1907.] DISCUSSION. 165 



annually, I believe, for seed which, as I understand, it buys 

 under a contract, and the contract is awarded, according to 

 law, to the lowest bidder. Of course, it needs no argument 

 to show that the seed which the citizens of any state want are 

 seeds which have the greatest germinating capacity and are of 

 the best quality. Now the Government spends nearly the same 

 amotmt of money to send this seed through the mail, but they 

 are distributed in small packages, and the quality of the seed 

 which has been sent out has been an agricultural joke all over 

 the country, and that has been the condition of affairs for 

 about as long as I can remember. We have them sent to us. 

 Have them sent to us by Congressmen and Senators. We 

 have had cotton seed, and a good deal of sorghum seed sent to 

 us. A great many of the other seed which have been sent to 

 us have been seed which could be grown nowhere but in a 

 greenhouse. Some of those we have put in the ground have 

 proven to be varieties which were suitable for other climates 

 and totally unsuitable to Connecticut. 



Now this distribution of seed as at present carried on is 

 an expense to the taxpayers of the country, it is a nuisance to 

 the agricultural department which has to attend to it, and it 

 seems to me it must be a nuisance and a source of constant 

 vexation to everybody who has anything to do with it except 

 possibly the Congressmen who send them out. It seems to me 

 there can be no two sides of the question, and that no man can 

 defend that sort of a helter-skelter distribution of seed. That 

 sort of thing is not in the interest of economy, and the passage 

 of this resolution may help to avoid hereafter the dispensing 

 of this large volume of seed, the work of which is put upon 

 our people at Washington, and will help to avoid a lot of un- 

 necessary labor on the part of the over-worked Congressmen, 

 and it seems to me it is a step in the right direction and some- 

 thing to be commended. Unquestionably, there ought to be 

 a certain discretion exercised by the department, and if there 

 is to be any distribution, then the samples should be sent out, 



