ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT 87 



together with his staff of office assistants, devoted their 

 time incessantly to the work of securing a sufficient 

 supply of seed to operate the American factories. 



With every nation to be dealt with plunged into war, 

 diplomatic relations strained, commercial operations up- 

 set, transportation facilities in a chaotic condition and 

 devoted almost exclusively to conveying troops and 

 munitions of war, the maze of red tape which was en- 

 countered both in Washington and in foreign capitals 

 in securing export permits, the proper preparation and 

 filing of indemnity bonds guaranteeing that the seed 

 would not be reexported, the securing of British safe 

 sea permits and latterly the securing of ocean bottoms 

 in which to ship the seed from Russia was all but 

 endless. 



A meager 15,000 bags was secured from Germany 

 "as a special consideration to the United States." 

 Germany designated the companies and the quantity 

 of seed which each should receive. Although this 

 seed was furnished under the then existing contracts 

 at 8 cents per pound, in such desperate need of seed 

 were some American companies which did not par- 

 ticipate in the distribution, that they paid their more 

 fortunate competitors as high as $65 a bag for their 

 surplus seed. It appearing that no more seed could 



