Confidence is a Plant of Slow Growth" 



'HERE is always interest in a "golden anniversary," whether it be of a wedding or of a business. In 

 1877, the late William C. Beckert began to sell good seeds in the then separate city of Allegheny, now 

 Pittsburgh's North Side. He joined in business wedlock the knowledge of the skilled and successful 

 market-gardener with the highest ideals of quality and dependability in the seed stocks necessary to 

 satisfactory results. The union was a happy one. The outcome is the great business he founded, which cele- 

 brates, in this new year of 1927, the beginning of its second half-century of unbroken fidelity to the high ideals of its founder. 



Confidence, which is the mainstay of a proper seed business, cannot be built quickly. It must, and does, rest on year after 

 year of that detailed care and particular attention which together are essential to the maintenance and improvement of seed 

 standards. No business relation, even that of the doctor to his patient or the lawyer to his client, is more necessarily con- 

 fidential than that of the seedsman to his customer. A watch or an automobile, a suit of clothes or a plow, may be judged 

 promptly by known standards of appearance, but a bad seed cannot be distinguished by its looks from a good 

 seed. The only protection the planter has is his confidence in the seedsman. That is why, in the seed 

 business particularly, "Confidence is a plant of slow growth." We are not 

 ashamed of the half-century of unbroken success that lies back of Beckert's 

 Seed Store of today, "the original Beckert's." Indeed we are proud to have 

 deserved the confidence which is an essential factor of our business, and we 

 expect, by the same sort of vigilance and care, to maintain and improve the 

 standards and ideals of our revered founder. 



The best gardening is that which begins in the winter. If the 

 garden is planned in advance and the seeds necessary secured, 

 everything is ready to take the promptest advantage of favorable 

 spring planting weather. We therefore earnestly urge early study 

 and earlier ordering. 



The half-century has seen enormous advances in seed 

 strains. The pages that follow tell of the best possible now to 

 obtain. There are new treasures as well as old friends. You 

 will need both. Our success rests on your 

 success, not only with the standards of the 

 garden but with the new advances and 

 achievements of the world's best growers, 

 which we bring in these pages to your attention. 



Beckert's Seed Store 



101-103 Federal St., North Side 

 PITTSBURGH, PA. 



