Foreword 
LORE EDR AD Bs 
We take pleasure in presenting our 1943 general trade list of 
MERIT FLOWER SEED. 
Notwithstanding the wartime conditions which seriously affect the 
production of flower seed, we are glad to be able to offer our regular 
customers a percentage of the quantity of most of the items that they 
obtained from us last season. 
Our plantings are limited on all varieties with the result that 
amounts produced will not be large, but we shall make an equitable 
distribution of all the available seed among our regular customers on 
a basis of the quantity that they had on order with us for crop of 1942. 
In planning the acreage to be planted for the 1943 crop, serious 
consideration was given to three widely different growing programs, 
each of about equal importance. To completely satisfy one meant the 
abandoning of the others. 
First: Should we, regardless of conditions, attempt to produce the 
usual amount of flower seed? 
Second: Should we, in support of the war program, devote all of 
our land and effort to the growing of essential food crops and the pro- 
duction of vegetable seed? 
Third: The production of flower seed requires more field labor 
per acre than most crops. In this area field labor is critically short, 
and before the harvest of the 1943 crop has been completed, all field 
labor may be drafted for work on food crops. In view of this, we felt a 
keen desire to plant only crops that could be handled almost entirely 
with machinery. 
After weighing these factors, we decided to plant sufficient flower 
seed acreage of all of the important items to provide our regular custo- 
mers with a percentage of the quantity that they normally obtain from 
us. In support of the war effort, a large portion of our land will, for 
this season, be devoted to essential food crops and the production of 
vegetable seed for the Government. We feel in such a program that we 
will be entitled to our share of the available field labor and other farm- 
ing essentials for all crops. | 
