SECOND REPORT ON ADULTERATION OE SEEDS. 35 



The next stage, of introducing killed seed instead of old dead 

 seed, is still more easy. It is obviously much more to the cus- 

 tomer's advantage, if the average is to be lowered, that it should 

 be done by the intermixture of clean fresh-killed seed, rather than 

 of old musty seed, full of the spores of fungi and the eggs of 

 insects. So regarded, the introduction of killed seed is a boon to 

 the buyer instead of an injury. There is, indeed, another point 

 of view from which to look at it. The old dead seed betrays its 

 presence ; the killed seed does not, and so the purchaser is deprived 

 of that means of testing the quality of the article he purchases. 



Everything is thus thrown upon the honesty of the dealer. 

 He fixes the price, he regulates the quality ; and the purchaser is 

 kept in the dark, and has no check upon either. This is a temp- 

 tation beyond what the average frailty of human nature ought in 

 fairness to be exposed. 



It is not to be supposed that the existing system could have 

 reached its present magnitude through the separate and inde- 

 pendent action of individuals ; it is the combined action of the 

 trade which has done it. At what time it commenced your Com- 

 mittee have not learned ; but it is no modern device. Most of 

 the present members of the seed- trade have succeeded to it as to 

 a fatal heritage, and they have found themselves constrained to 

 conform to the traditional custom of the trade, or run the risk 

 of sacrificing important and well-established businesses to the ruin 

 of themselves and their families. 



The combined action of the trade, which has consolidated the 

 system, has been exerted through a trade's club, or association, 

 something in the nature of a trade's union, which, as in other 

 businesses, the London wholesale seedsmen have established 

 among themselves. One of the chief functions of the association is, 

 as your Committee are informed, the regulation of prices and the 

 determination, by mutual consultation and advice, what kinds of 

 seeds should have their average lowered, and to what extent it 

 should be done. 



Supported by the countenance of their fellows, and animated 

 by a belief that by their foresight and superintendence they are 

 regulating the supply and demand of the kingdom, and preserving 

 the country from the dire consequences of an occasional famine 

 in some of the most important articles of food, it is not surprising 

 that the seedsmen should have lent themselves to a practice which, 

 in addition to these good qualities, had the recommendation of 

 being at the same time so easily adapted to their own advantage. 



