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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



representatives or agents to lobby against free seeds. 

 Men have indulged in such denunciation who would 

 never bat an eye if approached by a lobbyist for a 

 tariff on lumber or a duty on steel. The free seed 

 supporters in Congress display strange inconsistencies. 

 A democratic member will grow black in the face de- 

 nouncing tarilif favors and then turn around and plead 

 and vote for Government favors through free seeds. 

 And a republican member who swears loyalty to pro- 

 tection and calls for protection for the manufacturer 

 will at once face about and get mad because the seed 

 growers and dealers object to having the Government 

 cut a big slice out of their business. 



It has been erroneously supposed the_ Department 

 of Agriculture was responsible for the plan of sending 

 out common varieties of seeds as it has been followed 

 for many years. This is not the fact. Secretary Wil- 

 son has advised against it. J. Sterling Morton, when 

 at the head of the Department of Agriculture, strongly 

 opposed it. Mr. Morton was bitterly against it and 

 looked on it as a farce. The entire responsibility rests 

 with Congress and especially with the House. 



Light is shed on the subject by going back briefly 

 over the history of the distribution of seeds by the 

 Government. Told in detail, it would be a long story. 

 It reaches far into colonial times. Back in 1743 the 

 British Parliament granted $600,000 to promote cul- 

 tivation of indigo and other crops in the American 

 colonies. The assemblies of the various colonies, too, 

 from time to time allowed small sums to encourage 

 cultivation of plants new to the country, such as hops 

 in Virginia, mulberry trees for silk culture in Georgia, 

 and vineyards for establishment of the wine industry 

 on this side of the Atlantic. 



Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, wdiile 

 abroad, as well as other representatives of the Govern- 

 ment in foreign lands in the early days, sought to en- 

 courage agriculture by sending back rare plants and 

 seeds. In" 1839, through the efforts of Henry L. Ells- 

 worth, commissioner of patents, an appropriation of 

 $1,000 was made for the purpose of collecting and dis- 

 tributing seeds, prosecuting agricultural investigations 

 and procuring agricultural statistics. With this, 30,000 

 packages of seeds were purchased and distributed. 

 This was the beginning of what is now the great De- 

 partment of Agriculture. Similar appropriations con- 

 tinued to be made, increasing from year to year, but 

 prior to 1865 the appropriations were always for the 

 combined purpose of purchasing seeds and collecting- 

 statistics so that the actual sum expended for seeds 

 alone cannot be determined. In the seventy-three 

 A'ears from 1839, when the first appropriation of $1,000 

 was made, to the fiscal year of 1912, when the sum of 

 $289,680 was used, the quantity of seed distributed 

 has steadily increased and the methods of handling 

 it have undergone many changes. 



The organic law of the Department of Agriculture 

 provides that part of its general design and duty shall 

 be "to procure, propagate and distribute among the 

 people new and valuable seeds and plants." The pur- 

 pose of the earlier legislation for the purchase and dis- 

 tribution of seeds was to introduce into this country 

 new and improved varieties of vegetables, fruits and 

 flowering plants and new crops in order to increase 

 agricultural and horticultural yields. For many years 

 attempts were made to confine the distribution to 

 new varities of vegetables, grains, sorghums and 

 fruits. 



Not only has such distribution been valuable, not 

 only has it left its impress on the agriculture and hor- 



ticulture of the country, but there would not be the 

 slightest objection now were distribution today limited 

 to such scope, that is to new, improved and valuable 

 varieties. In fact, there are strong reasons why such 

 a distribution, made by the Department of Agriculture, 

 on broad and impartial and intelligent lines, should be 

 enforced as a perpetual policy. Such a distribution is 

 one thing. The Congressional distribution of common 

 and unimproved seeds is another. 



Seeds and politics gradually got mixed as time wore 

 on. The demand for new seeds and plants increased. 

 Senators and Representatives made more requests for 

 them than the Department of Agriculture could sup- 

 ply. The practice of sending out common varieties 

 was resorted to because enough new varieties could 

 not be found to meet demands. From 1889 to 1893 

 practically the whole seed appropriation was expended 

 for standard varieties of vegetable and flower seeds. 

 Secretary of Agriculture Morton about that time 

 sought to stop this practice, but the friends of free 

 seeds in Congress would not permit it and put lan- 

 guage into the agricultural appropriation act of 1896 

 that made mandatory the Congressional free seed dis- 

 tribution as it exists today, and by virtue of which, on 

 receipt of their addressed franks, the Department of 

 Agriculture mails out for each member of House and 

 Senate his share of the "seeds, bulbs, shrubs, vines, 

 cuttings and plants." In the last distribution, which 

 began December 2, 1911, and ended April 19, 1912, 

 there were 63,364,555 packets, of which 51,138,240 

 packets were vegetable seeds and 12,226,315 were 

 flower seeds. The total weight of the vegetable and 

 flower seeds alone was 994,116 pounds, or over 497 

 tons, enough, as the Department of Agriculture said 

 in a recent bulletin, to fill twenty freight cars. 



The conclusions to be drawn are that the Depart- 

 inent of Agriculture ought to be allowed to confine 

 itself to what was originally intended in the law under 

 which the de])artment W'as organized. If the officials 

 of the department had their w^ay they would so confine 

 it and would devote their efforts to distributing new 

 and improved varieties of seeds, plants and the like. 

 This distribution should not be dictated by members 

 of Congress. Some of the deficiencies and abuses of 

 the present distribution of ordinary seeds are ludicrous. 



The Congressional free seed distribution has had a 

 stormy career. One of these days Congress will abolish 

 it. — "Successful Farmins:." 



FLOWER, VEGETABLE AND GRASS SEEDS 



Q 



HOSEA WATERER 



Seedsman and 



U 



Bulb Importer j 



107 and 109 South Seventh St. I 

 PHILADELPHIA, PA. i 



Catalogue mailed free upon request 

 PLANTS, BULBS, GARDEN TOOLS 



