SEED CONTROL. 71 



A(jeratum coni/zoides 

 Double hollyhock . 

 Fine mixed verbena 

 Japan primrose 

 Moonflower 



A lot of seed bought by us and labelled Salvia splendens (scar- 

 let sage) did not contain a single seed of that species. Nearly 85 

 per cent was seed of a much cheaper and less showy species, both 

 seed and plant being very different from Salcia splendens, the 

 seed of which costs about twelve dollars a pound at wholesale. 

 The balance of the sample, 15 per cent, was discolored lettuce 

 seed bearing a casual resemblance to the Salvia, but it had appar- 

 ently been " killed " so that it did not germinate at all. The 

 whole circumstance indicated deliberate fraud somewhere. 



T^'he main reason for tlie frequent poor quality of flower seeds 

 is the fact that not rarely the same stock is offered for sale year 

 after year. The custom of putting up flower and vegetable seeds 

 in small packets and sending them out in boxes to small store- 

 keepers throughout the country, accounts for a very large per 

 cent of the seed that never comes up. Seed from these boxes 

 is often offered to the ]3ublic long after it is capable of growing. 

 ]\Iuch of the flower and vegetable seed received from abroad in 

 bulk, and put up in this way after reaching America, is of a low 

 vitality wlien our seedsmen get it, and does not improve by 

 remaining in a country store a few years, nor even if it is re- 

 turned to the seedsman each year, mixed with other seed and sent 

 out in a new box. 



Hon. J. J. H. Gregory, the well-known seedsman, in an excel- 

 lent address delivered before this Society two j^ears ago, speaking 

 of the abuses of the seed trade, said that the agent of one firm 

 acknowledged that a certain package of parsnip seed was on its 

 fourth season's round, although this seed loses a great proportion 

 of its vitality after the first year. He also mentioned a circular 

 received by him thirty years ago from an agent of a firm in the 

 box trade, offering certain varieties of vegetable seed at a wonder- 

 fully low price. The agent added that although the seeds were 

 too old to sprout they would do to mix with new seed. Judging 

 from some of the vegetable seed we have tested Ave are afraid that 

 same agent is still in the business. 



