2?2 



JOITBNAL OP HOBTICtTLTTJRE AXD COTTAGE GABDEI'?EB, 



C September 18, 1969. 



perfame ttll that coold be desired. I think Gloire de Dijon 

 will be a good stock for the MaierlaK I ha*o this 8ea«oD 

 budded it on Soareuir de Ma1ma:eoii and other Bosen. The 

 bad« have taker, but I ninst wait the letult.— M. H., Acklam 

 Hail, ]Uiddleihrough-onT<e4. 



ROYAL HORTICULTUPaL SOCIETY. 



FKCIT COMlflTTEE. 



As adjonmcd meeting of this Committee w«a held at Cbiswick on 

 the Uth inst., when the collection of Potatoes, which was reserved from 

 last me- tin^r. was&nbmiUed to the ComnjilUi-. after baring been cooked. 



Mr. Nasb. Tbrecbousehol(3s, near Slou^li. ttnt four rarit-'ties — Wiiite 

 Blosiiom was lIosb. waxT. and vtrr inftrn^r in qnahtv; Uyatt's Asb- 

 leat. verr excellent ; Prince of WaUbboild flonry. bnt is Jeficienl in 

 flaronr ; Karly Rose boils white and flonry, but has a Tcry objection- 

 able flavonr. 



Mr. Headley. of Staplcton, sent a seedling Kidney Potato of medium 

 size aiiJ good form ; when cooked it is of rather a deep yellow, rery 

 flonrj-, and possesses an excclient llaToar. 



Mr. Fryer, of Chatu;ri.=;, g€Lt Kon-^h lied, which is a fiDe-flavoored 

 and fionry Potato ; bat a great objection to it i& being go deep in the 

 eye, nectr?sitatinp so mnch waste in peeling. 



Mr. Walton, gardener to K. Pottle. Esq., sent a seedling, called 

 Walton's Late Kidney. It is a fine-looLing Potato, but was not ripe ; 

 the tJavoar was excelient ereu then. 



Me«=r=. J. Carter & Co.. Holbom. sent Early Rose Potato. These, 

 like tho=e stnt by .Mr. Xasb, boiled white and tloury, but they, too, 

 had the =ame objectionable and disagreeable flaronr. ' In tho opinion 

 of the Comm^ittee, this is an inferior Potato for table nse. 



Mes£r>. Stoart <t Co.. of Nice, sent a seediiog Melon, called Tri- 

 ompbe Je Xice — a large, round, yellow, promiuently-netted, green- 

 fleshed fruit, with great thickness of flesh, and with a rich flaronr and 

 fine aroma. It was awarded a flrst-class certiflcate. 



ADULTERATION OF SEEDS BILL. 



Is Cin'incauon of oor extract respecting garden seeds from 

 the blae hjvk lelative to thi:^ Bill, wu give this week the 

 EviOENCi: OF Ma. Daxiel Nash. 



Mr. SaA'w-LEFKvp.E. — You aie a partner io the firm of Minier, 

 Kash, A: Nash, seedsmen of London ?— Yes, of the Strand. 



Hare yoa for many years been engaged in the seed trade ? — Yes, 

 upwards of forty years. 



Has your business been mostly of a wholesale character ? — Mostly 

 wholesale ; but we hare done retuil. 



And Toa hare paid some attention to the question now before the 

 Committee? — Y'es, I have giren it the best attention in my power. 



And in the end of June la=t yon presented a memorial to the Board 

 of Trade agiunst certain clauses of this Bill ? — I did. ioasmnch as I 

 thoQEiht that the form of the Bill was such that it would create the 

 utmost possille confusion in the trade, and that there would be an 

 enormous aiiionnc of dilKcnlty in any person wanting to swear that 

 snch-an>i-sni:li <^e«ds bad a proportion of adulterale/l seed amongst 

 them, althocsh if yon were to see a sample, in bulk, of killed T»imip 

 seed, or adulterated Clover seed, von would say, " Yes, that is adulte- 

 rated." 



I apprehend that what yon wish to say is this, as regards adnlteration, 

 that tiiough in balk it is rery easy to t*ll whether the seeds hare been 

 doctored or hare been killed by the process that we hare heard of, yet, 

 when the kiUed seeds are mi.Ted in small quantities with genuine seeds, 

 it is exceediucly difficult to tell their presence ? — I would hardly say 

 that it is ea^y to tell it in bulk : in some kinds they do it so nicely ; I 

 consider that in some cases it is almost impossible for a person to eay 

 on examination whether there l3 seed which has been kiiKd to represent 

 Tormp =eed, or coloured Trefoil to represent Clorer : when it is mixed 

 in the bulk in the small proportion that is put in, I think it would be 

 impossible for any one to go into tho witness-box and swear that there 

 was any killed or eilnnrp^l ^c^A. 



You c -.'.*• ■ •■ - •. jjg pi^pcnt form there would 



be com: " sellers of seeds on the ground 



that CO! ; ■. against them, and charges 



produced wiiiiout jus: can^e ; — Yes : it was on those grounds that I 

 took the Ubcrty of writing a letter to the Board of Trade stating that I 

 thought I mi^Iit give some hints that wonld make the Bill more efifec- 

 tire; I wa^ j.inl. nlarly anxious to Lave a Bill fordoing away with the 

 adalter.ition i-f seeds ; it w.is done, no doubt. originaUv, to get some- 

 thing like a fair avenice growth, for seeds rary rery mnch in one year 

 aa compared with another : I hare known the germinating power of 

 them to be in one year 40. and the next y« ar i^ per cent. 



Yon are now speaking of the process of mixing old and new seeds 

 t4^ther ? — I am speakin^of mixing killed seeds particularly : I do not 

 thuik it is possible for a man to say with certainty that the seed is 

 adulterated with killed or coloured seed. 



Yon agree with prerious witnesses, that the custom of mixing killed 

 seeds has existed of late years to some extent ? — Y'es. 



In your opinion, is the practice as prer&lent aa it was or not ? — I do 

 not think it is ; I think that there has been a general improrement in 



the trade, and I think that now. though there are cheap Bellan. no 

 doubt, as in all trades, if yon take the great bulk of the trade, leeda 

 are sent out now in the ordinary way rciy much better than they wero 

 twenty rear* ago. 



Have yon found any di£calty yourself in buying pure samples of 

 seed ? — We hare our Seeds grown for ua expressly. 



I think you grow them under contract 7 — We grow them by contract ; 

 I do not do much in Clorer seed ; I sell pounds where some of the la^ga 

 Borough bouses wonld sell tons : that is their trade. 



Do you deal in Turnip seed largely ? — Very largely. 



Then yoo can speak with reference to that class of seed ? — Yes ; and 

 I think there is consideral-le difliculty in saying, and it would be almoct 

 an impossibility to say. that Ruch-and-sucb seed was adulterated with 

 killed seed ; killed seed and old seed come so close. 



Has there been, in your knowledge, a considerable mixture of old 

 seed with recent genuine seed for the purpose of adnlteration '.' — I will 

 not say that it is for the purpose of adulteration ; bat it is a common 

 practice to mix old seed with new seed ; and for this reason, that wa 

 cannot get an arerage growth without resorting rery fre<|aently to tha 

 seed of the prerious year, or the year before that. 



Therefore, in conse^jaence of that, in a bad barrest. you are obliged 

 to mix one-year-old, or two-year-old, seed with the new seed for the 

 purpose of increasing the arerage, and. I suppose, sometimes yon 

 reduce the arerage by the same process ? — Y'es, that is precisely the 

 way in which the thing got into use at flrst ; our inrariable practice ia 

 to test the growth of any seed of any importance when it comes in, and 

 if the seed is beyond what you may call a fair arerage growth of ita 

 year, then yon bring it down. 



By mixing with it old seed? — By mixing with it either old seed or 

 killed seed, as the case may be ; but if, on the contrary, it is below what 

 you consider the arerage, you resort to the seed which you hare in 

 hand ; if we bare had two consccntire bad years for Carrot seed, sav, as 

 you cannot make Carrot see*^. or buy it, you must take it as it comes ; 

 tben it ia the custom of the trade to say that it would be nece.^^.^ary to 

 sow such-and-such a seed " thicker than usual.'' or " much thicker 

 than usual :" the great object of the trade is to keep their seeds as 

 nearly as they can at one arerage growth. 



Can yon tell us what that^arerage growth is ? — It Taries very mnch 

 in different rarieties. 



Take the case of Turnip ? — It will grow from SO to 00 per cent. 



Mk. Pell. — Is that Swede ? — Swede or White Turnip ; taking the 

 arerage of seren years, I think that Onions at the extreme would not 

 grow more than ftDper cent- : we endearonr to get that. Take the case 

 of Broccoli and Cabbage : they come about the same as Turnip seed, 

 not quite so mnch ; then look at Cauliflower, that is an article that 

 ripens rery late, generally in the month of September. Last year 

 Cauliflower up to the month of August looked one of the most promis- 

 ing crops I erer knew, but whether from heat or drought that seed 

 generally collapsed, and what little was sared was of such inferior 

 growth that it was good for nothing rirtually ; you hare to take that, 

 therefore, o? roar arerage of seren years : I say that Cauliflower will 

 not arerage 5o per cent. ; Mr. Murray said that different seeds razied 

 very much in their growth, and there is no doubt of thaL 



Then I understand from you that it has been the custom of your 

 trade to mix the seeds of sereral years U^gether in order to produce an 

 arerage germinating power? — Y'es. 



And that in some cases that has been airired at by mixing Idlled 

 seeds with genuine seeds ? — Y'es. 



But you think that that process is not carried out to the same extent 

 as it used to be ? — I think that, taking the larger amount of seed sold 

 there is no doubt that there is a larger quantity of seed killed, but then 

 the increaf^e in the sale of Tcmip and Mangold Wurtzel seed has been 

 enormous fir the last twenty years. 



Do you think that the arerage standard of germinatins power daring 

 the last few years has been lowered or not? — I think it has been 

 increased. 



Then vou siizned this memorial to the Board of Trade on the ground 

 that you' considered that the Bill, as it now stands, would subject the 

 Sellers of the seed? to possible persecution ? — I did. Might I be allowed 

 to state that, in the tirst instance. I had drawn out that memori.il. and 

 intended only to strike out clauses 1 and 5. and hare notLing to 

 do with the importatim of seed, but I conrersed with some gentlemen 

 at Mark Lane one Monday, the rery gentlemen who hare their names 

 down as Promoters of the Bill, and who hare since said that they signed 

 that memorial under a certain restraint as it were, and I pnt that 

 clause referring to importing killed or dyed seeds in. in order to meet 

 their objections as far as I conld. not that I thought it of much value ; 

 I wished to do away with the killing of sceJs. 



Y'ou wi,hed to confine the Bill to the prerention of killing? — Yea, 

 killing and dyeing. 



And not to tonch the seller of seeds, on the ground that it would not 

 be possible in eridence to prove with certainty whether killed seed or 

 naturally dead seed had been mixed in the sample ?— That is precisely 

 what I wish to state. 



De. Platt-UB.— Whatisthe great adrantage of obtaining an arerage? 

 — That farmers and market gardeners should hare no dilhculty in get- 

 tins what you may term an average crop. 



Do the farmers attach rery much value to that arerage ? — I do not 

 suppose that they eren know it. 



SuppOGing that there is a great advantage in obtaining that aven^> 



