174 MASSACHUSETTS HORTfCULTURAL SOCIETY. 



gratified to hear Mr. Baxter's views in regard to advanced treat- 

 ment of forests. 



Notice was given that on the next Saturday Hon. James J. H. 

 Gregory, of Marblehead, would read a paper on " Growing Seeds 

 for Market." 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



Saturday, March 17, 1894, 



A Meeting for Discussion was holden at eleven o'clock, the 

 President, Nathaniel T. Kidder, in the chair. The following 

 paper was read by the author : 



Growing Seeds for the Market. 



By Hon. James J. H. Gregory, Marblehead. 



Fifty years ago the seed business of the United States was in 

 the hands of the local dealers and the few firms who carried on 

 what is known as the " box trade." The latter filled boxes with 

 small packets of seeds, and left them at country stores throughout 

 a wide district to be sold on commission. In this trade the 

 community called " Shakers" was prominent. The firm of Com- 

 stock & Ferre, of Wethersfield, Conn., also did a large business in 

 the Northern States ; and the Laudreths and Buist at Philadelphia 

 did the same in the southern part of this country. All of these had 

 an excellent reputation for reliability. As new firms increased, the 

 trade became demoralized, until the public believed that, by some 

 dealers, the same packets were offered year after year until sold, 

 as their power of germination seemed an unconsidered factor. A 

 fellow seedsman tells me that an agent of one firm acknowledged 

 to him that a certain package of parsnip seed was then on its 

 fourtli season's round, though it is a seed that is not reliable after 

 the first year. Some thirty years ago an agent of a firm in the 

 ]>ox trade sent me a circular containing wonderfully low quotations 

 for a numl)er of varieties of vegetable seed, explaining matters by 

 stating tliat while the seeds quoted were too old to vegetate they 

 would do to mix with new seed. As the seed sent out by the 

 Agricultural Department at Washington has often been criticised 



