H. G. Hastings & Co., Seedsmen, Atlanta, Georgia. 
13 
MORTGAGE-llFTER, THE BIGGEST BOILED, HEAVY CROPPING COTTON 
Mortgage-Lifter is a superb main crop cotton which begins to 
open medium early and is a continuous bearer until killed by frost. 
You get cotton from it from mid-season until killing cold w'eather 
comes. It is a true, big boiled, five-lock cotton wdth an ej;ception- 
ally long and fine fibre for an upland or short staple cotton. This 
variety, while firmly set in the boll and holding up well in wind 
storms is easily picked,- some of our Texas growers who planted it 
saying that 350 to 400 pounds are easily picked per day. , 
Mortgage-Lifter makes from 37 to 40 per cent lint. This fact, 
combined with its extra heavy bearing Qualities, makes it one of 
the finest varieties that ever originated in the South. The plant 
grows large and strong: it roots deeply and is a wonderful variety 
to resist dry weather. It grows close and upright and the experi- 
ence of our customers who have planted Mortgage-Lifter the past 
10 years shows that it yields two to three times as much as the or- 
dinary varieties wdth the same cultivation. 
We introduced Mortgage- Lifter in 1902. It was a good cotton 
then, but our work of “breeding it iiu” has gone on steadily every 
year, and our seed for your 1913 planting (far better than ever be- 
fore) is just as far ahead of the Mortgage-Lifter of 1902 as it was 
ahead of the common “run of the gin” seed. It is today the only 
highly bred up variety of white seeded, big boiled cotton there- is in 
the country. It has the longest lint of any short staple cotton and 
has brought as high as 11% cents per pound as against a general 
market price of 9% cents. A little point like this made a difference 
of $8.12 in the selling price of a 500-pound bale. 
HOW MORTOtOE-UFTER MADE $332.50 CASH PROFIT IH 7 NORTHS 
Below we print reports of some heavy yields from various States. 
These yields w’ere made in prize contests of previous years, and you 
may think or say that it’s all very well for “high pressure” crops, 
but it won’t do to pay $1.75 to $2.00 per bushel for seed to plant an 
entire crop w’ith. There are tens of thousands of cotton growlers 
who will and do say that “they can’t afford to pay over 50 cents to 
a dollar a bushel for planting seed.” They are dead wroi^. We 
want you to read the experience of Mr. Ivey, of Wilkinson County, 
Georgia. It’s well worth reading what he says. Mr. Ivey wanted to 
find out whether it paid to use good seed — not in any prize contest, 
but in just plain ordinary farm culture, and he thought he would 
risk a few ^llars finding out whether good, selected seed paid or 
not. He sent us $17.50 for 10 bushels of Mortgage-Lifter seed. (It 
Was higher priced then than now.) On October i7th Mr. Ivey wrote 
us as follows : _ . 
“I bought of you last spring 10 bushels of Mortgage-Lifter Cot- 
ton Seed and had it dropped in hills. I have now picked eleven bales 
and have 2 or 3 bales yet to pick. I had two croppers, each with 
the same amount of the same kind of land. Theirs was planted in 
common cotton seed, with the same cultivation and fertilizer. 
Theirs is about all picked out and one has 6 and the other 7 bales. 
Mortgage-Lifter will double the yield over common cotton. My sec- 
i ond picking made 39 pounds of lint to 100 pounds of seed cotton.” 
No prize cultivation here, just plain, ordinary, every-day sort of 
cultivation. Hastings’ seed made 7 Bales more Cotton under exact- 
ly the same conditions than the common seed did. 
Cotton, at the time Mr. Ivey sold, was worth 10 cents per pound 
and as a result of Ms use of our seed he had 7 extra bales, worth 
$350.00, as a direct profit on his investment of $17.50 — 6 or 7 months 
before. It beats every “get rich quick scheme” that has ever been 
put out. It paid Mr. Ivey big and it will pay you just as large profits. 
While we believe in highest culture and good fertilization, we 
want to impress you strongly with the profit from the use of our 
selected, high grade seed. In Mr. Ivey’s case not an extra cent was 
spent for labor or cultivation ; the land and fertilizer was the same, 
yet he had just double what the others had who planted common 
seed. The $17.50 he spent in the spring made him a direct cash profit 
of $332.50 by fall. He doubled this yield simply by using good seed. 
Y’’ou can do the same in 1913 if you get seed direct irom us, seed 
that is being closely selected and bred up every year. One of your 
neighbors may have gotten seed of us 2 or 3 years ago, but the 
chances are that it has “gone back” and will make 25 to 50 per cent 
less than our own growth, for with ordinary culture and the mix- 
' ture of seed in public gins, pure, high grade seed is an impossibility 
except from original sources of supply. 
LOST $20.00 PER ACRE PLANTING HIS OWN HOME-SAVED SEED 
We do not recommend our Mortgage-Lifter Cotton for boll weevil 
sections for it is a main crop cotton, but at the same time some of 
the best testimonials we have ever had on Mortgage-Lifter have 
been from the heart of the boll weevil country. One of these we re- 
print here, more especially to illustrate again what we have said 
before as to how much is lost by planting seed that has been raised 
at home with all the “going back” there is under general cultivation 
and through gin mixture. 
Mr. Chas. F. Green, of Hill County, Tex., in making a report to us 
of his cotton crop s.xid : “I raised 6,730 pounds of seed cotton from 
one bushel of Mortgage-Lifter Seed. If any one can beat that with- 
out irrigation or fertilizer, with Mexican boll weevil to cut off the 
top crop, they are welcome to the prize. I will say that it is the best 
cotton I ever saw. I would have made $20.00 more per acre on every 
acre I planted if I had got all my cotton seed from you, as that is 
the amount I got over and above my own cotton with your Mort- 
gage-Lifter. It would have paid me well to have paid you $5.00 per 
bushel to plant my crop. I got nearly double with your seed just 
as you said in your catalogue. Y’ou can hardly over-estimate your 
seed.” We could fill this entire catalogue with statements such as 
Mr. Green’s that have come in to us from customers who have plant- 
ed our seed in the last 10 years. It shows just what good seed of 
our best varieties will do as compai-ed with other kinds. 
You have Mr. Green’s experience before you. Above you have the 
experience of a Georgia man with Mortgage-Lifter. Both show how 
easy it is to lose money by planting home-grown seed, not because 
it’s home-grown, but because it is inferior seed to that grown for 
seed purposes. 
This advice is passed out at every Farmer’s Institute, through the 
agricultural papers and every other source, for the farmer to select 
his seed and it’^ mighty good advice, too. But can you afford to 
wait the 5 or 6 years necessary to bring your own seed up to any- 
where near our standard? It don’t pay to select your own seed 
when you can buy (at a medium cost) something better right now. 
We have a South Georgia customer who buys 100 bushels of seed 
for his own planting every year. We asked him one day he was in 
our office why he never planted home-grown seed. He replied: “Be- 
cause the best seed I can save myself makes from 50 to 75 pounds 
less lint per acre than what I buy from you. Besides I get from 75 
cents to $1.00 per bushel for all the seed T grow from people down 
there who are either afraid or don’t know enough to send off and 
get the best seed for themselves.” 
Seed one or two removes from our crop is better than scrub or 
common seed but it makes a whole lot less cotton and it don’t take 
more than 3 years of lack of selection and breeding together with 
“gin mixing” to make common seed of it. You know what seed di- 
rect from Hastings is. Why take chances just to save 25 or 50 cents 
per acre seed cost? 
SOME SWORN STATEMENTS OF YIELDS IN DIFFERENT STATES 
We have paid out $2,700.00 in cash prizes during the last 7 years 
for the largest yields of cotton from our seed. We have space for 
only a few of these reports of yields in this catalogue, but we give 
them to you just to show you what can be done with our magnifi- 
cent cotton seed in the hands of cotton growers*. REMEMBER, 
every one of these reports was sworn to before proper officers. 
Alsfiams Gr. J. Blevins, C’ullman County, planted 1 bushel of 
#%ICIBJailia Mortgage-Lifter and made 14,967 pounds of seed 
cotton ; in another year’s contest he planted 3 pounds and grew 
therefrom 9.707 pounds of seed cotton. 
John I. Watson, Monroe County, planted 3 pounds on 1 acre and 
made 4.074 pounds of seed cotton. This yield was at the rate of 
nearly 3 bales per acre. 
W. C. Naftel, Montgomery County, grew 1,928 pounds of seed cot- 
ton from 1 pound of Mortga^ge- Lifter. 
Milton A. Deese. Dale County, made 5,874 pounds of Mortgage- 
Lifter from 3 pounds of seed. 
Eugene Burton, Lee County, grew 1,793 pounds of Sure Crop from 
1 pound of seed. 
Fred M. Wilson, Winston County, made 1,627 pounds of Mortgage- 
Lifter from 1 pound of seed. 
I'’- B. Moss, Telfair County, made 13.360 pounds of 
seed cotton from 1 bushel of Mortgage-Lifter, 
W. W. Atkinson, Morgan County, in his first year’s trial for prize, 
grew 2.447 pounds of seed cotton from 3 pounds of Mortgage-Lifter. 
The following year he grew 4,576 pounds of seed cotton on the same 
ground from 3 pounds. 
Jeff Dean, Hart County, made as follows, using Mortgage-Lifter: 
from 1 bushel planted, 17,888 pounds of seed cotton; from 3 pounds, 
4,326 pounds ; from 1 pound, 1,538 pounds. 
M. C. Carter. Emanuel County, grew 6.113 pounds of Mortgage- 
Lifter from 3 pounds of seed: further. 716 pounds were picked from 
500 stalks, some of the stalks producing 4 pounds of seed cotton each. 
Louisiana-Mississippi 
Parish. Louisiana,’ made 2,459 
pounds of seed cotton from 3 pounds of Mortgage-Lifter. 
J. E. Perkins. Harrison County. Miss., made 15.005 pounds of 
seed cotton from 1 bushel of Mortgage-Lifter. He says: “The 
best cotton ever seen in this section.” ^ 
C. Douglas, Lauderdale County. Miss., made 4.600 pounds from 3 
pounds, j. M. King, Rankin Co., made 3,912 pounds from 3 pounds. 
I PklU Cd bushel’ (30 pounds Georgia legal weight), not prepaid, $1.75; 10 bushels, not prepaid, $15.00; 100 pounds, not prepaid, $5.00. 
I Freight rate to Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma points is $1.08 per 100 pounds. 
PRICES postpaid’ 3^ cents; 3 pounds, postpaid, to your address, $1.00; peck, by express or trojght. not Prep^jd^ 60 cents? 
