our 
country. There are eastern and northern 
growers with good land and irrigation 
who do not grow their new varieties on 
their own farms, but contract the grow¬ 
ing of such new things with some grower 
in California, or elsewhere, who has a 
mild climate and irrigation. You get 
very nice looking bulbs, but it will be up 
to you to test out and prove the worth of 
these unproven varieties, unproven for 
your particular soil and climate. Our 
losses along this line have been heavy; we 
do not grow our bulbs under irrigation 
although we have used irrigation in past 
years. We lease new land each year, 
land where no Glads have ever been 
grown before. That means that we 
move from farm to farm over a very 
wide area each year. As we grow mil¬ 
lions of bulbs, we have used hundreds of 
acres of land of every kind and descrip¬ 
tion of soil type, and we have many. 
Our county, Erie, has ninety-six soil 
types, from U. S. soil survey. We are 
highly experienced in the influence of all 
