There is no soil, however barren and unproductive, that cannot, by well digging and dunging, be made 
fertile and prolific.-"Adapted from Cervantes’ DON QUIXOTE, Part 11, Chapter Xll. 
Sales and Service Bulletin 
VOL. 8_WAYLAND, MICHIGAN, U. S. A., SEASON OF 1939 No. 1 
FIELD NOTES 
In spite of all the talk about new 
varieties, Honor Rolls and Trial 
Grounds reports, we still have to 
find a better pink than Jersey’s 
Beauty, a better bronze than Jane 
Cowl or a better lavender than Mrs. 
1. de Ver Warner. These might be 
called old varieties, but they always 
sell, and I think you make no mistake 
in building your list of dahlias 
around these three sorts. 
Other dahlias that have become 
standard in their respective colors, 
and are almost as indispensible as 
the above mentioned varieties, are 
Pride of California for red. Saga¬ 
more for buff, Jersey’s Beacon for 
scarlet and buff, Margaret Woodrow 
Wilson for cream and lavender, and 
Bashful Giant for apricot and amber; 
while Pride of Stratford, Venus, 
Judge Marean, Judge Parker, Ava¬ 
lon, Charm, Monmouth Champion, 
Ellinor Vanderveer, Jean Kerr, 
Laura Morris, E. T. Bedford and 
many others can also be depended 
upon in almost any part of the 
country and under almost any 
weather conditions to produce big 
blooms and lots of them. 
Our E. T. Bedfords look the best 
this year that they have for several 
seasons. This variety gives us quite 
sturdy plants and big blooms on 
sandy soil, but the roots are usually 
so small that most customers object 
to them. Charm is another variety 
that ordinarily makes rather small 
tubers, but we believe that when our 
customers krigw that these roots are 
cut from good healthy plants and 
every one of them will in turn make 
a strong, healthy plant, there will be 
no further objections. You will 
remember the old Jack Rose which 
used to give us clumps of from 20 
to 30 or more roots each about the 
size of a hickory nut. To overcome 
the objections of customers we used 
to cut our divisions of this variety 
so each one had 2 or 3 roots and 
as many eyes. When they got these 
divisions, unless they cut them up 
to single eye divisions, they found 
they produced a nice bushy plant 
with terminal buds blooming alright, 
but no blooms from side shoots. 
We are growing about 700 varie¬ 
ties of dahlias, including practically 
all of the standard sorts which are 
available in large quantities as well 
as most of the very latest introduc¬ 
tions which will soon be available in 
large enough quantities to enable 
us to offer them at prices you can 
afford to pay. Many of these new 
one are truly beauties — Robert 
Ripley, Fireball, Queen City, Calif. 
Idol, Hunt’s Velvet Wonder, Mrs. 
George Le Boutillier, Mrs. Ida Chase, 
etc., etc., — but we don’t want to 
advise our customers to list them 
when the supply is not sufficient to 
meet their entire season’s require¬ 
ments, or the price is not low enough 
to enable them to sell them at popu¬ 
lar prices. There is no money to be 
made from orders that you cannot 
fill at a profit; and if a variety is 
good it will sell even better next 
year than this. 
The cactus and ball types of 
dahlias are coming back into favor 
very fast, chiefly because of the fact 
that they are better keepers when 
cut than the decorative type. The 
range of colors in these types is very 
great, and we have nearly all of 
them available in quantities sufficient 
for customers whose catalog issues 
run from half a million copies up. 
We have never circularized the 
florist’s trade to any great extent, 
most of our crop being sold through 
the regular seed and nursery trade. 
Many of our customers, however, 
especially in the South, do purchase 
roots for their own planting. The 
fact that these customers buy from 
us year after year makes us feel 
that our stock must please them or 
they would change their connections. 
Jordan’s Pansy Gardens, Aiken, S. 
Car., write us; — “We were very 
much pleased with stock bought 
from you last season.” Otto Spring, 
Okmulgee, Okla., says, “Received 
my dahlia order all OK. Sure nice 
tubers.” Kittle’s Seed Store, Mobile, 
Ala., “I am writing this that you 
may know I and my customers are 
well pleased with the dahlia bulbs 
you sent me.” If our stock pleases 
such customers, it should please you. 
Dahlias have done especially well 
in nearly all parts of the country 
this season, and our own fields look 
the best they have for several years. 
Nearly all our plantings are on new 
alfalfa sod ground, and with copious 
rains throughout the entire season 
we haven’t had a set back as yet. 
Our crop should be a large one and 
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