Richard Frotscher’s Almanac and Garden Manual 
SEEDS BY MAIL, 
“Seeds can be sent by mail to any part of the United States in 
packages not exceeding four pounds, at sixteen cents per pound, or 
one cent per ounce, or fraction thereof. On seeds ordered in papers 
or by the ounce I prepay the postage, except on peas, beans and corn. 
This refers to large sized papers which are sold at one dollar per dozen. 
When ordered by the pound sixteen cents per pound postage has to 
be added to the ‘price of the seeds; to peas, beans and corn, thirty 
cents per quart. 
All packages are put up in the most careful manner, and every 
precaution taken to insure their reaching their destination in safety. 
Purchasers living at any place where my seeds are not sold, are re- 
quested to write to me to obtain their supplies. This will be more 
profitable than to buy from country stores where seeds, left on com- 
mission, are often kept till all power of germination is destroyed. As 
seed merchants, who give out their goods on commission, rarely col- 
lect what is not sold, oftener than once every twelve or eighteen 
months, and as Lettuce, Spinach, Parsnip, Carrots, and many other 
seeds will either not sprout at all or grow imperfectly if kept over a 
summer in the South; to buy and plant such, is but money, time and 
labor wasted. - 
Here in our climate,.where we plant garden vegetables as freely 
in autumn as in spring, and where often the seeds have to be put in 
the ground when the weather is very warm, it is an indispensable 
necessity to have perfectly fresh seeds. 
My arrangements with my growers are made so that I receive the 
new crop, expressly cleaned for me, as soon as it is matured. The 
varieties which are not raised in the North, I order from Europe, and 
have them shipped so as to reach me about the beginning of August, 
just the time they are needed for fall planting. By following this 
plan I have always a full supply of fresh seeds of undoubted germi- 
nating qualities, while dealers,who sell on commission, have only those 
left from the winter previous. 
On the receipt of one dollar I will mail thirteen large size papers 
of seeds, put up the same as seeds sold by the pound. These papers 
can be selected from this Catalogue, and include four papers of either 
Beans or Peas if so wanted. Or,for the same amount, I will mail 
twenty smaller papers, including four papers of either Peas or Beans. 
This is done to enable consumers to get reliable seeds in good size 
papers in places where my seeds are not sold. The papers put up by 
Northern seedsmen are so small that of some varieties they hardly 
contain enough to do any good. The low prices charged to merchants 
are made atthe expense of consumers. My papers are large and worth 
the full value of the money paid for them. 
It cannot be too well impressed on the minds of all cultivators of 
vegetables, that seeds kept through a summer in this climate will not 
grow, and that all who use such seeds will be losers. 
All seeds that leave my establishment are thoroughly tested. 
Having received a great many complaints that letters which were 
addressed to me and contained money, were not answered, E.must 
state that these letters never reached me, and, therefore, would caution 
my customers not to sendany money in letters without registering same. 
By sending one dollar, or upward, the cost, ten cents, can be charged 
tome. The cheapest and surest way is money order or draft, but 
where they cannot be had, letters have to be registered, which can be 
done at any Post Office. 
