70 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



With the exception of the common meadow fescue and June 

 grass, America depends almost entirely upon Europe for every 

 grass mentioned above, and seeds as worthless as those enumerated 

 are frequently sold in our stores. There is a law preventing 

 America from sending bad pork and beef to Germany, but there 

 is no embargo to prevent Germany and other foreign countries 

 from dumping their poor seed upon our market, a jDractice which 

 prevails to an alarming extent, accounting in a very large measure 

 for the dodder, Russian thistle, and other dangerous weeds which 

 infest our country. 



Grass seeds are not the only ones which are apt to show very 

 low germinating averages. Perhaps, on the whole, flower seeds 

 are still more inferior in this respect. Here I Avish to relate a 

 personal incident by way of illustration. One of m}^ very first 

 recollections recurs to a time when my parents, who had gone to a 

 neighboring village to make some purchases, took me with them. 

 As we Avere leaving a " general " store, I found a ten-cent piece 

 upon the floor. My people were poor, and this was the first 

 money I had ever touched with my own hand, — almost the first I 

 had ever seen. Taking it to the store-keeper he remarked that since 

 the owner was unknown I was as much entitled to it as any one, 

 I need not stop to tell you my feelings, which, however, doubtless 

 those of you who were brought up in the country in humble cir- 

 cumstances can appreciate. Being very fond of flowers it did 

 not take me a moment to decide what to do with the ten-cent 

 piece. Standing before the counter with the most glowing feelings 

 I had ever experienced I called for ten cents' worth of flower 

 seeds. Selecting a package labelled " China Aster," I rode home 

 with great expectations of the beautiful, large flowers which I 

 should obtain from that seed. 



My father, liaving been a practical farmer nearly all of his life, 

 made a flower bed with the greatest care and planted the seeds 

 with equal solicitude. Then I did what thousands of people do 

 every year — waited for them to come up. This was thirty 3^ears 

 ago, and not a single one of these seeds has come up yet. The 

 keenness of my disappointment finally turned to disgust, from 

 which I have never fully recovered. 



The following germination tests of flower seeds purchased 

 from prominent American seedsmen were made in onr labora- 

 tory : 



