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H. G. Hastings & Co., Seedsmen, Atlanta, Georgia. 
WE TAKE NO MAN'S WORD FOR IT 
Every spring the catalogues of the seed houses are sent out with 
a good proportion of their pages devoted to various varieties of 
cotton and corn with claims made that they are “the best.” The 
pages of the agricultural papers contain dozens of advertisements 
of cotton seed by farmers and growers, most of them claiming to 
have a “world beater” for yield or lint or some other point. They 
all claim to have the very best there is. They can’t all be correct 
and we believe the majority of them are honest in stating what 
they think to be true. This comes about in this way: The seeds- 
men and dealers generally pick up seed from farmers and cotton 
growers and take the grower’s word for it. Few of them have any 
personal knowledge of the crops which produced the seed they 
offer for sale. 
The farmer or grower generally acts in good faith either in sell- 
ing to a seedsman or dealer or to his brother farmer, but as a mat- 
ter of fact he seldom knows whether the variety of seed he has is 
up to reasonable standards or not because he has had little or no 
chance for comparison with other varieties. 
The average production of lint is about 190 pounds per acre. A 
grower living in a section where 250 pounds or half a bale is con- 
sidered a mighty good crop, either gets hold of or selects seed until 
it makes 350 or 400 pounds per acre and thinks honestly that he 
has got about the best thing going in cotton. He sees other farm- 
ers advertising seed and proceeds to do likewise, and he is honest 
in his statements so far as he knows the facts. He makes repre- 
sentation to the seedsman or seed dealer in the same way. He don t 
mean to mislead anyone and the dealer generally doesn’t care so 
long as the seed has a good appearance. As a matter of fact neith- 
er seedsman, dealer nor farmer have the information they should 
have on this subject. 
SMAEI. PART OF A FIEI.D OF OUR UNION BIG BOBU COTTON— HASTINGS’ TEST AND BREEDING FARMS 
Here’s the difference between the Hastings business and others: 
We take no man’s word for these things. We put all varieties to 
test every year. We carry on larger and more extensive variety 
tests on cotton than does any Southern Experiment Station. 
Every year we grow under rigid test conditions over 60 of the 
best and most widely known varieties. Every one of these is given 
a fair test, side by side with our own varieties under exactly the 
same conditions of soil, fertilizer and cultivation. 
Our experience, covering four years of extensive variety test work, 
is that three-fourths of the alleged improved seed advertised and 
sold by dealers and farmers is so badly mixed that its only proper 
place is in an oil mill. It’s no wonder that the planter buying that 
kind of seed thinks there is little or nothing in the talk of im- 
proved seed. 
The real fact is that the planter who has been buying that kind 
of seed knows nothing about what really “bred up” seed is. 
The low price (usually $1.00 per bushel) catches him. Instead of 
being willing to pay. say $2.00 for really good seed, he pays $1.00 
for essentially oil mill seed. 
It’s about time to quit being caught by the lower prices and go 
after actual “bred in the bone” value in seed of any and every kind. 
Based on our variety test work covering past years we want to 
state here that in qur opinion the mass of the cotton seed and corn 
advertised for sale is so badly mixed and contains such large pro- 
portions of barren or nearly barren plants that its value is very 
doubtful. Our own work is not perfect, but our variety tests each 
year show a condition of ignorance as to what constitutes good 
seed that is appalling, and it’s no wonder that so much discredit 
has been cast on the question of value of Improved seed. 
