SEEDS AND SHOOTS 



THE COMMERCE IN SEEDS 



Once a matter of home-growing and supply, the trade in 

 seeds and bulbs has come to be a business of sufficient volume 

 in the United States to warrant separate statement in the 

 Census. The total value of flower and vegetable seeds pro- 

 duced in 1909 was upwards of $1,400,000, as compared with 

 $826,000 ten years earlier ; of clover seed, $6,900,000 in round 

 numbers as against $5,359,000 ; all grass seed, $15,137,000 and 

 $8,228,000. These figures represent the value of the seed 

 crops themselves, but they are at the same time an indication 

 of the vast agricultural croppage they supply with seed and of 

 the notable increase in general crop-growing. Aside from 

 these reported estimates, the aggregate of seeds grown and 

 saved in the home garden and in the field for home use would 

 undoubtedly surprise us if it could be known. 



The increasing total value of seeds probably does not indi- 

 cate alone an increase in production. Seeds are intrinsically 

 more valuable decade by decade because more carefully grown 

 and bred. Formerly plant-breeding was mostly a question 

 of producing new kinds or varieties; its significance now lies 

 more in the bettering of existing varieties by means of careful 

 and rational selection, whereby yield is increased, as well as 

 quality and uniformity of stand. The importance of seed- 

 breeding is now so well accepted in the public mind that the 

 discriminating planter of staple crops no longer asks merely 

 for "seeds" any more than the stock-raiser asks merely for 

 "cows" ; the quality of the seeds is as important to the corn- 

 grower as is the quality of the cows to the dairyman. Many 

 persons now make a particularity of breeding seeds of staple 

 crops with care and skill ; this business will increase in volume 

 and importance. 



So essential is seed production to the welfare of the people 

 that governments have enacted laws for protection against 



