56 Third Annual Report 



of seedsmen's catalogues, many of them beautiful in design and 

 execution, but do they give us much real information as to tlie 

 character of the different varieties offered? Are not these 

 descriptions of sorts rather a glittering string of superlative ad- 

 jectives designed to induce the reader to buy the seed rather than 

 a statement of the exact qualities of the varieties offered? Dif- 

 ferent seedsmen sometimes describe and furnish the same type 

 under different names and again they furnish different types 

 under the same name, the accompanying description not being 

 definite enough to reveal the difference. Now I do not wish to 

 be understood as branding seedsmen as dishonest or deceitful. 

 I think they are quite as honest and reliable as the other class 

 of tradesmen but they are not in business from any altruistic 

 motives, but to make money and their catalogues are prepared 

 and distributed for the purpose of selling seed ; and although a 

 half truth — a silence, may be more misleading than actual false 

 statement, in common business ethics, they are not regarded as 

 so dishonorable. In the case of the Davis Wax beans referred 

 to, it is amusing to one who knows the sort, to see how eloquent 

 the various catalogues are as to its acknowledged good qualities 

 and how silent as to its defects. Again there is often a great 

 difference in the cost to the seedsmen of the seed of the same 

 relative purity and quality but of different varieties and the 

 ordinary purchaser is rarely willing to pay this difference, and 

 seedsmen can not be blamed for pushing in their catalogues the 

 sale of the sorts which yield them the greatest profit even if it 

 is not the sort best adapted to the planters' needs. During the 

 thirty years I have been in the seed business I have known at 

 least 25 varieties to be dropped from the lists by seedsmen and 

 so out of cultivation, which were admittedly superior for some 

 purposes to the sorts retained but they were dropped simplv be- 

 cause it was found to be so costly to produce seed of these sorts 

 that there was no profit in handling them. 



Let us look at conditions actually existing in regard to one 

 of our most popular vegetables, the tomato. Bulletin No. 21, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, lists 321 named varieties of tomatoes 

 offered by American seedsmen in 1902. Of a list of 35 varieties 

 tested in 1868, but 15 are included in tlie 1902 list, 20 sorts hav- 

 ing been dropped out of cultivation. Of a list of 64, in 1887, 49 

 are included, 15 dropped, of 78 listed in 1890, 62 are included. 

 16 dropped. It is true that none of these earlier lists were as 

 complete as that of 1902, but this comparison gives us an in- 

 dication not only of the number of sorts in cultivation but of 

 their lack of permanency. Now of these 321 listed varieties 

 probably 20 or 30 were deliberate or unintentional renaming 

 of old sorts, 40 to 80 are avowed renaming of some special 



