36 



HOYAL HOBTICULTUJiAL SOCIETY. 



Accordingly the practice has taken root so firmly, and ramified 

 in so many directions, that it now penetrates every branch of the 

 business. Of its extent no stronger evidence can be given than 

 the regular quotation in certain of the seed-trade lists of the 

 prices of "nett seed," and "trio" or " 000,"— " nett-seed " 

 meaning good seed which has not been adulterated or mixed, 

 " trio " or " 000 " meaning seed whose vitality has been killed for 

 the purpose of mixing with good seed. 



It must not be supposed, however, that there are no exceptions 

 to the universality of the practice ; the results of your Committee's 

 inquiries, confirmed, as they have been, by the trials recorded in 

 last Beport, enable them to speak to the contrary. From these, 

 were it their cue to do so, they could name the few houses which 

 proceed on a different system, and which are struggling single- 

 handed against the overwhelming preponderance of those who do 

 not. But to do so would be by implication to reflect on others ; 

 and as the object of the Council in this inquiry is entirely of an 

 impersonal nature (to redress a public grievance, and not to attack 

 individuals), they feel bound to refrain from mentioning names on 

 either side, even when the mention would be laudatory. 



Of the complication and difficulty of doing away with the system 

 an idea may be formed from some of the following facts. Instead of 

 purchasing their seeds from growers in the market, wholesale 

 seedsmen find it necessary to enter into a sort of quasi partner- 

 ship, or joint adventure, with the growers. They supply them 

 with the seeds they want grown, and receive the product from 

 them after harvest at certain previously fixed, or proportionally 

 arranged prices. In no other way (of growing by a third party) 

 could they make sure that the seeds they j>urchase were of the 

 kind they wanted, — the seeds of many different species, and espe- 

 cially of varieties, being undistinguishable. Unless they knew 

 that the produce of any particular field was to be their own, they 

 would neither have the right nor the interest to examine it while 

 growing, to make sure of its kind. As may be supposed, the 

 bargains with these growers vary infinitely : sometimes the seeds- 

 man is the ow ner of the soil, and the grower his tenant ; and 

 leases or bargains for growing seeds, extending over many years, 

 have been entered into on the faith of the continuance of the 

 present system of conducting the seed business. 



Again, one apology for the present system is, that under it the 

 seedsman keeps the price much more equable from year to year 

 than it would otherwise be. He charges always more nearly the 



