NOVELTIES AND SPEQALTIES 
3 
The News for 1940 
Both vegetable as well as flower seeds are in ample 
supply. Prices are the same as last year and in some cases 
lower. Prosperity is still around the corner. 
Like every year there are many novelties but novelties 
of real value to the gardener or the florist are very few. All 
good novelties are listed by us either on novelty pages or 
together with regular offerings. 
For the market gardener an important novelty is Musk- 
melon Pride of Wisconsin, a melon that may replace the pop¬ 
ular Hale’s Best. 
If you are a florist, by all means try Ball Matricaria. This 
little Matricaria produces big quantities of high class material 
for flower work. The same can be said of Chrysanthemum 
Mayfield Giant. We have added this year many varieties of 
Petunia to our list. Petunia Glow and Velvet Ball are im¬ 
portant novelties to those that grow plants for spring sales. 
A highly valuable novelty is Tomato Firesteel described on 
this page. 
ONCE A YEAR 
We issue only one catalog a year. By issuing only one 
catalog we save money and we pass this saving to our cus¬ 
tomers. That helps to explain why in many cases our prices 
seem to be “too low”. We receive many letters and in these 
letters we are informed that the writer is afraid to send us 
an order for seeds on account of our low prices. Why? 
Every why has its because. Because our expenses of doing 
business are less, we sell for less. 
CAUUFLOWER SUPER DANAMERICA 
(66 days) 
Super Danamerica is the finest second early cauliflower in 
existence. It forms a head that is unusually high, solid, heavy 
and snow white. Perfectly fixed as to type, yielding under 
normal growing conditions practically 100% grade one heads. 
In season only 10 days later than Early King. It heads uni¬ 
formly throughout the field and the whole crop is ready to cut 
inside of two weeks. The stalk of Super Danamerica is shorter 
than in any other variety, the leaves are not spaced but grow 
as closely together as cabbage, forcing the inner leaves to curl 
over the head providing perfect protection from unfavorable 
weather. A very valuable variety to all growers wishing to get 
a crop of cauliflower just about the time the crop of EJarly King 
cauliflower is marketed. Pkt. 20c; oz. $2.00; lb. $24.00. 
CABBAGE GREEN ACRE (70 days) 
Green Acre is a new variety, heads round like a ball, 
solid and heavy, enveloping leaves clear glossy dark green, 
suggesting “fresh” appearance. Stalks short. About 85% of 
the crop is ready to cut 70 days from transplanting, the bal- 
i ance of the crop is ready within 10 days after that. Good 
: yielder, reliable crop producer and keeps for a long time In 
I storage, retaining its fresh green color. Pkt. 10c; oz. 40c; lb. 
! $180 prepaid. 
CAULIFLOWER SNOWBALL No. 16 
(52 days) 
An extra early strain of Snowball, producing large solid 
white heads even under rather unfavorable weather condi¬ 
tions. Suitable for forcing or general field culture. Pkt. 20c; 
oz. $2.00; lb. $24.00. 
Tomato Firesteel (67 days) 
A SENSATIONAL NEW TOMATO 
Of all red tomatoes Firesteel is the king. There is NO 
variety at present whether early or late that can be compared 
with Firesteel. 
Firesteel was originated by Mr. Clare Barber of Fire¬ 
steel Gardens, Mitchell, S. D., by crossing Marglobe with the 
variety Bison. The fruit of Firesteel is larger than the fruit of 
any other variety and in size is comparable only to the variety 
Ponderosa. It is a globe, ripens a fine dark crimson red all 
over at the same time. It is absolutely smooth, exceedingly 
solid and meaty and the best flavored tomato we have ever 
eaten, free from acidity, fine for juice and unbeatable as a 
slicer. Individual tomatoes weigh from 12 to 15 ozs. and are 
borne in clusters of three to five. The tomatoes are of im¬ 
mense size not only at the first picking but clear to the end 
of the season. There are hardly any small tomatoes. Vine 
medium, vigorous, fairly open with medium foliage. The 
vines will set on a heavy crop of fruit no matter how hot and 
dry it gets. In actual trials conducted by Mr. Barber in 1937 
a year that will be remembered for a long time as hot and 
dry, Firesteel produced 11 bushels of tomatoes per row. 
Under the same identical conditions Bison went 4^ bu., Penn 
State 2^4: bu., John Baer about a peck while a number of 
other varieties failed to set any fruit at all. 
It is no overstatement when we say that Firesteel is the 
King among tomatoes. Our opinion is shared by our friend, 
Mr. H. Linden, who has fifty years of experience as a market 
gardener and “knows tomatoes.” Pkt. 15c; oz. $1.00; lb. $10.00. 
A GROWER FROM IOWA SAYS: Z^deep red 
clear to the stem. Ninety out of a hundred fruits are of 
uniform size—a deep globe free from cracks at the stem. 
There is no tomato that can anywhere near compare with the 
quality of this most out of the ordinary variety. It Is the 
greatest yielder of any tomato that I know of, averaging five 
market baskets of perfect fruit per plant.” Even at only 15 
cents per market basket it is a sure mortgage lifter. 
A LETTER FROM NEW YORK r/sfbyZe ot'our 
customer says; “In a trial of 18 varieties of tomatoes, Fire¬ 
steel is by far the most promising. It is a knockout so far.” 
A w wwi ■ » I i T^T> if A A o addrcssed to Mr. Clare 
LETTER FROM KANSAS Barber and written by 
one of the largest growers of vegetables in the state of Kan¬ 
sas, says: 
“I put out about one-third of my acreage to Firesteel. It 
gives me much pleasure to report that they are the finest 
tomato that I have ever found or expect to find. For size, 
beauty, heartiness, quality and yield they surpass the Bison, 
Allred and other new and standard varieties so far, there is 
no comparison. 
“I intend to set out a large acreage of Firesteel tomatoes 
next spring and no other variety. 
“The weather this summer has been exceedingly hot, dry 
and windy, with two hail storms. But where I got plenty of 
water on them the Firesteels are making an elegant yield and 
fine quality. Other varieties are hardly worth picking. 
“In originating the Firesteel tomato you have certainly 
conferred a real benefit on mankind.” 
We received many letters from all parts of the country 
and in all these letters Firesteel Tomato is highly praised. 
A hig tomato grower and shipper in Texas found the 
Firesteel so good that he sent us an order for 60 pounds of 
seed, which however, we could not fill because our stock of 
seed is limited. 
CUCUMBER UNDENTS MARVEL (62 days) 
Linden’s Marvel cucumber is one of the finest for slicing. 
Fruit extremely handsome, averaging 10 inches in length, 
smooth, straight, of deep green color, ends rounded not 
pointed. The dark green color lasts for 10 days or more, 
making it valuable for shipping. Vines vigorous, blight re¬ 
sisting, heavily productive. A white spine variety. Pkt. 10c; 
oz. 16c; Ib. $1.20. 
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