| Show I 1 1 IN I ji W A alt SEED GROWING 7 cheap seeds the bost expensive GUY ELLIOTT broadly speaking the growing of farm find and garden seeds may be considered the most important p octant of agricultural industries alm ilm tries for r unless the quality of the seed is maintained the succeeding crop is greatly diminished in volume and facter in quality so that if applied to the country as a whole tile the loss would be enormous the great magnitude of the american teed business is little appreciated said lit a prominent cht seed dealer in describing the carloads car loads of field and garden seeds which lie handles each spring the producing cing capacity of the seeds quickly deteriorates in most instances and the most successful farmers buy large quan quail of seeds the farmer is a somewhat cautious individual and although lie he buys on an average double the amount of seeds lie he did ten years ago lie he has not in every instance reached reached tile the point where lie recognizes that the greatest economy lies acs ics in getting the best and patronizing only those houses whose reputation forbids them to sell poor and seeds seeds apt to the deterioration in ninny many seeds is very tery marked and large nen go to great lengths to produce the lest best pos c s tible eible seed and to have have various establishments si in different parts of the lie country where the conditions naj arthe best for production ro it is not possible that ill the e eest best results can be attained in ili producing a great number of seeds on any abw ac anc farm or in in any one locality however favored the soil and climate which may be the best adapted for producing one cne kind of seed may result only in a inferior seed from some other kind lies idle and lie he curses liis his luck which has s thus I 1 shown itself against him whereas berca herca the fault was his own and lie he was simp simply I 1 y penny wise and and pound fool foolish 1 this can be said of many different kinds of seed or suppose lie buys expensive early cabbage or radish seed it is an easy matter for the unscrupulous dealer to mix this seed liala and half with very cheap late cabb cabbage C or r radish seeds previously v oil ay ki killed ailed e s so eliat th they ey will not come untrue to name and unless the buyer is particularly observant it may never occur to him that he has been bunched bun coed tricks of some dealers another method of defrauding the seed buyer practiced by cheap seeds men who never expect to do business a second time with the customer is to sell him outright the cheap seeds of some plant such as is a muskmelon for instance under a label of some new or I 1 high agh priced variety lie ile puts in a hard sea sons work trying to raise good musk melons and at t the C end lie he finds lie lias has a heterogeneous collection of inferior sorts still another practice which the sorts reputable seeds men will not countenance is to sell seeds which may be true trite to name and which will also germinate but which are weak and poor an example of tin this s was noticed by the writer in in the lie colorado muskmelon fields the rocky ford cantaloupes had for wine some years attained a countrywide country wi wide ide fa fame me through their sweetness and fine flavor they were shipped all over the united states then came a great demand for lettuce Growe iq F or seed california scenes U 4 14 ji WN courtesy A J plows ritt crt department of 0 agriculture of plant so that seeds as they are handled by the big seeds men are arc gathered in by them from all parts of the country from maine to california in the latter state some of tile vastest seed fields of the world are found where the eye ranges over unbroken rows miles in extent tent at least as far as the eye can reach each if all this industry should cease for a year and the farmer and gardener became dependent for the succeeding crop on the seeds which he would him leif save during the year the shrinkage in production throughout the country would amount to tens tells of millions of dollars i in UK the olden times I 1 of course in the early days each farmer saved his own seed possibly lie he exchanged changed seeds with one or two neighbors or friends at that time there was little c competition in farming the production of f the farm was used mainly for tile the support slip port of the family and tho farm arm Jup juppier pied practically all tile the necessities eind even the luxuries of life I 1 the earliest seed farm in the uni united t ted states is believed to have been started by david landreth the originator of the present big seed house this was before tho revolutionary war on a small farm now included in the city of philadelphia it is estimated that over acres including land in probably every state in the union are arc flow devoted solely to growing seed crops and some of the largest growers plant annually as high as 2000 2000 acres get good clover seed th tho ot of securing wd ger seed Is man manifest take for or instance clover seed which is sown on wheat stubble in the spring it is always allays possible to secure it at so 50 cents or PO P loo O per bushel below the market price quoted by the reputable seeds men what is the result of using such seed it must be considered a foregone conclusion that such seed is poor worth van even less than the cedil redil reduced ced price rice at which it is offered the land has a been prepared for pasture or hay some of the fertilizer used on the wheat crop still remaining in the soil for the use of the clover and timothy and the lie grass and clover sed bcd is sown to become the dependence pen dence of the farmer T r his ha hay crop he buys cheap se SO 80 40 10 ak 50 or 60 60 per cent of it is at ai adulteration ot of seed which has been kil vl A or is old dead or weak clover seed the remainder is good fresh seed if he buys buy this teed seed likely putting off purchase until the eI eventT eleven tl hour and uses it i without its germinating fasl kab he way may be lucky if lie he gets half a a ther words half his land RW rocky rock ford seed at the end of tile the cant cantaloupe season various individuals could be seen going over the rocky ford cantaloupe patches pat clies and aisem bo immature and frosted cantaloupes for their seed this seed it is true ru e was genuine rocky ford cantaloupe 10 p seed and it would probably germinate minate e 95 or 98 per cent hut but it is is obvious its sale as first class seed was an imposition nevertheless thousands of packages were annually foisted upon seed buyers so if you are going to buy seed and buying seed to a greater or less extent is advisable not to say necessary it becomes a foregone conclusion that it pays to buy good seed and therefore to know know from whom you are arc buying the government seed business the agricultural department is buster busier than usual sending out millions of packages c of 11 irce free seeds ads for it should hould be understood that this free fred seed seca distribution while carried out by the secretary of agriculture ii no scheme of his but is a congressional affair pure and simple in every session there is one or more bills introduced abolishing what has been termed by more than one abali abolishes a 2 system whereby tile the congressmen who wants to keep in fit touch with his til s constituents has an opportunity to out a little package of garden seeds to his entire list of voters lie he cheerfully votes against the measure and instead votes for in an appropriation of over a quarter of a million of dollars a aca year r for free garden and flower seeds if somebody would introduce ft a bill even with this bis big appropriation but specifying that hat tile the secretary of agriculture should expend the money in procuring pro procuring curin g and distributing only such seeds and plants as may be of real value to the the far fanner in a congressional district new and improved varieties even though only one package could be sent out where now a score or two are sent the expenditure would be defensible this would be building up our agriculture and there would be cases where the entire agricultural output would be changed greatly t tj the advantage of the farm the 0 cretaro rreta cre tary ry is in fact employing this idea as far as he is left any discretion in the matter of seed distribution lie he is allowed by Con congress congles gres a small appropriation of this free seed money and where his explorers in the old aid countries of the world have brought in ill new plants and seeds which it is believed will be an improvement on those already grown by am american farmers lie out in amount admit of a rational test by a farmer time to abolish the system As it is now carried out the free seed distribution should lc be stopped and th the work of supplying the ordinary farm and garden seeds the results of which are known to everybody should be left to the regular sc edmen the seed business of tile the united states is one of f great magnitude while there are arc course unscrupulous is and fake se uses who do not hesitate to a to te the seeds they supply the rei u ii fenik tolie take gortat caro care in fix seeing that their seeds oro are not only fresu with food germinating powers but true trite tp to firme the old fashioned way was for fo each grower to save his own seed but in in many of our principal crops it is found that the seeds grown in in certain localities cali ties produce heavier yields and while if tile the planting is done a little out of tile the original habitat of the plant the first crop way may not appreciably deteriorate the second year the crop from that seed will show a marked falling oft off in yield IL II is for this reason that some of tile wisest farmers and planters send regularly considerable distances for seed the seed catal cataloguer catalogues always carry a number of pages of novelties and new varieties which are described in an extremely attractive form it is well enough to try these novelties but it is good advice to consider them as such and have the main crop to fall back upon from tho the standard or cr well tried varieties which have stood the test of years an ali examination of many of the seeds of common vegetable and forage reveals the fact that an all immense ini mense amount of poor seed is sold to american farmers and gardeners farmers as a rule are responsible for this condition conditi 1011 sir sin c as lias has been said aid many of them buy the alic cheapest fcc ced in the market and trust entirely to luck for it to produce the entire crop such seed is dear at t any price and is withal one of tile the principal source of the hosts of bad weeds which are to be seen upon many farms por for the last few years there tins has been a constantly increasing outcry against ati g 5 11 1 V t fit alk AN OCEAN SWEET PM PEAS flower seed growing Is 1 an extensive industry congressman the free seed farce and speeches have been made annually deriding the practice showing that it is unnecessary and unprofitable and a waste of public money yet when it comes to voting for a measure which the seeds sold ly by unscrupulous dt dealers allers and with it a demand for for legislation congress and a few states have passed laws regulating tho the trado trade in seeds the secretary of agriculture under an act of congress Cou giess has authority to and docs pure purchase lase in open market ark e harrip sar samples rip of 0 seeds of g grazing ing and f forage age plants plant test the tha same and publish the names of persons selling adulte adulterated fated seeds so extensive is the seed business in the united states that many go to an enormous expense in bublis publishing ling i each year catalogues cataloguer catal giving the many arly varieties offered for sale by them home tests teso of seeds the department of agriculture in order ter to aird aid farmers to determine for themselves without much trouble the germinating qualities of seeds purchased PY by them has issued a number of bulletins upon tile the subject A very simple apparatus for f or sp sprouting 10 seeds is describe td cd t d in in the bulletin it consists of a shallow tin basin or one of granite ware the bottom of the baginis basin is covered with water and a small flat bottom of porous clay is placed inside the seeds after having been soaked are laid between two layers of moist blotting paper or flannel cloth A pane of glass covers the dish which is to be kept in a temperature of about aboul 70 70 degrees alie atmosphere of ot f an or ordinary di a ry living room is suitable if care re is taken take n to set the apparatus near a stove at night the basin may be left 1 I 1 on 1 4 7 0 s q fa A W f 4 70 ii kr 4 SEED LETTUCE AND ONIONS IN MEAD HEAD partly open from time to time to admit t the le exchange of air and gases using a good sized dish with small saucers and renewing the water occasionally several kinds of seed may be tested at once at a trifling cost the department cautions the ille fars fan c r against extremes of temperature and excessive moisture during the experiments in some of the larger and more reliable seed houses of this country there is a well equipped and appointed incubator room in which tests testa are arc dinatle by the see dinen in ili order to ris ascertain certain whether or not the seeds will really grow this i Is ia done with every lot of seed that comes in the warehouse and before distribution through the country results of A HUNDRED ACRE ACCE RADISH FIELD these growths are rc recorded corded in a book and kept for ready reference in the event of complaints the busiest times time in the american seed warehouse is from november to march and often april when enormous quantities of seeds and bulbs pass through the buildings first in ill large sacks and later in smaller packages by mail and express on their way to tile the progressive american agriculturist wa |
