52 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY [1912-13 



his fancy. The peach, the plum, and the cherry, were intro- 

 duced into Italy by Lucullus, who brought them from China. 

 Later they were introduced in this country. 



Some of our finest melons and tomatoes come from Naples, 

 and are admitted to be the best that can be produced. 



In Switzerland, large tracts of land are devoted to the culti- 

 vation of narcissi, and many varieties of grasses. These grasses 

 are all of the very best, and those which are to be used by other 

 countries are put under the Zurich test, which is admitted by 

 all scientists to be the superior of all other tests, and has been 

 adopted by Germany and other countries as a test for their 

 grasses. 



Egg-plant, tomatoes, artichokes, celery, and melons, are the 

 seed-producing plants which are most in demand, and which 

 are grown in Italy. 



There are acres of land in Switzerland which are devoted 

 entirely to the production of petunias for seed. Rich, fertile 

 soil does not produce the best seeds; it is the sandy soil of 

 Switzerland and other countries which produce the finest seeds. 



A bill was recently introduced into Congress, by a professor 

 of Amherst, which desired the standard of purity in seeds 

 raised. That standard is now 75%, and the bill proposed to 

 have it raised to 97%. Mr. Farquhar said that if this bill 

 was passed, the seed business would decline, for it is almost 

 impossible to procure seeds of more than 75% purity. 



There are many different machines for the separating of 

 seeds; those which separate the good from the bad, the different 

 kinds from each other. Mr. Farquhar said that in time per- 

 haps there might be a machine so acutely constructed as to 

 separate the different seeds from each other by their color. 



In Germany there are dozens and dozens of farms, owned by 

 seed houses, each one devoted to the production of certain 

 kinds of flower or vegetable seeds. In one of these, where 

 petunias are raised, the fertilizing is done by girls and women 

 with camels'-hair brushes. Other farms are devoted to the 

 production of zinneas, gloxinias, begonias, and cucumbers, 

 and fuchsias. 



