3136 



SEEDS AND SEEDAGE 



SEEDS AND SEEDAGE 



This is the estimated area contracted for by growers 

 especially for seed, but in the case of many crops, such 

 as melons and peas, the amount of seed grown is greatly 

 increased by crops which were originally planted with 

 the intention of selling them as green vegetables, but 

 which because of market conditions are allowed to 

 ripen and are harvested and sold as seed. 



WILL W. TRACY. 



The seed trade of America. 



The history of the seed business in colonial times is 

 largely one of importation from Holland and England, 

 when small hucksters carried a few boxes of popular 

 seeds with an assortment of drygoods, foodstuffs, or 

 hardware. Corn, barley, peas, onions, fruits, and 

 vegetables, necessaries in fact for direct use, first 

 claimed the attention of the colonists. Toward the end 

 of the eighteenth century we begin to find references 

 to the saving of stock seeds, and in the newspapers of 

 the day are a number of advertisements of shopkeepers 

 who dealt in seeds. Agricultural seeds were an article 

 of commerce as early as 1747 (Pieters), clover, onions, 

 beans, peas, carrots, cabbage and cauliflower, and 

 others, being raised for seed in the colonies at that 

 time, though chiefly imported. At that time Boston 

 did most of the business. Among the earliest adver- 

 tisers of seeds for sale were Nathaniel Bird, 1763, a book- 

 dealer of Newport, R. I. ; Gideon Welles, "on the Point," 

 1764; Samuel Deall, a dealer in general merchandise in 

 New York in 1776; William Davidson of New York in 

 1768, while in Philadelphia, in 1772, we find one Pela- 

 tiah Webster advertising clover and duck-grass seed; 

 James Loughead, "colly-flower" seed in 1775, while 

 David Reid kept a general assortment. 



It was not until the opening of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury that America began to find that seeds could be 

 grown here as profitably as they could be imported. 

 Grant Thorburn, in New York, and David Landreth, 

 of Philadelphia, seem to have been the largest dealers 

 at that time. Thorburn's was perhaps the first busi- 

 ness of importance devoted entirely to stock seeds, 

 although this honor is disputed by the descendants of 

 David Landreth. Thorburn, in his autobiography, 

 says that he began his business by buying out the stock 

 of one George Inglis for $15, Inglis agreeing to give up 

 the market and to devote himself to the raising of seeds 

 for Thorburn. This is but one of many small begin- 

 nings from which has grown a trade which now 

 amounts to many millions; and this relation between 

 seedsmen and growers is largely typical of relations 

 which have obtained in the trade ever since. 



With the development of the railway and the postal 

 service the business grew rapidly, new land was found 

 suitable for different varieties of seed, and a letter 

 could carry to the countryman the garden seeds for 

 his yearly consumption. There is probably no trade 

 which has been more widely benefited by cheap postage 

 and improved mail facilities, but of late years the dis- 

 tribution by Congressmen has tended to negative this 

 benefit. The originally beneficent distribution of free 

 seeds to pioneers and needy settlers was a form of agri- 

 cultural encouragement against which there could be 

 no criticism, but it has degenerated into an abuse, 

 which is estimated to have taken a trade of some 

 $4,000,000 during the past two or three decades out of 

 the hands of the men who have built up the business. 



Grant Thorburn's catalogue of 1822 was the first to 

 be issued in pamphlet form, and it was the pioneer of the 

 many finely and carefully illustrated catalogues with 

 which we are familiar today. These catalogues have 

 been largely instrumental in facilitating the speciali- 

 zation of the industry and its subdivision in the hands 

 of the country dealer, who buys seeds at wholesale, 

 combining as they do the most complete lists and illus- 

 trations of varieties with directions as to methods, con- 



ditions, and seasons for planting. They are distributed 

 in hundreds of thousands. Up to 1844 the wording on 

 the bags was written by hand, a laborious and expen- 

 sive process, which of itself is an indication of the small 

 volume of the trade at that date. 



With regard to the export of seeds, A. J. Pieters' 

 admirable report for 1899 in the Yearbook of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture may be taken as the best informa- 

 tion up to that date, and it indicates the development 

 of the business in its earlier years. He says in part: 

 "The statistics of exports date from 1855, and no sepa- 

 rate records of imports of seeds were kept before 1873. 

 Clover and grass seeds, especially timothy, have always 

 taken the lead in the seed export trade, and until recent 

 years garden seeds have not been a considerable factor 

 in the total values. In 1825 some 10,000 bushels of 

 clover seed were exported to England within a few 

 months. How long this trade had existed we do not 

 know. From 1855 to 1864 there is no record of any seeds 

 exported except clover, but the value of exports increased 

 from $13,570 in 1855 to $2,185,706 in 1863, the war 

 apparently having no effect on the trade. The total value 

 of the clover seed exported during this period aggre- 

 gates $5,393,663. In the ten years ending with 1880, 

 clover seed was not separately entered except in the 

 last year, but the total exports of seeds amounted dur- 

 ing that period to $20,739,277. The aggregate was 

 increased by more than $3,000,000 before the end of 

 1890. From 1891 to 1898 there has been a slight reduc- 

 tion in the average annual value of seed exports and 

 also in the amount of clover and timothy seed sent 

 abroad." The value of "flower and vegetable seeds" 

 reported in the Thirteenth Census (for 1909) is 

 $1,411,013 as against $826,019 for 1899, an increase of 

 above 70 per cent. Aside from this are grass seed to a 

 value of $15,137,683 in 1909, not including beans, peas, 

 and miscellaneous seeds. "Other grains and seeds" 

 altogether (aside from "cereals") had a value in 1909 

 of $97,536,085. (See Tracy, page 3135). 



The importation of staple garden seeds had largely 

 decreased by 1870, and with the exception of a few 

 staples in agricultural and flower seeds, America may 

 be said to have become to a great extent self-supplying. 

 The greatest development of this industry has taken 

 place since the close of the war. In 1878 J. J. H. Greg- 

 ory estimated that there were in all 7,000 acres devoted 

 to garden seeds, while the census of 1890 showed that 

 there were 596 seed-farms, containing 169,850 acres. 

 Of these farms, 200 were established between 1880 and 

 1890, and it is likely that about 150 more were started 

 during the same period. The census returns, however, 

 do not give the actual acreage devoted to growing seeds. 

 As many seeds are grown by those not regularly in the 

 business, it is probable that census returns as to 

 acreage are under rather than over the mark. The 

 statistics available in the United States Census are 

 very imperfect, partly owing to the lack of a continuous 

 system in presentation, both in the returns of home 

 industry and also in custom-house returns, but chiefly 

 to the reluctance of seedsmen and growers to make 

 public the results of their business methods or even the 

 methods themselves. 



The following table will give as close an estimate as 

 can be made of the present annual cost of the chief 

 staple garden seeds handled in America: 



Garden peas $1,500,000 



Garden beans 400,000 



Onion seed 500,000 



Lettuce seed 250,000 



Cabbage seed 200,000 



Sweet corn 300,000 



Tomato seed 150,000 



Radish seed 125,000 



Turnip seed 60,000 



Beet seed 25,000 



Celery seed 6,000 



Miscellaneous seeds and flower seeds 250,000 



Sweet peas, flowering 200,000 



Probable invoice cost of imported garden seeds. 2,000,000 



