An Open Letter to 

 My Neighbors 



I CAN' T help feeling that every gardener and 

 farmer in the United States is my neighbor. 

 We are all seeking one worthy object — 

 prosperity, which includes comfort. 



We cannot seek our own comfort without pro- 

 moting the prosperity of this great and glorious 

 country — its prosperity and its beauty; for ever}' 

 touch of true comfort adds to the beauty of this 

 great nation, which is becoming more and more 

 a Nation of Homes. 



I assume that you, neighbor, are wide awake 

 to the advantages of having your own garden — 

 or farm, as the case may be — or you would not 

 have sent for a Buckbee Catalogue. I hope you 

 count your acres into the hundreds. 



No? Then grow Buckbee Seeds and you soon 

 may. Let me give you a few reasons why. 



First, good crops, large or small, can only be 

 grown from good seed. 



Second, the production of good seed is not the 

 work of one generation. 



We knew this when we started the seed busi- 

 ness in 1 87 1 — going on thirty-five seed genera- 

 tions, now — and we had the work of other gen- 

 erations of seed growers back of us. 



We started with a definite purpose in view — to 

 take only the best seed available, and to produce 

 better and better seed — the best possible. Our 

 purpose is the same, today, that it was thirty-five 

 years ago. 



Conditions, however, have changed since then, 

 <md we keep pace with the conditions, with the 

 result that Buckbee Seed grows better every year, 

 where there is any room for improvement, while 

 highest quality, where that has been realized, is 

 fully maintained. 



In short, we are aiming at perfection and we 

 are sparing nothing in the way of care and ex- 

 pense in order to keep up the well-known quality 

 of Buckbee' s Full-of-L,ife Seed, and to improve 

 that quality, year by year. 



Whatever we offer in our Catalogue is, you 

 may be sure, the best obtainable — resulting from 

 years of careful selection of the best of the best, 

 developed under conditions best adapted to each 

 individual variety. 



One thing is strikingly true about seed-grow- 

 ing. However good the seed you sow, only a 

 little of the seed gathered from that year's growth, 

 will equal the seed sown. There will probably 

 be a few seeds which are actually better, but 

 perfect soil and climatic conditions are necessary 



for the improvement of seed quality. The bulk 

 of the seed gathered in your home garden, or 011 

 your ozvn farm, for instance, will be very inferior, 

 however great the yield, and will deteriorate 

 every year. This you will see as your flowers 

 will grow smaller each year, the vegetable and 

 grain crops lighter and poorer, from season to 

 season, if home grown seed be used. 



Why? 



Every farmer and experienced gardener knows 

 the answer, yet for the sake of those who are 

 newly beginning I will briefly state it. 



Only an expert of long experience can select 

 the pedigreed seed — can recognize or know how 

 to separate from bushels of seed the comparatively 

 few seeds which are worthy to be called pedi- 

 greed. They are the first born of the first born — 

 the good seed of good seed. Generation after 

 generation (year after, year) this process of sep- 

 aration and selection has gone on, at our various 

 seed farms. Seed pronounced by our experts to 

 be pedigreed is so branded — and receives place 

 in this Catalogue. No seeds are sold on orders 

 from this book unless they have been thus care- 

 fully grown, selected and separated by experts 

 and pronounced to be the cream of the year's 

 production. 



It will pay 3'ou to sow good seed and reap 

 heavy, luxuriant, profitable grain and vegetable 

 crops — large, fragrant, beautiful flowers. 



The labor of preparing the soil, sowing and 

 cultivating is the same for poor as for good seed. 



Everyone acknowledges the pleasure and profit 

 of a good yield. If inferior seed be sown the 

 mistake will be discovered — too late for correction 

 ihis year. 



Under average conditions of weather and care, 

 Buckbee' s Full-of-L,ife Seeds, Pedigreed, will 

 yield returns which will more than satisfy, as 

 thousands of letters from pleased growers annual- 

 ly testify. 



We extend to all our friends, old and new, a 

 cordial invitation to take advantage of every 

 opportunity we offer you, including that of ask- 

 ing us any questions which may help you in your 

 gardening or your farming. 



Our experience is at the service of every grower 

 of Buckbee' s Seeds. 



Yours for the best of the best, 



Buckhee's Full-of-Life Seeds, Pedigreed, are only obtainable when ordered direct from Rockford Seed Farms 



