146 



HORTICULTURE 



February 4, 1911 



Seed Trade 



Mail Order Business Light 

 The mail order houses report busi- 

 ness not quite up to last year's Janu- 

 ary. At the same time it cannot be 

 said to be dull, and doubtless the bal- 

 ance of the season will show a suffi- 

 cient Increase to bring the grand total 

 fully abreast of last year's volume. 

 Considering everything, it can be said 

 that the trade is reasonably busy. 



The Canners' Convention. 

 We assume it is generally under- 

 stood by those members of the trade 

 who usually attend the Canners' Con- 

 vention, that it is to be held at Mil- 

 waukee, February 6th to 10th, next. 

 Those who have not already secured 

 rooms should get busy without delay. 

 The Hotel Pfister has been named as 

 headquarters, but as all exhibits and 

 business will be transacted at the Au- 

 ditorium, where the machinery exhi- 

 bits will be held, there seems no real 

 need of a hotel headquarters. The 

 members of the Canning Machinery 

 and Supplies Association, and their 

 employees, we understand are to re- 

 ceive free badges this year on regis- 

 tering. The association has entered 

 into an agreement with the National 

 Canners' Association, whereby they 

 have paid the latter a lump sum, es- 

 timated sufiiclent to cover the number 

 of badges to be issued to the members 

 of the association and their employees. 

 Notice has been given by the president 

 of the C. M. & S. Association that a 

 full list of members and their em- 

 ployees should be sent to Secretary J. 

 A. Hanna at Cadiz, Ohio, tor badges, 

 and members should be careful to re- 

 strict their requirements to actual em- 

 ployees, and not abuse the privileges 

 of free badges, which all are doubtless 

 welcome to who are entitled to same. 



About Seed Corn. 



The situation affecting seed corn is 

 still rather clouded and information 

 which comes to us is more or less con- 

 flicting, still there is no doubt that a 

 large percentage of the late varieties 

 has been seriously damaged, and the 

 extent of this damage will only be dis- 

 covered when deliveries are actually 

 made. By the way, it seems that ship- 

 ments are very late this year, which is 

 doubtless largely due to the fact that 

 the corn has cured very slowly. We 

 understand that one grower says he 

 will not be able to ship his late varie- 

 ties before March. This will doubt- 

 less cause considerable inconvenience 

 and dissatisfaction, but perhaps it is 

 unavoidable. 



The Noll Reorganization. 

 We referred some weeks ago to 

 changes which had taken place in the 

 firm of J. F. Noll & Co., and expressed 

 the opinion that the business would 

 be continued under the management of 

 Mrs. Noll, and her brother-in-law, Mr. 

 R. C. Noll. There have been some in- 

 timations that the business was to be 

 sold, or that Important changes were 



impending but we are reliably in- 

 formed that these rumors are without 

 foundation, that the business is in a 

 very prosperous condition and has 

 shown a marked gain in volume for 

 December and January over the same 

 months of last season. As we under- 

 stand, there is ample capital behind 

 the business, we can see no reason 

 why it should not continue to grow 

 and prosper. 



man race"! If they paid for it out of 

 their own pockets, we would probablj 

 put them in jail for leze majesty! 



A Sensible View of the Seedsmen's 

 Position. 



We present for the edification of Mr. 

 Fullerton and the foolish children 

 generally who beat the alarm gong so 

 loudly about the seedsmen's disclaimer 

 which has borne the brunt of assault 

 by the greatest lawyers of both the 

 old world and the new, for fifty years, 

 and come through the fire as a funda- 

 mental expression of justice and 

 equity, and is seldom questioned now- 

 a-days except by people who have a 

 twist of some kind in their heads, the 

 following clipping from a contempor- 

 ary, written by a market gardener of 

 New York State: 



It seems an innate trait ot human 

 ii.'iture to blame the other fellow when we 

 fail. Under no circumstances must we 

 blame ourselves. When we fail in grow- 

 ing a crop it is usually the seedsman who 

 gets the hot end of it. If a grower makes 

 a big hill of hot manure for cucumbers 

 and the cucumbers are not long and 

 smooth for want ot water, the seedsman 

 is blamed for selling a poor variety. 



It is quite impossible to make some gar- 

 deners understand that they have made 

 any mistake in plowing, preparing and 

 fertilizing the soil or in locating the crop 

 on the poorer soil for the variety. When 

 failures come the seedsman must be 

 blamed. 



I have known Self-Blanchlng celery seed 

 taken from the same bag and sold one 

 pound to eaoh man on Long Island, the 

 plants planted on adjoining Innd, to pro- 

 duce celery on one side of the fence as 

 fine as one ever saw, while on the other 

 side of the fence the celery was pithy and 

 good for nothing. 



I have known cauliflower to bend finely 

 with one gardener and to be a failure witli 

 another. In fact, for a number of years 1 

 tried to grow cauliflower sucoessfully but 

 gave up in disgust. But I did n'lt hiame 

 the' seedsman from whom I obtained the 

 seed. 



I have known one gardener to get a fine 

 crop of peppers from seed raised Iiy him- 

 self, while a neighbor who bought plants 

 from him failed entirely and questioned 

 whether or not the plants were grown 

 from the same seed. 



I have known one gardener to grow 

 forty-eight barrels of peas from a bushel 

 of seed and another gardener t-) grow 

 from the other busliel. out of the same 

 two-liushel bag, Vint twenty-four Itarrels. 



One gardener asked me wliy his onions 

 this year were not as good as last year 

 when the seed came out of the same bag 

 ai'd came up equally as well. Another 

 asked why his Earliana tomritoes wore 

 rough and flat in one field and ns fine and 

 perfeot as could he in another field when 

 the plants were from the same seed bed- 

 So that after all it is not always the 

 seedsman who is to blame for our failures 

 OEO. C. WATSON. 



The "Thoughtful Congressman." 



The following clipping from the 

 San Jose Mercury shows a lovely pub- 

 lic sentiment in that part of California 

 which draws much of its revenue 

 from the seed trade: 



Editor Will V. IJlake ot the Gazette 

 (Gllro.v. t'al.l has received a consignment 

 of seed from our thoughtful Cong:-e"ssman. 

 Hon. K. A. Hayos, and the.se will soon bo 

 distributed in both town and country. 



Editor Will F. Blake, and the 

 "thoughtful congressman" evidently 

 think themselves in the Lydia Pink- 

 ham class — "benefactors of the hu- 



A Valuable Cabbage. 



One ot the vegetable novelties given 

 unstinted praise in Burpee's Annual 

 for 1911 is the New Early Cabbage 

 "Copenhagen Market" introduced by 

 Hjalmar Hartmann & Co., of Copenha- 

 gen, Denmark. Another introduction 

 by this firm which received a very fine 

 reception here was Red Cabbage "Dan- 

 ish Stronghold," sent out in 190G. Of 

 Copenhagen Market, Mr. Burpee says: 



"It is undoubtedly without a rival as 

 the finest large, round-headed early cabbage 

 in cultivation. The type is thoroughly 

 fixed, the heads maturing all at the same 

 time. The heads average about ten pounds 

 each in weight, are very solid, with small 

 core and of fine quality. It matures as 

 early as Charleston Wakefield, and will 

 give a much heavier yield per acre than 

 that popular variety." 



Notes. 



Utica, N. Y. — The Davis Nursery 

 and Seed Co. Is in its new location at 

 55 Blandina street. 



Columbus, Ohio — Mier-Shoemaker 

 Seed Co., capital stock $50,000. An- 

 drew Shoemaker, incorporator. 



Chickasha, Okla. — J. E. Farringtou 

 has opened a seed store in the Ben 

 Johnson Building on Chickasha ave- 

 nue. 



Boston — Messrs. Chas. H. Breck and 

 J. K. M. L. Farquhar have gone to 

 Washington to attend the hearing on 

 the Mann seed bill. 



Sturgeon Bay, Wis. — The John B. 

 Davis Seed Co. has been incorporated 

 by John B. Davis, August Reiboldt, 

 Joseph Schauer and Joseph Wolter. 



St. Joseph, Mo. — Faber Seed Co., in- 

 corporated, capital stock $15,000. In- 

 corporators, Jas. B. Faber, Wm. P. 

 Graham, Thos. P. Graham and Horace 

 Stringfellow. 



Asbury Park, N. J.— The R. V. Crine 

 Seed Co., incorporated with a capital 

 stock of $400,000; to deal in seeds, 

 food products, etc. Incorporators, R. 

 V. Crine, J. H. Becker and J. N. Grant. 



Turney, Mo. — J. F. Althouse is to 

 open a seed store in the Turney Mer- 

 cantile Co. building. His business has 

 previously been conducted at his farm 

 near here. A line of farm implements 

 and hardware will be carried. 



Lompoc, Calif. — The Lompoc Seed 

 Growers' Association, a selling organ- 

 ization composed of California farm- 

 ers, has been organized. This asso- 

 ciation will control about 75 per cent, 

 of the California nuutard crop and 

 nearly the whole of the California 

 seed beans. John Houck, A. G. Ba- 

 laam and F. O. Harris are organizers 

 and officers. 



Full particulars of the damage done 

 in New York City by the great dyna- 

 mite explosion of February 1, have not 

 reached us. It is reported that the 

 entire front of Peter Henderson & 

 Co.'s new building was blown to 

 pieces. The majority of the seed 

 houses are located down town within 

 the limits where the greatest general 

 damage was done and we can hardly 

 expect that others exposed equally 

 with Henderson have escaped. We 

 liope, however, that later accounts will 

 show the injury to have been light and 

 in no case personal. 



