50 



HORTICULTUEE 



July 13, 1912 



Seed Trade 



The Bourne Bill. 



The following copy of a letter sent 

 to Senator Penrose, by W. Atlee Bur- 

 pee, on July 9th, speaks for itself. 

 Seedsmen and catalogue trade men 

 generally will find in it much food for 

 thought: 

 Hororable Boies Penrose. V. S. Senate, 



Washington, D. C. ,, , . v 



Dear Sir:— Having been called home oy 

 wire from Calitornia I could not remain as 

 intended in Chicago for the Annual Meeting 

 of the American Seed Trade Association 

 then about to convene. Calling to pay my 

 respects to the president, Mr. Leonard 

 Vaughan, you may imagine my surprise 

 (and disgust) when he handed me a copy of 

 the enclosed circular. 



It seemed almost impossible to believe 

 that the Senate Committee on Post Offices 

 and Post Roads, of which you were so long 

 the able chairman, could even eenously 

 consider such a measure as the Bourne 

 Bill (S 6850). Even its author, the Hon- 

 orable Jonathan Bourne, Jr., of Oregon, 

 surely must admit upon second thought 

 that it is little short of the ridiculous to 

 make a rate of 12 cents for 7 ozs. of third 

 or fourth class matter when the same 

 weight of first class mail at full letter 

 postage would cost only 14 cents. 



Such legislation would seem almost to 

 justify the thought of extreme radicals 

 that this is not a "Government of the peo- 

 ple, by the people, or for the people." 



The passage of this Bourne Bill would 

 mean practically the rnin of the business 

 to which I have devoted thirty-six years of 

 strenuous work. It would spell ruin also 

 (or necessitate complete reconstruction) of 

 thousands of others in the seed and book 

 business, as well as to houses in many 

 other lines who now depend upon the mail 

 to distribute catalogs as their "Silent 

 Salesman." The injury to lithographic, 

 printing and allied trades would also be in- 

 calculable. 



The first edition of our retail catalog in 

 December each year is more than four 

 hundred thousand copies. These, weighing 

 8 ozs. each, are now conveniently mailed 

 and routed direct from The Burpee build- 

 ings without trouble or labor to the Phila- 

 delphia post office, the wrapper containing 

 each catalog bearing the indicia 



4c. Paid. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



Permit No. 6. 



With stamps affixed this catalog is mailed 

 also all over the world,~at the same rate 

 of 8 ozs. for 4 cents. Now, by Senator 

 Bourne's so-called "Parcels Post Bill" the 

 cost of postage upon a large percentage of 

 the issue would be trebled. — 12 cents In- 

 stead of 4 cents. Is there any reason for 

 the United States wanting to charge three 

 times the rate recognized and long estab- 

 lished as fair by every civilized nation, — 

 on b<ith books and pamphlets? 



The government of the United States 

 recognizing that seeds like books must 

 frequently be ordered by mail and that 

 their proper distribution is vital to the 

 welfare of the people, established the same 

 rate two ounces for one cent. We would 

 welcome an increase in size of packages 

 from four pounds to twelve pounds, but 

 neither ourselves or our customers could 

 be expected to welcome an increase of fifty 

 per cent in charge for the service, — to- 

 gether with rates on small packages that 

 are absolutely prohibitive. We would cer- 

 tainly (as would all seedsmen and pub- 

 lishere) prefer to have four pound packages 

 remain the limit at the present rate. 



At the rate of 12 cents per pound for two 

 thousand miles or more it is hardly likely 

 that the P. O. Department would get much 

 business as the present prepaid express 

 rate to California is only 8 cents per pound, 

 —unless, as is quite likely, the express 

 companies profit by the opjiortunity to ad- 

 vance their rates. 



Trusting that you and the other mem- 

 bers of the committee, including Senator 

 Bourne himself (to whom copy of this let- 

 ter is mailed) may realize the injury this 

 bill would work upon your fellow-citizens 

 and also the protest that would be aroused 

 should its passage be recommended, I re- 

 main. 



Sincerely yours, 



W. ATLEE BURPEE. 



A MESSAGE FROM LONSDALE. 

 Dear Editor: 



Herewith you will please find a pho- 

 tograph taken by David Burpee on the 

 Burpee Floradale seed ranch here in 

 the northern part of Southern Cali- 

 fornia, which is located between seven 

 and eight miles from the Pacific 

 Ocean, so that we are less or more sub- 

 jected to ocean breezes every day in 

 the year. The evenings, nights and 

 early mornings are generally calm and 

 always cool. Temperatures rarely rise 

 higher than 50 degrees at night and 

 are more often below that mark than 

 above, which makes Ideal conditions 

 for the production of sweet pea and 

 some other seeds. The rainfall was 

 short this year, barely reaching eight 

 inches, whereas last year we had four 

 times that number of inches. If we 

 could only regulate conditions so that 

 we would have not less than ten inches 

 each season — and fifteen would be bel- 



aud earlier if the land may be pre- 

 pared in time (in an experimental way 

 for the present). 



We have a number of novelties on 

 trial at Floradale, but as same are 

 also on trial at Fordhook I will re- 

 frain from referring to them at this 

 time, because I know that will be at- 

 tended to by your Philadelphia repre- 

 sentative, George C. Watson, a sweet 

 pea enthusiast from away back in the 

 eighties when Henry Eckford began to 

 attract attention as a sweet pea ex- 

 pert and disseminator of practically 

 all the novelties in the older grandi- 

 flora types in those early days. I 

 shall watch with interest your col- 

 umns to learn about the behavior of 

 some of the newer Spencerised novel- 

 ties which are now growing at Flora- 

 dale. 



It surely was a boon to all lovers 

 of sweet peas when the original Coun- 

 tess Spencer was first class certificat- 



Among the White Spencers at Lompoc 



Reading from left to Tight — Lester L. Morse. Pies. C. C. Morse & Co., San Fran- 

 cisco; Hugh Dickson, Belfast, Great Britain; H. M. Kirby, N. Y., Peter Hen- 

 derson Co.; E. E. Burggerhof, N. Y.. J. M. Thorburn Co.; James Cantlay; A. 

 Lehman, Lompoc; Edwin Lonsdale; Miss Cantlay and Clifford Cantlay, Lompoc; 

 Miss Beatrice Kennedy, niece of Mr. and Mrs. Burpee; W. Atlee Burpee, "The 



ter- 



Chief"; Douglas Earl, son of H. M. 

 -we could then work to much bet- 



ter advantage; and if we could further 

 control conditions so as to have rain 

 commence in October and end in 

 April, at intervals during that term 

 the working of a seed ranch would 

 then be ideal for sure. 



The time must come when irrigation 

 will have to be resorted to, so that, 

 after harvest, water applied to the 

 land intelligently would aid in the 

 preparation of the land for future 

 crops and especially those which 

 should be planted early. If the land is 

 fully charged with moisture in the 

 rainy season, which is winter time, 

 there is no necessity for irrigation in 

 summer time, that is to say in Lom- 

 poc, for sweet pea seed crops. By re- 

 ferring to the photograph it will be 

 noticed how very short the sweet pea 

 vines are in this short year of 1912. 

 In 1911 the vines grew four times the 

 length and in 1910 about two and a 

 halt times, the difference being in the 

 amount of rainfall. 



From observations during the past 

 two seasons it would indicate that it 

 is a mistake to sow sweet peas after 

 first week in February, for seed grow- 

 ing purposes, and to commence plant- 

 ing as early as possible in November, 



Earl; W. Atlee Bui-pee, Jr. 



ed in 1901. Nothing in the whole 

 floral kingdom has given us so many 

 new and meritorious varieties in so 

 brief a period as has this type of the 

 sweet pea and the end is not yet! In 

 the very short time which the writer 

 has been so closely identified with the 

 development of sweet peas he has 

 noted some remarkable advances made 

 in this, the most popular of all flower- 

 ing annuals. Some varieties are more 

 difficult to keep true to type than 

 others, but this adds zest to their cul- 

 tivation; the possibility of something 

 new appearing causes us to be ever 

 watchful hoping to secure a valuable 

 prize. 



EDWIN LONSDALE. 



CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 



Texas Nursery and Floral Co., AI- 

 vin, Texas.— 1911-1912 Price List of 

 trees and shrubbery. 



Burnett Bros., New York City. — Mid- 

 summer Catalogue of Pot-Grown 

 Strawberry Plants. Seeds, Bulbs, etc. 



Alma Nurseries. Oudenbosch. Hol- 

 land.— Trade Catalogue, 1912-191.3, The 

 Horticultural Company, Worcester, 

 Mass., agents. 



Mt. Desert Nurseries. Bar Harbor, 



