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ANSWERS TO SEED ADVERTISEMENT CONTEST CONDUCTED BY SUCCESSFUL FARMING.

H.R. Moore, Box 114, R. D. 2, Merriam, Kansas, writes:- "After having read the ads in your February number, some of them twice over, I began to think.  I recalled how I had heard my neighbors scoff when a bright and highly colored seed catalog had been placed before them, and how often they had said, "I would like to see tomatoes like those grown" or similar remarks.  Some had even had the experience of getting only a half crop instead of the remarkable products advertised.  I then turned back to the ads, and found that of W. Atlee Burpee & Co., and what a relief!  Instead of a pictured wagonload of monstrous sized vegetables or an offer of enough free seeds to plant a ten acre truck garden, there was only the plain, unvarnished expression "Burpee's Seeds Grow" - and that was enough.  Now, it is not for me to say that these other ads are not bonafide, or that they do not give free seeds, but I contend that the farmer of today is too intellectual to be affected by the "free offers" or the marvelous pictures of mammoth vegetation that can only be grown in the fertile mind of the artist who illustrates the ad.  A plain statement of facts, backed by a reputation such as Burpee and others enjoy is sufficient and it does not cast any reflection on the intelligence of the farmer as do those glowing, verbose and ofttimes exaggerated picture stories and free offers found so often.  I would however, suggest that Burpee & Co. and others who pursue the plain statement style enlarge the space and if possible the type in their ads, but by all means stick to the style."

Warren E. Beebe, Wever, Iowa, writes:- "I already know of Burpee's seeds, not because Burpee is one of the largest and best seedsmen in America, but because his ad lays the strongest emphasis upon the quality of his seeds.  He does not base his appeal upon big packages, or free seeds, or tell about a number of perfectly wonderful vegetables and field crops that will make one a millionaire over night; but he bases his appeal upon only one attribute, and that is quality.  We are market gardeners and we don't care what we pay for seeds, if it is a dollar an ounce, if we can only depend on superior varieties, true to type, which will grow.  We take seeds from a number of seedmen who are just as reliable as Burpee in this respect, but in reading a man's ad. we have learned to look between the lines, and if he lays his emphasis upon quality above all other qualifications, even price, that is where we stay tied."

Cecilea Lemaire, Ulsterville, N. Y., writes:- "My reasons for selecting the ad of W. Atlee Burpee & Co. as being the best are as follows:  They say, "The Burpee idea of quality first,--to give rather than to get all that is possible." We all know what quality means in seed, and any seed dealer who does not give quality doesn't stay in the business long.  The Burpee advertisement gives us to understand that the customers' satisfaction is their first thought, and to give him his money's worth both in quantity and quality, and to see that he is well served."

Mrs. R. A. Dyrland, Decorah, R. 7, Iowa, writes:- "In my opinion, W. Atlee Burpee & Co. Philadelphia, have an ad which beats all the others, just because it contains a few words which none of the others contain, but which mean, at the present time, more to the people than any inducement which they could have offered, and they are the simple but effective words "And have not advanced prices because of the war."