| Show SEED DISTRIBUTION STOPPED Agricultural Department Will Send Out No More Free Packages Those Utah people who have in the past been the recipients of packages of seeds sent out free by the department depart-ment of agriculture will now have their supply cut off the secretary of the department having issued an order abolishing the bureau of free seed distribution dis-tribution after October 1st Secretary Mortons opposition to the policy of free seed distribution has long been a matter of familiar knowledge knowl-edge On Saturday last his antagonism reached its culmination in an order abolishing the bureau after October 1 The secretary procured from Attorney General Olney in April last an opinion opin-ion to the effect that the secretary of agriculture could only purchase for I distribution such seeds as are described Ii de-scribed in section 527 of the Revised Statutes namely such as are rare I and uncommon to the country or such as can be made more profitable by frequent I fre-quent change from one part of the country to another and that he could reject any and all bids made under a I call for proposals to furnish such seeds In his letter to the chief of the bureau announcing his purpose the secretary inclosed a copy of the advertisement for seeds for the year ending June 30 1896 dated April 27 1S95 drawn in accordance with the language of the law quoted together with the report of the committee of department employees who opened the bids submitted in response to that advertisement ad-vertisement three in number dated July 6 1895 that they find that the same do not meet the requirements of the advertisement as printed and therefore respectfully recommend that all bids be rejected There would seem to be no doubt whatever that seed distribution as practiced by the department in the past has involved very considerable abuses The law authorizing the lhe purchase pur-chase and distribution of seeds by the agricultural department provided as has been said before only for the distribution dis-tribution of such as were rare and uncommon un-common to the country or such as could oe made more profitable by fre guent change from one part of the country to another I was shown however by the first annual report of the present secretary that a study of the history of the seed bureau for some years showed that the new and valuable seeds distributed were known and catalogued by nearly every prominent seedsman of this country and Europe for two years before their I purchase by the department and many of those distributed were so old and well known as to hardly require re-quire the formality of printing the name upon the package Moreover the distribution seems to have been regarded as a gratuity as was shown by the failure of any general recognition I recogni-tion of benefits on the part of those receiving the packages I |
