458 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
American farmers—a useless waste of money, and an unjustinter- 
ference with the business of our seedmen. 
We had hoped that it would meet witha stronger protest from ; 
Secretary Wilson, but his advertisement inviting bids for seeds, 
bulbs, etc., for the next distribution specifies only the most common 
kinds, such as beets, carrots, cabbage, celery, cucumber, melons, 
squashes, etc., all of which are on sale in every village or can be 
procured of any seedman at very low prices, saving much expense 
to the government and doing away with much favoritism. Besides, 
the contracts are often to parties of whom we would not care to 
purchase at any price ; and again, they are often sent out so late in 
the season that they cannot be planted with safety the same year, 
and the favored recipients who depend upon them are cheated out 
of a garden, 
Mr. J. C. Walker: There is no question but what this free 
distribution of seeds has been misused, but the object is a good 
one. It is the object and purpose of the government to import 
a large amount of seeds and acclimate various fruits to adapt 
them to this country. The government is importing fruits 
year after year ; it has brought many varieties of apples from 
Russia and has brought fruits from other parts of the world 
‘that have been of great benefit to our country, and if this free 
distribution of seeds were stopped it would cut off the free 
distribution of everything in the way of seeds and fruits. I 
think a great deal of good comes from the distribution of seeds 
when conducted in a proper manner. There are some people 
who depend on their member of congress to supply them with 
seeds and get seeds from the government every year in that 
way which otherwise they would not get. 
Mr. Wyman Elliot: I have been somewhat familiar with 
this free distribution of seeds, and I have received a great 
many of them, but I have never yet received any benefit from 
any that I have received from the department at Washington, 
and now that we have experiment stations and sub-experiment 
stations, would it not be wise to first test those seeds at the 
experiment stations, and whenever they recommend any 
varieties that are worthy of distribution, let those be the kinds 
to distribute in the states in which the seeds have been tested. 
It seems to me that that would be the proper course to pursue, 
and not take everything haphazard as the department sends it 
out. 
Mr. J. S. Harris: I received four lots of seeds of the 
earliest kind of flint corn. I planted it, but I lacked enough 
to finish the piece, so I got enough from Wyman Elliot to 
finish it. The corn from the seed I received from Washington 
