December 1, 1917 



HORTICULTURE 



575 



AMERICAN SEED TRADE ASSOCIATION 



Officers — President, F. W. BoIbIbdo, 

 Washington, D. C. ; First Vice-Presiileot, 

 \Vm. O. Scarlet, Baltimore, Md. ; Second 

 Vice-President, David Burpee, Philadel- 

 phia, Fa. ; Secretary-Treasurer, C. B* 

 Kendel, Cleveland, O. 



THE PEA CANNERS AND THE 

 SEEDSMEN. 



A Record of Events Causing the Pres- 

 ent Seed Pea Situation. 



A few weeks ago when aimounce- 

 ment was made that the United States 

 Food Administration intended to regu- 

 late the distribution of seed peas for 

 the 191S planting, many in the seed 

 trade wondered why this action had 

 been taken. Although peas are an im- 

 portant crop and canned peas a staple 

 article of food, yet there are many 

 other crops that would seem to be of 

 greater importance than peas, that 

 should have the attention of the Food 

 Administration. 



With the idea of obtaining informa- 

 tion on this subject, The Seed World 

 has been conducting an investigation 

 In the matter, which has disclosed 

 some very startling facts that have led 

 up to the present situation. In this 

 article we are giving the true facts in 

 the case and in doing so we are not 

 prejudiced in any way. • 



To begin at the beginning, we must 

 go back to the spring of 1916, and re- 

 view a few happenings that occurred 

 then. At that time, the Wisconsin 

 Canners Association had succeeded in 

 having passed through the State Legis- 

 lature, an amendment to the State Seed 

 Law, which specified that seed peas for 

 canners' use must be sold in accord- 

 ance with the provision of Uie Wiscon- 

 sin Pure Seed Law. Having secured 

 this legislation, favorable to their in- 

 terests, the Wisconsin canners adopted 

 a contract form, which they proposed 

 to use in purchasing their seed peas 

 from the seedsman. 



The principal provisions in the con- 

 tract were as follows: 



(1) Amount delivered to be based 

 upon the seller's average for the last 

 five years. 



(2) That the product delivered 

 comply with the provisions of the seed 

 law of the State of Wisconsin. 



(3) Date and where grown to be 

 specified. 



(4) Germination test at time deliv- 

 ered. 



(5) Crop to be screened over sieves 

 having a mesh not smaller than a cer- 

 tain size. 



(6) Shall not exceed a certain per 

 cent by weight of impurities or foreign 

 matter. 



In effect this contract eliminated en- 

 tirely the disclaimer clause under the 

 provisions of wiich the seed has al- 

 ways sold its product. 



Following this action by the Wiscon- 

 sin Canners' Association a number of 

 representative seedsmen held a meet- 

 ing in Chicago on March 2, 1916, to 

 discuss the action taken by the Wis- 

 consin Canners' Association. After 



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carefully considering all the phases of 

 the position, the seedsmen reaffirmed 

 and endorsed the non-warranty clause 

 and recommended that all sales or 

 agreements of sale, "where the non- 

 .warranty clause was waived, that the 

 seller shall receive an additional pur- 

 chase price for the seed by way of in- 

 surance and so stated as a term of the 

 sale or agreement of sale, and that the 

 seller should be liable in any event for 

 not more than the purchase price of 

 the seed." 



This was not at all satisfactory to 

 the canning interests, as it can be 

 readily seen that in order to comply 

 with the contract adopted by the Wis- 

 consin canners, it was necessary for 

 the seedsmen to charge a slight addi- 

 tional price by way of insurance. After 

 forcing this contract upon the seeds- 

 men, the canners were unwilling to 

 pay the price that was deemed neces- 

 sary in order to comply with the pro- 

 visions of the canner's contract. 



The canners then determined to 

 eliminate entirely the seedsman as a 

 source of supply for their pea seed. 

 Accordingly, early in 1917. arrange- 

 ments were made by the Wisconsin 

 Canners' Association with growers of 

 seed peas in the far west, to grow for 

 the canners. their entire seed require- 

 ments tor the 1918 planting. By this 

 means the canners planned to become 

 entirely independent from the seed 

 trade as far as supplies of ^oed peas 

 were concerned and the Wisconsin 

 canners so informed the seedsmen 

 when they were approached by the 

 latter regarding seed contrai'ts in the 

 spring of 1917. At this tinio. the can- 

 ners stated that they were growing 

 their own seed peas and ilesired to 

 have no business coniiection whatever 

 with seed merchants from whom they 

 had always purchased their supplies in 



the past. 



The seedsmen, therefore, acting upon 

 the advice of the canners, did not plant 

 their usual pea acreage. As is well 

 known to the trade, it is the custom 

 of seedsmen to plant acreages sufficient 

 to take care of their contracts with a 

 small surplus left over to take care of 

 such small orders as may be received 

 during the season. 



The acreage planted by the seedsmen 

 in the spring of 1917, being greatly re- 

 duced, the seedsmen found after the 

 planting was completed that they had 

 considerable quantities of seed peas 

 left. Rather than hold this high priced 

 seed stock over for another year, this 

 leftover seed was sold for food pur- 

 poses. It is a well known fact and one 

 that can easily be proved, that thou- 

 sands of bushels of high-priced seed 

 pea stock was sold at the end of the 

 1917 planting season for food purposes. 



It should be remembered that these 

 conditions applied only to the canners 

 in Wisconsin. The canners m Ohio, 

 Indiana, New lork and other states, 

 placed their seed contracts as usual 

 with the seedsmen and the seed mer- 

 chants planted their acreage accord- 

 ingly to take care of these canners 

 and their other regular customers. 



This then was the situation up until 

 the time of harvest of the present year, 

 when the Wisconsin canners discover- 

 ed that the growers in the west had 

 experienced almost a total crop failure 

 and would be unable to deliver more 



ROBERT DYSART 



CER-nFIEO PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT 



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