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HORTICULTURE 



January 15, 1910 



Seed Trade 



About Potatoes. 



With so many leading line? of the 

 1909 seed crops short, but little atten- 

 tion has been given to seed potatoes 

 by the trade in general, yet if we are 

 to believe reports apparently trust- 

 worthy, from Maine, a very serious 

 situation awaits solution. As far back 

 as last October we received informa- 

 tion indicating that Maine potatoes 

 were rotting badly, and warned the 

 trade of the fact in a current issue of 

 HORTICULTURE. 



In the interim so many matters have 

 claimed attention we have not given 

 much thought to potatoes, but in the 

 last few days our attention has again 

 been directed to them, and we find that 

 our Information of last fall had a 

 pretty solid basis of fact. How much 

 of the Maine stock is affected is not 

 very definitely known, but enough to 

 lay practically the entire crop under 

 suspicion. 



It is only fair to state here that the 

 information we have received is some- 

 what contradictory, some correspond- 

 ents saying that the damage has been 

 greatly exaggerated, and charging deal- 

 ers of other states with responsibility 

 for these stories. While there is doubt- 

 less some truth in these charges, it Is 

 not unreasonable to say that "where 

 there is so much smoke there must be 

 some fire," and doubtless Maine pota- 

 toes are damaged to a considerable ex- 

 tent. On the other hand. New York 

 and Michigan stocks are fine, though 

 the crop is light and the tubers not 

 as large as they are some years. Sum- 

 ming up the situation, it looks as if 

 good clean stock wherever grown will 

 be in demand at strong prices, and no 

 one who has such stock has any license 

 to worry. 



California Seed Products. 



Prices on California seed products 

 show a general shading off from last 

 year, which is in marked contrast to 

 the general situation. Beets, including 

 mangels, beans, peas and all vine seeds 

 are on a higher level of prices than 

 last year for the 1910 crops, and while 

 we have no definite information on 

 sugar corn, the impression is that 

 prices will be somewhat higher. 



It is gratifying to note that in the 

 main these advances have been ac- 

 cepted philosophically by the seed 

 trade, while the canners after more 

 or less violent remonstrances find 

 themselves compelled to accept the 

 situation. 



There are two reasons why the can- 

 ners have been less tractable than the 

 seedsmen: One is that they are not 

 so well informed as to conditions justi- 

 fying these advances, and the other, 

 the low prices ruling on their products, 

 and the stagnation affecting many 

 lines of their industry, and particularly 

 canned peas. 



The Canners' Interests. 



While nearly all food products have 



advanced enormously in price in the 



last decade, canned foods have changed 



very little, although the cost of manu- 



facture has greatly increased. Bear- 

 ing these facts in mind, one cannot 

 wonder at the canners' rebelling 

 against anything that would add to 

 the cost of their products. There are 

 many signs of an improvement in the 

 canned goods market, and it is hoped 

 this important industry may share in 

 the general prosperity. 



for Its own honor and good standing. 

 It has everything to lose and nothing 

 to gain from such unfair tactics. 



Notes. 



A Mail Order Tip. 



It is yet too early in the year to give 

 anything approaching a reliable fore- 

 cast of what the mail order business 

 will be for the coming season, but it 

 is noted with general satisfaction that 

 indications are distinctly favorable. 



The death of Frank Finch, the mail 

 order seedsman of Clyde, N. Y., leaves 

 a fine opening for a man of ambition 

 and moderate capital. It is said that 

 the business can be acquired at a very 

 low price, and it is a really valuable 

 enterprise. We learn that the entire 

 edition of his catalogue for 1910 Is 

 printed and awaits distribution. This 

 edition exceeds 100,000 copies. Who 

 wants this business? Anyone inter- 

 ested should act quickly. Address Es- 

 tate of Frank Finch, Clyde, N. Y. 

 This is the tip we get. 



The Department on Adulteration. 



A fine superstructure of fallacies can 

 be built up on a basic misstatement. 



The Department starts out on its 

 holy mission in this wise: 



"Farm seed is considered to be adulter- 

 ated when It contains seed of inferior kind 

 or quality in excessive quantity." 



This is aimed at the seedsman, as a 

 matter of course, but how does it af- 

 fect the farmer if he cuts a crop and 

 finds an excessive quantity of an in- 

 ferior quality? Is the farmer an 

 adulterator? The Department is out, 

 apparently, to lash the seedsman so as 

 to curry favor with the farmer vote, 

 but the weapon is one that cuts the 

 farmer also! 



The next sentence of the Depart- 

 ment's manifesto is as follows: 



"When inferior seed Is present in con- 

 siderable qixintit.v' it is naturally presum- 

 able that intentional adulteration has been 

 practiced." 



Is that so. In the name of the seven 

 motherless cats, why? Why is it 

 "naturally presumable?" If the har- 

 vest of a field in the rough state con- 

 tains a considerable quantity of in- 

 ferior seed — it has been adulterated! 

 Who adulterated it? The softly blow- 

 ing winds, the birds of the air, or the 

 fishes in the sea? The mere state- 

 ment of such a proposition is quite 

 sufficient to laugh it out of court. 



Yet that is the basis on which the 

 Department launches a 24pp. pamphlet 

 on seed adulteration, written by F. H. 

 Hillman. It is a pity that the animus 

 and special pleading should be so evi- 

 dent as there are some useful informa- 

 tion and illustrations in the phamplet 

 — explaining and illustrating the ap- 

 pearance of various grasses and forage 

 seeds, found either separate or in mix- 

 ture. The value of the information is 

 largely discounted, however, on ac- 

 count of the malicious and unfounded 

 inferences intended. 



The sooner the Department departs 

 from the unwarranted use of the word 

 "adulteration" in regard to the Am- 

 erican Seed Trade the l)etter it will be 



W. H. Grenell, of Saginaw, Mich., a 

 late high official in the American Seed 

 Trade Association — and a distinguished 

 wholesale grower of peas and beans — 

 in a recent interview, highly compli- 

 mented HORTICULTURE on its excel- 

 lent forecasts of seed crops from time 

 to time. He considered such articles 

 of the greatest value to the seed trade, 

 and the best of their kind issued by 

 any trade paper. 



You wouldn't think so If you hadn't 

 tried it, but sweet peas are one of the 

 hardest things to work into an effec- 

 tive catalogue cover. A Los Angeles 

 firm (Germain S. & P. Co.), in their 1910 

 seed book have achieved what has 

 heretofore been considered impossible: 

 a really artistic, effective, and striking 

 design cover, composed entirely of 

 sweet peas. Nothing approaching this 

 has ever been done before. Who was 

 the artist? 



Frennont, Neb.- — During the past 

 year the Western Seed Company en- 

 larged its plant in the Factory district 

 with an addition 36 by 42 feet, four 

 stories high. This increases the stor- 

 age capacity 20,000 bushels of grain 

 and gives additional space for the sack- 

 ing. Two conveyors were added which 

 doubled the cleaning capacity. Addi- 

 tional elevators were also put in so 

 that two cars of grain may be unload- 

 ed at the same time. Improvements 

 were also made in the sorting room 

 that will facilitate the work and more 

 windows were put in, giving the sort- 

 ers additional light. 



UNIFORMITY OF VARIETAL 



CHARACTER IN GARDEN 



VEGETABLES. 



Read by Dr. William W. Tracy, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, before the New Jersey 

 State Horticultural Society, Tren- 

 ton, N. J., Dec. 22, 1909. 



{Continued front page so) 



Results of Department Trials. 



The Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington has made a trial extend- 

 ing over three seasons of more than 

 225 samples of garden beet purchased 

 under 17o more or less distinct vari- 

 etal names. Sixty to SO roots of each 

 sample were grown, and each season it 

 would have been possible to gather 

 all of the roots into some 23 to 25 

 groups so that all the roots of each 

 group woxild be more uniformly of the 

 same varietal character than were 

 those of a majority of the different 

 samples. In most cases, less than half 

 of the roots of any single sample could 

 be rightfully put into the same group, 

 and tliere was less than a score of 

 samples in which as many as 75 per 

 cent, of the roots could be grouped 

 together. Many of the samples were 

 made up of quite distinct varietal 

 forms in such even proportions that 

 it could not be told which one of them 

 the name was supposed to stand for. 



There is undoubtedly less of such 

 variation in the common commercial 



