of the '\Yai- Up&\ tlu *<t<!' I ,',<lnt'ry.' 17 



seeds handled by them, to minimize the number of so-called 

 novelties, and to emphasize the standard varieties. This 

 was in keeping with the spirit of conservation that was so 

 much in evidence during the war. 



EFFECT OF THE WAR ON PRICES. 



Prices on practically all field and vegetable seed advanced 

 with the increased cost of production and marketing and in 

 sympathy with other agricultural and manufactured com- 

 modities. Commercial vegetable-seed growers had to pay 

 the small growers with whom they contracted considerably 

 higher prices, and additional help at roguing and harvest 

 time commanded much higher wages than have ruled in the 

 past. Because food crops were commanding such high 

 prices, small vegetable seed growers preferred to grow them 

 rather than vegetable seeds, and many growers were induced 

 to continue producing vegetable seed only after much higher 

 prices were offered them for doing it. 



Thus it was necessary for the commercial growers to ask 

 higher prices on their growing contracts with seedsmen. 

 In turn, seedsmen found that the cost of doing business was 

 greater and the risks assumed more hazardous. All these 

 factors were reflected in the higher prices at which seedsmen 

 catalogued their vegetable seeds for 1918. In Table 4, 

 compiled from a large number of retail mail-order catalogues 

 of representative seedsmen, the prices given represent retail 

 prices of standard varieties of seed for 1918, and for the 

 same varieties in 1917. The increase in prices of 1918 over 

 those of 1917 range from about 5 per cent on celery up to 

 260 per cent on Swede turnip seed, and average for the items 

 listed about 60 per cent. 



Prices on most of the field seeds were considerably higher 

 during the war than prior to it, but it is very difficult to de- 

 termine how much of the increase was due to the war and 

 how much to unfavorable climatic conditions. High prices 

 for food and hay crops were largely responsible for the re- 

 duction in the acreage of grasses and clovers cut for seed 

 purposes, and, with yields per acre equal to or less than the 

 average, the production of these seeds was decreased, a factor 

 which affected prices. 



