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ttOYAL HOKTICtJLTTTRAL SOCIETY. 



present, by men of respectability, who, at least, aimed at 

 providing a constant supply, the public would find their places 

 supplied by a lower and more unscrupulous class, who would have 

 no object but fleecing the public as rapidly and filling their own 

 pockets as full as they could. Any effort for good must, therefore, 

 not be limited to the voluntary abstinence of individuals, but must 

 be compulsory and of universal application. 



It may be said, If, notwithstanding the unfavourable appear- 

 ances arising from their erroneous system, the seedsmen do 

 really conduct their business so fairly and honestly and with 

 such attention to the welfare of the public, why should any 

 change be made at all ? why not allow matters to remain as 

 they are ? If all did so, and all would continue to do so, and 

 no further lowering of the averages would be practised by the 

 retail seedsmen and small dealers, the public might be con- 

 tent to allow matters to remain as they are ; but it is patent 

 and notorious to all that the reverse of all this is the case. 

 Not even all the wholesale seedsmen are content with the low- 

 ness of average fixed by their own association (see the results 

 of the trials in last report) ; and the average of the stock of the 

 small country dealers who have been supplied with seed filtered 

 through two or three retail hands must be correspondingly bad. 

 But, more than this, your Committee learn from a reliable source 

 that some of the growers themselves have begun to lower the 

 average before it leaves their hands. It can scarcely be denied 

 that this is a fraud suggested by the example of the seedsmen 

 themselves. The practices they have taught them they execute ; 

 and it shall go hard but they will better the instruction. The 

 half-educated husbandman will be slow to appreciate the differ- 

 ence between an admixture of lifeless seed by themselves and one 

 by their employer, or to believe that what is fraud on their part, 

 is only estimable precaution on that of the others. Nor, until the 

 seedsman distinctly warns his customer that he is not selling 

 " nett seed," will the public generally admit the distinction. 

 No doubt the grower undertakes to deliver, and receives the 

 agreed-on price for, "nett seed," whereas the seedsman ouly 

 charges his customers for seed of a lower average a price corre- 

 sponding to its quality. If a purchaser demanded " nett seed," 

 he would have to pay more for it. But the public know nothing 

 of such distinctions. They have never heard of "nett seed" or 

 " trio ; " and in purchasing seed they naturally suppose that they 

 are getting the best the dealer can give them. There is no objec- 



