RB.BUCHANAN SEED CQ MEMPHIS,TENNESSEE. 
1887 
1917 
R. B. BUCHANAN 
1937 
TO YOU: — January, 42 years ago, at Bald Knob, Arkansas, waiting for a train to bring me to Memphis, a salesman 
selling subscriptions to a farm paper approached a prospective customer with these words, “Are you a farmer?” Answer: 
“Yes.” Salesman: “Do you know that farming is the oldest profession known, and the least studied?” It is. However, 
there has been much progress made during these forty-two years, and there is much more to learn. 
In the olden days the seedsmen who asked the lowest price sold the seed regardless of how much noxious seed con¬ 
tained in those seed, or how low the germination, the buyer forgetting the old adage: “There is hardly anything in this 
world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are his 
legitimate prey.” We have a 1937 report from Arkansas State Plant Board of finding a shipment of Lespedeza offered for 
sale containing 86,000 dodder seed to a pound; approximately every third seed in the bag was dodder. 
Seed come from the farm and are the smallest expense of producing a crop; the main costs are rent, taxes, food for 
yourself, family, livestock, and tenants. If you intend planting seed that you grew in 1937 (especially cotton seed) have 
them tested for germination by your State Agri. Dept., or a competent seed analyst, or write us for prices for doing this 
work. We will analyze them and send you a complete analysis. We have been testing seeds for 31 years, and every lot 
of seeds that we offer for sale are tested for Purity and Germination. Do not buy any seed for planting 1938 crop from 
anyone unless they have been tested by a competent seed analyst. 
In sending you this my 3bth Annual Catalogue, I have tried to dispense with “ballyhoo,” only giving you short 
descriptions and facts; for anyone who knows enough to plant a crop knows that they must have Pure Seed, Good Soil, 
Moisture, and Sunshine, and in the place of “ballyhoo” we have tried to give you more practical information. 
This year we have added many new features: Front Cover, 1938 Calendar, page 2; Almanac, page 72; outfits for test¬ 
ing soils, page 68; case of 24 samples of field seeds; also diagram for converting used oil drums for treating seed with 
Dubay disinfectants shown on page 78: many testimonial letters, and in addition to these new features we are carrying 
the pages showing planting tables. Field, Garden, and Flower seeds, and instructions for spraying. Also you will notice 
on those pages quoting insecticides a cut of skull and cross bones, with the words, Not for internal use. This is a warning. 
Just a few days ago both Memphis papers carried an account of an Arkansas family being poisoned by having a can of 
calcium arsenate in the vantry, which was either poured in a barrel of flour by a child too young to know better, or 
knocked over into the flour by rats. The family made biscuits of the flour and several of them were in a Memphis hos¬ 
pital. “ Keep insecticides under lock and key when not in use.” Any preparation which is used to control insects or 
diseases of vegetables, fruits or field crops is dangerous to human beings, pets, and livestock. 
In addition to these new features we have this our 30 th Annual Catalogue punched, a string inserted that it may be 
hung on a convenient nail for use as a twelve months calendar, as well as giving much information not only appreciated 
by planters, but by County Agents, Agricultural Teachers, and other groups who have done much to improve farming 
conditions during the past 40 years. I will appreciate your writing me how you like these new features, or any other 
feature you suggest to improve my future catalogues. 
When I think of our Southern agricultural situation today I am reminded of the speech of Henry W. Grady, made 
at Dallas, Texas, State Fair on October 26, 1887: 
“When every farmer in the South shall eat bread from his own fields and meat from his own pastures, and disturbed 
by no creditor, and enslaved by no debt, shall sit amid his teeming gardens, and orchards, and vineyards, and dairies, and 
barnyards, pitching his crops in his own wisdom, and growing them in independence, making cotton his clean surplus, 
and selling it in his own time, and in his chosen market, and not at a master’s bidding—getting his pay in cash and not 
in a receipted mortaage that discharges his debt, but does not restore his freedom—then shall be breaking the fullness of 
our day. Great is King Cotton! But to lie at his feet while the usurer and grain-raiser bind us in subjection, is to invite 
the contempt of man and the reproach of God.” 
In conclusion, I have no excuses to make for this catalogue, none for prices contained therein, no quarrel with men 
who ask more for their seed, none with men who ask less. I have only to say that after more than 40 years buying and 
selling seeds — here’s the best I know. 
P. S.—I expect to resume my 5 minute broadcasts at the 
noon hour over WREC on January 3, every Monday, Wed¬ 
nesday and Friday. 
Yours sincerely, 
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