GROWING SEEDS FOR THE MARKET. 185 



Seed raising on a large scale, and at the low prices caused by 

 keen competition, will let down the bars of carefulness, and iu 

 order to make a living profit, the seed-grower will be compelled to 

 raise his seed with little care for purity or quality of stock, 

 isolation in growth, or the care necessary in the drying to preserve 

 its generative power. Hundreds of careful field trials of so-called 

 Danvers onion seed have demonstrated the fact that in the general 

 stock of seed in the market there is more or less of red and white 

 onions, while in shape they are of all grades, from the round 

 Danvers down to the flat Strasburgs ; and although there are some 

 excellent exceptions, there are very many thick necks and scullions. 

 Such results accord with the experience of the leading vegetable 

 dealers in Boston markets. They will also tell you that the best 

 onions iu the market are raised between Boston and Newburyport. 

 There is no branch of agriculture or horticulture in Massachusetts 

 that needs more encouragement than does seed growing. As a busi- 

 ness in New England it is fast being extinguished, or is removing to 

 the West. The large firms which used to grow all their seeds in New 

 England have either gone West, or, if still here, have the largest 

 part of their seed raised at the West How can it be otherwise? 

 How can we, at their prices, compete successfully with their richer 

 soil, and cheaper labor — for the field work there is largely 

 done by females, or, as in California, b}^ cheap Chinese labor. 

 By better selection from stock grown on land not so rank as the 

 rich soil of the West, New England still clainis superior excellence 

 for her home-grown seed. There is no such exhibition of fine 

 vegetables made at any fair outside of Massachusetts as is yearly 

 shown in the rooms of this Society ; but they are not raised from 

 Western-grown seeds. It is possible that the Society may 

 continue to have its exhibitions of fine vegetables without lifting a 

 finger to encourage the raising of home-grown seed, because so 

 many of the exhibitors raise their own seeds. But ours is a State 

 and not merely a Boston Society. The agriculturists of the State 

 at large must depend on Western seed, if home-grown seed cannot 

 be obtained. The Society now generously encourages the raising 

 of fine vegetables. Why should it not encourage the raising of 

 good seeds, which are necessary for the growing of fine vegetables? 



The announcement for the next Saturday was a paper on 

 "Vegetables Under Glass," by William D. Philbrick of Newton 

 Centre. 



