290 



HORTICULTURE 



March 4, 1911 



Seed Trade 



The Pea Shortage. 



We are reliably informed that most 

 of the principal pea and bean growers 

 have conti acted to their limit on peas 

 and are now compelled to refuse fur- 

 ther orders on many of the leading 

 varieties. This applies both to can- 

 ners' peas as well as the garden 

 varieties and those used by market 

 gardeners. This is an unusual situa- 

 tion for thus early in the year, but 

 from information we had early, we 

 predicted this very condition. Those 

 who are proverbially the last to get on 

 the band wagon, may find it crowded 

 this year, and they may not secure a 

 foothold. In other words, those tardy 

 buyers who are never ready to place 

 their orders until very late in the sea- 

 son, may find difficulty in getting their 

 requirements accepted. 



Europe will not be able this year to 

 ease the situation as much as former- 

 ly, as we learn that most of the Eu- 

 ropean growers of peas are either al- 

 ready booked up or refuse to contract 

 for future delivery unless the price is 

 left open until harvest. This plan will 

 not prove very satisfactory on this 

 side of the water and those European 

 growers who insist on following this 

 plan, may not secure many contracts, 

 but may be able to offer their crop 

 after harvest, and should there be a 

 good crop this year, they may be sorry 

 they did not follow the usual course 

 instead of introducing revolutionary 

 schemes. 



The Bean Situation. 

 Beans are much easier than peas 

 and, in short, many seedsmen will 

 carry over some varieties, notably 

 Black Valentines. We have already 

 commented on the fact that this vari- 

 ety seems to be very abundant this 

 year, whereas every previous year 

 since its introduction, it has been in 

 very short supply and held at a high 

 premium over most other sorts. ^This 

 year the conditions are quite reversed, 

 as nearly every seedsman ordered 

 largely in excess of actual require- 

 ments to secure enough. A number of 

 them will doubtless carry sufficient 

 over to nearly or quite meet their 

 needs for another year. We presume 

 that the growers will be willing to ac- 

 cept contract orders on beans a^ late 

 as they are offered this season. 



Sugar Corn Deliveries. 



3Ve learn that deliveries of sugar 

 corn are very late this year, and that 

 growers are finding it difficult to 

 cure the corn sufficiently to make it 

 safe to shell and bag same. Nearly 

 all are delivering short, one or two of 

 the larger growers under .50 per cent., 

 while others range from .50 to 75 and 

 SO per cent. The late varieties are un- 

 doubtedly proportionately shorter than 

 the earlies, but nearly all are on the 

 short side. It has been stated that 

 the germination of sugar corn will be 

 rather low this year, many lots we are 

 informed, hardly testing 70 per cent. 

 This of course will cause considerable 

 disatisfaction from seedsmen and can- 

 ners, but the growers are in no wise 

 in fault, and wherever the blame rests, 

 it is not on them. 



Hotel Extortion. 



One of the aftermaths of the recent 

 Canners' Convention has been a large 

 number of complaints of over charges 

 by the Milwaukee hotels. To the av- 

 erage disinterested person, the habit 

 of many hotel men of extorting the 

 last farthing they can from guests dur- 

 ing such a time as a large convention, 

 is very short-sighted and is usually 

 followed by that particular convention 

 not caring to visit that particular 

 town again for a long time. Hotel 

 people are not in business for a day, 

 but to stay for many years and it 

 would seem to be the part of wisdom 

 as well as justice to deal liberally and 

 fairly with persons who book with 

 them during crowded periods. 



The Rochester hotel men are on 

 record in the signed agreement, not 

 to advance their rates to the canners 

 if they decide to hold their conven- 

 tion there next year, and from what 

 we know of the Rochester hotel men, 

 they will live strictly up to their 

 agreement. 



About Onion Sets. 



The bottom seeniK to have dro|)ped 

 out of the onion set market and deal- 

 ers are now offering good samples at 

 prices less than the first cost of pro- 

 duction, and it looks as if they were 

 competing as to who should be the 

 first to give them away. Here is one 

 instance where late buyers have it on 

 the early birds, but such instances are 

 rare, and only prove the rule that the 

 early buyer buys the best in the major- 

 ity of instances. 



Great Retail Trade in Prospect. 

 All indications point to an early 

 spring and this will doubtless bring oil 

 a great rush to the retail seedsmen. 

 This is what they are all eagerly look- 

 ing for, however, and if they can get 

 stocks sufficient to carry them through 

 the season, they will have cause to be 

 grateful, and doubtless will be able to 

 look back upon it as one of the best 

 in the history of the trade. 



Crop Conditions Promising. 



Ciop prospects both in this country 

 and Europe seem to be much better 

 than a year ago. There are a few com- 

 plaints to be noted from California, 

 but this is nothing unusual and does 

 not mean anything more than the an- 

 nual wail of the peach growers of 

 Delaware and Maryland. There have 

 been some complaints from Europe, 

 but generally speaking, conditions are 

 far more satisfactory than a year ago. 

 and certainly there are many empty 

 bins to be filled and most seedsmen 

 are hoping for good crops the coming 

 season, as reserves of most of the 

 standard seeds are at the lowest point 

 in many years, while many items are 

 wholly cleaned up. Good crops the 

 coming season will be welcomed by 

 the dealers no less than bv the pro- 

 ducers. 



Notes. 



Hamilton, III.— .1. I. Heisler is now 

 in the seed business, his place beins? 

 known as the Little Giant Seed Store. 



Mail order tiade we understand, has 

 improved very much in the past few 

 weeks and all large mail houses are 

 now working nights to keep up with 



their orders; in fact, night work has 

 commenced in many establishments 

 who do not make a specialty of mail 

 orders, which is the indication of a 

 very active season. 



The Canadian Seed Growers' Asso- 

 ciation closed its convention at Otta- 

 wa on February 17. The old board of 

 officers was re-elected. 



We have not definitely learned where 

 the next Seedsmen's Convention is to 

 be held and no change in the situation 

 has occurred so far as we know. As 

 to the next Canners' Convention, it 

 will undoubtedly go to Rochester as 

 previously stated in these columns, un- 

 less some conditions now unlooked for, 

 arise in the meantime. 



The Indianapolis, Ind. Star under 

 date of Feb. 18th, 1911 says, "Repre- 

 sentative Korbly is about to repeat 

 his seed act of last year, this time 

 franking two car loads of free seeds 

 to Indianapolis. But what became of 

 the eighty sackfuls mailed last year? 

 Did anybody plant any, or did any of 

 them grow if planted, or were they 

 fed to the chickens?" 



AN INTERESTING SUGGESTION. 



Jiro Ohtsuyama, a .lapanese garden- 

 er, writes that the Chemical Fertilizer 

 Co. of Boston has recently made an 

 imjjortant discovery regarding tubers, 

 which, at this season, will be of special 

 interest to planters. 



"Some time ago one of our garden- 

 ers noticed that the fibrous roots of a 

 turnip grew in two straight lines, on 

 opposite sides of the main root. We 

 proceeded to examine other turnips, 

 beets, radishes, carrots, parsnips, etc., 

 and found the same arrangement in 

 each case. To our surprise, we dis- 

 covered that these rootlets grew in the 

 direction of east and west, never north 

 and south, owing, perhaps, to the mag- 

 netic influence of the earth. Strange 

 as it may seem, this apparently sim- 

 ple fact has been hitherto unknown in 

 any country. 



"This discovery will facilitate the 

 raising of tubers in greater numbers 

 and with better results. As the fibrous 

 roots grow east and west, the rows 

 should run north and south, with 

 trenches between, so as to enable the 

 rootlets to absorb the fertilizer easily. 

 Thus the tubers may be planted close 

 together without interfering with each 

 other's growth. 



"In these days of high cost of living 

 such intensive farming vastly in- 

 creases the productivity of a limited 

 space of land." 



It is announced that at some perica 

 in the current year yet to be deeded 

 on, the ownersh'p and maragement 

 of the "Country Gentleman," cf Al- 

 bany, N. Y., will pass to the Crtl; 

 Publishing Company of Philadelphia, 

 and the connection of the present pro- 

 prietors and editors with tie pape ■ 

 will entirely cease. The paper com- 

 lileted last .lanua y iu egh ieth year 

 of continuous pnbl cation, not a single 

 issue having failed to appear on the 

 appointed day, and it has nev r 

 c-hanged hands during these fourscore 

 years except by descent from one gen- 

 eiation to the next, tte present o.\ners 

 being son ard grandsan of the founder 

 —a record which is bel eved to te 

 unparalleled, in this county p.t least. 



