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No magazine that comes to our home 1s 
more welcome than. the READER’S DIGEST. 
We have over 100 copies from ‘way back 
when” to the present. 
I appreciate immensely the service it gives 
by dehydrating stories and articles originally 
too long for my reading budget. 
‘ This gave me a Bright Idea! Why not prune 
descriptions in our seed catalogue so that 
gardeners can grasp at a glance, or a coupla 
glances, the essential facts regarding varieties? 
No sooner said than done. No better time 
than right now to employ this method in pre- 
paring our 1942 Spring catalogue. 
Another good reason is the increasing cost 
of about everything pertaining to making and 
mailing catalogues. With one exception—post- 
age still the same, thank goodness. 
I figure that if our former 64 page edition 
is continued, we will have to join the parade 
and increase many prices. ; 
I might then say to you, as Dad is so often 
quoted as saying to Junior in the woodshed, 
“This is going to hurt me a lot more than it 
will you”. I’d have to wrestle with the extra 
cost of the larger catalogue. And perhaps be 
left holding the sack. Increased prices might 
spell decreased orders. 
This is largely guess work. No one, not even 
the high brow advertising expert, really knows. 
One school of thought says, I quote: 
. Wivid, flowery descriptions, enhanced by il- 
lustrations, preferably in colors, will appeal so 
much stronger than ‘‘digested” pages, as to 
repay cost of deluxe editions. Unquote. Far be 
it Re me to discredit this theory. It has its 
“yin $72 
There’s something else. Not all firms might 
succeed with my plan for our 1942 catalogue. 
OUR customers and prospective customers are 
nearly all real gardeners, large or small, who 
not only “know their onions” but other vege- 
tables and posies. 
They can visualize most of the flowers and 
vegetables we list, without illustrations and 
detailed descriptions. True, pictures do help 
find what you are looking for, and make you 
yen to.buy and plant this and that. 
But all the colorful printer’s ink in the 
world can not improve the seed in the package 
you receive, from whatever source. Stop me 
if you’ve heard this one: An, optimist is a 
guy who thinks he can grow vegetables and 
flowers like the pictures in catalogues and on 
seed packets. 
As you know, there is a growing tendency 
to shorten things. Remember the old horse 
blanket size bills, from $1.00 to $1,000? (I 
can’t recall any $1,000 bills myself.) The 
present shorter and smaller bills much better. 
Remember mustaches of the Gay Nineties 
and a decade or two after? Those luxuriant, 
stream lined soup strainer, handle bar models? 
I still wonder how they were grown to such 
colossal size long before we heard the praises 
of Vitamin By, 
Then, too, we have shorter working days and 
weeks in office, store, factory and even “down 
on the farm’’. I was born many years too soon. 
We Iowa farmers were gluttons for “Double 
Features”. Worked 8-hour shifts. Two shifts a 
day. No bank nite. 
Ze 
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Os . The J. D. Long Seed Co., Boulder, Colorado 


The short way is the hard way. Ever hear 
this one? About the man who wrote a five 
page letter to a friend, and finished with this 
apology: “Please excuse this long letter. I’m 
too busy to write a short one.’ The joke is 
that he wasn’t trying to be funny. Mull this 
over. Rather interesting. ’ 
GET THE HABIT—USE THE INDEX is a 
helpful slogan. I myself lose much time paw- 
ing through catalogues without referring to 
index. Often wind up by getting down on my 
knees and asking the index to help me out. 
Hard to classify everything under names 
each reader may be accustomed to use. In 
general, we use the common garden variety 
names, known to every dirt gardener. Not all 
readers may know that Antirrhinums are 
Snapdragons. But all know Snapdragons. 
This reminds me of a squib in the Rocky 
Mountain News (Denver), by Lee Casey, one 
of my favorite columnists. ' - 
Lee told about a newspaper office needing 
a news item published some years back, re- 
garding a cyclone. The head filing clerk was 
on vacation. The office force looked under 
Cyclones, Tornadoes, Storms, High 
Winds, Twisters, etc., but to no avail. |. 
Soon as the filing clerk returned, the force 
jumped all over him. The accused went calmly 
to the filing cabinet and found the data under 
“Regrettable Occurrences,” 
New Booklet—’"’Seeder’s Digest’ 
JD’s 16-page vest pocket edition, ‘‘biled 
down” like this catalogue. New. Different. 
The tips and pointers packed into these 16. 
midget pages spell more pleasure and profit 
from your garden. 
“Added Attractions”. SHORT SHORT 
SHORTS under such titles as: Garden Strategy 
—Pester the Pests—Would You Chew Wood? 
—Don’t Kill the Cops—Bean the Bean Bugs— 
Weed ’em and Reap—Irritating the Garden— 
Why Is a Weed? 
COPY FREE with seed order 25c or more. 
‘“Unaccustomed As I Am’”’ 
Unaccustomed as I am to blow my own horn, 
it is with colossal modesty that I let you 
tune in on the orchestra of the NEW ENG- 
LAND GLADIOLUS SOCIETY. 
I was unaware that the N.EH.G.S. was re- 
hearsing this selection, until I received, Dec. 
24th, the following notice. Quote: 
SPECIAL AWARD for 1841. The New Eng- 
land Gladiolus Society Awards Its Gold Medal 
to Mr. J. D. Long. 
For continued service to advance Horticul- 
ture, especially the Gladiolus; 
For original, valuable, and progressively up- 
to-date cultural directions given in readable 
language with humor widely known and ap- 
preciated; i 
For cooperation. with amateur gladiolus so- 
cieties and loyal support given N.E.G.S. for 
many years. Unquote. 
This announcement appears in the wonder- 
ful 1942 Gladiolus Book sent to each member 
of the N.E.G:S. Dues $1.00 a year. Albin K. 
. Parker, Norwood, Mass., Secretary. 
