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Seed Catalogue and Garden Guide.

Expected Expansion for 1913
How we have prepared for increased trade this season
We have made but few improvements or additions to our equipment this past year; but enough has been done in each department to place it in readiness to handle an increased trade of at least 40 per cent over last year. In 1912 we exceeded even our most sanguine expectations in volume of business, but as we have had a steady growth each year since 1908, we believe this growth is to continue and have prepared accordingly. Our strength for the coming year lies in our personal organization. In each department we have employed new people of ability to assist our trained experts of many years' experience. We have most carefully selected these people as our business now demands a larger force of permanent employes whose value to us and to our customers increases with each year of service. We take great pride in our employes [employees] and they in turn give to our house the best there is in them in service and loyalty. With these people at your command, to serve you honestly and well, and with the splendid equipment which we have furnished to assist them in their work, we feel assured that no other seed house in the country will serve you better for at less expense to you. We have immense stocks of the finest seeds in our elevator and warehouses. Our greenhouses are filled with vigorous young plants of exceptional strength and beauty. Our organization is strong; full of energy and the spirit of service; and our entire equipment is thoroughly up to the minute in readiness to care for your orders. We want your business, with the promise to do our best to make our trading mutually profitable.

[Images]
Fifth St. Warehouse
Store and Office
Mail Order Building
Seed farms - 8600 acres
Altoona Corn House
Greenhouses

Our Establishments
The Iowa Seed Store is so well known in Des Moines that it would be difficult to find even a child in this city of 100,000 inhabitants who does not know its location. It occupies the large building at 613-615 Locust street, within a few blocks of the postoffice, express offices and the principal railroad passenger stations. The large store room is full of interest to everyone who has a farm or garden, or who loves flowers. Here are located the offices and correspondence department. During the busy season we receive 2,000 to 7,000 letters every day. We are always glad to have our customers call and see us.

Thirty-Two Greenhouses erected during the past few years are devoted to growing plants for the mail order trade, and contain a greater variety of plants than any other greenhouse establishment in the west. They are located convenient to the electric car line, fronting five blocks on 31st street, from Center street north to Kingman Boulevard, one of the finest driving streets in the city. Here we devote fully twelve acres to flowers, making the finest display to be found in the west.

Mail Order Building is located at 208-210-212 South Eighth street, about six blocks from our store. The railway tracks beside the building give us excellent facilities for handling carload lots, and we are centrally located between the various freight depots so that small shipments can be made promptly. Our machinery is operated by five electric motors, and we claim that our mills for cleaning seed cannot be surpassed. We can readily fill 2,000 to 4,000 orders per day in this building, and they are handled in such a careful way that errors seldom occur. Most of our employes have been with us many years, and no "green hands" handle seeds in bulk.

The Warehouse on South Fifth street we have occupied for many years for storage purposes only. Large lots of seed which come in after harvest are thoroughly cleaned and then put away in this building for the spring trade.

Seed Corn House - We have a very large trade in seed corn and to care for it properly we erected this building on our seed farm at Altoona. We now have capacity for 25,000 bushels of seed corn, every ear of which can be given the personal inspection of an expert.

Our New Grain Elevator. - Just completed at Altoona, with 12-bin capacity, for caring for our seed grain, the demand for which is expanding to enormous proportions. Photograph on page 39.

Seed Farms. - It requires the seed crop from about 8,600 acres to supply our trade and the farms are widely isolated so as to avoid any mixtures. Some seeds cannot be grown to advantage here, and we contract with practical seed growers elsewhere to grow for us.