WHY THIS IS CALLED THE COLES COUNTY SEED FARM 
The proprietor, James 0. Toland, was born in a log cabin near Ashmore, Illinois, 
and raised in Coles county and was one of the youngest boys that ever handled a team 
and plow in the country. He drove an ox team to break the wild prairies and culti¬ 
vated corn with a horse hitched to a bar plow at the age of eight years. All his life 
has been spent in working the deep, black soil of northern Coles county. Having ex¬ 
perienced the great improvement in the breeding of stock, and the little attention giv¬ 
en to corn and other field seeds, he embarked in the seed business in the year 1881 
in a small way and for several years he issued a price list of seeds sold and in 1905 
issued his first catalogue, and notwithstanding the great competition which soon 
sprang up in this field, he has succeeded in building up a business which holds the 
front rank for honest, efficient work. He built the first seed house in Central Illi¬ 
nois for curing and handling seeds, which had a floor space of 1100 square feet, while 
his present seed houses on his farm and in Humboldt contain 20,000 square feet of 
floor space. This alone proves the success he has made in the business, which is 
due to his untiring efforts. He has never had a partner but is absolutely an individ¬ 
ual concern. In over fifty years experience he has been able each year to give his 
personal attention to the planting, harvesting, and curing his crops. He is one of the 
eight men who framed the constitution and by-laws of the Illinois Seed Corn Breeders’ 
Association at Springfield, Illinois, 1900, and the fourth man to sign the constitu¬ 
tion and by-laws; he also has a life membership in the Illinois Corn Growers’ Asso¬ 
ciation. He was very honorably rewarded for his faithful work by being awarded 
the Gold Medal at the Louisiana Exposition, St. Louis, 1904, for the varieties of 
corn which he bred, viz: the Improved Yellow Learning and Boone County White. 
He now breeds the Reid’s Yellow Dent and Boone County White; he has two 
of the largest seed houses in Central Illinois, and has done more for the breeding of 
corn than any other man in that district. This is an age of progress in farming as 
well as in other professions. There is an increasing demand for better field seeds. 
Improved methods of fertilization and cultivation and the multiplied facilities for 
marketing are contributing much to satisfy this demand. Nevertheless no amount 
of care and cultivation will count if you start wrong. If inferior seeds are planted, 
failure will be the outcome. Toland’s aim is constantly to turn out high germinating 
and pure seeds to the farmer at as reasonable prices as possible, quality considered. 
SHIPPING CONDITIONS 
PRICES IN THIS CATALOGUE are subject to market changes. 
Goods are shipped by freight E. O. B. cars at Humboldt unices otherwise ordered. 
We charge for bags on all amounts of seed over one-half bushel, except corn and 
broom corn bags. We furnish new cotton bags at the lowest possible rate, 35 cents 
each, holding two and one-half bushels. 
When corn is shipped in ear, it is put in crates or boxes. We charge 25 cents 
extra per bushel for crates or boxes for seed corn. 
Mv terms are cash with order. 
Remit by draft, express order or post office orders. 
I sell no amount of seed corn in ear less than a bushel. A satisfactory test of seed 
corn cannot be made when small amounts are planted. It has been tested and found 
to degenerate. 
I will furnish any amount shelled and graded as small as one-eighth of a bushel. 
We shell no less than ten bushels at a time, so it is thoroughly mixed and there is no 
danger of it degenerating. 
Every order will be acknowledged when received. I notify you when ship¬ 
ment is made. 
GUARANTEE. While we exercise great care to have all seeds pure and reliable, 
WE GIVE NO WARRANTY, express or implied. If the seeds are not fully satisfac¬ 
tory, they must be returned to us AT ONCE at our expense and the money will be re¬ 
funded. 
Two per cent sales tax charged to sales made in Illinois. 
1 
