476 



TheWeckly Florists' Review. 



July 12. 1606. 



Hasslach & EouMANiLLE, St. Remy 

 <le Provence, France, are introducing 

 :Solanum Commersonii Violet. 



Rochester seed houses report the bulb 

 •season opening better than last year and 

 ^all orders coming in better than usual. 



The Pacific Seed Growers' Co. and 

 the Cox Seed Co., which were burned out 

 in the San Francisco disaster, have re- 

 established city headquarters at 2077 

 flutter street. 



At the onion set centers they are pre- 

 dicting a short crop on account of the 

 dry weather, which experience has shown 

 produces an excellent quality but of too 

 small size to "bushel up" well. 



Seed houses which are large handlers 

 of bulbs report that approximately fifty 

 per cent of their orders for bulbs for 

 fall delivery in San Francisco have been 

 canceled since the disaster. 



The market for Paper Whites and 

 French Romans is holding steady but 

 not advancing. The French syndicate 

 -seems to have heeded those who say it 

 would be impolitic to continue the ad- 

 vance of the past two or three years. 



Sutton & Sons, the well known seeds- 

 men of Reading, England, announce that 

 on May 1 Phillips F. Sutton, second son 

 of the senior partner, joined the firm, 

 which now consists of Martin J. Sutton, 

 Arthur W. Sutton, Leonard Sutton, 

 Martin H. Sutton and Phillips F. Sutton. 



A Chicago concern has been debarred 

 from the use of the mails because it ad- 

 vertised a preparation by the use of 

 which vineless potatoes could be grown 

 in the bin. A large business was being 

 done with the credulous before the issu- 

 ance of the fraud order, July 3. 



Advices from central New York are 

 to the effect that the pea crop for can- 

 ning is so irregular that it is impossible 

 to give any estimate of its probable 

 size. About Utica the crop is very poor, 

 further west it is better, while in the ex- 

 treme western portion of the state it 

 promises a good output. But even in 

 the best sections there are fields that 

 are almost a failure, while where the 

 crop is poorest there is occasionally 

 found a field of excellent promise. 



HENRY V. WOOD. 



Henry W. Wood's active connection 

 with the seed business dates back to the 

 year 1879, at which time his father, the 

 late T. W. Wood, founded the present 

 business of T. W. Wood & Sons, at 

 Richmond, Va. T. W. Wood continued 

 as the head of the Arm up to the time 

 •of his death, last year, but during the 

 latter years of his life had practically 

 given over the active management of the 

 "business to his sons. 



From the very incipiency of this busi- 

 ness, Henry W. Wood has always been 

 actively engaged in it. In fact, the busi- 

 ness was originally started from the de- 

 sire of Henry W. Wood in his boyhood 

 days to learn and follow the seed busi- 

 ness for an occupation. T. W. Wood 

 baving been engaged in the grain and 

 seed business in England, and, after 

 coming to this country, having engaged 

 in farming, the experience obtained in 

 this way gave a most excellent founda- 

 tion for the starting of the present busi- 

 ness. 



Henry W. Wood has always taken an 

 active part in agricultural and business 



Henry W. Wood. 



affairs, and was for two years president 

 of the Virginia State Agricultural So- 

 ciety, conducting while in office a most 

 successful ten-days' exposition. He is at 

 present a member of the board of di- 

 rectors of the Richmond Chamber of 

 Commerce, also a member of the Rich- 

 mond Grain and Cotton Exchange. He 

 has been quite active in all matters per- 

 taining to the interests of the seed trade, 

 the firm of T. W. Wood & Sons having 

 joined the American Seed Trade Asso- 

 ciation almost at its beginning. He is 

 a member of the board of directors of 

 the Wholesale Seedsmen's League, aud 

 took quite an active part in the campaign 

 which was carried on against the free 

 seed distribution during the last year. 



Mr. Wood is now at the head of the 

 firm of T. W. Wood & Sons. The cata- 

 logues and advertising of T. W. Wood 

 & Sons have for the last eighteen years 

 been prepared by him or under his imme- 

 diate supervision, and the catalogues 

 published by this firm have long been 

 noted for the clear, practical information 

 which they give in regard to the culture 

 and uses both of vegetables and farm 

 crops. 



SEEDS IN THE YEARBOOK. 



To the seedsman the Yearbook of the 

 department of agriculture is always of 

 considerable interest. This year the con- 

 tribution to which the trade will turn 

 is the paper by A. J. Pieters on "The 

 Business of Seed and Plant Introduc- 

 tion and Distribution. ' ' It loccupies 

 sixteen pages of the 815 in the book. 

 Mr. Pieters says of congressional free 

 iseeds : 



"In 1839 congress appropriated 

 $1,000 to be used by the commissioner 

 of patents in collecting agricultural 

 statistics and for the purchase of seeds 

 of new and rare varieties of plants. 

 This was the first appropriation pro- 

 viding for a work, which during the 

 fiscal year 1906 requires an appropria- 

 tion of $290,000. 



' ' With the increase in the number of 

 packages annually assigned to senators, 

 representatives, and delegates in con- 

 gress, it became increasingly difficult to 

 obtain seeds of new varieties in sufficient 

 i|uantities, and to a greater and greater 

 extent those of standard varieties were 

 substituted. 



' * The distribution of vegetable and 

 flower seeds on congressional orders now 

 is the largest single business this office 

 has to handle. The total number of 

 packets put up and mailed during the 

 fiscal year 1905 was 35,773,400. These 

 were assembled into packages of five 

 packets each, making 7,110,680 pack- 

 ages. The seed purchased to fill all 

 these^ packets was enough to fill twenty- 

 eight cars of 30,000 pounds per car. 

 The work of packeting begins about 

 . ovember 1 of each year and is com- 

 pleted before the end of the April fol- 

 lowing, the greater part of the work 

 being done in a little more than four 

 and a half months of this period. If 

 we consider the work to extend over six 

 months 500 packets are put up every 

 minute of every working day of eight 

 liours during that time. During much 

 of the time as many as 1,000 packets per 

 minute are put up. 



"The secretary of agriculture has 



