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Carters Head Offices, Warehouses, Laboratories, and Testing Grounds, Raynes Park, London, England. 
CARTERS TESTED SEEDS. 
NOTES ON THE MEANING OF OUR TRADE MARK. 
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“ The Laboratories are equipped with 
the latest appliances for testing all 
kinds of seeds—a process to which great 
importance is attached."— The Times, 
February 5th, 1912. 
“ In all that pertains to seeds, the 
name of James Carter & Co. has for 
almost a century been a household 
word.” — The Daily Telegraph, 
January 26th, 1912. 
) 
The prominence we have given to 
our Trade Mark “Tested Seeds" over 
so long a period has repeatedly given 
rise to the question, “What do you 
mean by Tested Seeds?" Believing 
that the raising, growing, testing, etc., 
of the seeds will be a matter of interest 
to our Customers, we take this 
opportunity of giving an explanatory 
note of some of the methods that were employed 
leading up to the introduction to the gardening 
world of such well-known Peas as Telephone, 
Stratagem, Daisy, Michaelmas, Anticipation, May¬ 
flower, Harvestman, International, Quite Content, 
&c., &c., a process which frequently involves seven to 
eight years of patient observation and labour before a 
new introduction can be placed with confidence before 
the attention of our Customers. 
We have selected culinary Peas for our note because 
they are more easily identified in explanation, but 
analogous methods have to be pursued in the improve¬ 
ment of all varieties of Vegetables and Flowers, a 
work which we have made—and still continue to make — 
a special feature of ,our business. Indeed, it is now a 
matter of history that our House has been responsible 
for some of the most important improvements in 
Vegetables and Flowers far too numerous to mention 
here. 
Let us assume that one of our Experts has observed 
n promising seedling, produced from cross-fertilisation 
the previous year in our experimental grounds; its 
merits and characteristics are carefully noted in our 
Garden Registers. Possibly it may produce an 
ON ALL PACKAGES. 
extraordinarily large pod, like Quite 
Content, or it may be earlier, later, 
taller, more prolific and compact, &c., 
than any other variety shown in our 
comparative trials to be in commerce. 
The produce of the plant is then 
carefully harvested and sown the 
following spring, when it again goes 
through the same routine, may be for 
six or seven years, to secure constancy 
and fixation of its special characteristics: 
the produce by this time may have 
increased to several bushels, when it is 
ready to be sown for a crop. Ground 
that is particularly suited to the variety 
is carefully selected, and the Seed is 
sown. In the early summer, when the 
plants are in maturity, our Experts, who 
have watched the character of the Pea 
ever since it was a seedling in our ex¬ 
perimental grounds, examine every 
plant, eliminating any that show a weakness or lack 
of uniformity ; the crop is then harvested, stacked, and 
threshed, and eventually comes to our warehouse 
to be cleaned, hand-picked, and finally tested for ger¬ 
mination. 
The founder of our firm, James Carter, was, we believe, 
the first to guarantee the germination of his Garden 
Seeds nearly a hundred years ago. The practice is still 
followed with the advantage of more scientific and up- 
to-date methods. All our seeds, after passing through 
our Laboratory Tests, are grown in our Grounds at the 
same time as our customers grow them, to full maturity, 
so that we may assure ourselves of the quality aiid true¬ 
ness of each variety. By examining our trials from time 
to time we know exactly how the produce of our Seeds 
should appear in the gardens of our customers all over 
the world, making allowances for the various climates, 
and by the aid of our comparative tests (we try all seeds 
of repute), we assure ourselves that our customers are 
growing “ the best and only the best ” and “ Tested.” 
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