1878.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



153 



liberality,aiid establish farmers' experimental 

 stations, &c., or wliat is better, raakiiiK a))- 

 proiiriations for such purposes, to be paid to 

 the different States upon compliance with 

 some stated rules and regulations. 



The Post-olliee Department has, however, 

 taken the plan for the most dire<-t discrimi- 

 nations and annoyances of which the farmer 

 can complain. 



The business of seed-ffrowing is becoming 

 of some importance, and some years ago 

 postage was reduced to eight cents a pound 

 on all seeds, cuttings and i)lanls. A yeai- or 

 two later the very last act of Congress changed 

 the law from eiglit cents to sixteen cents per 

 pound, the law taking innnediate etlect. Tlic 

 effect of the law was such that the mails at 

 some places became clogged with seeds that 

 could not be forwarded on account of the in- 

 sufficient postage that had been paid thereon. 

 It was only by a stretch of authority on tlie 

 part of the Po.stmaster-Gencral that a com- 

 plete dead-lock, or the throwing out of thou- 

 sands of dollars' worth of seed, was preventcil. 

 But the increase iu postage was the Unist evil 

 inllicted on our people, for the Canadians can 

 send seeds through our mail, and it ccsts 

 them but four cents postage, which is paid to 

 their government, not ours. Suppose that 

 one of our farmers goes into raising turniii 

 seed and can retail it at 50 cents per pound ; 

 if he wants to send it V)y mail he must ask Gti 

 cents per pound ; the Canadian is enabled, by 

 the liberality of our Oovernment to send it 

 for 54 cents, or in plain words, our Govern- 

 ment, through the Post-office Department, 

 enables the subject of a foreign power to 

 undersell our own people as much as twelve 

 cents on a pound of seed, which in case of 

 turnip seed amounts to about i>fenti/-jhr }Kr 

 cent., or if so minded the foreign subject can 

 make the larger proportion of the difference 

 and still undersell us. 



A very bad case of the want of care for the 

 interest of the people, on the part of the 

 Post-ottice Department, occurred during the 

 summer. For a few years past it has been the 

 custom to send queen bees through the mail, 

 they being received and forwarded as matter 

 of the third-class, on the payment of one cent 

 for each ounce. The department gave no inti- 

 mation, but all at once came the ruling that 

 queen bees are not mailable matter, and num- 

 bers of such bees, wortli from two to six dol- 

 lars each, were tlnown aside to die. Cotdd 

 not the department have notified postmasters 

 to receive no more bees, but to forward to 

 their destination such as were already iu the 

 mail V But what did it matter to the otiioials 

 at the head of the department. The annoy- 

 ance and loss fell simply on/ar»icrj> and others 

 engaged in rural pursuits. 



Tliis, it may be said, is not to discuss poli- 

 tics, but would it not be a little to the interest 

 of the farmers to see that more of their own 

 calling were to be seen in Congress. It is a 

 pity that the Granger movement so soon fell 

 into the hands of mere politicians, for it could 

 have accomplished vmtold good for the farm- 

 ers, had they seen to it that it be used only as 

 such, for it is a fact to be remembered, that 

 the farming comnmnity has such numerical 

 strength as to make itself felt and recognized 

 in every department of the Government, and 

 it only needs their intelligent action and co- 

 operation to secure such recognition. 

 How Many Seeds Grow. 

 The above caption is found at the head of an 

 article in the t>rkntilw Farmer for Septend)er. 

 It calls attention' to the printing on each 

 package, by the seeds, of their non-responsi- 

 bility for any loss or damage from an.\- failure 

 of the seeds, but that non-responsibility para- 

 graph is not printed of the packages to cover 

 bad seeds, as the article referred to seems to 

 imi)ly. 



A number of seedsmen had been sued for 

 damages, resulting from the .seeds not being 

 of the variety sold, two important cases being 

 as follows : 



One truck-raiser bought seeds of a variety 

 of cauliflower, but when they came up I be- 

 lieve they proved to be that of a Savoy (?) 



cabbage ; the trucker should have tried to 

 remedy the error, as he easily could have 

 done, i)ut instead he farmed the crop to the 

 end and brnught m a bill of damages, laying 

 it at so much a head for some acres of cauli- 

 tlower, which is one of the most uncterlain 

 crops to raise known. He knew that if al- 

 lowed by a jury that he could make more 

 money by damages than by a crop, and the 

 jury awarded the damages. The see<lsnien 

 tlieii printed the I'onditions. claiming that un- 

 prin<ii)led parties might not .sow the seed sold 

 to them. 



In the other case the man raised "wintered" 

 cabbage i>lants of the Early York variety, 

 and on being iilanted shot up into seeds in- 

 stead of forming heads. A suit for damages 

 was tlu^ result, but the seedsman showed con- 

 clusively to the court that tla^ man, being a 

 tierman, and not used to our el iinale, sowed 

 the seed from five to ten days too soon, and 

 tl-.at had he sowed at tli(^ later dales the cab- 

 bage would have headed. This being a plain 

 case, it was decided in favor of the seedsman, 

 as it should have been. WeS(!e thus that the 

 seedsmen are not to be wholly blamed for 

 their obnoxious conditions. 



As to the germination of the seeds there is 

 some ground for comiilaint; the journal re- 

 ferred to giving the results of some of the ex- 

 periments on their germination, made by Prof. 

 Beal, of the IMichigan Agricultiual College. 

 The number of seeds that germinated in fo\n' 

 different lots, from as many seedsmen, were 

 respectively 4'.), 47, .37 and -Jli out of every 

 hundred, which is a very bad showing. These 

 seeds were not purchased directly from the 

 seedsmen or they might have been better, hut 

 were such as are sold on commission at a 

 great many grocery stores. Speaking of these 

 commission seeds Prof. Beal says : "They are 

 sent around the country in the siiriiig and 

 gathered uj) late in autumn, we presume to b(>, 

 sent around again, in a similar manner, again 

 and again, till they are arc all sold. He who 

 buys them, in most cases, throws away his 

 money." Mr. Vick says that he once saw the 

 seedsof five different seedsmen at the door of 

 a store in a small village. Mr. Vick says, 

 "remarking to the mercliant that he must do 

 a large business in seeds, we were intbrmed 

 that lie only sold eight or ten dollars worth in_ 

 a year." Only eight or ten dollars worth of 

 such a iierislialile thing as seed sold out of 

 probably fifty or a hundred dollars worth! 

 Noljody could stand such a business as that 

 and oiler fresh goods! 



Prof. Beal compares the cloverseed on the 

 college grounds with that purchased from the 

 best seedsmen in New York city, and claims 

 that whil(! the college cloverseeds gave a result 

 of 90, <\-2 and 98 per cent., resiiectively, that 

 purchased iu New Y'ork gave only SS iier cent, 

 in common clover. It has to be taken into 

 consideration that the seed saved at the col- 

 lege iirobably received a great deal more care 

 tlian can be bestowed on the articles raised in 

 large (luantities for conunercial purposes. I 

 would say that 88 per cent, was a very good 

 showing. 



In the grasses the result from New Y'ork 

 seed was, timothy, i)(5 per cent. ; Hungarian 

 grass, ()7 per cent. ; in the other grasses, from 

 nunc at all in Kentucky blue grass up to ;)'.l 

 per cent, in orchard grass. 



Grass seeds are of two kinds : 1st. Those 

 that, like wheal, hull out of the covering or 

 seed-pod; timothy and Hungarian grass be- 

 long to this class; id. Those that like oats, are 

 covered with an envelope, and most grasses 

 belong to this latter class. Oats having a 

 large, heavy seed the lighter kernels can be 

 blown awav, and you have good seed oats. 

 In what are called the grasses, the seeds are 

 very light, and, of course, you have at all 

 times to .sow the bad seeds with the good; 

 l)ut, uuforumalely, this is not the worst, for 

 in nearly all these gra.sses, where there are 

 two or three grains with a kernel in them, 

 you will find as many, or jierhaiis more, that 

 have no kernels ; thi.s will be found to be the 

 case in the very best samples, as any farmer 

 can soon convince himself. 1 think that 23 



per cent, in red top and IW per cent, in 

 orchard gra.ss was at least a fair showing. 



I think Prof. Beal shoidd have called atten- 

 tion to this fact, for some persons not know- 

 ing this to be the casi; might make a trial and 

 denounce a seedsman lor poor seeds, when 

 they were the very best of that kind. 



Farmers should in all cases buy farm seeds 

 near home, if possible, and from neighbors, 

 if they have any who raise such seeds, and are 

 known to keep their crops cleau from weed 

 seeds. — A. B. K. 



PARIS LETTER. 



Paris, Sept. 7th, 1«78. 

 The irrevocable tendency of civilization is 

 from the Kast to the West. We have heard 

 that axiom before. The movement is from 

 sunrise to sunset ; so that, when "all earthly 

 things .shall come lo gloom" and "the sun 

 himself shall die," as the poet Campbell 

 gloomily sings, it will be in tlic remotest of 

 Occidents that fashion will exi)ire. The Palais 

 Koyal has only exi)erieuce<l the application of 

 a universal law. Fashionable civilization 

 spreading westward, spreading to innumer- 

 able new boulevards, spriMiding to the Pare 

 Monceaux, overruimiug the Champs Elysees, 

 and threatening to overlai) the Bois de Boa- 

 logne, has coutemiituously pronounced the 

 Palais Boyal, as things go, out of the world. 

 It is no longer a jilace to dine, to jjromenade, 

 to flirt, or even to cons|)ire in. It is too far 

 away. It is, fasliionably considered, at Pekin. 

 The great reslaurateus, A'efourx excepted, 

 have deserted the rnccinlc of the Palais Royal 

 for the western boulevards. The cafes are, 

 socially and intellectually, only the shadows 

 of their former selves; and, finally, the edifice 

 lias — temiiorarily iierchance — lost the slight 

 political importance which, under the .second 

 empire, it jiossessed. The side of the vast 

 tpiadrangle facing the Rue St. Honore is, as 

 most people know, a magnificent palace, east 

 the town residence of the Dukes of Orleans. 

 Tliither did the profligate cynic, Philippe 

 Egalite, turn sad eyes as the death tumbril 

 bore him through a floating mob, past the old 

 splendid home of his forefathers, to where the 

 guillotine awaited him, in the Place de la 

 Revolution, now the Place of Concord. And in 

 .Inly, 18:!(l, from the windows of that self-same 

 Palais Roval did theson of Egalite look wistful- 

 ly, half fearfully, half hoiiefiiUy on another 

 liiob. iKiuriiig. veiling and triumphant from the 

 Louvre, which' they had just sacked — screech- 

 ing the Marseillaise, roaring "\'ive la (Jharte!" 

 "Vive la Republiiiue !" " Vive Lafayette !" 

 "Vive Louis Philippe!" The last cry won 

 the day ; and Louis Philippe, Duke of Or- 

 leans, went forth from the I'alais Royal a 

 citizen king. Eightei-n yi'ars afterwards the 

 mob came back to his house to turn it out of 

 windows. The Palais Royal had, however, 

 enjoyed full twentv years of splendor. Even 

 before the re-establishment of the emi>ire it 

 had been the residence of old .Jerome Bona- 

 parte, ex-King of Westphalia, the brother of 

 Napoleon I., and the consort of the ill-used 

 Miss Paterson, of Baltimore, and whom his 

 Imiierial nephew, not knowing very well what 

 to do, made at last (governor of the Invalides. 

 The old gentleman was a Waterloo num—it 

 was his corjis that had ojiened the battle on 

 that fatal wet morning— and he had not be- 

 haved badlv in the fight. By the Parisians 

 he was geueiallv, in virtue of an atrociously 

 twisted conundrum, called " I'Oncle Tom," 

 since it was argued. Napoleon I. being 

 "le Grand Homme," and Najmleon III. 

 "le Petit Homme," old .Jerome must neces- 

 sarily stand in the relation of "Uncle Tom," 

 or ""t'homme " to the latter. His son. Napo- 

 leon Jerome, kept high state at the Palais 

 Royal, gaTe good dinners and bad cigars, and 

 hatched vain intrigues there against his 

 cousin and benefactor, until the empire tum- 

 bled to iiieces like a iiack of cards— cards 

 marked by gand)lers who had lost their cun- 

 ning and' could no longer '' sautcr le coup.y 

 \'erv dreary must be the saloons of the Palais 

 ]{oval Palace now. Verv dark and dismal 

 must be the empty stables and coach-houses 



