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(^UAAAtJL.(\AJ' QxluUj^ ^tf^^yy^,^ 
 
 FORTY YEARS 
 
 BURPEE SERVICE 
 
 FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT 
 isro — IQie 
 
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 Forty Years of Burpee Service — A nn i versa ry S u pp le m en t 
 
 A Few Words from the Founder S 
 
 To My Friends, Our Customers: — 
 
 times that ever were. 
 
 Forty years is a long 
 time, especially when 
 it's the forty that sepa- 
 rates a boy of IS from a 
 man of 58. A boy of 18 
 who was thrilled with the wonders of 
 the Centennial Exhibition, full of en- 
 thusiasm, he was just beginning to 
 appreciate that working with the soil 
 is the biggest work that can be done. 
 
 And of all the forty years that ever 
 have come and gone, these marking the 
 growth of that boy's business from a 
 mere handful of orders to the largest 
 mail-order trade in seeds have been the 
 most wonderful. 
 
 Think of it, my friends, — when the 
 doors of our business were first opened, 
 electric lights were a rarity and tele- 
 phones not yet in general use. No one 
 had thought of an electric street-car 
 and the snap-shot camera was un- 
 known. The largest steamship then 
 crossing the Atlantic could be easily 
 carried on top of most any average 
 liner to-day, and the first successful 
 automobile was not to appear until 
 fifteen years later. 
 
 If any one had talked about such a 
 thing as wireless telegraphy we'd have 
 thought him crazy, and the idea of 
 being able to "can" talk and singing 
 in a machine so as to unwind it at 
 will would have marked a man as a fool. 
 There were balloons, of course, but no 
 airships. And there were no Bush 
 Limas, and no Golden Bantam corn! 
 
 Indeed, when we look back over the 
 last two-score years we may say we 
 have lived in the most wonderful 
 
 It has been a period of 
 unprecedented progress 
 in all lines — and this is 
 si)ecially true of the seed 
 l)usiness. Forty years ago the boy 
 who is now writing these words to 
 his friends throughout the best country 
 on earth had a few ideas as to what 
 might be done in the way of bettering 
 the seed business. Some of these have 
 l)een proved good and others have been 
 dropped as impractical. As time went 
 on, however, he began to think the 
 very best thing he could do was to 
 plant RELIABILITY in folks' gardens. 
 
 That's what we need, after all, isn't it ? 
 
 The reliable helper is the one we want 
 around. The reliable merchant is the 
 man we want to deal with. The re- 
 liable horse is the best in the stable, 
 even if he isn't the handsomest or 
 fastest. But this boy, as he grew 
 older, kept on working 
 for reliability in seeds. 
 Of course, he wanted to 
 produce and send out to 
 his customers as good 
 seeds as could be got, 
 but no seed is as good 
 as it should be until it is 
 reliable. So he made 
 RELIABILITY liis first aim, 
 and that flag never has 
 l)een taken down. It 
 has meant a good deal of work, a 
 good many disappointments and fail- 
 ures — this forty years of working up 
 to our present standard — and we have 
 not yet reached our aim. Progress is 
 still our watchword. Every planter 
 
 Where we began 
 in 1876 
 
 [1 
 
HHHP 
 r illlll 
 
 who reads this — whether of a flower- 
 bed or a fifty-acre field — knows how 
 discouragement dogs a fellow once in a 
 while and how it takes nerve and grit 
 to face the music sometimes. 
 
 But if life 
 went along 
 like a song, 
 we'd make 
 mightylittle 
 progress, 
 my friends. 
 You can't 
 sharpen a 
 knife on a 
 hunk of 
 clay. It 
 takes a sur- 
 face harder 
 t h a n t h e 
 steel to give 
 an edge. 
 
 Fifth Street Frontage of the 
 
 First Burpee Building 
 
 Erected in 1898 
 
 SI o w 1 y 
 we've worked toward that one end of 
 providing seeds that grow, of the 
 best possible cjuality. From the first 
 we've thought it only fair to our cus- 
 tomers to keep our eyes wide open 
 for every l)etter thing that comes along. 
 But I want you to know that this is 
 
 not a one-sided business. No busi- 
 ness of mutual service is that. 
 We couldn't have done what we have 
 without the wade patronage and loyal 
 support of our friends and customers. 
 x\nd this is appreciated. 
 It is the thing that has kept us on 
 the alert for every seed-benefit that 
 might be passed along. It's what has 
 bound us all together in a sort of big 
 family, working to make the soil pro- 
 duce better and more fully, and to cut 
 out the waste of comparatively worth- 
 less varieties and reduce work to a 
 minimum. 
 
 As we gather around the fireside on 
 this fortieth anniversary, I want each 
 of you to know that in a sense you're 
 a partner in this business — for -a part- 
 ner is one who shares the profits. And 
 that you may keep on sharing the 
 profits of the best care and thought 
 we can put into our work is the sincere 
 wish of 
 Your friend. 
 
 The above article, while signed by W. Atlee Burpee, is a 
 contribution from the pen of our friend, Leigh Mitchell 
 Hodges, The Optimist, of the Philadelphia \orih AmericaH. 
 
 Entrance to Main Office at 485 North Fifth Street Jr 
 
 [2(0;ci,A417524 
 JAN -3 1916 ^,. 
 
York Avt'niji- :in<l Huttonwooii Street frontage of the Main Burpee Buildings, Philadelphia, owned and exclusively 
 occupied by us. Two other Ijuildiiigs to the south (including a double warehouse on York Avenue) are not shown in this 
 illustration. The entrance to othces is now at 485 North Fifth Street. Our new "Daylight Addition" alone has forty- 
 two windows on each floor exclusive of doors and transoms. The first Burpee Building (seven stories) was erected in 
 1898 upon the site occupied by us since 188'^ 
 
The entrance to Fordhook Farms on Upper State Koad, niie-fimrtli mile from Doylestown 
 
ILmlia;^ lu oa'-= al TurdliMok 
 
 The Collies' couiiiiissary 
 
 [5] 
 
Forty Years of Burpee Service — ^x\ n n i v e r s a r y Supplement 
 
 Flowers and Fruits 
 
 Eight hundred years before 
 Christ a man on the phiins 
 of Assyria wrote this proph- 
 ecy: "And the desert shall 
 bloom like the rose, and the 
 waste places shall be made 
 liTcen, and there shall be no 
 lion there, nor any ravenous 
 beast, but sorrow and sighing 
 shall flee away." Twenty-seven hundred years 
 have come and gone since that prophecy was 
 written, but now the dream is coming true. 
 
 Never in all history has there been such an 
 interest in gardening as there is today. And 
 we are gardening not only for the sake of the 
 fruits and flowers, l)ut because we wish to raise 
 better men and better women. 
 
 Man is a product of soil and climate — plus 
 a few other things. 
 
 I do not pretend to know just exactly what 
 a man is, but I know we are well, happy and 
 sane only when we are in close touch with the 
 soil. 
 
 Isaiah, who wrote the prophecy cjuoted above, 
 was a farmer and a shepherd. 
 
 Five hundred years separate Isaiah and 
 Aristotle. Aristotle was the world's first 
 naturalist. Eusebius calls him Nature's Private 
 Secretary. He wrote on the subjects of trees, 
 flowers, vegetables, fruits, bees and birds. 
 Aristotle named things, and the names of many 
 of his plants and flowers aie the classic bo- 
 tanical names by which they are known today. 
 In one of his cs.says Aristotle says this: "I 
 have noticed that land that produces beautiful 
 flowers and luscious fruits, also produces a 
 very excellent, intelligent and able cl^ss of men 
 and women." Aristotle seemed to look upon 
 this as a sort of coin- 
 cidence, but later in 9" the way t.. the farm house y. 
 ,.» ■ ]. ] ii 1. farm house, more than IJo years 
 
 llie lie discovered that ^^^^^-^ protecti,.n. ."ks the Farm 
 instead of being a records and is the seat 
 
 coincidence it was a 
 sequence. 
 
 We educate our- 
 selves through our 
 work. Men are strong 
 only as they lay hold 
 on the forces of 
 Nature. 
 
 Man is a product 
 of Nature, just as 
 much as is the tree or 
 the flower. Life is an 
 expression of energy 
 — this energy takes 
 the form of a man, 
 and the same energy, 
 under dift'erent con- 
 ditions, evolves into 
 a tree. Thus do we 
 
 say with Aristotle that man 
 is a brother to the tree. 
 
 The world's second great 
 naturalist was Pliny the Elder, 
 who was a soldier, but who, 
 on his various expeditions and 
 marches, seemed to pay more 
 attention to the manifesta- 
 tions of Nature than to the 
 doings of the enemy. Pliny the Younger is 
 known for only one thing, and that is, that he 
 wrote the life of his uncle. After a man is 
 dead he is no greater than his biographer. 
 
 Pliny the Younger must have been a great 
 man, otherwise he would not have been able 
 to apjireciate the genius of Pliny the Elder. 
 
 For ujiward of forty years Pliny the Elder 
 made \ery close observations of the living 
 things tliat he found on his travels. Flowers, 
 birds, bees, animals, the clouds, the wind, the 
 rain — all these things interested him. Some of 
 his remarks today sound rather unscientific; 
 ne\'ertlieless, through it all there is a reverence 
 for Nature, and an earnest, sincere love of the 
 out-of-doors that commands our respect. 
 
 THE EDUCATED MAN 
 
 Herbert Spencer says that the world has 
 produced only six educated men. That is to 
 say, there have been six men who were so in- 
 (•(^mparably beyond the rest of mankind that 
 they form a class by themselves. 
 
 Then Herbert Spencer goes on to say that 
 these men are great simply because they were 
 lovers of Nature, and had an understanding 
 of Nature in her manifold moods that the 
 average man does not possess. 
 
 First in the list, Herbert Spencer puts .Aris- 
 totle; .second, Pliny 
 
 lU pass the original Fordhook the EI (1 C r ; third, 
 old. Now as then it is Ford- i „,,. i i.. A'.'.,,.; 
 Office it houses the Fordhook l>t^«>n«rtl" <1:' \ m 'l- 
 
 f farm operations Lconaixlo has been 
 
 called the best all- 
 roiuitl developed man 
 that the world has 
 ever seen. Leonardo 
 was a horseman, an 
 artist, an architect, 
 an engineer, a farmer 
 and a gardener. 
 
 He lived at that 
 wonderful time which 
 Me know as the year 
 Fourteen Hundred 
 Ninety-two. 
 
 At that time the 
 business of farming 
 and gardening was at 
 a very low ebb. It 
 conies to us with a 
 dash of surprise that 
 
 ' Flowers and Fruits," written by Elbert Hubbard and here reproduced, is from " The Fra" of March, 1914. 
 
the raising of flowers as a business, or even for 
 purposes of recreation and pleasure, was un- 
 known in England until about the year Seven- 
 teen Hundred Fifty. 
 
 Lecky, the Irish historian, gives one man 
 credit for what is called "The Great Awaken- 
 ing in England." 
 
 to his pottery. He is small and lame, but his 
 soul is near to God." 
 
 The man John AVesley referred to was Josiah 
 Wedgwood, founder of Etruria, and manu- 
 facturer of the famous Wedgwood ware that is 
 still being made by the third generation in the 
 factory founded 1)V this marvelous man. 
 
 fn Entrances to Hurpee 
 
 t'orilhiidk tarm-i. When you jnurnry to 1' 
 farm l)y this j;ate 
 
 This man was John Wesley, who for fifty 
 years rode through Great Britain from Lands 
 End to John OXinjats, prenchiiig on tavern- 
 steps, in graveyards, by the roadside, at fairs, 
 wherever any one would listen. 
 
 John Wesley was the inspirer and the teacher 
 of the plain, every-day people. He pleaded 
 for temperance, for industry, for economy, 
 and his whole argiunent was that religion was 
 a form of commonsense. 
 
 He believed in bringing about Paradise here 
 and now. 
 
 Accidentally, he foimdcd a religious denomi- 
 nation, but this was not his primary intent. 
 
 Lecky himself was a freethinker — some people 
 called him an infidel — and so what he says 
 about John Wesley can be taken as eminently 
 unprejudiced and judicial. 
 
 The Great Awakening was a wave of emotion 
 that culminated in America in Seventeen 
 Hundred Seventy-six. 
 
 In the diary of John Wesley, a voluminous 
 book published in England some years ago, but 
 now practically forgotten, I once foimd these 
 words: "Preached at Rurslem, a town of potters. 
 The people are poor, ignorant and often brutal. 
 Here I met a young man by the name of \\'edg- 
 wootl who had planted a flower-garden adjacent 
 
 Julia Wedgwood, a daughter of Josiah, wrote 
 a life of John Wesley. 
 
 Josiah \\edgwood has been called the world's 
 first modern businessman; that is, he was the 
 first man to introduce factory betterments and 
 to pay special attention to the idea of beauty. 
 His factory was surroimded by am|)le space, so 
 as to insure proper light and ventilation. Also, 
 he had flowerlieds and an extensive garden, 
 where many of his people worked at odd hoiu's. 
 Josiah Wedg\vood gave prizes for the best 
 gardens and for the most beautiful back-yards; 
 and this, please remember, was nearly a himdred 
 years ago. Wedgwood attempted to do for 
 England, in the line of gardening, what John 
 H. Patterson has done f<ir .Viiierica. 
 
 I nfortun:itely, the times were not ripe for 
 Wedgwood's ideas as to fact(;ry building and 
 factory sin-roimdings; nevertheless, he left his 
 mark upon the times. 
 
 One thing sure, he influenced profoimdly 
 another great businessman, Robert Owen, who, 
 in degree, followed the Wedgw(M)d idea and 
 endeavored to make his factory not only a 
 place for manufactiu-ing things, but a place 
 where men and women would evolve and grow 
 and become. Robert Owen's factory was also 
 a school. A product of Robert Owen's factory 
 
 :7] 
 
idea was John Tyndall, the scientist, known 
 to the world as one of the " big five." The other 
 four are Herbert Spencer, Thomas Huxley, 
 Alfred Russel ^^"allace and Charles Darwin. 
 And a daughter of Josiah Wedgwood was the 
 mother of Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin's 
 book. The Origin of Species, has influenced 
 
 say. But in any event, John Wesley fully 
 believed that there was no dividing-line between 
 beauty and gooflness. We used to regard the 
 businessman as one who took advantage of the 
 needs of the people. Rut this idea is obsolete. 
 The businessman today is the friend of his cus- 
 tomer. "Truth, "' says Doctor Charles W. F^liot, 
 
 I'hi- Cott.age " at Fordhook Farms, just inside the western gate 
 
 this drive — 
 
 the world more profoundly than any other 
 book issued within three hundred years. But 
 in this year of grace. Nineteen Hundred Four- 
 teen, the ideas of Aristotle, Pliny, Leonardo. 
 John Wesley, Josiah ^^'edgwood and Robert 
 Owen are to be found in many towns, villages 
 and cities of the United States and Europe. 
 
 For instance, the Oregon plan of teaching 
 gardening in every public school is a literal 
 following out of the suggestions of Aristotle. 
 Wedgwood and Robert Owen were business- 
 men, and never claimed to be anything else. 
 
 liusiness is supplying human wants. It is 
 carrying things from where they are plentiful 
 to where they are needed. Business is hinnan 
 service, and the good businessman today is 
 essentially a public servant. 
 
 THE BUSINESSMAN 
 
 John Wesley always carried in his saddlebags 
 packages of flower-seeds. He would distribute 
 these seeds judiciously among his friends along 
 the route he traveled. He would explain how 
 to plant the seeds, and how to care for the 
 flowers, and then he would tell his friends that 
 he would be liack that way in a year and see 
 how these flowers flouiished. In this particular 
 tiling of distributing flower-seeds, John Wesley 
 worked a big evolution and revolution. Per- 
 haps his flower-seeds did England as much 
 good as his preaching, but this is not for us to 
 
 " is the new virtue." Businessmen tell the 
 truth, for the best possible reason, and that is 
 IxK'ause it pays. The word "commercialism" 
 is no longer used as an epithet. The business of 
 distributing flower-seeds is not left now to the 
 philanthropist, the preacher and the reformer; 
 it is on a business basis. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF BURPEE 
 
 The one man in America who distril)utes more 
 flower-seeds direct to planters than any other 
 one man is W. Atlee Burpee of Philadclpliia. 
 Mr. Burpee will never be President of the 
 I'nited States, because he was born in Sheffield, 
 New Brunswick. When the young man was 
 three years of age he persuaded his parents to 
 move to Philadelphia. 
 
 AV. Atlee's father. Doctor David Burpee, 
 desired to marry the daughter of his preceptor. 
 Doctor AAashington L. Atlee, the noted sur- 
 geon, and to get the consent of the girl's parents 
 had to promise to mo\'e from Canada to Phila- 
 delphia within five or six years. The name 
 Biu'pee was formerly Beaupre. The Beaupres 
 were Huguenots, a splendid folk, sort of first 
 cousin to the Quakers. 
 
 The Atlees traced a proud pedigree to William 
 Pitt, Earl of Chatham, "that terrible Comet 
 of Horse, " to u.se the phrase of Burke. 
 
 And the young people, in order to stop all 
 argument as to genealogical preference, decided 
 
 [8. 
 
to take the baby's advice and move to Phila- 
 delphia, the City of Brotherly Love, and make 
 a fortune f(jr themselves. And the move was a 
 good one. The youngster was named "Wash- 
 ington Atlee liurpee"' by his mother, whose 
 maiden name was Atlee. 
 
 In England the Atlees lived in the partieular 
 coimtry that produced George Washington. 
 Edmund Burke once said to George the Third, 
 "Your Majesty, we will never whip George 
 Washington." And the King askeil, "Why?" 
 And Burke replied, "Your Majesty, Washing- 
 ton is an Englishman, and he is fighting for 
 his liome." 
 
 Tiie English spirit is a pretty fine thing after 
 all, and well did Webster say, "The drum-taps 
 of the British Nation circle the globe and greet 
 the rising sun." 
 
 Transplanted products rule the world. 
 
 George Washington in America was a stronger 
 man than he would have l)een in England. 
 The families of Burpee and Atle<> were bigger 
 and l)etter people in America than they would 
 have been had they remained in England; and 
 W. Atlee Biu'pee has exerted a wider infiuence 
 and enjoyed a bigger career than he could pos- 
 sibly have done had he remained in Canada. 
 
 Stay in one place and you get pot-bound. 
 
 Burpee discovered that about sixty per cent 
 of the colored people of the male persuasion 
 in Philadelphia were named "Washington." 
 
 He then decided to part his name in the 
 middle, and since then has called himself W. 
 Atlee Burpee. 
 
 However, just write the word "Burpee" on 
 an envelope and drop it in the mail-box and 
 it will go to W. Atlee Burpee and Company, 
 Philadcli)liia, Penn.sylvania. 
 
 This Canadian lail started in raising garden- 
 seeds and flower-seeds in Eighteen Hundred 
 Seventy-six, Centennial year. 
 
 Burpee made it his task to know exactly what 
 the seeds were that he was selling. Every lot 
 of seeds was tested. 
 
 It takes time to prove the value of seeds. 
 The venture grew slowly, steadily, surely. At 
 first there was just one traveling man employed, 
 and that was W. Atlee Burpee. Soon Mr. 
 Burpee found that he could deal with his cus- 
 tomers by mail. This was before the time of 
 the Parcels-Post, but seeds do not weigh heavy, 
 and this was an advantage. Burpee issued his 
 little catalog and wrote letters to his friends. 
 He began business when he was eighteen years 
 of age, and when he was twenty-one he had a 
 thousand dollars in the bank and plenty of 
 
 across the " Rridge of Roses," passing the Farm Office on the right, then comes — 
 
 It is the struggle to adapt yourself to a new 
 environment that causes growth. This is about 
 all there is in college education — a change of 
 environment. 
 
 Washington A. Burpee went to the University 
 of Pennsylvania, and there the boys insisted 
 on calling him "Wash." About this time young 
 
 energy to make the thousand grow. The 
 growth of the Burpee business has marked 
 the growing evolution in America of a love for 
 the out-of-doors. Slowly, surely, steadily, the 
 business has advanced, until the year Nineteen 
 Hundred Thirteen has been the biggest and 
 best (although not the most profitable) that 
 
 o: 
 
Burpee has ever enjoyed. Mr. Burpee has a 
 farm of more than two hundred acres near 
 Uoylestown, known as Fordhook. At Fordhook 
 are raised tomatoes, corn and sweet peas as 
 specialties, and nearly three hundred varieties 
 of small vegetal )les and flowers, and these are 
 raised just for llic seeds and notliing else. 
 
 to the handling of seeds. Here, upwards of 
 three hundred employees take care of the orders. 
 Often between five and ten thousand separate 
 orders will be handled in a single day. Every 
 order is filled within twenty-four hours after it 
 is received. There are no middlemen with 
 whom to divide responsibilities or profits. 
 
 the Farmhouse on Fordhook. This Lawn and other Lawns at Fordhook Farms were produced from the same blend 
 
 Fordhook Finest Lawn Grass as were the Lawns that won the Grand Prize at St. Louis, 1904, and the only Gold 
 
 Medal for Lawns at Lewis and Clark Exposition, Portland, Oregon, 1905 
 
 Experiments are going on constantly the 
 whole year through, under glass and out of 
 doors. Everything that science can bring to 
 bear in the way of betterment of conditions 
 is being done in order to produce the finest, 
 the strongest, the most harfly, and the most 
 productive vegetables and flowers. 
 
 Then there is another Burpee farm known as 
 Sunnybrook, at Swedesboro, New Jersey. This 
 farm is sandy, and considerably warmer than 
 the Pennsylvania soil. Here are raised tomatoes, 
 eggplants, cucumbers, melons, peppers and 
 special flowers. 
 
 Then Mr. Burpee has a farm in California 
 known as Floradale. This is situated in the 
 Lompoc Valley, between Los Angeles and San 
 Francisco. Floradale is sacred to the raising 
 of sweet peas and other flowers. Mr. Burpee 
 thinks he has produced sweet peas that ap- 
 proximate perfection. The seeds of these 
 sweet peas, raised in California (one hundred 
 eighty acres the past season), are sent all over 
 the world, and the transplantation from the 
 sunny clime of California to a colder climate 
 produces some remarkably beautiful flowers. 
 In Philadelphia Mr. Burpee has warehouses 
 which have been built and adapted especially 
 
 Burpee guarantees his goods to the full extent 
 of the price paid, and he has gradually won the 
 confidence of the florists and gardeners of the 
 world, professional and amateur. 
 
 And any individual who isn't a gardener is drop- 
 ping something out of his life that he will have 
 to go back and pick up in another incarnation. 
 
 BCHPEE EFFICIENCY 
 
 Once in a while you hear it asked, "What 
 will become of this wonderful business when Mr. 
 Burpee passes out.-*" 
 
 The fact is, Burpee is big enough, not only to 
 evolve wonderful fruits, flowers and vegetables, 
 but also to grow a very fine product in the way 
 of men. 
 
 For instance, he has two sons, David and 
 Washington Atlee Burpee, Junior, who are in 
 the Agricultural Department of Cornell Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 These boys are farmers by prenatal tendency. 
 But aside from these likely lads, in the Burpee 
 business are upwards of two hundred very 
 strong, earnest, intelligent men and women 
 who have grown up in the business, who take a 
 direct, personal interest in it, and who have 
 grown as the business has grown. Burpee is 
 
 101 
 
Ill 
 !!! 
 
 '.Li 
 
 ;!! ifil^iitiHBHiiii 
 
 la 
 
 The old-f;ishioned garden. The open gate 
 of this old-fashioned garden is symbolic 
 of the genuine hospitality that is every- 
 where evident when one is fortunate enough 
 to visit this famous Seed Farm and Trial 
 Grounds. — \V. F. T. 
 
 This picturesque old-fashioned garden is the particular pride of 
 the mistress of Fordhook. The stately fountain, flanked to the 
 east and to the west by lily pools, completes a wonderfully beauti- 
 ful picture that has as a part the sun dial and pigeon house 
 sho%vn to the right. These broad lawns have been the scene of 
 man.v a pleasant outing that will linger long in the minds of 
 friends who gathered to share with W. Atlee Burpee and his 
 family the pleasure that only Fordhook affords. — \V. F. T. 
 
 [11 
 
big enough to get other people to help in his 
 work. He has all the time there is. If you get 
 your nose too close to the soil you will not see 
 the stars. 
 
 Burpee's interests are widely diversified. He 
 is a director in various banks and trust com- 
 panies; takes a deep interest in educational 
 
 be? We build upon the past, and all the days 
 that have gone before make this day possible. 
 These great men of the past loom large before 
 us because they had practically no competition. 
 They were planets, while today men of their 
 magnitude are lost in a milky way of moving 
 humanitv. 
 
 Partial view of poultry yards at Fordhook. Barred Plymouth Rocks, Brown Leghorns, White Leghorns and Light 
 Brahmas are the only four breeds now carried 
 
 \Ye call Benjamin Franklin our all-round 
 educated American. But in his time the forests 
 were a menace, trees a nuisance, and less than 
 one-half of the men in America could read and 
 write, and a woman who could read was a 
 curiosity. 
 
 The planting of trees and the cultivation of 
 flowers are comparatively new industries. 
 Vi . Atlee Burpee is a close friend of Luther Bur- 
 bank. He is also on good terms with about 
 all of the strong and able men in similar lines 
 in the United States and Europe. He is a 
 cosmopolitan. And yet he does not forget the 
 toilers. He meets his people on terms of equal- 
 ity, and is a wc^rker among them — able and 
 willing if needs be to perform the most menial 
 tasks. 
 
 If there is any one man in America, more than 
 another, who is making the waste places green, 
 and the desert to blossom like tlie rose, that 
 man is W. Atlee Burpee, seedsman magnus, 
 anil gentleman suj)erbus. 
 
 matters; is interested in sanitation, hygiene 
 and athletics; and is a life member of the Royal 
 Horticultural Society of Great Britain, and the 
 National Society of Horticulture in France. 
 Burpee has lived a big, active, generous life. 
 Not only has he loved the flowers and the plants 
 and the trees and the growing things, but his 
 heart has gone out to humanity. He is a citizen 
 of the world, and he is also a citizen t)f "The 
 Celestial City of Fine Minds." And what is 
 more, he is not retiring from business. 
 
 He is right in the seed business today just as 
 earnestly as he was in Eighteen Hundred 
 Seventy-six, when Thomas A. Edison exhiljited 
 the first telephone in Philadelphia. 
 
 Burpee is a worker. If you want things doni', 
 of course, you have to call on a busy man — the 
 other kind has no time. But Burpee is big 
 enough so he pushes his business, and does 
 not let the business push him. 
 
 Burpee is a composite of Aristotle, George 
 Fox, John Wesley, Benjamin P'ranklin and 
 Josiah Wedgwood. And why shouldn't he 
 
 The Burpee Business is builded not for the present only but with an outlook to the future. A 
 business that has no vision of the future, or the object of which is mere money-making, would not be 
 worthy a life's work.— W. ATLEE BURPEE. 
 
 [12] 
 
\\. AU.c Burp,'.'. f;inioiH s Ntiiaii, l.rnui.'ht tu,. .nil,) loads nf liis family to Enst Aurora to show them how the Roy- 
 croft Farm had improvi'd with thi- u.si- of "Sot-ds that Grow." — Reproduci-d from " The l*'ra." August, 1915 
 
 Inspired by his personal friendship for the founder of The House of Burpee, our friend — that 
 inimitable genius. Elbert Hubbard — honored us with the leading article, from his own pen, in "The 
 Fra" for March, 1914. "Flowers and Fruits," reproduced on the preceding pages, is from "The Fra" 
 of that date. 
 
 Since the untimely passing of Elbert Hubbard we have again visited the scene of his life's work 
 and ambition. 
 
 Everywhere at Roycroft are the unmistakable evidences of his master mind and personality. 
 
 More than ever we realize the greatness of the man. 
 
 More than ever we appreciate the tribute, "F'lowers and Fruits," because it marks one of the 
 places, in the last year of a busy and useful life, where Elbert Hubbard paused for a time to be of 
 service to a fellow-man.— W. ATLEE BUUPEE. 
 
 One of the Barns at Fordhook. Commodious and substantial buildings house all Fordhook operations 
 
 fl3l 
 
Farm scenes at Fordhook. Comfortable and at- 
 tractive farm houses are a part of the equipment. 
 The house to the left is situated on the David Bur- 
 pee farm, which is the latest addition to the Ford- 
 hook group 
 
 The farm house in the picture above is located 
 to the southwest of the farm house shown on 
 patre 10 and is on the Blanche Burpee farm. 
 To the ri^ht is shown a reaper busy with a 
 crop of oats. These are raised in rotation with 
 other crops and are used as feed 
 
The Burpee -Quality Seed of Tomatoes 
 
 The choicest Tomato seed has been u Icadiiii^ 
 specialty with us for years. We pride ourselves 
 on the number and merit of the \arieties we 
 have introduced. Our stock of Tomato seed 
 is frrown iarf^ely on our own Fokdhook Farms 
 in Pennsylvania and Si nxyhrook F.vini in 
 New Jersey, where careful stock selections are 
 made. Our seed is strictly the hk;iik.st (iitAOK 
 obtainable. \\'hile our prices are quite moder- 
 ate considering the quality of seed, we cannot 
 comi)ete, nor do we wish to do .so, with the 
 cheaper grades of seed, — large quantities of 
 
 some of the leading \arietics being saved by 
 canning establishments and sold at })rices far 
 below the actual cost of (/roiring first-class seed. 
 Our extensive trials each sca.son make us familiar 
 with all the newer introductions and standard 
 \arictics, thus we know excry (h-sirable l\\n\ 
 
 .\b)st .seedsmen charge less for Tomato seed 
 than do we, but the .seed is usually worth cor- 
 respondingly less. What does the cost actually 
 matter when you consider that it requires 
 only two ounces of .sci'd to produce sufficient 
 plants to set out an acre? 
 
 Harrowing; iiclil iii wIikIi to .lel out iuiiLiloe-, at Fordhook. Ttiorough soil preparation i.~. esseutial to good crops 
 Every practice that makes for better crops is a part of the Fordhook routiue 
 
 Setting out a field with plants of Hurpee's Matchless Tomato. The fields are checked (or marked) lioth nays and care- 
 ful hand-setting is practiced. "Not how fast but how good" is the planting slogau 
 
 [151 
 
Growing and Saving Toitiato Seed at Fordhook 
 
 Afield of liiir|„,\ |l^^,l^|■ ( .laiil Iciiiato. Men in the distance ,ir. |.i.kiiiu' Ihr ript- fruit wliil. 
 
 the washer 
 
 loading for 
 
 The Tomato- washer at fordhook. !Note simphcity of building. Pacihties are sufficient to take care of twelve hundred 
 bushels daily. Here we save the seed only, the pulp being hauled on fields and used as fertilizer 
 
 [161 
 
Washing and Drying Tomato Seed at Fordhook 
 
 Rear vii-w of Tuiiiato-washer. The barrels contain the ground nias.s after pulp and skin have l)een removed in the 
 separator. The large trough-like boxes are used in thoroughly washing the seed 
 
 The Tomato Drying-racks and Seed House at Fordhook. All seed is dried naturally, and when remo\ed from the racks 
 is sacked and later put through cleaning machine 
 
 [17] 
 
A field of Phlox Drummoudii Gniudil 
 
 at Fordhook. This field looked like a groat Turkish rug spread out uuder the 
 summer sun 
 
 Boys picking seed of Salvia lijplendens in one of the fields at Fordhook. We are the largest growers of Salvia seed in 
 America. The block here shown is only one of a number grown at Fordhook. Another field of Salvia is shown on page 25 
 
 [18 1 
 
Forty Years of Burpee Service — Anniversary Supplement 
 
 Printers' Ink 
 
 Kegislercd U. S. Fatenl Office 
 
 A JOURNAL FOR ADVERTISERS 
 Entered AS Second-Class Matter at the New York, N.Y., Post Office, June 29, 1893 
 
 Vol. XCI New York, June 17, 1915 No. 13 
 
 The Personality That Is Behind 
 the Burpee Business 
 
 Based on an Authorized Interview by Roy W. Johnson with 
 
 W. Atlee Burpee 
 
 Of \V. Atlec Burpee & Co., i'hiladelphia 
 
 "fO" EARLY twenty-five years 
 -'-^ ago— December 24, 1S90, 
 to be exact — W. Atlee Burpee of- 
 fered, through Printers' Ink, a 
 prize of $50 for the "best adver- 
 tisement" calculated to bring busi- 
 ness to the seed house of W. Atlee 
 Burpee & Co. "Should there be 
 a second advertisement also of 
 special merit," he announced, "we 
 will gladly pay an additional prize 
 of $25." 
 
 Now the ad which won the first 
 prize in that contest has long 
 ago been forgotten. As a speci- 
 men of the weird typography in 
 vogue in those days, it stood high 
 indeed, and probably was worth 
 all it cost. But the second prize 
 — for there iva-s a second prize, 
 and several additional awards in- 
 to the bargain — went to an adver- 
 tisement which was quite modest- 
 ly set around the luminous phrase, 
 "Burpee's Seeds Grow." "That 
 piece of copy," says Mr. Burpee, 
 "was submitted by Wiley B. Jones, 
 then of Burlington, Vt. Had I 
 known how innnensely valual)le 
 his phrase was to become to the 
 business, he certainly should have 
 received the first prize at the very 
 least." 
 
 There you have the "origm" of 
 one of the most successful slo- 
 gans in existence. But in the hum- 
 ble opinion of the present writer, 
 Mr. Burpee should have awarded 
 an extra-special-first-prize to him- 
 self as the man who first recog- 
 nized the value of the phrase. The 
 ordinary individual would have 
 passed over it as merely a com- 
 
 monplace statement of fact. "What 
 does Mr. Burpee expect his seeds 
 to do; sing and dance?" asked H. 
 C. Brown, then' editor of a publi- 
 cation called Art in Advertising. 
 And a certain competitor with a 
 fine sense of sarcasm (though as 
 much can hardly be said of his 
 advertising sense) devoted some 
 half-dozen lines of perfectly good 
 advertising space to the headline, 
 "Weed Seeds Grow." Sometimes 
 the make-up man would rise to 
 the occasion by placing the "Weed 
 Seed" copy directly beneath one 
 of Mr. Burpee's ads — which did 
 not worry the latter gentleman 
 in the least. 
 
 THE WHOLE STORY IN THE SLOGAN 
 
 There were a few years diiring 
 which Mr. Burpee worded the 
 slogan thus : "Burpee's Seeds 
 Grow, and Are the Best that 
 Grow." "You will notice," he 
 said, "that? that expression is 
 free from the vulgarity of claim- 
 ing that Burpee's seeds are the 
 best seeds. It only states that 
 they are the best that can be 
 grown." But for many years 
 now the slogan has been used 
 in its simple, unequivocal form. 
 After all, there is nothing further 
 that one wants to know about 
 seeds. 
 
 And when all is said and done, 
 that plain, unostentatious, and ap- 
 parently commonplace slogan is 
 quite typical of the Burpee busi- 
 ness, and of the man who is its 
 active head. There is very little 
 of the spectacular, and absolutely 
 
 Table of Contents on page 126 
 
 Lack of space prevents our reproducing in facsimile the entire article from Printers' Ink. The first page shown above 
 
 is facsimile; the balance in regular form 
 
 [19] 
 
not a trace of the sensational, to be found in the 
 selHng methods of the concern. One who is 
 used to the high-pressure system of running a 
 business so as to mai<e the market yield every 
 last order it is possible to obtain, would doubt- 
 less feel that a good many opportunities were 
 being overlooked. He probably would want 
 
 W. Atlee Burpee 
 
 to "key-up" the organization the first thing, 
 and he probably would succeed in creating the 
 atmosphere of feverish activity. But whether 
 or not it would result in more actual business 
 is another question. 
 
 For be it known that Mr. Biu-pee is one mail- 
 order man who does not believe in follow-up. 
 For years he has advertised that his customers 
 will not be troubled with follow-up literature, 
 and it is literally true. 
 
 "In this business," says Mr. Burpee, "forced 
 sales are like forced plants — you can raise them, 
 but the natural growth is better. It is easy to 
 overpersuade a man to buy a few packets of 
 seeds, but it isn't the seeds he really wants — 
 its the product of the seeds. The price of the 
 seeds is infinitesimal compared with the value 
 of the expected crop. But suppose the crop 
 doesn't materialize as he expects. Suppose he 
 plants the seeds too deep (as most inexperienced 
 gardeners do), or that he puts them under an 
 eaves-spout, or on the south side of a brick 
 garage where they are never watered, ^^'ill he 
 
 justly charge the crop failure to his own care- 
 lessness.'' No, he will blame the seedsman who 
 overpersuaded him to buy. Naturally enough, 
 too, you must admit. 
 
 "But, on the other hand, if he received only 
 a straightforward statement of what may 
 reasonably be expected, from a house in which 
 he has confidence, he is more apt 
 to conclude that the trouble was 
 at his end of the line. In other 
 words, if he has been sold partly 
 against his will, he will be resent- 
 ful, while if he has sold himself, 
 so to speak, we are likely to hear 
 from him again." 
 
 In the present writer's opinion., 
 you have there the whole selling 
 philosophy of the Burpee busi- 
 ness. It certainly doesn't har- 
 monize with many of the most 
 modern ideas; it would spell stark 
 ruin for the manufacturer of 
 washing - machines and type- 
 writers; it wouldn't do for a 
 dealer proposition. But Mr. 
 Buipee has made a conspicuous 
 success with it, and if the result- 
 ing good will of thousands of 
 consumers was slow in the build- 
 ing, it is just that much the 
 harder for competitors to tear 
 it down. 
 
 So it practically comes down 
 to this, as Mr. Burpee puts it: 
 "The catalogue must sell the 
 goods." The catalogue is a 
 mighty important item in any 
 mail-order business, but it is par- 
 ticularly important here because 
 it has borne practically the whole 
 burden of making sales. So 
 important is "The Silent Sales- 
 man, " as the Burpee catalogue 
 is called, that Mr. Burpee has 
 always written the text himself, 
 and the descriptions of the 6,000 
 odd varieties contained therein 
 are exclusively his own. When 
 this interview took place at his 
 home in Fordhook Farms, the most conspicuous 
 objects on JNIr. Burpee's desk were the latest copy 
 of Printers' Ink and a pile of page lay-outs for 
 the 191G catalogue. That was the 21st of May, 
 and the buying season will not begin until 
 December. Subordinates are permitted to 
 work up suggestions for the catalogue covers, 
 the color illustrations, etc., but when it comes 
 to the actual description of the goods, the guid- 
 ing hand of the founder and head of the business 
 takes absolute charge. It isn't a question of 
 O.K.ing what somebody else has written from 
 more or less imperfect knowledge. It is a matter 
 of going over personally the whole body of text 
 each year, and making a thorough revision of 
 the descriptive matter. So dependent is the 
 business upon the good will of the ultimate 
 consumer that Mr. Burpee has been unwilling to 
 entrust the catalogue work to any other hands. 
 
 NAMES WHICH CANNOT BE PROTECTED 
 
 As a matter of fact, that good-will value of 
 his name and trademark is almost the only 
 
 20 
 
permanent asset wliich the mail-order seeds- 
 man can rely upon. He cannot even protect 
 the new varieties which he originates and intro- 
 duces. The manufacturer can secure patents 
 to cover his inventions, he can give trade-names 
 to hi.s designs which can he j)rotcctcd, he can 
 keep his processes secret. But when the seeds- 
 man develops a new variety of vegetable or 
 flower, it is exclusively his only so long as he 
 controls the supply of the seed. Any com- 
 petitor can buy the seed, plant it, and raise 
 his own supply for future seasons. The origi- 
 nator cannot even i)rotcct the name of the new 
 variety, for his comjjetitors are not offering an 
 imitdfion, but the genuine article. Be it said 
 to the credit of the seed trade, however, that 
 among the leading houses there is little or no 
 disposition to compete unfairly in the matter of 
 names. It is quite the usual thing to find due 
 credit given in seed catalogues when a variety 
 is featured which was originated by a com- 
 petitor. Don't get the idea, however, that the 
 name is unimportant because its 
 exclusive usecannot beprotected. 
 The originator of the variety has 
 the exclusive use of it for a year 
 or two anyway, and there is 
 always the chance that some 
 competitor may think of a better 
 name. Mr. I5urpee, who has 
 originated and introduced more 
 new varieties than any other 
 commercial seedsman, tells of 
 several such instances. 
 
 Thus it is apparent that the 
 seedsman, in addition to the 
 scientific work of producing 
 improved varieties, has the task 
 of giving them names which will 
 "stick" if he is to get the full 
 value of his investment. Mr. 
 Burpee has been remarkably suc- 
 cessful in this respect. This 
 year a special folder — "The 
 Silent Salesman's Assistant" — 
 featuring seventy - six varieties 
 which he had introduced, was 
 sent to customers of record who 
 had not ordered for two years 
 back. Among the seventy-six 
 names are many varieties of 
 vegetables which have become 
 standardized in the trade, and 
 are identified with Burpee even 
 though credit may not lie given 
 in every case: such names as 
 "(xolden Bantam" for corn, 
 "Wayahead" for lettuce, "Blue 
 Bantam" for peas, "Danish 
 Roundhead" for cabbage, " Howl- 
 ing Mob" for corn, "Hailstone" 
 for white radishes, etc., etc. Any 
 advertising man who is interested 
 in the psychology of trade-names 
 can find plenty of material for 
 study in the seed trade. The 
 "Rocky Ford 
 
 Rocky Ford, Colorado. It is easy to see how 
 conditions such as are noted above combine to 
 place a great responsibility upon the man who 
 writes the seed catalogue. And as stated, Mr. 
 Burpee does not entrust that important work to 
 any other hands. He must know his goo<ls — 
 and he does know them. At Fordhook each year 
 more than 7,000 trials are made for vitality and 
 integrity of strain, and upwards of 15,000 soil 
 tests. These tests are made by counting out 100 
 seeds from the top, middle and bottom of con- 
 tainers, planting them under known conditions, 
 and taking copious notes on the resulting growth. 
 Mr. Burpee is in close personal touch with all of 
 this work, and the catalogue pages are written 
 from positive data. When you read in the 
 catalogue that eighty per cent of a certain va- 
 riety of dahlia came "true to type" at Ford- 
 hook, antl that sixty per cent can be reasonably 
 expected elsewhere, you may be quite certain 
 that the first figure is represented by actual 
 observation, and that tlie second is understated 
 
 6^A;/ 
 
 THE HEADQUARTERS FOR 
 
 Sweet Peas 
 
 W"-"^ 
 
 five 
 Nc 
 
 (.irnis 
 w Jet 
 
 ey 'and 
 
 CaWlorn 
 
 a, w 
 
 e -have 
 
 the lar- 
 
 gest, most compli 
 
 tetr 
 
 al grou 
 
 nds,-to 
 
 ••frorealhhrng,." 
 
 We 
 
 were th 
 
 e first in 
 
 America tc 
 
 gro 
 
 w "Sl'ENCERS," 
 
 ^ and have 
 
 tod 3 
 
 V the 
 
 choicest 
 
 |i\ strains of these 
 
 
 magnifl- 
 
 I cent, gig 
 
 ntic 
 
 new 
 
 waved 
 
 A Sweet Peas 
 
 . U 
 
 nlike se 
 
 ed gen- 
 
 1' erally sold 
 
 
 Re-sf.lected 
 
 H Stocks no 
 
 vco 
 
 neahsol 
 
 utely,,.. 
 
 ^ to the supc 
 
 rb' 
 
 Spence 
 
 r" type 
 
 Six Superb "Spencers" 
 
 For 25 Cts. s;,::';:^";;:"^;:::^';: 
 
 / 
 
 25 Cts. 
 
 For 50 Cts. 
 
 For $1.00 ,;: 
 
 Six "Superfine" Spencers 
 
 rOr ZO Us. K,»;F.D»„DSrENCE«,,h.,..ind™,™lc,,AprL.Bu 
 
 Five Ne"w "Spencers" 
 
 r^,, or P- wc «,ll moil one ttjular pactci t.ich nl Bmrrt S QflEN ViC- 
 
 rOr lO Us. to.iaSmnce. p,™,o>. H,„l„-d fl.,b. Const ANCi OcvE.. 
 Mch rose on crram . BcurtES Aui 0«« SpenCER. bficbr otanec-salmon Hakcd ,— Mrs. 
 C VV Bp.i,HiMO«E, |»nt. cJtcd on cri;an.. and TenNanT Sf-ekiik. dicp hclioir,,,,, 
 Zm-\\'t,(thc, loo ordt-r noiv or nor, \ou Oundd Miirl, iw.rv to, 
 
 The Leading American Seed Catalog for 1911 
 
 W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO., Burpee Buildings, Philadelphia 
 
 Full-page copy in natural colors, featuring the special assortments 
 
 well-known 
 muskmclon was first introduced 
 by Mr. Burpee in 1881, under the name "Netted 
 Gem." It was popularly known by the latter 
 name for many years, but the geographical name 
 finally took precedence because the melons 
 were grown in such large quantities around 
 
 rather than exaggerated. Mr. Burpee is his 
 own vigilance committee, and an extremely 
 effective one. 
 
 INQUIRIES ACCOMP.\NIED BY ACTUAL ORDERS 
 
 Inquiries for the catalogue are secured by 
 advertising in upwards of 700 publications; 
 
 21 
 
magazines, woiiicn'.s pulilications, farm papers 
 and a long list of newspapers. The campaign 
 begins in tiie early fall, works up to full pages 
 just before the height of the busy season, and 
 gradually works down again to the minimum. 
 Certain mediums which reach large growers 
 are used the year "round with copy which more 
 nearly approaches what is generally known as 
 "general j)ub!icity." In the height of the sea- 
 son many Ijack and inside covers are used, and 
 many of the pages carry illustrations of flowers 
 and vegetables in their natural color. 
 
 During the season of 1915, more than a million 
 catalogues were sent out to customers of record. 
 
 The 
 
 Leading 
 American 
 Seed 
 
 Catalog 
 
 A Post Card 
 
 Will BrinS 
 
 These Books 
 
 To You 
 
 Burpee's 
 Seeds 
 
 Grow 
 
 CONFIDENCE 
 
 Is the one thing that makeg 
 possible the comnif rce of the 
 ■world. It is the greatest factor 
 that enters into a purchase of 
 seeds, because yoa are not buy- 
 ing a finished product, but only the 
 meansby which yourgardenmaj be 
 be eit her a success or a failure. Seeds 
 — good or bad — may look the same, 
 but their resulting crops — How dif- 
 ferent. You cannot afford to risk a 
 season's work with seeds of unknown 
 quality. When you buy BURPEE'S 
 SEEDS, the element of doubt is re- 
 moved so far as is possible by human care. 
 The confidence of many thousands of 
 pleased and permanent customers is maintained by the Burpee Idea of 
 Quality Kiist—" Togiverathci than to get all that is possible." This con- 
 fidence on the part of our customers — combined with the elTicient Burpee 
 Service — has built the World's Greatest Mail-Order Seed Business. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF BURPEE 
 
 Has inlroduced more distinct, new Variclies of vegetable and flower 
 seeds thai are now in general cultivation thar\ have any three other 
 American firms, but never have we catalogued any one of these new 
 varieties until it has passed all the exacting requirements of the Burpee 
 Standard. This Burpee Standard is maintained by rigid tests at Ford- 
 hook Farms, America's Largest and Most Complete Trial Grounds. 
 These tests are made each year for the purpose of strengthening this 
 Bond of Confidence between our customers and ourselves. 
 
 BURPEE'S ANNUAL FOR 1915 
 
 Our Silent Salesman, is a bright new book of 182 pages. It is a safe 
 guide to success, and of real value to everyone who plants seeds either 
 for pleasure or profit. Florists and Market Gardeners should have 
 Burpee's " Blue List " for 1915. This is our wholesale price list for 
 planters, and the most complete catalog of its kind published. Write 
 for these books today. A postcard will bring them both. 
 
 W. ATLEE 
 
 nURPFK BUILDINGS 
 
 BURPEE & CO., 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 Late copy which plays up the .slogan and the good-will element 
 
 and in response to inquiries received from the 
 advertising. The catalogue is never sent 
 promiscuously to lists of names. A large pro- 
 portion of the inquiries were accompanied by 
 an actual order for seeds due to the plan devel- 
 oped by Mr. Burpee many years ago of offering 
 popular combinations of .seeds at nominal prices 
 in the advertising. The copy reproduced on 
 page six shows how some of these combinations 
 are featured. The sale of the combination 
 helps to pay the cost of getting the inquiry, and 
 the catalogue is mailed at the same time with 
 the order. It would not be fair to tell just what 
 
 proportion of the catalogues mailed produce 
 actual, profitable orders, but it is large enough 
 to make one's mouth water. The size of the 
 average order is between two and three dollars, 
 a few orders being received for as little as five 
 cents, and .some running high into the hundreds 
 of dollars — which represents a good many seeds, 
 it may l)e noted. 
 
 One thing will be noticed at once by any care- 
 ful observer of the Burpee catalogue: it contains 
 practically no directions for planting or cultiva- 
 tion. "There is a very good reason for that," 
 said Mr. Burpee. "In the first place, to give 
 adequate directions would take up too much 
 space, and the book would become 
 quite unwieldy. In the .second 
 place, it is useless to send the 
 woman who wants an old-fashioned 
 flower-garden a complete treatise on 
 the raising of muskmelons and 
 sweet-corn. In the third place, it 
 is imi)ortant for the grower to have 
 the directions at hand when he gets 
 the seed, not merely when he orders 
 it. So we offer, on the order-blank 
 which accompanies the catalogue, 
 a series of forty leaflets on plant 
 culture, any or all of which will be 
 sent without charge ;/ the customer 
 requests. These leaflets are written 
 in sufficient detail to give complete 
 information on all points, from the 
 preparation and fertilizing of the 
 ground to the gathering of the 
 crop. The customer who followed 
 such brief directions as might be 
 given in the catalogue, might have 
 legitimate cause for dissatisfaction 
 if the crop did not turn out right, 
 but the directions in the leaflets are 
 so complete that there is little room 
 for failure under ordinary conditions. 
 And on the other hand the cus- 
 tomer who does not ask for infor- 
 mation, but goes ahead on his own 
 initiative, is not so likely to blame 
 the seed house." 
 
 Furthermore, thousands of letters 
 are received from customers each 
 summer and fall, telling of their 
 success or failure with certain crops, 
 and asking for advice on a multi- 
 tude of different points. These 
 letters are invited in the catalogue, 
 and it is a genuine invitation, for 
 they are all answered with all 
 necessary details. "It entails a tre- 
 mendous amount of correspondence," 
 said Mr. Burpee, "but we like 
 we keep the invitation standing. It 
 
 it, and 
 
 gives us a great deal of pleasure to read of the 
 success of our customers, and where a failure is 
 recorded we can generally give advice which 
 will lead to success another season." 
 
 Three years ago a department was established 
 which is devoted to children's gardens — furnish- 
 ing seeds of the regular quality in small packets 
 at two cents apiece, and teaching the youngsters 
 how to raise their little crops. Naturally such 
 work is purely educational now, since the depart- 
 ment will hardly pay for its overhead, but it is 
 establishing friendly relations with the coming 
 
 22 
 
generation of gardeners. Every feature of the 
 Burpee business can be traced back to the good- 
 will idea. 
 
 A "blanket guaraxtee" 
 Now conies the question of guarantees. IIow 
 can a house guarantee its product when so much 
 depends upon the way in which it is handled by 
 the customer? As a matter of fact, it cannot 
 guarantee results, but it can and does replace 
 seed which does not grow, or it refunds the 
 full price paid if the growing season is over. 
 Here is the guarantee as worded by Mr. l?urpee: 
 "At Fordhook Farms all seeds are tested, but 
 we hold fast to only that which is good. The 
 field trials numlier fully 7,000, while more than 
 15,000 soil tests for vitality are made every year. 
 The vitality can be proved easily before plant- 
 ing, but even an expert examination would fail 
 to show whether seeds were of a high-grade 
 pedigree strain or the veriest rubbish. The fact 
 that more planters order direct from us year 
 after year than from any other firm in .\merica 
 should show Burpee's Seeds That Grow have 
 been found trustworthy. A mistake may oc- 
 casionally occur (to err is human), while success 
 depends largely upon conditions of soil and 
 climate which are beyond hiunan control. 
 Hence, no honest seedsman could assume re- 
 sponsibility for more than the jjrice actually 
 paid by the purchaser. It goes without .saying 
 that if you are not thoroughly satisfied you can 
 have your money back any time within the 
 year, for such is the guarantee that protects 
 all who plant seeds purchased from Burpee, 
 Philadelphia. " 
 
 That is the blanket guarantee which covers 
 everything sent out — covers it thorousjiily, one 
 nu'ght add. While the writer was sitting in the 
 Philadelphia offices talking to Ailvertising 
 Manager Therkildson, a letter came in from a 
 man who mildly suggested that a mistake had 
 been made. He thought the house had sent 
 
 him husks instead of seed, for he planted some 
 of them and they didn't come up. 
 
 No wonder they didn't. Mr. Customer had 
 ordered dahlia l)ulbs, and had received them 
 packed in l)uckwlieat chaff. Presumably he 
 had thrown the l)ulbs away and j)lanted the 
 chaff. \Vho.se fault was it.^ Not the fault of 
 the seed house, surely, yet Mr. Customer re- 
 ceived a new set of bulbs, and a careful letter 
 of explanation. That is the settled policy of 
 handling complaints-, on the tlieory that if a 
 man is interested enough to comi)lain he is 
 worth cultivating. A complaining customer is 
 seldom a lost customer, but the man who says 
 nothing about his dissatisfaction may buy some- 
 where else another year. 
 
 It all comes back in tlie end to one central 
 idea — getting the customer's good will, and keep- 
 ing it by making a friend of him. Mr. Burpee 
 holds fast to those things which have proved 
 their Usefidness, and is not inclined to try experi- 
 ments whii-h may be regarded unfavora'oly by 
 those who have dealt with the house for years. 
 
 "I hope you will never change the size or 
 form of PuiXTERs" Ixk, " he said. "It would be 
 like changing the face of an old friend. \Mien 
 most of the l)ig seed houses adojited tlie large- 
 size catalogue page aufl half-tone illustrations, 
 I kept our 'Silent Salesman" in the old familiar 
 shape. There is a certain fricndlini-ss and 
 trustworthiness in the familiar size and the 
 wood-cuts, which might be lost in shiny paper 
 and too-brilliant half-tones. The grower can 
 slip the 'Silent Salesman' into his pocket, and 
 take it right down into the field with him. The 
 'dressed-up" catalogue can't be carried without 
 folding, which makes a very Imlky and incon- 
 venient proposition. But most important of 
 all, our catalogue bears the face of a friend, in 
 which our customers have confiflence. That 
 confidence is the one thing we are willing to 
 go to any amount of trouble to protect and de- 
 fend." 
 
 A view of a corner of one of the kennels, showing some of the collies for which Fordhook is famous 
 
 [23] 
 
A tliird iieUi of Phlox Drummondii at Fordhook, where many acres are grown 
 
 Hic^ediof (^ijaitiy' 
 
 Girard's 
 Topics of the Town 
 
 "God Almighty first planted 
 a garden," said Bacon, and 
 ever since Eden gardening has 
 been a highly respectable 
 business. Emerson said that 
 " the earth laughs in flowers, " 
 and John Milton, blind though he was, spoke 
 of "flowers of paradise." I didn't intend, 
 however, to reproduce Bartlett's Familiar Quo- 
 tations, but to tell you something about Wash- 
 ington Atlee Burpee. 
 
 Here is a gentleman whose father was from 
 the French Bcaupres, whose mother's people, 
 the Atlees, lived in England at the early home 
 of the Washingtons, and himself born in Canada, 
 works in Philadelphia and lives in Bucks County. 
 Besides that, he is probably responsible for 
 more flowers than any other person in the land. 
 Thousanfls of years ago it was commanded: 
 
 " In the morning sow thy seed and in the even- 
 ing withhold not thine hand"; and Burpee is 
 the man who grows the seeds you sow, hence I 
 might almost christen him the godfather of 
 flowers. 
 
 Nearly everybody hereabouts 
 
 has heard of the wonderful 
 
 Fordhook farms, near Doyles- 
 
 town; but bless you, broad as 
 
 are their several hundred 
 
 acres, they don't produce 
 
 more than a fraction of all the seeds which this 
 
 bucolic artist and poet distributes over the world. 
 
 "Do you buy seeds in Europe?" I asked 
 him. 
 
 "I dislika that word 'buy' because I don't 
 buy seeds anywhere. I grow and sell them," 
 was his answer. 
 
 Yes, Mr. Burpee not only raises tomato 
 seeds in Bucks County, but cabbages in Den- 
 mark, beets, radishes and carrots in France, 
 sweet peas in California and goodness alone 
 knows how many other things in other parts of 
 America. Each thing is growTi where it will 
 develop the best; but even so, Mr. Burpee 
 takes nobody's say-so for a seed any more than 
 Uncle Sam's mint will take your gold without 
 assaying it. 
 
 When I visited this friend of Luther Burbank 
 
 * GirarJ's Topics of the Town is reprinted from the "Public Ledger," Philadelpliia, Saturday, September 11, 1915. 
 
 24 
 
at Fordhook I saw hundreds, yes, thousands, 
 of these floral assays in progress. Every seed 
 is tested, first to see if it will grow and second 
 to see if it will reproduce true as promised. 
 
 Don't, fair reader, turn up your nose and ex- 
 claim that a seed is a seed. So is an egg an egg. 
 Somebody even proved that "pigs is pigs." 
 
 Compared to some of tiie seeds Mr. Burpee 
 raises, gold is a cheap and insignificant com- 
 modity. It is only worth around $'250 a pound. 
 
 A particular flower seed commands $1G00 a 
 pound. "But we don't deal in it l)y the pound, 
 t)nly by the ounce or the dozen of seeds, " re- 
 marked this erstwhile physician, who turned 
 from healing sick humans to perfecting flowers 
 and vegetables. 
 
 If you can develop a fine new variety of sweet- 
 pea, for instance, it will bring you more than 
 Kipling gets for one of his poems, and, measured 
 by the poet's recent output, I think it is worth 
 considerably more. 
 
 To my mind, a bean is as devoid of romance as 
 a chunk of Belgian block pavement. Yet Mr. 
 Burpee will tell you a pretty story about the 
 "bush lima," which elevates that particular 
 bean to the realms of high art. 
 
 Did you know that the first place anybody 
 ever saw a lima bean that didn't have to be sup- 
 ported on a pole was in Bayard Taylor's garden 
 at Kennett Square? A fact. There a lima bean, 
 which presumably had no pole to lean upon, 
 merely out of spite, just raised itself. 
 
 They took the seed of that bean, and the 
 "bush lima" has since then been worth tens 
 of thousands to American gardeners. And 
 
 Mr. Burpee, before his episode of the bean, in- 
 troduced that elite of melons — the Rocky Ford 
 cantaloupe. I've always thought he deserved 
 something better than an Iron Cross for that 
 special day's work. 
 
 However, to catalogue Mr. Burpee's seed 
 triumphs woidd reriuire a book as big as his 
 own .seed catalogue, which I understand goes 
 to a million persons every year. 
 
 It is refreshing to hear this solid business man 
 and banker, as well as seed grower, talk of tlie 
 ethics of trade. 
 
 "What nonsense that competitors must be 
 enemies," says he. "On the contrary, in our 
 seed business we try to assist each other." 
 
 Then he announced this bit of sound business 
 sense: "Make it a point to compete in quality 
 rather than in price." 
 
 And as I looked out across many acres of 
 vivid-colored flowers — rai.sed not to sell, l)ut 
 simply to prove that they ran true to specifica- 
 tions — I could readily .see why Mr. Burpee has 
 earned his great success and why his two fine 
 sons are only ambitious to continue it. 
 
 A fortune for the man who knows how! That 
 was my thought as I looked at the productive 
 expanse of Mr. Burpee's Fordhook farms, and 
 not far away saw an t)reliard of 8000 peach trees 
 burdened with fruit. 
 
 "Acres of diamonds at home," said Doctor 
 Conwell, and that's the truth if the man has 
 the agricultural skill to dig them. No other 
 college today has such an oj)portunity to pro- 
 duce diamond diggers of the future as our agri- 
 cultural colleges. GiRARD. 
 
 illicT ticlcl of Salvia Splendens at Fordhook. Clreat glowing masses of the famous and always popular Scarlet 
 are met with all over the farms, streaking the prevailing green tint of the landscape with brilliant acres of red 
 
 [251 
 
-c.^&"^:*-.-' .^t-t. 'wsa^-^i 
 
 
 A ii M .it l'iil.>\ I >rimiMi(>n(!ii "rowiiif; at Fordhook 
 
 Auothcr (icld of Phlox Dnimmoudii at Fordhook 
 
 [26] 
 
151 Ifl'EES SUNiWHUOOK J ARM 
 
 in Soiitli Jersey is proving a most useful ad- 
 jinict to FoRDiiooK Fvinis. Here arc concen- 
 trated now most of oin- Cururliitdccfr trials, 
 wliile some of tlie more important crops are 
 grown upon our own land. 
 
 The upper illustration shows boys picking 
 a crop of the Xcapolitdii Large Early Pepper. 
 The small illustration to left shows the en- 
 trance to Si nnyuuook, while the larger pho- 
 tograi)h below shows the gathering of a crop 
 of Burpee's Extra Early White Spine Cucumber. 
 
 
 
 ^r^ 
 
 27 
 
From The Daily Neios and Independent, Santa Barbara, Cal., October 17, 1914 
 
 Flower Farming in 
 Lompoc Valley 
 
 Acres of Posies Grown for Seed 
 
 ( omparatively few people in 
 Santa Barbara know about 
 one of the most interesting, 
 attractive and important 
 show places of California in this county. Yet 
 the W. Atlee Burpee & Co. seed farm, in the 
 Lompoc valley, is probably doing as much or 
 more than any other one thing in advertising 
 Santa Barbara county to the world as a land 
 of flowers, rich .soil and marvelous possibilities. 
 About five years ago W. x\tlee Burpee, who 
 is at the head of the greatest mail-order seed 
 
 house in the world, after a 
 very exhaustive search 
 throughout California for a 
 suitable place to establish an 
 experimental farm for his famous flower and 
 garden seeds, decided that the Lompoc valley 
 ottered the best advantages, and jjurchased 
 between 50 and 00 acres of the finest lantl in 
 that fabulously rich valley, and the results that 
 he has attained din-ing the past five years have 
 fully justified his investment and proved his 
 good judgment in the selection of a location. 
 
 Plowing at Floradale in OctclHT. 
 
 \iilt' the luinpiness of soil as a result of ilry plowing. These lumps melt up readily 
 when the earlv winter rains come 
 
 From T }i e F lor i sf s' Exchange , New York, August 7 , 1915 
 
 Floradale Seed Farms, Lompoc, California 
 
 By P. D. B.VKXH.VRDT, Editor of Pacific Garden, Los Angeles, Cal. 
 
 Floradale is the euphonious name of W. Atlee 
 Burpee & Co.'s seed farm, near Lompoc, Cal. 
 My first visit to the place was June 15, 1910. 
 Since then the acreage has been quadrupled. 
 The prophecy has been fulfilled. The last day 
 of last Jime I visited the jjlace for the fourth 
 time and looked with delight on the great 
 acreage devoted to the growing of flowers exclu- 
 
 sively, which are to furnish seed of "the best that 
 grow." It is pleasant to think that the siui 
 ne\-er sets on the gardens which are planted to 
 flower seeds grown at Floradale. 
 
 The ajjpearance of those acres in the monlh 
 of June is as though they were covered with a 
 great carpet, the colors harmonizing and 
 ingeniously woven into the fabric. 
 
 28 
 
Sweet Peas predominate. 
 They are the poor mans orchid, 
 because of the cheapness of the 
 seed. At no phice in the wide 
 world is Sweet Pea seed pro- 
 duced of such fine quality as 
 that grown in Cahfornia. I 
 shall refer again to this crop in 
 a more specific manner. At 
 this time I wish to record my 
 impressions of some of the other 
 flowers grown at Floradale. 
 Lathyrus latifolius, as I never 
 saw it grow before, either in 
 richness of foliage, size of the 
 clusters of flowers, and variety 
 of colors, is used for a border 
 plant along part of the public 
 road through the farm. It is 
 the perennial Pea, without fra- 
 grance, and hardy everywhere 
 in the United States. 
 
 Hordering a driveway is a 
 hedge of a single flowering 
 species of Dahlia which is grown 
 under the name Purpursii. It 
 is a brilliant red, and like 
 people of brilliant intellect 
 attracts immediate attention. 
 I do not find the name in any 
 work at my command, and 
 never saw it elsewhere. Other 
 sorts of this flower are also 
 grown in quantity because the 
 tubers may be left in the ground 
 the year around, and the plants 
 seed abundantly. 
 
 A bed of \'erbenas, 20 ft. 
 wide, 1200 ft. long, mixed 
 colors, was a gorgeous sight. 
 Readers should always bear in 
 mind when reading of Floradale 
 that the rows of plants are 
 1200 ft. in length. The flow- 
 ers on those plants are of 
 immense size, and of pro- 
 nounced colors. After \'erbenas 
 have attained to a certain 
 degree of perfection they do 
 not produce seed, therefore 
 must be perpetuated by 
 cuttings. 
 
 A bed of Pentstemon gloxini- 
 oides is a wonderful sight. Reds 
 and soft shades of pink, the 
 plants over 4 ft. tall, and so 
 thickly set that it would be 
 difficult for a bird to get 
 through, and all in full bloom. 
 
 Diinorphotheca aurantiaea. 
 Cape Marigold, appeared as if 
 a great sheet of goklen colored 
 cloth 10 ft. wide had been 
 spread across that field, dazzling 
 in its beauty. The area devoted 
 to this subject is more than 
 twelve times the size of that 
 which I looked upon five years 
 ago. 
 
 Thesingle flowering Petunias, 
 which originated at Fordhook 
 farms, Pennsylvania, are grown 
 
 lorcj^ruund 
 
here because of the longer flowering season and 
 the greater quantity of seed they will produce 
 in this climate. They are of immense size, rich 
 and varied in color. The delightful odor of the 
 flowers fills the air as it blows across the field, 
 and I was carried back in thought to the days of 
 childhood when the same sort of perfume filled 
 the air in my mother's garden. 
 
 California. The size of the bed is twenty-five 
 times as large as the one I saw five years ago. 
 I noticed several rows of a pure white flowering 
 Digitalis. Two varieties of red California Pop- 
 pies, known by the cognomens Fireflame and 
 Erecta, were very spectacular in appearance. 
 
 Geranium seed, from varieties of their own 
 originating, is produced in quantity because it is 
 
 Petunias at Floradale. From a photograph taktii lu July 
 
 African Marigold, Tagetes erecta, is grown 
 here in greater perfection than I have ever seen 
 it elsewhere in this country between the two 
 oceans. Orange and lemon colored flowers of 
 immense size, and wonderfully floriferous, 
 yielding seed in abundance of the best quality. 
 Another subject from the same country, grown 
 here, is Arctotis grandis. Several rows, each 
 the entire length of the field, are an interesting 
 sight. The plant is a light green color, covered 
 with a short tomentcm. The flowers are large, 
 the rays a light violet, the disk almost black. 
 And what shall I say of the good old-fashioned 
 Scabiosa. A perennial on this Coast, a bed of 
 it 12 ft. wide, the plants 5 ft. tall and full of 
 bloom, one is led to wonder where all the seed 
 of this plant can be disposed of. 
 
 The two perennial Centaureas — gymnocarpa 
 and candidissima — compose two lines of gray. 
 Both species flower profusely and seed abun- 
 dantly in this State; moreover they belong to 
 the drought-resistant class of plants which do 
 well during our dry season, without irrigation. 
 
 A bed of Delphinium belladonna, and one of 
 D. chinensis were just coming into bloom; a 
 month later they would be a sight worth going 
 a long way to see. I have seen plants of the 
 first named on this Coast that were 7 ft. tall, 
 and all in bloom at once. There were also a 
 fine lot of plants of the annual Larkspur. 
 
 Carnation seed is produced in quantity and, 
 I was told, is equal in quality to any imported 
 stock. Hollyhocks are perennials. They seem 
 to have escaped a fungous disease of the foliage 
 which disfigures the plant everywhere else in 
 
 of better quality than they can import from 
 across the sea. Why should this not be so? 
 The plant is a native of South Africa, which has 
 a climate very similar to that of this Southland. 
 
 Now as to the Sweet Peas. They are grown 
 by the acre. The first variety I inquired after 
 was Fiery Cross, the new one, the world beater, 
 at least so far as the cost of seed is concerned. 
 A dollar and thirty-nine cents a seed would 
 naturally lead one to wonder what sort of flower 
 it must have been that led Burpee to pay the 
 Scotch grower for the first three ounces he had 
 for sale. There it was in all its glory, a rich 
 fiery salmon color, and so well fixed in character 
 that there was not a break in the entire plant- 
 ing; a bed 20x1200 ft. in extent, and most re- 
 markable, it docs not simburn as docs the major- 
 ity of salmon-colored varieties. Cherub is 
 another novelty, a beautiful shade of pink, the 
 standard picotee-feathered. In my opinion 
 it is the best of the class yet introduced. Robert 
 Sydenham is a new salmon variety which sun- 
 burns unless grown under lath or in glass houses. 
 For the cut flower grower of the Atlantic Coast 
 it will be a decided acquisition. On this Coast 
 no one ever thinks of growing a Sweet Pea plant 
 under cover of any kind. 
 
 Norvic is the name applied to a white which, 
 I must frankly say, is not, in my opinion, equal 
 to King White. Margaret Atlee had the appear- 
 ance of a double flower, so crinkled are the petals, 
 and the color is an exquisite shade of pink. 
 Yarrawa is another fine variety, variegated 
 pink and white on a delicate cream ground. 
 
 The fellow who has the ability to conjure up 
 
 301 
 
Flowers grown for ^eeil at Florad.ile. 
 
 It IS pleasant to know that the sun never sets on the gardens which are pl.uited to 
 flower seeds grown at F'loradale 
 
 names for all new varieties of Sweet Peas is a 
 genius and no mistake. At present there are 
 no less than 125 new sorts at Floradale on trial. 
 Elimination by comparison will reduce the num- 
 ber for introduction to perhaps twenty-five. 
 
 The development on this place during the 
 past five years is a wonder. The area of land 
 belonging to the firm has been doubled, a well 
 of good water provided, and a pump driven by 
 electric motor installed, that crops may be irri- 
 gated in case of a dry year. This season enough 
 rain (24 in.) came that way to supply the crops 
 without the artificial application of water. 
 Implements of the most approved pattern for 
 
 preparing the ground and for planting, harvest- 
 ing and threshing the seed, have been added 
 to the equipment, and a fund of information 
 acquired in the school of experience of growing 
 seeds in that peculiar clinuite, which is one of 
 the essentials to success. 
 
 The foundation on which all this is built was 
 laid by Edwin Lonsdale who, because of ill 
 health, has been obliged to rest. He had the 
 wisdom to train two young men, the Buckman 
 brothers, in a knowledge of the business of 
 seed production, who will, by faithful service, 
 maintain the Burpee reputation for high-grade 
 seeds. 
 
 ^ panoramic view of Floradale showing the mountains in the distance. Some idea of the area cultivated may be had by 
 comparing the ranch building at the left with the rest of the picture 
 
 [321 
 
L't Peas prciloininate. They ar<> the poormaii's nrcliii 
 of such fine quality a; 
 
 I. At no plaee in tlie wide world is Swt 
 that grown in California 
 
 't Pea seed produced 
 
 More Sweet Peas. The appearance of these acres in the month of June is as though they were covered with a great 
 carpet, the harmonizing colors being ingeniously woven into the fabric 
 
 [33] 
 
Plowing Scenes at Floradale 
 
 ■^ix-iiursi' U'aiu plowing. I"lnr;uiak' Farm, r^pririf,', 191o 
 
 Five- and six-liorse teams plowing, Floradale Farm 
 
 '--r 
 
 Two six-horse team- i.lo«i,m uiili H.'^i.^ia-llaiicork .li-k plou,, I'lora.laie I- 
 [34 1 
 
Modern Machinery at Floradale 
 
 Plowing uitli futiTpilhir trurtor ;it l''li)ra(l:ili' I- arm. Siiaiildiiig deep-tilliut; mucliiiR' iu use 
 
 ],.-,i., |-|..ra.lal.- Farm 
 
 The irrigation system at P'loradale Farm, showiug pump engine at worli, also discharge from 8-inch pipe 
 
 [35] 
 
(»reenho)]ses — Burpee's Floradale Farm, Loinpoc, California 
 
 The 1-ompoc Valley is ten miles long and 
 about half as wide. It is located on the coast, 
 17'2 miles north of Los Angeles, '303 miles south 
 of San Francisco. At that particular point 
 on this coast the word pacific is a misnomer. 
 The contour of tlie land is such that the wind is 
 more incessant and more violent than at any 
 other place between the two cities naiued. 
 As an evidence of the correctness of this state- 
 ment, the Ijcach at the entrance of the valley 
 is piled high with driftwood. Lompoc is 93 
 
 ft. above sea level. The valley is enclosed by 
 hills which are probably 200 ft. high, and these 
 arc the sides of the channel through which the 
 sea breezes flow in volume, and with a \'elocity 
 not met with elsewhere in southern California. 
 Consequently, the atmosphere is more humid 
 and the average annual temperature lower than 
 elsewhere .south of San Fnineisco; and because 
 of these favorable climatic conditions Sweet 
 Peas grow here to perfection, both in blossoms 
 and seed. 
 
 I I as at Floradale ready to thresh. From a photograph taken in August 
 [37] 
 
TliL lUu^tratioij alju\ I- ^liou.. 111.- tliroliiug of Idnjf lots of >uwl pca> al .>ur I loraUaii ram li. XoU- the thrcslic-r is drivcu 
 by a gasoline engine. The most modern machinery is used in every operation 
 
 The handling of sweet peas from the time of cutting to threshing is now reduced to a science, although great care 
 must be exercised to avoid the many conditions that operate to ofl'set all the care that has been taken in their growing. 
 
 Great squares of canvas are used for piling or stacking the vines so as to save all seed that may shatter. These vines 
 are put through a huller or thresher, where all seeds are removed, cleaned and delivered. These seeds are again recleaned 
 and in many instances hand-picked to insure the highest quality. Small lots are still threshed as shown in the lower 
 picture. 
 
 Threshing small lots of sweet peas at Floradale. From an August photograph 
 [3S1 
 
Forty Years of Burpee Ser vice^A nni ve rsa ry Supplement 
 
 Edwin Lonsdale 
 
 From Florists' Exchange 
 
 before tl 
 
 We regret to announce the 
 death of Edwin Lonsdale, 
 wliieh occurred on \\'edne.s- 
 (hiy, Sept. 1, at the Naturo- 
 pathic Institute, Los Angeles, 
 Cal., after a long siege of ill- 
 ness. Edwin Lonsdale was 
 l)orn at Habberley, Shrop- 
 shire, England, on Oct. C, 
 ISJ'.j, being brought up on his grandfather's 
 farm of about 40 acres at Shenstone, part of 
 ^'hich was cultivated by 
 liis father. He was thus, 
 from his earliest days, a 
 tiller of the soil. He was 
 educatetl in the public 
 schools (his teacher, by 
 the way, being a natural 
 gardener), and he soon 
 showed an aptitude for 
 the work. 
 
 At the age of 1'2, after 
 leaving school, he found 
 work at Footherley Hall 
 gardens, later at ALinley 
 Hall gardens; still later 
 he was employed in green- 
 houses where cut flowers 
 and plants were grown 
 for C'ovent (iarden mar- 
 ket. In July, 1809, he 
 came to America, at first 
 securing work on a farm 
 and later obtaining a posi- 
 tion in the greenhouse 
 depart m e n t of Thos. 
 Meehan, at Cicrmantown, 
 Pa. In 187-t he went to 
 California, working at 
 'first for Miller & Sievers, 
 San Francisco, and later 
 for Levi P. Saunderson, 
 San Jose. A year later 
 (LS7.5) he returned to 
 Philadelphia, starting in 
 
 business for himself and then going into partner- 
 ship with John Burton, at Wyndmoor. The 
 partnership was dissolved in 1887, John Burton 
 taking over the original six acres, and Mr. Lons- 
 dale locating on the six acres adjoining. 
 
 In 1904 he gave up his Ijusiness to accept a 
 position as head of the horticultural department 
 in (lirard College, Philadelphia, being called in 
 1909 to go to California to establish and equij) 
 the great Floradale seed ranch of W. Atlee 
 Burpee & Co., at Lonipoc, Santa Barbara 
 County. He was a Justice of the Peace and a 
 school director in Wyndmoor, as well as an 
 officer of the Pennsylvania Horticultural So- 
 ciety and the Florists' Club of Philadelphia, 
 being also elected president of the S. A. F. and 
 O. H. in 1S9.5. 
 
 Edwin Lonsdale's work as a seed grower on 
 the Pacific Coast has brought him pronii- 
 
 trade. 
 
 The late Edwin Lonsdale 
 
 First Manager of the Seed Farm of W. .\tlee Burpee 
 & Co. at Lompoc, California 
 
 nently 
 
 bt)tli in this country and 
 abroad. The work he was 
 called to undertake recjnired 
 a man of exceptional char- 
 acter and insight. It was no 
 simple gardener's job to estab- 
 lish and operate a large farm 
 on which the largest mail- 
 order seed house in the world depended for 
 certain of its crops, at least partially. His 
 work as a grower and 
 executor were above ordi- 
 nary commendation. 
 
 In his home life he had 
 .several trials, two daugh- 
 ters having been drowned 
 near Atlantic City years 
 ago, and the third sole 
 remaining child being 
 taken away not long after 
 by pneumonia. 
 
 His wife attended him 
 through all the days of 
 his sickness and survives 
 him. Since he fell sick, 
 W. Atlee Burpee himself 
 did everything he could 
 to encourage Mr. Lons- 
 dale to keep up his spirits. 
 They were closely drawn 
 to each other, and un- 
 doubtedly the fine work 
 that Edwin Lonsdale did 
 in California was due not 
 alone to his innate love 
 of horticulture, but in 
 I)art also to his regard for 
 his employer. 
 
 Edwin Lonsdale filled 
 a prominent jiart for the 
 uj)lift of horticulture in 
 his day; and -while he 
 will be mourned most by 
 those wiio knew him best, 
 many indeed, who only knew him by name and 
 reputation, will feel the loss which horticulture 
 has suffered through his death. 
 
 The body was sent to Philadelphia for in- 
 terment and was laid to rest in Ivy Hill Cemetery. 
 
 The House of Burpee realizes that the place 
 once occupied by Edwin Lonsdale will be ex- 
 tremely difficult to fill. However, we will leave 
 no stone unturned to carry forward the work 
 so ably begun by the first manager of Flora- 
 dale. 
 
 Many improvements, such as irrigation, plow- 
 ing by motor tractors, power spraying machinery, 
 etc., have been installed, so that we anticipate 
 even greater things at Floradale. 
 
 Progress is our watchword. Only the best 
 seeds that can be grown are offered in our 
 Silent Salesman. 
 
 39 
 
The New York Sun, Sunday, August 1 , 191 
 
 Fordhook Farms 
 
 The Sun garden man was 
 
 in Philadelphia last week 
 
 and of eovirse visited the eeie- 
 
 l)rated Fordhootc Farms. It 
 
 was the intention to make the 
 
 trip to Fordhook in the un- 
 
 eonventional railway train. 
 
 A call at the Burpee seed 
 
 warehou.se in Philadelphia 
 
 resulted in a complete upset of all well-laid 
 
 plans. All argument was unavailing, W. Atlee 
 
 Surelynone Init the wealthy 
 can afford to make the trip 
 freciuently. Arriving at 
 Fordhook, we first motored 
 over the farms and then 
 alighted to make a close in- 
 spection of the growing crojjs 
 and the extensive trial beds. 
 In these Ijeds not only 
 Burpee's seeds are tested, but seeds obtainec 
 from other sources for comparison of result; 
 
 The Oljice at I'ordhook l-arnis where reronis of trials and crops are kept. This little two-story building (nearly con- j 
 cealed by trees) wa.s the original farmhouse at Fordhook. It was built about one hundred and 'thirty-three years asjo, 
 long before we entered the see<l business, and when farmers and gardeners thought that they must saVe their'own .seeds 
 to be sure of purity! At that time there was not a single seedsman, in anything like the modern sense, in America and 
 but few in Europe. The .seed trade is of modern evolution, and it is acknowledged that nowhere has more been done to 
 inspire confidence in "bought seeds" than at Fordhook Farms, so famous as the largest trial grounds in America 
 
 Burpee insisting that we accompany him in the 
 automobile in which he makes his daily trips 
 between the home farms and the office. 
 
 The trip was made through beautiful rolling 
 country, the smooth roads lined with the mag- 
 nificent park-like grounds of Philadelphia million- 
 aires. It is historical ground practically the 
 entire route, and as the distance from the city 
 increa.ses the solid old mansions built previous 
 to Revolutionary times are frequently met and 
 apparently are in as good condition as when 
 they were built. 
 
 The old .system of operating the roads by 
 private enterprise is still in force, and we passed 
 so many tollgates that count of them was lost. 
 
 in quality, size, season, color, vitality, &c. The 
 trial grounds contain novelties that gardenert 
 will he greatly interested in, chief of which 
 is the Fordhook hybrid gladioli, flowerine 
 the first season from seeds. The flowers arc 
 as large as any of the older gladioli raised fromj 
 bulbs, or more properly corms. The colors run 
 from almost pure white and cream bordering 
 closely on yellow through the \arious shades oi 
 red, both in solid colors and striped, to deep 
 maroon and shades of blue. 
 
 A bedding plant that will prove of great value 
 is a large-leaved, tall and robust coleiis two feet 
 or more in height. The leaves are several times 
 as large as the older popular bedding coleus and 
 
 40 
 
plants arc niucli larger in circumference. 
 
 he colors of the foliage are quite as varied as 
 
 ; the old varieties. This variety will prove 
 
 ?ry useful for large beds and for centers of 
 
 ullage beds edged with the old smaller varieties, 
 
 ,ie outer edge kept trimmed back closely to 
 
 \ve a pyramidal effect on a flat ground sur- 
 
 ice. This doi-s away with the necessity of 
 
 )unding up the earth in the bed before plant- 
 
 t,ig. The advantage is that mounds dry out 
 
 nicker than beds having a flat surface and 
 
 uerefove require more water, and unless care- 
 
 jilly and frequently watered the earth is washed 
 
 '•om the higher portions, making the gardener 
 
 ansideraljle trouble in ki'cpiug the beds in order. 
 
 The flowers of tlu' giant scarlet zinnias re- 
 
 mible the peony- flowered dahlias so closely 
 
 ) lat our parents, whose zinnias were always the 
 
 ride of the garden, would not recognize the 
 
 ew varieties as zinnias. In size and form they 
 
 're more like dahlias than zinnias, while the 
 
 jliage of the plants is attractive and the form 
 
 f the plant graceful, a very decided impro\e- 
 
 lenl over the old varieties. 
 
 A beautiful pot plant almost unlcnown to 
 aost gardeners was found in the Fordhook 
 reenhouses, the fuchsia - flowered tuberous 
 egonia. (lardcncM's wlio grow tuberous bego- 
 ias v.ill find this a great acciuisltion. 
 The collie kemiels and nms were full of bark- 
 ag, frolicking dogs, and the poultry yards filled 
 I'ith pure-l)red stock. 
 
 The dinners served at Fordiiook are quite in 
 eeping with the general manner in which the 
 
 farm is conducted. Judging from tlie variety 
 of vegetables and fruits served, everything in 
 the trial beds was sampled, and while their 
 appearance in the bed was most inviting, the 
 quality proved by actual test, in this case, that 
 appearance not always is deceiving. 
 
 An appointment with friends in the city that 
 evening was overcome by the hospitality of our 
 host — and we reniained at Fordhook. One 
 thing lacking there is quite noticeable, and that 
 is the proverbial latchstring. 'i'he front door 
 is always oi)en, so tlie latchstring is not re- 
 quired. 
 
 After dinner the guests scatter about the 
 rambling old Colonial house. The neighbors 
 dro]) in for a visit and tell of the peach orchard, 
 some two hundred acres, a short disUince from 
 Fordhook. The trees are just coming into 
 bearing, and the first crop will run somewhere 
 around eight to ten thou.sand Ijushels. Prof. 
 Washburn, from the farm school, entertained 
 with a talk on soils and fertilizers. 
 
 Some of the guests kuive as the hour grows 
 late, but it seems as though a multitude remain 
 to be more comfortably cared for than at Phila- 
 delphia's best hotels. In the morning breakfast 
 is served in the breakfast room overlooking the 
 beautiful valley and rolling hills beyond. All 
 are urged to remain, and although it was sol- 
 emnly agreed to leave promptly at 8 o'clock for 
 an early start to the city it is half past 9 Ijefore 
 we board the car and motor back to town. 
 That day is gone! But the memory of a visit 
 to Fordhook will linger long. 
 
 The greenhouses at Fordhook, October 1.1910 In tl-f ,^-*""';7'^;;;^";^;;;!JX':«.f;^^;'^;^:;;;lt:l;r;;r ^^ 
 are tested for vitality. Youag plants of certain veKetable.> and tl.,^^.r■, ar. aUo.UrU,! tor^ai.n.. 
 
 Buying seeds must be entirely a matter of confidence. 
 
 Every truck -patch, large or small, is the planter's •'trial ground. 
 
 We desire that our seeds and not your patience shall be tried there. 
 
 [411 
 
The lower range of greenhouses at Fonihook. M:<uy Iriak ..f l'r|,|„r^, I t'g I'lanls. et.-., have l.een '•potlcl up" and will 
 
 soon be rea(K tor settuig out 
 
 
 
 ^\j^' 
 
 iP2r^,=' 
 
 
 -C 
 
 .i- 
 
 Another view of the lower range of greenhouses at Fordhook. We aniuially grow thousands of Uei 
 trope, Petunia, and other tender annual plants inside for setting out in frames and fiek 
 
 [42] 
 
 jonia, Coleus, Helio- 
 8 later on 
 
orty Years of Burpee Service — Anniversary Supplement 
 
 The Seed Industry 
 
 Its History and Development 
 
 Reprinted from " The Booster; or Pennsylvania at The World's Pan- 
 ama Pacific Exposition." Published by The Courier, Bristol, Pa. 
 
 Philadelphia is recognized as 
 the oldest and perhaps the 
 foremost seed market in 
 America. More than a cen- 
 tury and a quarter ago there 
 was established in Philadel- 
 ia the original Landreth seed business. This 
 n was founded by David Landreth and has 
 
 Go where you will, visit any 
 seed concern, and in almost 
 every one you will find a man 
 who at some time or other in 
 his career has had a portion of 
 his training in Philadelphia. 
 So that while lieing the oldest and also the lead- 
 ing seed market of America, Philadelphia and 
 
 he potting-shed at Fordhook. The men are potting pepper and other vegetable plants for setting out in the fields to 
 
 produce seed 
 
 ssed down through generation after genenition 
 til the present day. The firm is now located 
 Bristol, Pa., and enjoys the distinction of 
 ng a meml)er of an organization of century- 
 i concerns. 
 
 Eastern Pennsylvania has contributed much 
 )re than the se\-eral firms who have engaged in 
 ' seed business. Men trained in her many estab- 
 iments have gone out to all sections of the 
 mtry. These trained men have been in great 
 •nand by seed concerns in \-arious sections, 
 me have gone to the Agricultural Department 
 Washington, others have engaged in the seed 
 siness for themselves, while others have given 
 ?ir knowledge and effort to build up other or- 
 aizations in the same line. 
 
 Pennsyh'ania liave left their mark on all sections 
 where the seed industry has been developed to 
 any considerable extent. 
 
 Philadelphia has more successful concerns 
 engaged in the seed business than any other city 
 in the United States, regardless of size. Such 
 firms as Landreth, Burpee, Buist, Dreer, Maule, 
 Michell, Johnson, Stokes, Moore, Simon, Ely, 
 Waterer and Mingle all enjoy splendid busi- 
 nesses built up along individual lines. 
 
 The Henry A. Dreer business, founded many 
 years ago, has grown to be one of the world's 
 largest nursery and seed concerns. 
 
 Robert Buist built up one of the most success- 
 ful businesses in Philadelphia and died a very 
 wealthy man. 
 
 43 
 
Frames to the south of the lower range of greenhouses 
 Here are raised many seedlings for transplanting to the fields 
 
 Frames north of the greenhouses. From a photograph taken in May 
 [44 1 
 
Wm. Henry Maule developed a great busi- 
 less as a mail-order seedsman, anrl since his 
 leath the l)usiness has been conducted by an or- 
 ganization of his former associates and is to-day 
 :nowa as Wm. Henry Maule, Inc. 
 
 In the house of Burpee, Philadelphia has the 
 Vorld's greatest mail-order seed business. This 
 
 concern spares no expense to give the best serv- 
 ice possible. The thousands of trials, made for 
 the sole purpose of knowing the character of 
 every stock sold, as well as the vitality, enables 
 the house of Burpee to ^ell only the best seeds 
 of known quality. 
 
 An inspection of the great warehouses in 
 
 
 
 V portion of the Trial Cirouud.s at fordhook. 
 
 The different seed sample 
 above the soil 
 
 have been sown and many plants are showing 
 
 vonderful business has been built about a single 
 dea of right service and a direct deal between 
 grower and planter. 
 
 In order to describe to our readers the growth 
 )f the seed industry, we have singled out the 
 'irm of VV. Atlee Burpee & Co., briefly describing 
 he methods and operations which have made 
 his firm such a success. 
 
 \V. Atlee Burpee & Co. was established in 
 1876 by W. Atlee Burpee, whose broad-minded 
 personality is alone responsible for the develop- 
 nent of a business from a very modest begimiing 
 :o a vast organization, owning its own farms in 
 Vew Jersey, Pennsylvania and California, and 
 ■mploying himdreds of men and women. 
 
 Thousands of acres in many countries con- 
 ribute their share to the enormous stocks of 
 iced handled by the house of Burpee. 
 
 It is said that this concern sends its crop in- 
 spectors into sections tliat aggregate more than 
 :hirty thousand miles of travel each year. This is 
 nerely a detail of this ideal service which be- 
 ?omes even more apparent when one considers 
 Lhis house does not send a single mile to solicit 
 m order. 
 
 A trip to Fordhook Farms, America's great- 
 est trial grounds, convinces the visitor that this 
 
 Philadelphia shows hundreds of employees busy 
 on the thousands of orders that come in daily in 
 season. The latest ecjuipment in machinery fur- 
 nishes accuracy in detail in the matter of pack- 
 ing the seeds, while bright, cheery quarters con- 
 tribute their share in giving Burpee .service to 
 the many thousands of customers. 
 
 Every comfort is provided for the workers 
 — rest rooms, reading rooms, all the latest mag- 
 azines and papers, a dining room where a lunch 
 of the best quality may be purchased for a few 
 cents, umbrellas in case of rain, first aid if acci- 
 dents occur, are just a part of the service building 
 policy. 
 
 W. Atlee Burpee & Co. have customers in 
 almost every coimtry in the world. In 1!)14 they 
 distributed more than a million catalogs, which 
 in itself required an outlay of $30,000 to $35,000 
 for postage alone. These catalogs required 
 almost half a million pounds of paper. 
 
 This concern maintains a printing plant that 
 prints millions of seed bags, labels, etc. 
 
 The machines that fill and seal the packets 
 are almost human in their precision and much 
 faster than hand work. 
 
 Many articles have been written about this 
 business, but none is better than the tribute of 
 
 45 
 
the late Elbert Hubbard when he wrote in " The 
 Fra": "If there is any one man in America, 
 more than another, who is making the waste 
 places green and the desert to blossom like the 
 rose, that man is W. Atlee Burpee, seedsman 
 magnus, gentleman superbus." 
 
 So that we of Pennsylvania are justly proud 
 of the development of the seed business; we are 
 
 proud of America's oldest seed establishment; 
 we are proud of the world's greatest mail-order 
 seed business, for we recognize that agriculture 
 is the fundamental source of all wealth; and 
 realizing the very important part played by the 
 seedsman, we are proud to be recognized as 
 one of the leading States in this great business 
 of seeds. 
 
 Lettuce trials at Fordhook, a June photograph 
 
 A CORDIAL INVITATION. — Planters who may visit Philadelphia are invited to inspect the Bur- 
 pee Buildings, where we shall be pleased to explain the workings of the various departments. We 
 are glad, also, during spring, summer, and autumn, to have our customers examine the crops and 
 trials at Fordhook Farms. Wednesday is "Visitors' Day," but customers from a distance can ob- 
 tain permits at our Philadelphia office for any other weekday. There is no other place in America 
 where such a complete assortment of all varieties can be seen growing each season 
 
 A panoramic view of the main portion of the Trial Grounds at Fordhook. Many large trials, such as Cabbage, Peas, 
 Beans, Corn, Squashes, Pumpkins and other crops that require large area, are conducted in other sections of the farm. In 
 the distance at the top of the hill may be seen "The Woods." Immediately below this woods are located the poultry 
 
 yards and kennels 
 
 [4G] 
 
I 11. uK iriiU ..I . il,!.,-, -, .,1 I ..r.llHM.k. |->.,i,, ;i i-li-l ■■-'■■■U'li I ^ 
 In order to verify our early trials, two separate trial' are made, one early and one late. If any undue advantage is to be 
 had by reason of different seasons it is shown up in one or the other of these trials 
 
 The late trials of cabbages (in a different field from the above) as they appeared at FurJljuok, I. (ken in October 
 
 [47] 
 
From the Atlantic to 
 the Pacific Burpee's 
 FORDHOOK FARMS 
 are famous as the 
 largest Trial Grounds 
 in America 
 
 The illustnition to the left gives a general 
 view, looking northeast, of the main por- 
 tion of the Trial Grounds at Fordhook 
 
 From the Atlantic 
 
 Professor Johnson, of " The 
 American Agriculturist," perform- 
 ed a simihir office on behalf of the 
 members of the agricultural and 
 horticultural press present. Mr. 
 Johnson said that the day had 
 been one rare treat. ... In 
 speaking of the immensity of the 
 trial groimds at Fordhook, Pro- 
 fessor Johnson stated that those 
 present would take home a lesson 
 which would be remembered for 
 many years. There was not an 
 experiment station in the United 
 States, supported by State or 
 national legislation, that had any- 
 thing like the variety of tests that 
 were conducted on the Fordhook 
 Farms. lie said this is all fair- 
 ness to the splendid work of the 
 
 experiment stations 
 
 — Kxtract from an Editorial ac- 
 count of "A Field Day at Ford- 
 hook," which appeared in "The 
 Florists" Exchange," Netv York. 
 
 From the Pacific 
 
 A carefid seedsman's experi- 
 ment grounds, like yours, it seems 
 to me, are far more useful than 
 any of the colleges or public ex- 
 periment stations, as it is all j)rac- 
 tical work. Your Fordhook Trial 
 Grounds were the best of all my 
 Eastern object-lessons, and I had 
 many of them. I had no idea of 
 their extent and value, not only 
 to yourself, but to every one of 
 your customers, and eventually 
 to every one who cultivates the 
 soil. — Thus wrote Luther Bur- 
 bank, "The Wizard of Horticul- 
 ture," from Santa Rosa, California, 
 vpon his return from an extended 
 Eastern trip. 
 
Pansy trials at Fordhook. From an October photograph 
 
 These old favorites are always greatly admired by all visitors to Fordhook. Pansies, as may be indicated l)y the number 
 of seed trials here, are a leading specialty; 176 are on trial for purity of stock and value of variety. Not that there are 
 that number of distinct varieties, but, wherever obtainable, seed is secured and tried out, and in this way only the very 
 
 best is kept in stock for our trade 
 
 A portion of the trials of aiuuials 
 
 [491 
 
^A,* . 
 
 Beet and carrot trials at Fordhook. From a June photograph 
 
 Beet and carrot trials are conducted on the hilltop, where same may he planted early, because the nature of the soil ad- 
 mits of the roots penetrating easily and the frost leaves earlier here than it does below, where the soil is more or less tena- 
 cious in its character. These important vegetables occupy a large area at Fordhook each year. Careful notes are made 
 
 covering all variations and characteristics 
 
 4 § 
 
 ^_V-^*(SJ«-*«>^^_ 
 
 *^I^ ^ * 
 
 f^4 
 
 ^ 
 
 \1?^..3% 
 
 .Vnother field of early cabbage trials at Fordhook 
 [50 1 
 
Hilt and carrot trials made during 1915 
 
 Every variation in color of leaf or root, height of Krowth, shape of leaves, in fact every characteristic, is recorded. 
 
 These notes made year after year are the .signs by which we know that every stock is true in all respects. Until they are 
 
 proved, the seeds are never packed. Fordhook Farms must place the seal of approval before the seeds are sent out 
 
A partial view of the trials of annual flowers. The same care in making notes on : 
 insures the finest strains that can be grown 
 
 jwers as in notes on vegetables 
 
 A |j:irli,il \i(\v of the trials of perennials 
 
 [521 
 
Early Irial nf lilliiir at Kordhook, shown above in Trial Groun<K \ i . oml In il of kttiK 
 
 seiusou so that we may prove that under different conditions the strains will bold up to their \d 
 
 s made later in the 
 tal characteristics 
 
 The illustraticjn below shows the sweet pea trials at Fordhook. Sweet peas have long been a leading specialty with the 
 House of Hnrpee, our firm having been among the t:rst to take this popular annual in hand. We have developed and in- 
 tnxluccd many of the best varieties in cultivation to-day. We have prepared a special book on sweet peas entitled 
 "Sweet Peiis l'p-lo-l)ate." All lovers of these charming flowers shoulii have this book. Thousands of trials are made 
 each year, and novelties are here proved in order that we may retain our title of "American Headquarters for Sweet Peas" 
 
Inspecting the irrigating system in main Trial Grounds at Fonihook. ( )ne of the illustrations in "" The Florists Exchange, " 
 
 New York, July -i, 1910 
 
 Fordhook is visited by many interested persons each year. Many of the greatest agricultural and horticultural experts 
 and authorities have honored us and all have been unanimous in their praise of the thorough methods and practice at 
 Fordhook. The groups shown in these pictures are visiting Seedsmen, delegates to the Convention of the American Seed 
 
 Trade Association 
 
 Inspecting trials of grasses and forage plants. From "The Florists' Exchange," July 'i, 1910 
 
 154] 
 
From the Journal of The Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, February, 1915 
 
 W. Atlee Burpee & Co. 
 
 The man who can look 
 
 ii])(>n the seeds ami tell 
 
 which will grow and which 
 
 will not is one of the world's 
 
 hcnet'actors. Mankind at no 
 
 time has more than eight 
 
 months" provisions ahead. 
 
 Siiouid all the crops of the 
 
 earth fail in a single season, 
 
 onr farmers become possessed 
 
 f improvidence and fail to keep 
 
 and the enthusiasm of the 
 founder of the House of 
 Burpee. At the seed farms 
 and experimental stations 
 located at Fordhook, Pa., 
 Sunnyhrook, N. J., and Flora- 
 dale, Cal., e\ery man is made 
 to feel that his work is imi)or- 
 tant to the ultimate success 
 of the business. Every one gets some of 
 
 Mr. 
 
 Burpee's enthusiasm and the result is a splen- 
 
 The Advertising Department. Here are prepared the advertisements that are printed in many magazines. Records of 
 magazine returns are tcept here; also a complete file of all the magazines u.sed 
 
 a stock of seed for the next planting-time 
 civilization would be swept out of existence in 
 less than a year. 
 
 In the warehouse of the W. Atlee Burpee Com- 
 pany, at P'ifth and Buttonwood Streets, is 
 stored in embryo the sustenance of a large por- 
 tion of the earth's inhabitants, the latent energy 
 that drives the world's commerce and industries. 
 
 Starting with a modest business in 187G, the 
 House of Burpee has grown into the greatest 
 mail-order seed house in the world. Like many 
 other Philadel])hia enterprises this establish- 
 ment is of international importance. Mr. Bur- 
 pee will tell you that he has built up this great 
 business by advertising, and to a great extent 
 this is so, but back of it all has been the integrity 
 
 didly organized machine — a business that is 
 constantly growing, and growing upon the most 
 solifl basis that it is possible to put under any 
 business; namely, confidence in the quality of 
 the products turned out. Burpee's seeds grow; 
 this fact is known the world over, and it is not 
 by any chance that this is brought about. 
 
 Naturally, the Burpee farms could not raise 
 a hundreth part of the seeds the firm sells. 
 Contracts for the growing of seeds are gi^•en out 
 two and three years ahead of selling dates. 
 These crops, located in different parts of the 
 world where the finest results are obtainable, 
 are carefidly watched by the Burpee house 
 and reports made of their condition and de- 
 velopment. Unless they are fully "Burpee 
 
 55 
 
Ready to mail. These mail sacks con- 
 tained more than twenty-seven thousand 
 (^27,596) copies of Burpee's Annual, 
 mailed on that one day. 1 he illustration 
 to the left shows a wagon load of mail 
 leaving the York Street side of the Burpee 
 liuihHiik's. Some idea of the extent of 
 ci\ir lm-,iness may be had from the fact 
 th.it Ml 1915 the editions — for Winter and 
 Spring —of our seed catalogs totaled one 
 nnlliiin ninety-four thousand (l,09-t,3'25) 
 copies. Besides these catalogs there were 
 distributed millions of circulars and many 
 thousand copies of our instructive leaflets 
 on culture, making in all the greatest 
 output of original literature on horticul- 
 ture ever circulated in a single season 
 by any one house in the world 
 
The printing department shown in the 
 illustration to the right is a very busy part 
 of the Burpee business. Many small or 
 "rush"' jobs are here handled with a 
 speed and care that would be wellnigh 
 impossil)le if these same jobs were sent 
 out to a regulation printshop 
 
 
 "T^ 
 
 1 
 
 — , 
 
 
 1 .\m 
 
 iJI'iil-i j*'^^'*W 
 
 mi^ 
 
 A 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 *" ' -'■ '^Vd^^ - ■■■SrSifc" 
 
 rA*"-- 
 
 m 
 
 .J 1 
 
 / 1 
 
 -\'J^^ B mKi 
 
 M 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 ■■*'■. ... 
 
 i 
 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 
 Tlif pruiliiii.' roi.m. Ilcrr an- priiilril inilli.iti^ nf liai,'s ;iiicl sin:il! circulars. 
 
 The catalogs and books arc printed now, as they lui\'c been for more than 
 
 thirty-five years, by W'm. F. Fell Co., Philadelphia 
 
 This illustration shows the folding machine 
 on which are folded not only order sheets but 
 hundreds of thousands of Leaflets on Culture. 
 These are distributed free with orders upon 
 request. Nearly every question you can ask 
 on culture is answered in one of our special 
 leaflets 
 
 .'lie \ct:ctatilr .^ccd >tock Li-dger, shown above, is kept 
 on the fourth floor, so as to be convenient for the charges 
 made from the bulk seed stored on the upper floors of the 
 original Burpee building and in the warehouse on the 
 south. A ledger account is kept with each variety of seed, 
 and at any time we can tell just what stock was used to fill 
 a given order. A similar stock ledger is kept with flower 
 seeds, but this is kept in the flower seed department on the 
 second floor 
 
 The ingeniously constructed and delicately adjusted 
 machines for measuring seeds and putting them in sacks 
 of all sizes, sealing the sacks and counting them into boxes 
 placed there to receive them, are marvels of labor-saving 
 devices, without which so large a business as is done here 
 in a season could not be transacted by five times the 
 number of present employees — over three hundred in the 
 height of the season 
 
 The packet ing m.ichines 
 
 57' 
 
Standard" in quality the entire crop is rejected. 
 Even after the seeds are deHvered in bulk to 
 the Burpee warehouses, thorough tests are made 
 before they are packed for retail and wholesale 
 selling. 
 
 A sample of each lot of seed thus produced 
 is shipped to the Burpee farms and the firm's 
 personal trials made. The crop must be pure, 
 sturdy, full of vitality, true to the strain. Nine 
 times out of ten results confirm the original 
 grower's statement. But if a bad streak does 
 develop, the seed is discarded. 
 
 By the stock number originally given the 
 seed it can be traced throughout the establish- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Burpee knows all that it is humanly pos- 
 sible for anyone to know about the mystery of 
 the seed from the moment that it is gathered 
 until it is placed in the package and sent to its 
 destination. When a man, it matters not in 
 what part of the world he may be, receives his 
 little consignment of seed, upon which is de- 
 pendent his next season's crop and his livelihood 
 and that of his family, the name of Burpee on 
 the package inspires him with confidence in a 
 successful crop. 
 
 carefully, the proper seed numbers noted, and 
 the clerks then go along the rows of racks and 
 assemble the seeds required. Each order is 
 checked twice, for there must be no mistakes. 
 The order may come from South Africa, it may 
 have been a month since the customer has writ- 
 ten and it may be another month beiore he 
 receives the seed, and a mistake could not be 
 rectified in time for the planting season. Up- 
 ward of four thousand orders are received 
 every day, practically all of them containing 
 remittances from twenty-five cents to a hundred 
 dollars or more, and every order, if possible, is 
 filled before the close of business on the day it is 
 received. In the busy seasons it takes over 
 three hundred people working steadily to handle 
 the orders. 
 
 In describing the methods of keeping the 
 record of the seeds, an article appearing in the 
 Florists' Exchange a few years ago included 
 the following description: 
 
 The bookkeeping, which term naturally in^ 
 eludes the system adopted for the handling of 
 the mail orders as well as for the ledgers which 
 record the heavier items of the business, is con- 
 ducted on a wonderful system, geared and closely 
 
 lllll^t^all 
 
 pi. 
 
 _'rnp(i. allows a portion of one 
 
 Packeting and scalini,' the pop\ihir "Sci-cl^ thai (iniw. " 
 
 of our seed-paperiiii; rooiiiv an the lliinl llimr. Here, hy llii' ili'fl lianii^ of uillinj,' women workers, anil with the aid of 
 
 seed-papcriug machines run by electric power, millions of retail packets, ounces, quarter pounds, pints, and quarts are 
 
 neatly prepared. Pecks and bushels (sealed with our leaden seal) are filled by men on another floor 
 
 The same thoroughness and completeness 
 of method that is applied in the production of 
 the seed is carried out in their distribution. 
 The different seeds are sealed in paper packets 
 and distributed in racks which bear the name 
 of the variety of seed and its designated num- 
 ber. The orders as they come in are gone o\er 
 
 interwoven the one into the other like the works 
 of a first-class watch, so that but a moment is 
 recjuired to ascertain any item in connection with 
 any transaction whatsoever, the detail work 
 being recorded so minutely that it is possible 
 to tell at a glance, for instance, the vitality test 
 and who grew, say, the Parsley seed purchased 
 
 58 
 
by John Smith, of Prescott, Ariz., a month or 
 a year previous. 
 
 From tlie sets of books dedicated to stocks 
 on hand may be ascertained at any moment 
 the vitaUty test, the quantity of a certain stock 
 received from the Burpee farm on which it 
 was raised, or the different growers from whom 
 it w'as procured, the amoimt sold, and the quan- 
 tity remaining on hand, together with the num- 
 ber of packets and subdivisions of ounces, 
 pounds, sacks, etc., into which it has been 
 divided for retail and wholesale trade. And so 
 on throughout the entire syst(Mn of bookkeeping. 
 
 In days of old, members of the royal families 
 numbered among their court attaches gardeners 
 who devoted all their time to growing such 
 delicacies as were thought fit to grace the king's 
 table, and rare flowers to adorn the royal gardens. 
 W. Atlee Burpee is the worlds gardener. 
 Thanks to the energy and the skill of this man, 
 the most luscious fruits and vegetables are 
 brought within the reach of everyone, and many 
 beds of beautiful flowers grace gardens, rich or 
 humble, in practically every ciuarter of the earth. 
 
 The House of Burpee has done much to spread 
 the fame of Philadel])hia and Philadelphia 
 enterprise throughout the world. 
 
 A corner in the storage-room. 
 Here are stored filled packets, 
 ounces, quarter-pound, half- 
 pound, pound, pint and quart 
 sealed packages by the hun- 
 dreds of thousands 
 
 Below is shown one of the 
 Bulk Warehouses, York Ave- 
 nue below the main Burpee 
 Buildings 
 
 We are Specialists 
 in Seeds 
 
 Our entire attention is de- 
 voted to producing and dis- 
 tributing Seeds, — Seeds 
 only and only Seeds of the 
 Best Quality. We aim to 
 do fins one thing iriil. — 
 consequently do not handle 
 plants, small fruits, nursery 
 stock, nor other kindred 
 lines, — such as fertilizers, 
 implements, and poultry 
 supplies. We shall be 
 pleased to have your order 
 for Seeds and linow that we 
 can serve you well! We 
 shall be pleased also to give 
 any advice in our power as 
 to your other horticultural 
 requirements. 
 
 At the Burpee Build- 
 ings we are glad to welcome 
 customers who may ha\'e 
 occasion to visit Philadel- 
 phia and to extend also an 
 invitation to inspect our 
 Pennsylvania, New Jersey 
 and California Farms tluring the gmwiiig scasoi 
 and it is always a pleasure to show everything 
 on our farms. 
 
 There is nothinj 
 of interest, both 
 
 ; to conceal in our business, 
 
 in the city warehouses and 
 
 W. Atlee Burpee & Co. 
 
 59 
 
Extracts from The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1 , 1911 
 
 Busy Days at the Home of "Seeds That Grow" 
 
 E.ith day the mails bring between three and 
 se\en thousand orders. And a day's work 
 in the ca'ihier's registry and order depart- 
 ments is the mail of that particular day, which 
 1^ prepared for filling and shipping next day. 
 \ rule of the business, rarely broken, is that 
 an order must be shipped within H hours of 
 lt^ receipt. Ten cashiers were opening the 
 mails the morning the party visited the 
 establishuieiit 
 
 Opening the Mail 
 
 The method of taking care of mail orders is an interesting one 
 to follow from the moment when an order is received until 
 ready to leave the building by mail, express or freight. Cut 
 into the table in front of the cashier and each assistant are 
 three slits for remittances, one each for stamps, checks and 
 money orders. The slits lead to large cans, which are emptied 
 later in the day. The amount each envelope contained is care- 
 fully marked on the accompanying order slip, which later finds 
 its way to an adding machine, where the totals of the orders 
 must tally with the remittances taken from the boxes 
 
 Portion of the Main Office. These clerks are engaged in entering the number and amount of the orders on the cards 
 
 [60] 
 
Assorting orders by States as received from the mail room. 
 These orders are then booked by States, the post-oftices 
 being arranged alphabelically by the card system, '^hi^ 
 segregation by States allows the use of addressing machines, 
 as shown in the picture below. Cireater speed an'! accuracy 
 are obtained by the use of these machines. The addres>) 
 cards are much easier read when so addressed than when 
 written by hand. VVe provide the latest and most accurate 
 machinery so as to render the best possible seed-servi<-e 
 
 Ihr iiia.liiiir -.hewn III 111.' illii-lrali..ii above is an 
 
 "arithmometer," or adding inacliine. These machines 
 
 are almost indispensable in a business where accuracy 
 
 and speed are required 
 
 [61 J 
 
In the illustration to the left is shown the 
 accounting and bookkeeping depart- 
 ment. Here are handled all charge 
 orders; credits are passed; accounts 
 opened and charged, and all clerical 
 work in connection with such orders is 
 performed 
 
 The stenographers at the typewriters in a light, airy room adjoining the main office. We never annoy customers 
 with " follow-up " letters, but are always prompt to answer any inquiries either for special quotations or further 
 
 information as to varieties or culture 
 
 fC2l 
 
The illustration to the left shows clerks 
 addressing bags for the Burpee Annual to 
 daily applicants. Frequently thousands 
 of applications are received in one day. 
 The Burpee Annual, while free to all, is 
 ne\er mailed unsolicited, except to cus- 
 tomers of record 
 
 The young lady at the left is operating an adding machine, 
 ' her work verifies the amounts entered on the order 
 heets. These machines are mechanically accurate; errors 
 are practically impossible 
 

 i ~ ' ~ ~ "" 
 
 Interior views. The illustration to the 
 left shows two clerks booking freight and 
 express orders. Orders for seeds that are 
 to go by freight or express are sorted from 
 the orders to go by mail, given a different 
 set of numbers, and filled on the fourth 
 floor of the Burpee Buildings entirely 
 separate from the mail orders, which are 
 filled on the second floor. An acknowl- 
 edgment by mail is made of all freight and 
 express orders the day they are received 
 
 An aisle in the Vegetable mail-order department. In this department no seeds in bulk are kept at all. All packages 
 
 are done up in advance and the girls can pick them out of the various compartments readily and without any possibility 
 
 of getting the wrong seed, which might happen did they go to bulk drawers. We use every known safeguard that 
 
 constant care and ample capital can secure to reduce to a minimum the possibility of mistakes 
 
 [64 1 
 
1 )r|i;irl nil 111. Each ordor clerk is pnnidcii with a desk 
 ,■ I.) Ii. r lor lilHng. The baskets are in turn p.issed to 
 
 Here is sh..uii a rou of nrdrr desks in the Veyelahle Mail-oi 
 
 whore she may asseml.le and arranK'e in baskets the orders that corn.' lo li. r lor limng. l ne uasKeis are in mrn passe.i 
 the checkers, where all orders are doulile-checke<l. This method of double-checking reduces the [xissibihty ot error t 
 minimum, and while costly it gives the satisfaction of having rendered the best possible service 
 
 The illustration above shows another time-saving duplicate 
 
 department where orders for packets amounting only to one 
 
 dollar or less are filled 
 
 The illustration iinniediately aboveshows an aisle of order 
 desks in the mail-order department on the second floor 
 
 65 
 
This illustration to the left shows the mak- 
 ing; ready of cardboard boxes which come 
 in flat and are then shaped to hold the 
 jiackets and packages of seed to be filled 
 ill the mail-order department. Many 
 thousands are required and this work is 
 done before the busy season begins 
 
 Thi^ illii^lr,.linii totlic riuht >lio«, ..ik- m.I. 
 of a chcckinfj-table at which ten checker^ 
 work in pairs facing each other. All our 
 energies are directed to filling mail orders 
 and considering promptness and accur.u \ 
 in executing your commands, together witli 
 quality of seeds, you cannot be ser\tcl 
 better anywhere 
 
 Mr. a. T. De La Mare, the editor 
 of " The Florists' Exchange," New York, 
 after a personal visit of inspection, wrote. 
 A word as to the employees, the great 
 majority of whom are young women. It 
 would seem as though the Burpee firm had 
 in their employ all the good-looking young 
 women of Philadelphia; possibly the rea- 
 son for this consists in the fact that they 
 are treated not only with the greatest 
 courtesy b.v the heads of departments, but 
 that their wellbeing in work hours is care- 
 fully provided for. On the third floor of 
 the building, facing on three streets, is a 
 large airy dining and rest room, provided 
 expressly for these young women, and here 
 they lunch in comfort and at cost price. 
 Racks for both men and women are pro- 
 vided wherein they can store their street 
 clothes and keep them under lock and key. 
 Large toilet rooms, neat as a new pin, are 
 to be found on every floor. 
 
 The dining and rest rooms are shown below 
 
 [66 
 
and stamping, as shown in lower picture 
 [671 
 
Views in the flower seed department. The aisle shown in 
 the illustration is in the bulk or wholesale division of 
 the flower seed department. Here is kept bulk flower 
 seed, and all orders for large quantities are handled here 
 
 piiliire above shows order clerks engagtM 
 
 tilling orders in the mail-order division of the 
 
 flower seed department. Desks are provided here 
 
 the same as in the vegetable seed department 
 
 The illu-traliou above shows llu- ordyr ,ui.l 
 assembling tables in the wholesale division 
 of the flower seed department. We use 
 very delicate and accurate scales, as many 
 varieties of flower seeds are exceedingly 
 valuable and great care is demanded. The 
 illustration to the right shows the double- 
 checking desks in the flower seed depart- 
 ment 
 
 Checking orders for flower seeds 
 
 68 
 
Children's garden packets have become so popular with all our 
 
 young friends that the department shown in the picture below, and 
 
 which is located upon the third floor, is devoted entirely to filling 
 
 the orders for these special children's packets 
 
 The illustration above shows a corner where 
 
 •are filled many of the orders for s|iccial 
 
 varieties of packet seeds offered inouraiKer- 
 
 lisemenls 
 
 The picture to the left shows a part of the 
 checkiuf,' desks in the wholesale depart- 
 ment. Here also is shown a portion of the 
 tags that are held, already printed with 
 names and addresses, so as to avoid any 
 errors in directing and shipping. No de- 
 tail is too small in the Burpee business. 
 Our aim is to render the best possible 
 service 
 
 The illustration to the right shows a portion 
 of the wholesale department. The reason 
 why Burpee's Seeds are not sold more 
 generall.v at wholesale is because of their 
 necessarily higher cost. We never send 
 out travelers to solicit orders either at 
 wholesale or retail. We do supply, how- 
 ever, quite a number of the better class of 
 dealers, but only with seeds in sealed pack- 
 ages. In other words, Burpee's Seeds are 
 sold in any quantity, but only under seal 
 
\t the left is a corner in the wholesale 
 rtinent. Here the clerical work 
 ^^ary in filling and directing whole- 
 orders is done. Tags and address 
 I ard-, for a large list of regular customers 
 .jrc printed before the busy season. This 
 fai ilitates the rapid filling and correct 
 dispatch of such orders 
 
 [70] 
 
A part of the bulb cellar-.. Here arc Nton.! Ihi rootsot I ami l,. Dahlias, Tritiimas, liiearvillea. anil the hullis cl Bet;uiiia», 
 
 Lihes, Tuberoses, (Jladioli, and man\ other summer-ftowenns; varieties. As the bulbs come in from the farms they are 
 
 carefull.v stored in shding racks that afford ideal storage conditions. The illustration below is the order-filling room of the 
 
 Bulb Department, where men only are employed 
 
Much clerical work must be performed in connec- 
 tion with orders even after the preliminary work 
 done in the main offices. The desks shown in the 
 illustration to the left are located in the freight and 
 express department ou the fourth floor and are 
 devoted to the clerical work of that department 
 
 "^^"^ 
 
 The illiistrati(>n to the right shows the flower seed en 
 on the fourth floor. Here is carried a duplicate stock • 
 ail tloncr seeds in packets for convenience in tillir 
 freight and express orders. Orders for larger quant il i^ 
 of flower seeds are filled in the regular seed departim i 
 on second floor 
 
 One of the fourth floor rooms for express and freight orders. Only men are employed in the express and freight order 
 departments. While all regular quantities, from packets and pounds to quarts and pecks, are done up ahead in sealed 
 packages, yet there are also received daily orders for a number of pounds or bushels that must be put up specially and 
 
 sealed 
 
 [72] 
 
Some i.f lli..li-l. 
 
 nod roomy desk where 
 
 The ilUistration to the left shows another section of 
 
 the order desks in the freight and express order 
 
 department. On these desks the orders are assembled 
 
 previous to going to the checker's table 
 
 The small illustration above shows 
 several clerks making ready packages 
 for the freight and express order de- 
 partment after they have been checked 
 and before they are ready to be boxed. 
 The illustration to the left shows ship- 
 ments that have been checked and 
 packed being removed to the shipping 
 floors shown on pages 75 and 76 
 
Before packing all freight orders are finally checked 
 and passed by the expert checker who works in the 
 department shown in the picture to the right. Every 
 safeguard that makes for accuracy and perfection of 
 sers'ice is provided 
 
 The illustration to left shows boxes for 
 freight and express orders, which are 
 made for us by a manufacturer a block 
 below, and then delivered in the area- 
 way, to be sent up by one of the ele- 
 vators 
 
 The illustrations above are views in the Freight and Express Order Departiiifnt. which Iwith the wholesale) occupies 
 
 the entire fourth floor of the first Burpee building. Only men and boys are employed in this department. Before 
 
 the orders are finally packed, they are checked independent of the actual filling of the orders 
 
 [741 
 
niiiii "1 
 
 The small illustration to the left shows one of the eleva- 
 tors from the fourth floor whieh has just arrived at the 
 courtyard with boxes and packages of seeds ready to be 
 checked off and loaded by the shipping department. 
 Hundreds of packages are dispatched daily by express and 
 freight 
 
 The illustration at right shows the shipping 
 clerk's office on York Avenue side. Kach day the 
 mstonier whose order has been filled by freight (>r 
 express is notifi«'d by mail of the shipment, while, 
 d{ course, bills of lailing are also mailiMl ti; those 
 whose seeds have been forwarded by freight 
 
 The lower pi<ture shows a shipping floi 
 Express wai 
 
 devot 
 
 ■d entirely to shipping by express. No freight is handled on this floor. 
 g loaded may be seen through the open doors 
 
Shipments ready to go by freight. This floor is devoted to freight shipments and is entirely separate from the floor shown 
 on page 75. For work on orders between the first sorting into States and the final shipment, see other illustrations from 
 
 photographs on preceding pages 
 
 The illustration to the right shows a 
 truck loaded with freight shipments 
 that are billed to customers in all 
 parts of the U. S. Many such loads 
 leave the Burpee buildings each day 
 during the busy season 
 
 The illustration to left pictures two 
 express wagons loading with express 
 shipments. Three such wagons can 
 be loaded at one time from this floor 
 
 [76] 
 
^he Queen and Court Chronicle, London, England, Saturday, July 25, 1915 
 
 The Garden Column 
 
 The National Sweet Pea Show- 
 Impressions and Reflections 
 
 The Foiirtomth Animal Show 
 of the National Sweet Pea 
 Society was held in R. LI. S. 
 Hall on Thursday, July 16th, 
 and was followed in the 
 evening by a dinner at the 
 lotel Windsor, with the President, Mr. Hugh 
 :)i(kson, in the chair, and with Mr. W . Atlee 
 Jurpee, of Philadelphia, as its most honored 
 ;uest. In one of the after-dinner speeches it 
 vas jokingly suggested that with this gentle- 
 nan and others from America present, the 
 itle might almost be changed to "Inter- 
 lational." The speaker voiced in this word 
 ,vhat had passed through my mind earlier in 
 he day as I saw two of the heads of the cele- 
 jraled firm of Vilmorin, Andrieux and ( o., 
 )f Paris, making a careful inspection of the 
 exhibits, and heard not just once but several 
 imes during the course of the afternofui 
 iccents of unmistakable continental ongm 
 ningling with the more familiar Irish, Scotch 
 anirWelsh of our own tight little islands. 
 Little did the Sicilian monk, Cupani, imagme 
 A-hen he sent a few seeds of his newly found 
 oea to England in l(i99, what a wonderful 
 ■uture was before it two centuries hence. 
 For the last ten years, if not for longer, it 
 lias been the most popular flower grown in 
 British gardens. To find a parallel we would 
 have to go back to dahlia times, but even 
 that old charmer's attractions w;ould have 
 paled before those of its modern rival. 
 
 We are so accustomed to find rows of sweet 
 peas in gardens of every description that the 
 sight does not surprise us as it should do. AH 
 the same it is an amazing fact, and I would like 
 ito quote at great length from a most interest- 
 ing and instructive paper read by Mr. J. S. 
 Brunton on tlie Sweet Pea Industry after tlie 
 last general meeting of the Society in ()ct()l)er, 
 li)i;5 Two or three extracts, however, must 
 suffice. "California's 3000 acres should pro- 
 duce 005 tons of seed. This seems almost in- 
 credible, but when we consider . . . that 
 one firm alone has handled 134 tons of seed 
 in a season, it may remove a little of our in- 
 credulitv; but we cannot cease to wonder and 
 to ask,\vhere do they all go to?" A Covent 
 Garden firm courteously gave Mr. Brunton the 
 following statistics of their sales for the week 
 en.ling June 4, 1913, as follows: Number of dis- 
 budded bunches 7554, value £104; number of 
 ortlinary bunches 19,792, value £94. They 
 further' state "in a few years the ordinary 
 bunch will be unknown, as the demand all 
 through last season for disbudded bunches was 
 greater than the supply, while at^ tinies the 
 ordinary grades were unsalable. Ot the 
 modern but verv useful development, the sale 
 of small seedlings in pots, the writer says: 
 
 "This system has become 
 quite general . . . the 
 largest business lies with a 
 nurseryman in the north of 
 London, who sows from 
 cwt. to 7 cwt. of seed in this 
 manner each season." To be still further im- 
 pressed, we must remember that the National 
 Show is but one, although the largest, of a hun- 
 
 Mi 
 
 , W. Atlee Burpee, Philadelphia, U. S. A. Ropnidiiced from 
 illustration in "The Queen 
 
 dred and thirtv jjrofessedly devoted to sweet 
 p(>as, and that over and above all these, there 
 are all the classes given up to them in our 
 general horticultural schedules. The United 
 Kingdom is the sweet pea country of the world, 
 and the great London Show has, I believe, no 
 serious rival. Small wonder, then, that Mr. W. 
 \tlee Burpee came all the way from the States 
 to visit us. and that M. Phililipe de \ilmorin 
 traveled from Paris for the same purpose. 
 I am sure their likenesses will interest readers. 
 Mr. Burpee is head of the largest postal 
 seed business in America. Sweet peas are 
 one of his firm's specialties; 180 acres ot them 
 are grown for see<l. The last letter Henry 
 Eckford wrote was addressed to him. Blaiiche 
 Burpee we older men remember as <me of the 
 best grandiflora or smooth standard whites 
 before the coming of Dorothy Eckford. His 
 
 [77' 
 
King White is claimed to be the white of the 
 future. Last week he bought from Mr. Mal- 
 colm, the raiser, the stock of that fine 1913 silver 
 medal variety "Fiery Cross" — it is a brilliant 
 cerise crimson. He returns home this week to 
 resume the cares of his huge business. The otlier 
 distinguished horticulturist whose picture I ;im 
 glad to li,i\'(' st-(un'(l is M. Plulipiic Mhnorin. 
 
 Sweet Pea — Margaret Atlee. Reproduced from illustration 
 "The Queen" 
 
 France has not yet gone in for sweet peas as 
 we have, although I know Messrs. Clarke & Sons, 
 of Dover, have tried the experiment of issuing 
 a French list. That not only the head (M. P. 
 Vilmorin), but also a junior member of the firm 
 of Mlmorin, Andrieux and Co., shoidd come over 
 to our show is significant, for no European firm 
 is its superior in size or in reputation. Perhaps 
 France is at last waking up. Perhaps Bel- 
 giiun is too. In the great exhibition of Ghent 
 this last Spring, sweet peas along with car- 
 nations and roses were the chief glories of the 
 show. What now did these notable visitors 
 .see on this occasion in Vincent Square? A 
 fine show, but by no means the best of the 
 fourteen the society has held. Considering 
 the hot and dry time which we have gone 
 through in the growing season, the flowers 
 that were staged surprised not only Mr. Burpee 
 but also Mr. Hugh Dickson, the president, 
 and Mr. William Cutlibertson, of Dobbic's. 
 Each of these three gentlemen told mc this, and 
 no three opinions are better worth listening to. 
 In conclusion I would congntulatc the sec- 
 retary, ]Mr. Tigwell, and tl:e cluiirnian of the 
 committee, Mr. F. W. Harvey, on a successful 
 year and a good show. No one, I feel sure, 
 will suppf)rt this sentiment of mine more 
 whole-heartedly than the honored and capable 
 president, Mr. Hugh Dick.son, who is one of the 
 keenest sweet pea men in the world, and a fine 
 representative of British horticulture, worthy 
 to take his place in these pages beside ^'ilmorin 
 of France and Burpee of the United States. 
 (Signed) Joseph Jacob. 
 
 From The North A mericaji, Philadelphia, Pa., May 19, 1915 
 
 $1.39 SWEET PEA SEED GIVES OUT FINE BLOOM 
 
 "Fiery Cross" Variety, Owned by W. Atlee Burpee, Costliest in World 
 
 The costliest sweet pea blossom that ever 
 flung to the sunlight a banner of beauty and per- 
 fumed the air with its delicate fragrance, burst 
 into bloom yesterday in one of the long, low glass 
 houses at Fordhook Farms, W. Atlee Burpee's 
 large testing grounds near Doylestown. 
 
 On a stem nearly a foot long — in itself a sign 
 of sap regal — this first "Fiery Cross"' to blossom 
 in America vindicated, by its size, shape and 
 flaming hue, the judgment of the well-known 
 Philadelphian who last July, at the sweet pea 
 show in London, paid the record price of $417 
 an ounce for the first three ounces of "I^icry 
 Cross" .seed ever raised. 
 
 One good look at the display of this new 
 variety, which evidenced its rare worth by win- 
 ning the highest award — the silver medal offered 
 by the National Sweet Pea Society of England — 
 convinced Mr. Burpee there was no use haggling 
 over a price. So he hunted up A. Malcolm, the 
 noted Scotch grower of these lovely flowers, who 
 after many years of trying finally produced the 
 flaming scarlet hue which characterizes this 
 latest wonder in the flower world. 
 
 "How much seed have you.^" asked Burpee. 
 
 "Three oimces," answered INIalcolm. 
 
 "Will you take 2.50 pounds sterling for three 
 ounces and the right to introduce.''" 
 
 "I will," said the Scotchman. 
 
 Now, three ounces of sweet pea seed contain 
 about 900 seeds. So for each of the shri^•eled 
 peas which were packed for shipment with as 
 much care as a pearl necklace, the tidy sum of 
 $1.39 was paid. And if the ship which carried 
 these seed-treasures across the Atlantic had 
 gone down, the world's supply of this particular 
 variety woidd ha\-e been lost. 
 
 It goes without saying that the folks at Ford- 
 hook, from owner down, have been watching the 
 "Fiery Cross" test plants in eager anticipation 
 of the day when the first blossoms would appear. 
 Every care known to the experts who look after 
 the 180 varieties of sweet peas there tested each 
 year was bestowed on the four vines which had 
 sprouted out of four $1.39 seeds. 
 
 Day before yesterday one bud was beginning 
 to show a tinge of color, and if the sim had not 
 been veiled in gray all day, this firstborn of the 
 new flower would have been a Sunday child — 
 "bonnie and bright and good and gay." But 
 there was no sun at all — as every one knows — 
 so the premiere was postponed. 
 
 But the "Fiery Cross" that made its bow 
 yesterday was just as bonnie and bright and gay 
 as if it had come along on Sunday, and if all 
 goes well, many a garden in this and other lands 
 next Summer will be more beautiful because of 
 it — not at $1.39 per seed, however. 
 
 [78] 
 
Forty Years of Burpee Service — -Anniversary Supplement 
 
 Burpee's Sweet Peas 
 
 Prize Winners wherever exhibited 
 
 At the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San 
 
 From Florists' Exchange, New 
 
 AV. Atlee Burpee & Co., of Pliiladelpliia, Pa., 
 were awarded the silver medal presented by the 
 British National Sweet Pea Society for their 
 splendid display, covering 100 sq. ft. The 
 center ]>ortion of the exhibit was entirely given 
 over to Messrs. Burpee & Co.'s magnitii'ent 
 novelty Fiery Cross, which attracted a tremen- 
 dous amount of attention all day on account of 
 its brilliant color. The jury of the Panama- 
 Pacific International Exposition recommended 
 
 Francisco, Cal., June 11 to 13, 1915 
 
 York, N. Y., July .■?, 1015 
 
 that a gold medal be awarded for the exhibit. 
 The collection inchuled about fifty of Messrs. 
 Burpee & Co.s leading novelties and especially 
 fine vases of Margaret Atlee, Thomas Stevenson, 
 Helen Grosvenor. King Manuel, Stirling Stent, 
 and King Edward Spencer. Messrs. Burpee & 
 Co. are to be congratulated on the spirit they 
 showed in arranging for this exhibition at so 
 great a distance from Philadelphia. An award 
 of merit was vote<l for Fiery Cross. 
 
 Burpee's Sweet Peas 
 
 Gold Medal and Silver Cup at the Newport Show, American Sweet Pea 
 Society, July 15 and 16, 1915 
 
 From Florists' Exchange, New 
 
 The largest trade display was that of W. Atlee 
 |}ur])ee & Co., Philadelphia, who staged upward 
 ijf 100 varieties on a table running the length of 
 the hall, occupying 200 sq. ft. The Howers had 
 been grown locally, and were of the highest 
 possible quality, on long stems, three and four 
 to a stem, bright, clear, clean and of good sub- 
 stance. In this group, wliicli won the society's 
 silver cup and the gold metlal offered by the 
 British National Sweet Pea Society for the 
 largest and most meritorious exhibit, there were 
 three novelties, Fiery Cross, winner of the A. S. 
 
 York, N. Y., July 'n, 1!)15 
 
 P. S. silver medal of the year; President, a 
 good scarlet, and Cherub, which we have de- 
 scribed as an improved Mrs. C. W. Breadmore. 
 The stand was arranged by (ieo. W. Kerr and 
 was the center of attraction during the two days. 
 It included, besides those mentioned, especially 
 fine vases of Irish Belle, Illuminator, King White, 
 Charles Foster, Robert Sydenham, Royal Pur- 
 ple, Primrose Spencer, New Vermilion Flake, 
 Mrs. Routzahn Spencer, Lavender, George Her- 
 bert, Margaret Atlee, Afterglow, Duplex Unique 
 and Kini: Edward Sjx'nccr. 
 
 Part of the gold medal and silver cup exhibit of W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Philadelphia 
 
 [791 
 
40iANNIVERSARY 
 
 Burpee's Annual 
 
 offers the experience of our Forty Years of extensive operation 
 and intensive investigation. 
 
 It tells the plain truth about Seeds that Grow, and is of inesti- 
 mable value to all who plant either for pleasure or profit. 
 
 If you have misplaced your copy or wish one for a friend or neighbor, 
 
 write us to-day. We will gladly send free, to any address. The 
 
 Leading American Seed Catalog. 
 
 W. Atlee Burpee & Co. 
 
 Seed Growers 
 Burpee Buildings Philadelphia 
 
 Copyright, 1915, by W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Philadelphia 
 
THE BURPEE BUSINESS IS BUILDED 
 
 NOT FOR THE PRESENT ONLY BUT 
 
 WITH AN OUTLOOK TO THE 
 
 FUTURE 
 
 A BUSINESS THAT HAS NO VISION OF 
 
 THE FUTURE OR THE OBJECT OF 
 
 WHICH IS MERE MONEY-MAKING 
 
 WOULD NOT BE WORTHY 
 
 A LIFE'S WORK 
 
 W. ATLEE BURPEE 
 
 
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