June 24, 1911 



HORTICULTURE 



913 



have spent mucli time and of their 

 means liberally, for the benefit of this 

 Association, as well as all other seeds- 

 men, and, as I have said in your hear- 

 ing before, no matter who you elect 

 for your President, no one man can 

 do all the work, and in tact can do but 

 little of it. Most of it must be done 

 by the various oificers, committees and 

 members, and no matter whether you 

 are an officer, member of a commit- 

 tee or not, each of J'ou have, or should 

 have a work to do, and if that duty is 

 well done, the Association will go on 

 from year to year, as it has in the 

 past increasing not only in members 

 but in quality, power and achieve- 

 ments. 



SECRETARY-TREASURER'S RE- 

 PORT. 



Secretary-Treasurer C. E. Kendel 

 made a detailed report of the minutes 

 of his office for the year, a summary 

 of which showed that the receipts had 

 been |L'526.16 and disbursements 

 $2453.20. The membership up to the 

 opening of this meeting numbered 

 164. 



Committees. 



The president appointed the follow- 

 ing special committees: On president's 

 address — Leonard H. Vaughan, W. S. 

 Woodruff, J. Chas. McCullough. On 

 obituary — Charles N. Page. H. W. 

 Wood, W. H. Barrett. Audit— S. F. 

 Willard. J. C. Robinson. J. Chas. Mc- 

 Cullough. 



Miscellaneous business matters oc- 

 cupied the balance of the session. 



TUESDAY AFTERNOON. 

 Soils and Fertilizers. 



The afternoon session opened with 

 the reading of a paper on the Rela- 

 tion of Soils and Fertilizers to Seed 

 and Crop Failures, ' by Dr. H. J. 

 Wheeler of the R. I. State College. Dr. 

 Wheeler spoke at length on the adap- 

 tation of weeds, grasses and miscel- 

 laneous farm crops to certain types of 

 soil. He told of twenty years' system- 

 atic studies carried on at Kingston, R. 

 I., of the effects of natural soil con- 

 ditions and of artificial cropping and 

 manuring upon the fate the various 

 seeds and seedlings. He reasoned that 

 questions of proper soil conditions and 

 the selection of fertilizers adapted to 

 the maintenance of certain crops may 

 often be of vital importance to the 

 reputation of the seed grower, seed 

 jobber and seed dealer. In fact, it 

 ■would be well if seedsmen were so 

 fully informed on points connected 

 ■with soils and fertilizers that they 

 could advise purchasers wisely in 

 order that they might make good use 

 of their seeds. 



Departments of the Seed Business. 



W. D. Ross of Worcester, Mass., 

 then read a paper on the advisability 

 of carrying "side lines" in the retail 

 seed store. He favored department 

 store methods, and recommended the 

 carrying of a large variety of goods in 

 order to meet the demands of the pub- 

 lic according to the business methods 

 prevailing generally at the present 

 time. Agricultural and garden imple- 

 ments, poultry supplies, bee supplies, 

 nursery stock, bulbs and plants, fertil- 

 izers, insecticides, etc., would all tend 

 to help through the dull season. All 

 this, of course, should be under the 

 direction of good department man- 

 agers. 



Seed Legislation. 



Curtis Nye Smith, counsel for the 



Association gave a talk on seed legis- 

 lation and the best way of combatting 

 same. Dr. C. D. Woods of the Maine 

 Agriculture Experiment Station fol- 

 lowed, and deprecated the use of the 

 term "combat." He said the best way 

 to handle a fractious mule is to get 

 so close to the mule that he can't kick. 

 In like manner the seedsman should 

 get close to the men whose duty it is 

 to legislate. He believed that seed leg- 

 islation would eventually be looked 

 upon as a good thing for the seed 

 trade. Dr. Woods' views were re- 

 ceived with applause and merriment. 

 Reciprocity. 

 George H. Clark of Ottawa was 

 called upon for some remarks on re- 

 ciprocity with Canada, and the prob- 

 able effect of free peas. He excused 

 himself from expressing any opinion 

 on reciprocity, other than to say he 

 thought it would be a mutual advan- 

 tage. As to peas he said that the dis- 

 tricts of northern Ontario are admir- 

 ably suited to pea growing, the sever- 

 ity of the climate being death to the 

 weevil. He believed that a well man- 

 aged seed laboratory would do much 

 to insure wise seed legislation. In 

 nine cases out of ten of complaint as 



Leonard H. Vaughan 



President-elo'-t AmericaD Seed Trade Asso- 

 ciation. 



to vitality, he had found that the fault 

 laid with the farmer himself. 



N. B. Keeney thought that reciproc- 

 ity would not make much difference 

 either way to the seed trade, and S. F. 

 Leonard expressed himself as satisfied 

 that reciprocity would prove bene- 

 ficial. 



Purity and Germination — Their Rela- 

 tive Value. 



Dr. Chas. D. Woods being called 

 upon on the above topic, replied that 

 the demand for vitality is much more 

 widespread and insistent than that for 

 purity, in seed tests. The trade should 

 regard the question of vitality percent- 

 ages as a very serious one, which the 

 laboratories have thus far failed to 

 solve. Results widely divergent follow 

 the lack of uniformity of method, and 

 until some basis of uniform testing 

 has been reached, everything possible 

 should be done to retard legislation 

 on this line. As soon as uniform re- 

 sults from the various testing stations 

 are assured then the seedsman can 

 say "go ahead." As to purity, how- 



ever, he thought the trade could ■well 

 stand on its record. 



F. W. Bolgiano followed Dr. Woods 

 with some remarks on the "purity" 

 question. He believed a central test- 

 ing bureau, conducted by disinterested 

 parties, would be a great help for the 

 seedsmen. F. H. Ebeling spoke of the 

 difficulties that would be encountered 

 in carrying on germination testing, 

 under extraordinary conditions, such 

 as have prevailed this season. 



A paper on Improvement in Grains, 

 by Prof. R. A. Moore of Madison, Wis., 

 was read, but Prof. Moore was not 

 able to be present. 



Dr. 'V^'heeler extended an invitation 

 to the members to visit the R. I. State 

 College at Kingston on their way 

 home. 



On Tuesday evening a social good 

 time was enjoyed, with music and 

 dancing, etc., in the parlors of the 

 Rock-mere. The Wholesale Grass Seed 

 Association in the meantime held a 

 special meeting. 



WEDNESDAY MORNING. 

 Seed Potatoes. 



After a number of committee re- 

 ports, etc.. Prof. Chas. D. Woods, Di- 

 rector of the Maine Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station at Orono, read a 

 paper on the "Proper Growing and 

 Handling of Seed Potatoes." This was 

 a very interesting paper and pro- 

 voked considerable discussion. Prof. 

 Woods stated that whatever criticism 

 his remarks conveyed was directed, 

 not against the handler, but against 

 the grower, who could do much bet- 

 ter if he were to try. The gi-owers 

 fail to use the best potatoes for seed 

 and they store their stock badly. Sec- 

 retary Kendel and F. C. Woodruff par- 

 ticipated in the discussion, Mr. Ken- 

 del considering the methods of cold 

 storage and favoring ice storage as 

 against artificial refrigeration and Mr. 

 Woodruff going on record as prophe- 

 sying that Maine potatoes would sure- 

 ly lose their prestige if the growers 

 were not careful. 



Peas and Beans. 



C. N. Keeney, of Le Roy, N. Y., 

 then took the platform with a paper 

 on "Peas and Beans; Future Proba- 

 bilities and Cost, Supply and De- 

 mand." There was no discussion on 

 Mr. Keeney's paper and on its com- 

 pletion adjournment was made. 



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. 



Wednesday afternoon's session was 

 "Executive" and no public report of 

 the proceedings will be permitted. 

 Telegraphic crop reports were a prom- 

 inent feature of the meeting, coming 

 as they did from widely separated 

 sections, and much interest was mani- 

 fested in this feature which was of 

 increased volume as compared with 

 last year and was replete with prac- 

 tical Information for the members. 

 On adjournment the visitors went — 

 some to the ball game and others to 

 a boat ride in Marblehead harbor. 



THE BANQUET. 



The banquet at the Rock-mere on 

 AVednesday was a most delightful so- 

 cial affair. Many of the ladies were 

 beautifully gowned in honor of the 

 occasion. The hotel did its part right 

 royally. After the coffee. President 

 Page took charge of the exercises and 

 in an eloquent manner expressed his 

 gratification at the success of the 



