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NEW TARIFF WILL 



BOOST TRADE'S COSTS 



Duties on horticultural products in the new tariff Mil are raised all 

 along the line. Those on nursery stock are doubled and those on bulbs, in 

 some cases, quadrupled. Flower and grass seeds are removed from the 

 free list, and vegetable seed duties are increased. 



1^ ;^ 



LL 6ranches of the horti- 

 cultural trade are hit by 

 the increases contained in 

 the F r d n e y tariff bill 

 which was reported out of 

 committee to the floor of 

 Congress last week.. Flo- 

 rists' importations of 

 bulbs, nurserymen 's rose 

 and fruit tree stocks, seeds 

 of all kinds — grass, vegetable and 

 flower — all will be subject to higher 

 rates of duty if the proposed bill goes 

 into force as it stands. 



Of course, there is always a chance 

 for revision in either the House of 

 Representatives or the Senate, for the 

 bill has just started on its way through 

 this gauntlet. But horticultural provi- 

 sions are not usually, or easily, altered 

 after a tariff bill has left committee, 

 when the larger interests dominate con- 

 gressional attention. Moreover, the 

 principle of the enactment of this tariff 

 bill by the Republican administration 

 is an increase of rates in general. Where 

 representatives of an industry hav3 ap- 

 peared before the ways and means com- 

 mittee and approved the present tariff 

 rate, the plan seems to have been to 

 boost the rate for the sake of that prin- 

 ciple. Where any sentiment has shown 

 itself in favor of higher rates, the com- 

 mittee has acted with the more alacrity. 

 Representatives of the Society of 

 American Florists and of the American 

 Association of Nurserymen expressed 

 approval of the prevailing rates when 

 they appeared before the committee. 

 The result is a doubling of the duties 

 on importations of nursery stock as- 

 sessed at specific rates and an increase 

 of one-third in ad valorem charges, and 

 florists, who only import bulbs now, 

 must pay markedly higher duties on 

 them, save in one case. 



Lily Bulbs Escape Balse. 



For some unknown reason lily bulbs, 

 which were dutiable at the rate of $5 

 per thousand under the old law, are now 

 set down as $4 per thousand. By this 

 florists will gain a reduction of twenty 

 per cent in tariff charges. But, by the 

 omission of the famous "s," tulip 

 bulbs are now dutiable at eight times 

 the rate formerly charged. In the old 

 law the paragraph read, "Tulips, nar- 

 cissus, begonia and gloxinia bulbs, $1 

 per thousand," and a customs ruling 

 was ol)tained to the effect that "tulips" 

 meant cut blooms and that tulip bulbs 

 would be covered by the classification, 

 "All other bulbs, 50 cents per thou- 

 sand." Now the paragraph plainly 

 reads, "Tulip, narcissus and hyacinth 

 bulbs and lily of the valley pips, $4 per 



thousand." Congress has learned its 

 lesson in English grammar! 



The Paper White narcissi, if they are 

 ever purchased from the profiteering 

 growers at Ollioules, will be assessed at 

 $4 instead of $1 per thousand if they 

 do not arrive in this country before the 

 new tariff law is passed. Hyacinths 

 are assessed at the same rate in the 

 proposed bill, but their climb is smaller, 

 from $2.50 to $4 per thousand. Lilies of 

 the valley will bear duty four times as 

 high as now, pips going from $1 to $4 

 per thousand and clumps from $2.50 to 

 $10. Crocus bulbs are doubled, from 

 50 cents, under the concluding blanket 

 clause of the paragraph in the old law, 

 to $1. All other bulbs which are im- 

 ported will pay, instead of the old rate 



New TariflF Duties! Compared 

 With Old 



BULKS— Old New 



Tulip $0.50 per M $4.00 per M 



Narcissus 1.00 per M 4.00 per M 



Hyacinth 2..')0 per M 4.00 per M 



Valley pips l.tK) per M 4.00 per M 



Valley clumps . . . 2.50 per M 10.00 per M 



Crocus 50 per M 1.00 per M 



I>ily 5.00 per M 4.00 per M 



AU other 50 per M 25% ad val. 



NURSERY STOCK— 



Rose stocks 1.00 per M 2.00 per M 



Fruit tree stocks. 1.00 per M 2.00 per M 



All other plants. 15% ad val. 20% ad val. 



SEEDS, GARDEN AND FIEl-D- 



Old, cts. New, cts. 



per It). per Ih. 



Beans 5/12 IVi 



Sugar beet free 1 



Other beet 3 4 



Cabbage 6 12 



Canary Vj 1 



Carrot 3 4 



Cauliflower free 25 



Celery free 2 



Kale 6 6 



Kohlrabi 6 8 



Mangelwurzel free 4 



Onion 5 20 



Parsley 3 2 



Parsnip 3 4 



Peas 1/6 % 



Pepper 10 15 



Radish 3 4 



Spinach 1 1 



Turnip 3 4 



Rutabaga 3 4 



Tree free 8 



Flowef free 4 



Other 5 20% ad val. 



SEEDS, CRASS— 



.\lfalfa free 2 



Alsike clover free 3 



Crimson clover free 1 



Red clover free 3 



White clover free 3 



Other clover free 2 



Millet free Vj 



Timotliy free 2 



Hairy vetch free 2 



Spring vetch free 1 



Other free 2 



SEEDS. Oir^BEARING— 



Castor Bean % % 



Poppy 32/100 32/100 



MISCELLANEOUS- 

 MOSS and sea grass, 



mfd. or dyed 10% ad val. 10% ad val. 



Teasels 15% ad vrI. 25% ad val. 



of 50 cents por thousand, an ad valorem 

 duty of twenty per cent. 



Seeds Off Free List. 



Flower, tree and grass seeds, as well 

 as some varieties of vegetable seeds, 

 which were on the free list in the last 

 tariff, arc all taken from that place and 

 given specific duties all the way up to 

 25 cents a pound, for cauliflower seed. 

 The change is shown by the table on 

 this page, which compares the old du- 

 ties and the new. The change, it is be- 

 lieved, was made on the appeal of seed 

 growers in various sections of the coun- 

 try to their congressmen. These grow- 

 ers asked for increased duties on vege- 

 table seeds and for a change from the 

 free list to the dutiable list of many 

 varieties of flower seeds now grown in 

 this country. Congress responded by 

 placing a specific* duty of 4 cents a 

 pound on all flower seeds. 



There may be efforts on the part of 

 seedsmen to change some of the duties. 

 The tariff committee of the American 

 Seed Trade Association, according to 

 the report of Chairman J. C. Vaughau 

 at the convention in St. Louis last 

 month, recognized the differences in the 

 desires of various interests in the asso- 

 ciation and made no effort to speak in 

 behalf of the seed trade before the ways 

 and means committee so far as rates 

 were concerned, merely upholding the 

 specific duty as preferable to the ad 

 valorem. Hearings by Congress in the 

 coming weeks will give members of the 

 seed trade an opportunity to voice their 

 wishes. 



The changes made in the rates on 

 garden and field seeds vary widely, 

 some being small and some quite con- 

 siderable, while some items remain the 

 same. The proposed rates vary all the 

 way from % of a cent to 25 cents a 

 pound. The blanket rate for garden 

 and field seeds not mentioned is twenty 

 per cent ad valorem instead of a specific 

 duty of 5 cents a pound as formerly. 



NcTV Ad Valorem Basis. 



There arc a great many novel provi- 

 sions in the proposed law. Chief among 

 these is the plan to base all ad valorem 

 duties upon imported merchandise upon 

 the value of comparable merchandise in 

 the United States. In the case of bulbs, 

 for instance, this is likely to prove diffi- 

 cult, for it is doubtful if there is anyone 

 in the government employ competent to 

 say what is the value of such products 

 grown in the United States. 



How the value of these foreign prod- 

 ucts is to be arrived at is set forth 

 in section 402 of the special features of 

 this bill. The present practice of bas- 



