952 



HORTICULTURE 



June 25, 1910 



AMERICAN SEED TRADE ASSOCIATION 

 Annual Convention at Atlantic City^ N, J. 



The American Seed Trade Associa- 

 tion closed a successful meeting at At- 

 lantic City on Thursday, June 23d. 

 Seven years age they held a meeting 

 at Atlantic City, at which time Mr. 

 Walter P. Stokes of Philadelphia, was 

 the president and Hon. S. F. Willard, 

 secretary, and they then elected Mr. 

 Willard to the position of president 

 and he was highly commended by Mr. 

 Stokes in installing him to that office. 

 Both these gentlemen are now away 

 in Europe, it being perhaps the first 

 meeting that Mr. Willard has ever 

 missed attending of the American 

 Seed Association. The weather 

 throughout the dates of the meeting 

 was delightful and all other conditions 

 favorable. There was a representative 

 attendance, and under the leadership 

 of Mr. J. C. Robinson and permeated 

 by his genial personality every feature 

 of the proceedings moved along 

 smoothly and harmoniously. His ad- 

 dress at the opening was sound and 

 wholesome and thoroughly practical, 

 and of itself confirmed the good judg- 

 ment displayed in his election a year 

 ago. Reports by the secretary and 

 trea^iirer. Mr. C. E. Kendel. of Cleve- 

 land, showed that the membership 

 was holding its own, and the finances 

 in an encouraging condition. The fol- 

 lowing new members were duly 

 elected. Herman Simmers of J. A. 

 Simmers. Toronto. Can.; J. Edward 

 Schultz, Washington, D. C; Diggs & 

 Beadles Co., Inc., Richmond, Va.; J. 

 P. Noll & Co., H. G. Hastings. Atlanta. 

 Ga.; Frank W. Howard, Pittsfield. 

 Mass. President Robinson proposed 

 for honorary membership. Mr. F. W. 

 Bruggerhof of New York City, who 

 was unanimously elected, and was in- 

 formed by telegram and returned his 

 acknowledgments and regret at in- 

 ability to be present at convention and 

 banquet. In order to carry out cer- 

 tain proposed good works, it was pro- 

 posed to raise the membership fee to 

 twenty dollars, double the former dues. 

 This was amended to fifteen dollars 

 and in amended form unanimously 

 adopted. Mr. Albert McCnllough, one 

 of the delegates to national board of 

 trade, the other being W. Atlee Bur- 

 pee of Philadelphia, presented their 

 report in part as follows: 



It is the aim of the National Board 

 of Trade, of which the American Seed 

 Trade Association is a constituent 

 member to keep all of the trade bodies 

 supporting the Washington headquar- 

 ters informed of what is going on. 

 This will enable everi^ commercial or- 

 ganization in the United States to 

 come in direct contact with the 

 various committees of Congress, to ar- 

 range for hearings before committees 

 of House of Representatives and Sen- 

 ate and co-operate with respective 

 committees of the National Board of 

 Trade so that the opinion and in- 

 fluence of business men of the country 

 may be exerted during the entire ses- 

 sion of Congress. 



The transportation interests, conser- 

 vation of National resources, diplo- 

 matic and consular service, banking 

 and currency, renewal of trade treaties 



and postal affairs are among the im- 

 portant questions and subjects taken 

 up at the last meeting. Mr. Frank D. 

 LaLann, president National Board of 

 Trade has been appointed by Secretarj' 

 of State Knox as delegate to represent 

 the United States at the Fourth Inter- 

 national Congres of Chambers of Com- 

 merce and Commercial and Industrial 

 Associations to be held in London. 

 England, June 21st, 22nd and 23rd. 

 1911. 



The questions to be taken up by the 

 Congress are many and all of national 

 interest. Mr. W. Atlee Burpee has 

 been appointed a member of the coun- 

 cil and Mr. Albert McCullough, one of 

 the managers of the National Board of 

 Trade. The National Board of Trade 

 is taking on new life and through its 

 commissioner Mr. Anderson, its work 

 will be felt this coming year more 

 than ever before. The American Seed 

 Trade Association is at liberty at all 

 times to call upon the commissioner 

 for information as to what is going 

 on in Congress and in this way keep 

 posted and properly advised when 

 there is any bill introduced in which 

 we are directly interested. 



Chas. H. Breck, C. H. Coy and W. F. 

 Jones were appointed as obituary com- 

 mittee. Chas. H. Breck, E. L. Page 

 and C. F. Wood were named as com- 

 mittee on re'?om nendations in the 

 president's address. Committee on 

 customs and tarjil, J. C. Vaughan. 

 chairman, reported they had received 

 no complaints as to the workings of 

 the present Payne law, though the 

 average advance in duties is probably 

 thirt.v to thirty-five per cent, over 

 what was paid on advalorem basis. 

 The customs operations as to seed im- 

 portations are being handled with less 

 friction than ever before. Francis 

 Brill's paper on "The Past. Present 

 and t'^uture of the Seed Business in 

 America." was then read. No discus- 

 sion. No report was received from 

 cbmmittje on Irrigation of old Eastern 

 farms or the committee to confer with 

 nursenm.en and florists. The auditing 

 committee, Simeon F. Leonard, John 

 W. May and Harvey Mixson, reported 

 the bocks O K. Tlie delegates to the 

 National Council of Horticulture pre- 

 sented a report through Secretary 

 Kendel showing continued good work 

 and progress, and the usual sum was 

 voted for use of the press bureau of 

 the National Council of Horticulture 

 in the interest of seed trade. 



President Robinson announced that 

 Prof. Chas. D. Woods was unable to be 

 present and deliver his address on 

 state legislation and expressed regret, 

 in which the convention joined. 

 George E. Green, chairman of com- 

 mittee on seed legislation, submitted 

 a comprehensive report showing the 

 condition of present and probable 

 future legislation and work done in 

 enlightening legislatures and Congress- 

 men as to the true conditions of sup- 

 ply. He recouiited the work done in 

 Bosttni last December by a conference 

 of representatives of various seed 

 trade organizations and the National 

 Association of Ofiicial Seed Analysts. 



At this meeting it was the unanimous 

 conclusion that if seed legislation is en- 

 acted in various states it should be 

 reasonably uniform in character so 

 that inter-state trade shall be re- 

 stricted as little as possible. It is 

 quite generally conceded that if refer- 

 ence to germination can be kept out of 

 the seed laws it will tend to unify ef- 

 forts all along the line to protect the 

 public and the trade as well. The 

 committee believes that quality restric- 

 tions should be only such as are neces- 

 sary to protect against fraud but leave 

 commerce free. A bill was prepared 

 and is being considered that will in- 

 clude these views and it is hoped will 

 tend to uniformity in legislation on 

 seed subjects. 



Correspondence was read showing a 

 liberal attitude on the part of Con- 

 gressmen and a desire to inform them- 

 selves fully before enacting laws which 

 otherwise without due consideration 

 and information could not help but 

 be hurtful to all interests and to safe- 

 guard the public. Representative Mann 

 expresses determination to refrain from 

 hasty and ill-considered action and is 

 willing to receive the views of seed 

 men and others. Any legislation 

 should not include under the same pro- 

 visions the widely different classes in 

 production and use, such as garden 

 seeds and bulbs on the one hand as 

 opposed to grass and clover seeds on 

 the other. Arbitrary standards are de- 

 clared against for reasons given. The 

 best methods of testing seeds for purity 

 and germination which are now in use 

 are not sutficiently uniform and accu- 

 rate, and the vitality of seeds is not 

 sufficiently stable to warrant impos- 

 ing heavy penalties tor the sale of 

 seeds falling below a certain arbitrary 

 standard. While purity and germina- 

 tion constitute the only basis available 

 for arbitrary standards, they are by 

 no means a complete or accurate meas- 

 ure of the actual value of seeds to the 

 user thereof. Many other qualities en- 

 ter into the value of seeds such as 

 color, size, locality of production, 

 trueness to type, excellence of strain, 

 etc. These considerations make it 

 manifestly unjust to allow the terms 

 "United States Standard" to be ap- 

 plied indiscriminately to all classes of 

 seeds of certain variety which might 

 reach certain standards of purity and 

 germination. The apparatus and meth- 

 ods for making tests are only now in 

 process of evolution and not by any 

 means perfect. No legislation should 

 restrict or prohibit exportation of any 

 class of seeds having commercial value 

 in any foreign country. For example, 

 there are climates and countries where 

 dodder does not thrive and there is no 

 sound reason either commercial or 

 moral for absolutely prohibiting expor- 

 tation of such seeds. On the contrary, 

 such prohibition would tend to cause 

 such seed to be resown within our 

 own country. If the original Mann bill 

 had become a law it would have abso- 

 lutely disorganized all existing meth- 

 ods of handling the seed business. If 

 any large proportion of many proposed 

 state laws had passed they would have 



