"7'i!-'i ;'."■;.•. 



Skptbhbbb 7, 1911. 



ThcWeckly Florists' Review. 



39 



Harvesting Onion Seed on the Farm of the Kimberlin Seed Co., Santa Clara,!-Cali 



Chinamen, and a photograph of such a 

 crew at work is difficult to obtain, as 

 the Chinese have a belief that to be 

 photographed leads to misfortune. The 

 seed heads of the onion have to be 

 handled carefully, to avoid losing the 

 seed. The man grasps the head with 

 one hand and cuts the stem with the 

 other. As the heads do. not all ripen 

 at one time, two or more pickings are 

 necessary. In the case of lettuce the 

 whole plants are cut and these are 

 stacked together on large sheets of 

 canvas, where they are permitted to 

 dry until ready for threshing. These 

 finer seeds are threshed out on the 

 sheets with the flail. 



Though no rain falls during the sum- 

 mer months, there is no irrigation of 

 the seed fields, but thorough cultiva- 

 tion is employed to hold the moisture 

 from the winter rains until the crop 

 is made. In preparing the ground, if 

 the soil lumps any after plowing and 

 harrowing, the roller is used and one 

 large grower has rollers so designed 

 that they follow the cultivator between 

 the rows in later operations. This ex- 

 tra fining of the soU he finds makes 

 two cultivations equal in effectiveness 

 to three without the roller attachment. 



In plowing these large areas steam 

 tractors are used, turning six or eight 

 furrows at a time. At the same time 

 the large amount of hand work later 

 required makes the work more like 

 gardening than farming. In the old 

 days of long credits one of the growers 

 spoke of onion as a three-year crop. 

 "One year you plant the seed, the next 

 year you plant the bulbs, and the third 

 year you get some money — maybe,'' 

 was the way he put it. 1 



POSITION OF DISCLAIMER. 



Must be Brought Within Letter. 



Acting as a result of an item in the 

 Seed Trade Department of The Eeview, 

 a committee of the American Seed 

 Trade Association, aften an investiga- 

 tion of court decisions, has sent out a 

 report to the effect that, to have legal 

 standing as a part of the contract, the 

 seed trade disclaimer should be printed 

 on the letter-head between the date 

 line and signature, or else there should 

 be within the body of the letter a direct 

 reference to the disclaimer if printed 

 elsewhere on the letter-head. The com- 

 mittee recommends the latter course as 

 having certain advantages over the 

 former. 



History of the Case. 



The attention of the trade was first 



called to the matter by a note in The 



Review for July 28, 1910, as follows: 



An attorney whose Bpeclalty is commercial 

 law states that no part of what may be 

 printed on a letter-head Is a part of the 

 contract unless U be between the date line 

 and the signature, except a reference ap- 

 pears between those parts to practically 

 brlngr the outside words within the body of 

 the letter Itself. This would apply to the 

 non-warranty clause as printed on most 

 seedsmen's stationery. 



This was the subject of consider- 

 able discussion among the trade and 

 many letters reached The Eeview, from 

 seedsmen who wanted further inrorma- 

 tion. These were advised that the note 

 was based, among other things, on a 

 decision of the Supreme Court of Illi- 

 nois in which it was held that "printed 

 matter in a letter-head forms no part 

 of the letter written on the sheet, and 

 will not qualify an absolute contract 

 which results from an acceptance of an 



offer by such letter. ' ' See 153 111., 102. 

 As a result some of the trade printed 

 stationery on which the disclaimer ap- 

 pears just below where the typewriter 

 puts the words "Dear Sirs." 



President Page, in his annual ad- 

 dress to the American Seed Trade As- 

 sociation at the Marblehead convention 

 in June, 1911, referred to the import- 

 ance of this point and there was general 

 discussion of it, with the result that a 

 committee (consisting of Curtis Nye 

 Smith, attorney for the association; 

 Kirby B. White, of D. M. Ferry & Co., 

 and S. F. Leonard, of Leonard Seed 

 Co., was appointed to consider and re- 

 port. Secretary Kendel now has mailed 

 the committee's report to each member 

 of the association. It is dated August 

 11, 1911, and is as follows: 



The Committee's Beport. 



To the President and Members of the 



American Seed Trade Association: 



At the last annual convention of your 



SEED LAWS 



Compilation of Purity and Gennination re- 

 quired, and Weed Seed prohibited in United 

 States and Canada. The first authentic published 

 list ever ofFered to the Seed Trade. Includes all 

 recent letrlBlatlon. 



No Dealer Should Be 

 Without Thia Liat 



Tabulated, printed on heavy bristol board, 

 postpaid to your address. SOo eaoh; or tliree 

 copies, $1.00. Ask about our seed crop condi- 

 tion reports. 



THE SEED TRADE REPORTING BUREAU 

 Dept R, S27 Pistil Teiegripk BIdg., Ckicigi, Ul. 



