712 



HOKTICULTURi: 



May 13, 1911 



Seed Trade 



Pea Prospects Good. 



The planting of peas for seed pur- 

 poses has been nearly or quite com- 

 pleted, and while they have gone into 

 the ground somewhat later than a 

 year ago conditions generally are 

 very favorable and everyone in any 

 way interested including the growers, 

 the seedsmen and the canners, are de- 

 voutly hoping tor a good crop this 

 year, 'there is certainly need of it, 

 as there are no reserves carried over 

 and the abnormally high prices of the 

 past year or two have discouraged and 

 irritated buyers to a great extent. Of 

 course the growers have been the 

 chief losers by the repeated short crops 

 they have had, but when seedsmen 

 and canners have had to pay double 

 prices for seed and then found diffi- 

 culty in securing it, they are naturally 

 disposed to grumble and criticise the 

 seed-grower, however innocent he may 

 be. 



Good Demand for Onion Seed and 

 Seed Potatoes. 



The seed trade has noted with a 

 great deal of satisfaction that onion 

 seed has been in good demand this 

 season, and that what promised to be 

 a surplus early in the winter has been 

 greatly reduced or altogether wiped 

 out, and as a rule the trade will carry 

 over but very little onion seed into 

 the coming year. This demand has 

 largely been due to the very high 

 prices at which onions have been sell- 

 ing, and in this connection it may be 

 noted that, notwithstanding the high 

 price of large onions, onion sets have 

 been selling at the lowest figures in 

 many years. In fact there really was 

 no market price as holders appeared 

 glad to accept any offers submitted. 

 Seed potatoes also have been improv- 

 ing in value, and those who are likely 

 to carry any surplus will no doubt be 

 able to dispose of the same for con- 

 sumption at a price that will let them 

 out without loss. This is certainly a 

 great improvement on, the conditions 

 of last year, when they could scarce- 

 ly be given away. 



Present Weather Conditions. 



Weather conditions, while not al- 

 together ideal, have been fairly good 

 for the past week or ten days. While 

 there were frosts two or three nights 

 of last week little serious damage has 

 been reported, due mainly to the back- 

 wardness of vegetation in general. In 

 the vicinity of New York and through- 

 out the east quite generally rain is 

 badly needed, and while conditions are 

 not at all desperate, moisture will be 

 required soon or crops certainly will 

 suffer. Conditions are largely re- 

 versed from those of a year ago when 

 there was a superabundance of rain 

 during most of the month o£ May, to 

 be followed in mid-June by intense 

 heat and drought. It was this condi- 

 tion of the weather that produced the 

 change in the pea crop of last year, 

 resulting in almost a failure. If we 

 can only have a reasonable amount of 

 moisture and not too much heat during 

 June we shall have a fairly good crop 

 of peas the coming season, which as 

 already stated, everyone is hoping for. 



supply and prices on the standard va- 

 rieties are likely to reach new high 

 levels before the close of the present 

 season. This especially applies to the 

 purple-top strap-leaf and the purple-top 

 globe varieties. We have recently 

 been informed of a purchase of several 

 thousand pounds by one of the large 

 jobbing houses at 24 cents, and it 

 looks now as if 30 cents will be con- 

 sidered a low figure for the globe va- 

 riety before the next sixty days have 

 passed. Fortunately conditions in Eu- 

 rope are more favorable for a crop of 

 most biennials than a year ago, which 

 will probably bring prices down to a 

 more normal level in 1912. There ap- 

 pears to be plenty of spinach and oth- 

 er seasonable seeds, though there will 

 doubtless be a shortage in certain va- 

 rieties of the green pod varieties of 

 string beans, notably the Burpee 

 stringless. 



Garden Produce Outlook. 



If one may judge of the future by 

 the quality of seed planted this spring 

 it looks as if green peas should bring 

 strong and exceptionally high prices 

 the coming season, and in fact, garden 

 sass in general should be in good de- 

 mand at profitable prices. 



Fate of New York Seed Bill. 



There are indications that the 

 vicious seed bill introduced in the New 

 York State Legislature the past win- 

 ter, and against which the Seed Trade 

 Association has waged valiant battle, 

 is likely to fail of passage at this ses- 

 sion, even if not killed outright. How- 

 ever vigilance should not be relaxed 

 until the measure is done for, as mori- 

 bund bills have a disagreeable habit 

 of often "coming back" to vex the 

 souls of those they are aimed at. 



Too Much Muchness. 



Are we not in danger of being so 

 straight sometimes in onr demand for 

 purity and germination that we may 

 fall over backwards? ' Take the 98 per- 

 cent purity proposition. We get a 

 sample of seed and we clean it and 

 clean it and clean it — put it through 

 the mill and sieve a dozen times, each 

 time reducing the original bulk and 

 doubling the cost with loss of weight 

 and cost of labor. What happens? We 

 have seed that is so costly that nobody 

 can afford to buy it. Not only that but 

 some of the most valuable seeds have 

 been blown away. It is not always the 

 heaviest seeds that are the most val- 

 uable. We have lost much of the pe- 

 rennial character of ryegrass and red 

 top just through this method. Instead 

 of bragging about the increase in the 

 weight per bushel on these and oth- 

 er seeds, we ought to consider wheth- 

 er we are not changing these valuable 

 grasses from grasses into grains. Take 

 Avena elatior for instance, would you 

 want to make it into oat? 



Turnip Seed Going Up. 

 Turnip seed is again in very short 



American Seed Trade Association. 



The officers of the American Seed 

 Trade Association have aiTanged for a 

 new and important feature of their 

 program at their next annual meeting 

 to be held at Marblehead, Mass., on 

 June 20-22. This will be telegraphic 

 reports from most of the growing sec- 

 tions of the United States. These re- 

 ports will be given when the Associa- 

 tion is in executive session and will 

 be strictly private and confidential to 

 the members of the Association only. 



Undoubtedly these reports will be of 

 great interest to all the seedsmen 

 and they will not be published. 



Notes. 



New Ulm, Tex. — The seed house of 

 Kellner & Co. was burned to the 

 ground recently. Loss about $1,000. 



Des Moines, Iowa — The Iowa Seed 

 Co. has begun work on the erection of 

 a large conservatory and four green- 

 houses. The conservatory will be 40 

 X 125 feet, two of the greenhouses 

 will be 21 X 125 and two 26 x 185. 



Mr. E. L. Page, President of The 

 Page Seed Co., of Greene, N. Y., and 

 also President of the American Seed 

 Trade Association, left Greene on Sat- 

 urday, May 6th, for a business trip 

 through the west and to California. 

 He is expecting to make as quick a 

 trip as possible and probably will re- 

 turn about the 20th to 25th of this 

 month. 



Reports from France indicate that 

 the crop of crimson clover seed in 

 that country will be an average one 

 and that prices are likely to be 

 about the same as last year. Orders 

 are now being booked for July-August 

 delivery. The alfalfa crops are also 

 in promising condition and the highly- 

 prized Provence strain of this clover 

 will be available, as usual, but at no 

 reduction in price as the demand 

 keeps increasing faster than produc- 

 tion. 



CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 



Good & Reese Co.. Springfield, O.— 

 General Plant Catalogue. "The largest 

 rose growers in the world," are not 

 limited to roses, as this catalogue 

 plainly shows. Foremost in this 

 year's novelties is the grand new 

 Nephrolepis Roosevelt, which is ad- 

 vertised in this issue of HORTICUL- 

 TURE. It is a winner. 



MICHELL'Sl^d 



ARC GOdo 



ScDd for Wk«leMie Price Lbl 

 ^li and 1018 Market S(>rhiU. 



AsparaeuH PIumo§us $3.00 per 1,000. 

 SPRENGERI $1.00 per 1000. STRAW- 

 BERRY CCAVA .20 cts oz. SMILAX 26 Ct» 

 per oz. All from niy own piantb. 



C. H. Gardiner, South Pass&dena, Calif. 



QUAUlYm? 



^ 8KND JOB.OATAIiOdUE 



ARTHUR % BODDINGTON 



SEEDS 



BULBS 



For Immediate Planting 

 Finest Florist Strains 



BUDS 



C. R. CLOECKNER, Pres. 



76 Barclay Street, New York 



