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Munh It. litis 



SEED TRADE 



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Production of Bermud.i Onion Seed In 

 Souttiwcst. 



IC. liHK Ihal AiniTlran seed 



icrow iiil supply ili'' liiime df- 



niniiil lor lii-rimidii onion seed, tli' 

 ITnllfd States Dopartnicnt of Agn 

 c-ulturo slaKs tluit It may lie protllalil 

 ftrown In cortaln rt-Klons of the aouti 

 western United States. 



In 1916 the I'nlled States Importe 1 

 from Tt-nerllTe. Canary Islands, about 

 (."■.iioO pounds of Hermuda onion seed 

 The usual retail price is from $2 to 

 ILVTiO a pound. thouKh in years of scar- 

 elty the priee has gone as high as $5 

 a iiound. ITntll reeently this country 

 produced no Bermuda onion seed at 

 all; and thouxh Rood yields of the 

 seed have been obtained at Laredo. 

 Tex., the yield lias not been wholly de 

 pendable from year to year. While In 



1916 and the past year considerable 

 ("alifornia-prown Heniiuda seed has 

 been offered to the trade, the Impor- 

 tance of producing a supply of seed 

 from carefully selected mother bulbs 

 was given special prominence by the 

 results obtained throu.eh work of the 

 Department of Agriculture begun at 

 Sacaton. Ariz., in 191;} and 1914. 



A few years ago the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry co-operated with the Office of 

 Indian Affairs in an experimental 

 growing of Bermuda onion seed on 

 the Pima Indian Reservation at Saca- 

 ton, Ariz., and the results show that 

 there, and in similar localities, re- 

 liable supplies of onion seed, equal to 

 the best importe:! from Teneriffe. can 

 be grown. It is further stated by the 

 Department of Agriculture tliat seed 

 from carefully selected stock has been 

 uniformly superior to the run of im- 

 ported Bermuda seed, since onion 

 growers in the Coachella Valley of Cal- 

 ifornia have achieved results similar 

 (o those at Sacaton. 



The department states that it feels 

 justifierl in saying that the American 

 demand can soon be supplied with 

 home-grown seed. Furthermore, the 

 home seed when grown from mother 

 bulbs of carefully selecterl strains 

 promises a 25 per cent better yield 

 than that from the imported seed. In 



1917 the Bermuda onion crop of the 

 United States, largely from Texas, 

 was nearly three million crates. An 

 fncrease of one-fourth means, there- 

 fore, says the department, that the In- 

 centive for a home-grown seed Indus 

 try goes far beyond the mere question 

 of replacing the volume of imported 

 seed with an equal quantity raised at 

 home. 



Notes. 

 W. .1. Donovan, who has been con- 

 nected with the seed business in 

 Springfield, Mass., for the past 20 years, 

 has been engaged by the Carlisle hard- 

 ware company as manager of its seed 

 and implement business, which has 

 been constantly on the increase and 

 which has been enlarged from time to 

 time. 



^ Flower Seeds, Cannas, American 

 r?; Grown Gladioli, Etc. 



b: WHOLESALE CATALOG NOW READY 



•:; Hvtbui C. JCobMnoton Co., line. 



128 CHAMBERS ST.. NEW YORK CITY 



"Seeds with a Lineage" All Varieties 



Thoroughly tested at our trial {^rounds, Raynes 



Park, London, England. Send for Catalogue 



GARTElvS 1 LSILU !^LlL)j, inc., CoaKDerccBIdi.Boilon, M«u. 



master General Burleson, effective 

 .March 15. as follows: "Packages when 

 mailed in the first or second zones for 

 delivery in the first, second or third 

 zones may thereafter be as heavy as 

 seventy pounds." They now are re- 

 stricted to fifty. The weight limit for 

 all other zones was increased from 

 twenty to fifty pounds. This will go a 

 long way to relieve the express con- 

 gestion and will be a great benefit to 

 seedsmen. 



Numerous inquiries are being re- 

 ceived concerning the fixing of prices 

 on clover seed and seed corn, and on 

 beans, peas, and other seed crops, 

 commonly used as food crops. Thus 

 tar the cnly commodity in the same 

 category v.ith the aforementioned ones 

 upon which a price has been fixed is 

 wheat, and in the case of wheat the 

 restricti-ms in the matter of handling 

 seed th-it apply to the licensed ele- 

 vators and warehousemen do not 

 aiiply to seedsmen, for it is recognized 

 that seedsmen from the very nature of 

 their '.insiness in being compelled to 

 pay premiums for choice lots of wheat, 

 in shrinkage resulting from recleaning 

 and in ;,arceling out their stocks in 

 smaller t-uantities cannot work on so 

 .aniail a margin of profit as elevators 

 can. The Food Administration has 

 announced its intention to act in the 

 matter of regulating prices or in re- 

 stricting seedsmen as to profits or 

 practices only upon the recommenda- 

 tion of tha Department of Agriculture. 



Our attention is called by Chairman 

 Therkild.son of the A. S. T. Postal 

 I.aws Committee to a ruling of Post- 



ACORNS 



Being the Little Beginnings of Some 

 Worthy Timber. 

 As this department is devoted to the 

 evolution of big things from little, with 

 jiarticular reference to the fostering 

 earth, what more fitting than that we 

 should speak today of one who by 

 grubbing in the soil early and late ac- 

 complished his own large develop- 

 ment ? Our hero, whose name is How- 

 artr, was born on .lune 22. 18*19. For a 

 while, but not for long, he busied him 

 self with schooibooks. When he q'jit 

 this to go to work he was still youn^; 

 enough to be satisfied with a wage of 

 $4 per week. That's what W. Atb ■ 

 Burpee & Co. paid him to make fires, 

 clean windows and run errands. Dur- 



ing the summer he "kicked" a Gordon 

 press, at which he was expected to gel 

 off 8 000 impressions a day. Just after 

 the blizzard of '88 he went to Ford- 

 hook Farms, near Doylestown, and be- 

 gan his real apprenticeship in the busi- 

 ness which became his lifework. For 

 $t; a week he cleaned seed direct from 

 the field, hand-weeded until his finger- 

 nails were worn to the quick, spread 

 manure and fought most of the 400,000 

 varieties of insects scientists tell us 

 there are in the world. For many 

 years he toiled from sixteen to eigh- 

 teen hours a day, plus about ten 

 hours Sunday and holidays, and elimi- 

 nated vacation altogether. All this 

 was to inoculate himself with a 

 complete knowledge of seed produc- 

 tion. The inoculation took. In 191.? 

 liis boss sent him to Europe to observe 

 methods practiced there, and, incident- 

 ally, to locate any vegetable or flower 

 novelties being perpetrated In those 

 parts. Hut several years before that 

 he had traveled about among the grow- 

 ing crops in New Y'ork and Canada. 

 There he spent his days In the fields 

 and devoted his nights to the study of 

 the printed works of noted horticultur- 

 ists, and of the horticultural and agri- 

 cultural press. Never believe that his 

 boss was a slave driver; indeed, he 

 was always one of the kindliest and 

 most considerate men in the world, 

 for our hero planned himself this line 

 of active work. In time he became the 

 lirm's business manager, and recently, 

 because of the increase in the volume 

 of business, production manager. We 

 haven't room here to mention all the 

 agri and-horticultural associations of 

 which he is a valued member, but 

 without fear of successful contradic- 

 tion, ladies and gentlemen, we present 

 Howard M. Earl, premier expert seeds- 

 man of these here United States! 

 — Tom Daly in Phila. livening Ledger. 

 Feb. 15, "18. 



LILIUM GIGANTEUM 



7/n (?,ftO por cnfipi J.'..', im ppr thoumnd 



s/in f?-'."; ppr pnsp) Minn " " 



9/10 (2n0 per cn8P) IWI.nO " " 



f'omptple I.Kt of FlnrUtM* f'holr^ ffpedt. 



A poHtal raril wilt hrinB iiiir rritrilitKue. 



S. S. SKIDELSKY & CO. 



1004 Llnroln Bide., PHII>AnEI.PnlA, PA. 



