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SfcCI&L NUMBER
Augusta Center of Large Truck Area—Georgia Seed Shipped All Over the World
GEORGIA LARGEST
[MAIL ORDER SEED
I MARKET IN SOUTH
■II Seed Necessary to Grow
■ Rich Crops and Beautiful
■ Flowers Grown and Raised in
■ Dixieland
BIG MAIL ORDER HOUSES
ARE ESTABLISHED HERE
J<§ By H. G. Hastings.
■ Thirty years ago practically no seed
Business was transacted in the South
Ky Independent concerns devoting
■iiemseives exclusively to the seed bus
iness. either growing or selling. What
■eed business there was transacted was
■argely through drug stores and gene
■al mercantile houses who confined
■iiemseives almost entirely to the han •
■ling of products of some Northern
■eed house.
■ Today the seed-buying population of
HASTINGS’ SEEDS ARE THE STANDARD
OF SEED PURITY 9 EXCELLENCE IN THE SOUTH
Nearly twenty-five years ago the Hastings’ s=ed business was started in Florida, being
moved to Atlanta in 1899.
During the first year of its existence it served about three thousandseed buyers and
the present senior and junior members of the firm were an ample force to conduct the
business.
In 1900, the first full year in Atlanta, some twenty-five thousand buyers were served
and seven employees were needed to conduct the business.
Last year (1913) over three hundred thousand seed buyers placed their confidence in
Hastings' Seeds and purchased them for planting in their gardens and on their farms.
Where, a dozen years or so ago, seven employees were ample to conduct the business,
during the height of the active seed selling season this spring one hundred and sixty-seven
employees were on the payroll in our warehouses and store in Atlanta alone.
Each year since the Hastings’ business was started it has had a steady growth, a
growth almost unparalleled in the history of the seed business in both the United States
and Europe.
There has been a reason for this steady growth that has made the Hastings’ business
one of the leading ones in its line in this country.
WHAT PLEASED
PLANTERS SAY
Out of the thousands upon thous
ands of kind words that come into
our office we print here and on the
opposite side of this page just a
few from several of the states.
FLORID A—FARTHEST SOUTH: "As Home
stead Is the farthest south on the mainland of an:
station in tile United States. I thought It .might in
terest you to know that the five acres ] dan tec] in
cabbage, from seed bought of you, is turning out over
I t tons per acre.”—B. A. Woldin, Dade County, Flu.
ALABAMA—Mr. R. L. Kirkland, Houston Coun
ty, Alabama, wrote us: "The first lot of seed I
ever bought of you caused me to fear they were no
good, as i got so many for my money. But it look
ed as thoug : two plants came up for every seed
planted. T.iey are simply tine.”
LOUISIANA —J. J. Davis. Lacombe. Da., writes
"The melon seed I got of you last spring is fine. I 1
germinated I tie best I ever saw I cleared J 75 po
acre, a larg : profit for melons."
GEORGIA: "Never saw seed that germinate s
well. Am writing this just to assure you how much
I appreciate such good seed."—F\ D. Davis, Chat
tooga County.
Georgia is famous as a watermelon growing state and her reputation for watermelons was
made with the old-time Rattlesnake melon now generally known as the “Augusta Rattlesm ke.”
Abovo we print an illustration of a Rattlesnake melon. This is from a photograph of a melon
.aken from one of our seed crops of which we grow several hundred acres per year.
This illustration is printed to show you just how cares we are in seed-production, how care
fully “bred up” our seed is, net only of Rattlesnake watermelon, but every one of the nearly one
thousand diffeient items of seed we carry.
Our 1914 catalogue lists twelve varieties of watermelon and cur sales direct to planters, in
a retail way so to speak, has run over ten thousand pounds on one variety of watermelon alone.
Down on the Hastings’ Farm (3,200 acres), in Troup county, Georgia, is nearly 100 acres
devoted exclusively to plant-breeding and variety test work, bringing up existing varietien to the
highest possible standard and the origination of ntw varieties.
This firm is the first and only seed firm in this country to establish and maintain a plant
breedins? department in connection with a regular commercial seed business.
This plant-breeding department was established strictly for the purpose of securing *or the
Southern farmer the very best in quality that could be had for his use in the staple crops.
We found by experience that the ideal varieties for the south did not exist, and the only way
to secure them was through a sj'stem of plant-breeding that would produce varieties that were
up to our ideals.
H. G. Hastings & Co., Seedmen, Atlanta, Ga.
the South can bo independent of the
Northern seed houses just so far as
they want to be, for during the Inst
thirty years, more especially the last
fifteen years, numerous seed houses
have been established in Virginia, Ala
bama, South Carolina, Florida, Geor
gia, Mississippi. Louisiana, and Texas.
Most of thees are what may he termed
"local seed stores," supplying in great
er or less degree the immediate local
territory surrounding the city or town
In which they are located, these stores
generally handling seeds, purchased
from either Northern or Southern
wholesale seed dealers.
In Augusta, Atlanta, Richmond, New
Prlea.ns and Dallas, Texas, there are
what are termed “mail order seed
houses” issuing more or less complete
catalogues and supplying a much larg
er range of territory than any merely
local concern could hope to supply.
These mail order houses supply seeds
direct to the planter in the country
or in small towns where the size of
the town is not sufficient to justify
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the maintenance of a local Seed store
in that immediate, vicinity.
Atlanta has the distinction of being
the largest mail order seed point south
°t Philadelphia and this pre-eminent
position has been gained entirely with
in the past ten years.
750,000 Catalogues.
There is ope seed house in the state
which issues 750,000 seed catalogues
per year, divided into tw’o editions, one
of 500,000 sent out during the month
of January, and the other of 250,000
devoted more especially to seed grains,
clovers, grasses, and miscellaneous
seeds, as well as vegetable seed for
fai| sowing in Florida and along tho
gulf coast sections, being mailed in
August.
Twelve years ago this particular
concern had seven employes in the
Atlanta store, while during the height
of this past spring’s active seed sell
ing season, it required nearly 170 em
ployes on the pay roll to care for the
exclusively mail order business of this
same concern.
The postage on the catalogue issue
of this firm alone amounts to over $20,-
000 per year, while the postage on
packages of seed mailed through thw
Atlanta postoffice will aggregate fully
$30,000 more.
This growth of the seed business in
the South is perfectly natural, and the
pre-eminence of Georgia as a seed
center is due largely to the fact of its
superior facilities for distribution to
fHE AUGUSTA HERALD, AUGUSTA, GA.
H. G. HASTINGS.
“AUGUSTA RATTLESNAKE”
all parts of the South.
The fundamental reason for the rap
id growth of the seed business in the
South is the fact that varieties adapt
ed to general soil and climatic condi
tions of file North are not, as a rule,
adapted to the South, in so far as
giving maximum results are concerned.
It was the work of the Southern
seedsman to study Southern conditions
and*the adaptation or origination of
varieties to meet the South’s rather pe
culiar climatic and soil conditions and
this has meant years of painstaking
work and study, work that has only
begun to show its greatest results dur
ing the past few years.
Ten years ago saw the Southern
farmer esesntially dependent on tho
North for supplies of seed corn or else
planting run-down stock, such as was
found in his corn crib, neither of whicn
would give him anything like paying
results when planted in his fields.
New Varieties.
Through the efforts of the seedtnen
and seed growers, new Southern vari
eties have been developed and intro
duced that have made possible the high
yield per acre records in South Caro
lina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi
far above anything that has been pro
duced in the so-called "corn belt” of
the Middle West.
The use of these comparatively new
ly originated and distributed Southern
varieties of corn lias made possible the
Increase in.average yield per acre of
For nearly a quarter-century a well-defined and unvarying policy has been followed in
the production and sale of highest quality seed for and to planters in the Southern States.
The Hastings’ business has grown because it filled a distinct place in the South that
was unoccupied, and it broke up absolutely the South’s dependence on Northern seedmen,
a dependence that had lasted for a century.
The seed business is a business based absolutely on confidence, the confidence the seed
buyer has in the seedman’s ability, knowledge and honesty.
Right quality in seeds is an unseen value. Rack of right quality must be ability,
knowledge and the most careful handling, and the seeds from Hastings’ have all of these
back of them.
Hastings' Seeds are reliable seeds, not only reliable on paper in this advertisement, but
a reliability that has been proven in hundreds of thousands of Southern gardens and on
hundreds of thousands of Southern farms.
This proven reliability through nearly a quarter-century and in hundreds of thous
ands of trials is what has made Hastings’ Seeds the standard of purity and exc ell ence
in the South.
This plant-breeding is expensive and slow. We spend on it many thousands of dollars each
year because we know that it is worth while, that it is necessary to produce what the Georgia
and Southern farmer will demand. .
It’s the Hastings’ way of keeping, not only up with the procession, but always at the head of
it and these things in the way of new varieties can only be obtained by year after year of care
ful, painstaking work. . . , ,
We are always glad to have interested ones come m and talk with us about our work along
these lines, and, at the right time of year, visit the Hastings’ Farm and see the many interesting
things we have growing. , . . . ,
Ours is a large business now, but we feel that the Hastings seed business has just got a
really good start and is destined to be second to none in the United States in a very short time.
Through this firm Atlanta gets the distinction of being the largest seed-distributing center in
the South, and much of the enormous parcel post business of the Atlanta postoffice originates in
Hastings’ 1914 catalogue, of which an edition of 515,000 was printed and over 500,000
mailed contains a great deal of interesting reading about the Hastings’ business, about the dif
ferent varieties of seeds, garden, farm, grass, clover and Slower. about our plant breeding work
and what we are trying to do for Georgia and Southern agriculture.
We shall be glad to send you a copy, free, on application, either by mail or on calling at our
Atlanta retail store.
nearly 40 per cent in the last four
years.
This large Georgia seed house has
another■ distinction and that is that it
is the only seed house in the United
States that maintains as a part of its
business organization a regular seed
breeding farm, first, the work of which
is to bring existing varieties up to the
highest possible standard, and, second,
the origination of new varieties to
meet the changing conditions of cul
ture and some ol’ the results obtained,
even in the few years that this or
ganization has been at work, are no
less than remarkable.
These seed-breeding farms or depart
ments in connection with the commer
cial seed houses, are not uncommon in
France and Germany, but so far as
known this Georgia house is the only
one in the United States to udopt this
idea.
The development of Southern seed
houses of the first-class has had a
great deal to do with prosperity on
the farms of the South. Their work
in seed-growing and seed-selling of
the Southern staple crops means large
ly increased yields, without materially
increased cost of culture per acre,
yields frequently being increased from
50 to 100 per cent per acre througn
the ease of better grown seed or bet
ter varieties than vvere the ordinary
stocks of seed planted, and in recent
years th Sovithern farmer has not been
slow to see the advantug in using a
belter quality of seed; further the use
of leguminous crops to be grown dur
ing both summer and winter as a soil
building proposition has been greatly
encouraged by the irhportation into the
South, by the Southern house,s j#
enormous quantities of vetch and crim
son clover, simply for the purpose of
soil-building.
Alfalfa Planting.
The seed houses have also been it
the front in promoting the planting
of alfalfa, a plant that is going to da
a great deal toward solving our prob
lems of feeding, not only our work
stock and dairy cattle, but live stock
fc. meat purposes.
It is the popular conception that the
seedsman has somewhere a big farm
on which is grown the entire product
of seeds which he sells. This “popu
lar conception,” like many others, is
absolutely wrong, for the genera)
seedsman’s stock is gathered up from
almost all over the world, and neo’es
sarily so, for there is no one section
of the country where sufficiently hlgH>»
grade seed of, all the different kin<§
of vegetables and field crops can IM
grown, so that the seedsman who m
going to be successful must have not
only a knowledge of his own section
and a knowledge of the United States,
but of practically the whole world,
from a seed-growing standpoint, and
on his knowledge and care depends in
large degree the success and prosper
ity of his customers.
WHAT PLEASED
PLANTERS SAY
TEXAS J. H. Pipkin, Eliis County. Texas, says:
”1 planted the seeds and have the finest garden you
ever saw. Every seed came up, I think, and grew
off finely. The people around are amazed at my
sura-ess. I tell them it is a question of seed, and if
they will order from Hastings they can do likewise.”
MISSISSIPPI —H. L. Duggett, Montgomery
County, writes: “Our vegetables from your seed
were line; several of the cabbages weighed 10
pounds. Have given your address to quite a num
ber of persons and will be glad to recommend your
seed to anybody."
ARKANSAS —James A. Teague writes: "From
your seed I raised some of the largest cabbages ever
made in Faulkner County. People here will all
order seed from you next spring.”
SOUTH CAROLINA: "It would do you good to
tree my turnip patch from your seed. It’s the finest
1 ever had.”—F. M. Sossaman, Cherokee County.
OKLAHOMA —P. N. Currie. Pottawatomie Coun
ty, writes us: “I planted three acres Hastings’
Prolific CiTn’ and made 100 bushels. Planted 12
acres in ou. own corn and made 55 bushels. Wish
you could g.-t every farmer in Oklahoma to plant
Hastings’ Prolific Corn.”
TENNE.SSEE—J. M. Carother, Dyer County,
writes. "Your Rockdale Corn is well adapted to this
soil and climate. With good seasons I think 10*
bushels per ae’re possible.”
NORTH CAROLINA—W. H. Knight, Daro
County, writes us: ’’Rockdale Corn, bought of you,
is fine. Six ears shelled out one gallon of corn.”
“AUGUSTA IN 1914*