The American Garden. 



yoL XII. 



FR-BRUARY, 1891. 



No. 2. 



GOVERNMENT SEEDS. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE NATIONAL SEED DISTRIBUTION, BY THE EX-CHIEF OF THE SEED DIVISION. 



HE foundation of the 

 world's prosperity is 

 ail abundant crop. A 

 prime basis for a good 

 crop is good seed. 

 Good seed means vital 

 seed, fixity of type, 

 fecundity of product, 

 and adaptiveness t o 

 locality. The relia- 

 ble seedsman should 

 furnish the first three, and the grower must de- 

 termine the most suitable locality by experience. 

 Pure seeds are cheap at current prices, but im- 

 perfect ones are dear at any price. The primary 

 object of the distribution of seeds by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to those engaged in agricul- 

 tural pursuits, is to give increased value to produc- 

 tion by the introduction and distribution of im- 

 proved varieties that will increase the annual 

 average yield of the staple crops of grain and vege- 

 tables, and more rapidly and more generally intro- 

 duce the very best varieties of seeds into new 

 states and territories, as well as into the older ones, 

 where the annual average crop is being diminished 

 by seeding with unselected and inferior seed. The 

 practice of securing selected seeds from foreign 

 countries, and from localities in our own where, by 

 careful selection, breeding and hybridization they 

 attain their greatest perfection, and sending them 

 to be used in less favored localities, is in full accord 

 with the best attainable light on the subject. In 

 the effort to improve a variety of wheat, for in- 

 stance, the interests of the farmer, the miller, the 

 baker and consumer are all to be considered. The 

 field for extensive inquiry is an ever-enlarging one. 

 To aid in this important work, the system of gen- 



eral distribution by the government was estab- 

 lished, that the merits of well bred, fully ripened, 

 perfect seed could be tested in different localities 

 and soils, so that both the quality and quantity 

 would be improved and increased. The results 

 attained justify the statement that in no depart- 

 ment of the general government has the expendi- 

 tion of so small an amount been productive of as 

 much good as that expended in the introduction 

 and dissemination of valuable seeds and plants. 

 The constantly increasing number of requests for 

 Department seeds is the best evidence that they 

 are of value, and are needed. When the people 

 cease to be dependent for their existence upon the pro- 

 ducts of the soil, it will then be time to relax every 

 effort which tends to increase those products. When 

 the Department of Agriculture ceases its efforts in 

 this direction, which the masses of the people have 

 so unqualifiedly approved, and which have been so 

 beneficial in promoting the public interests and the 

 health and happiness of the American people, it 

 will then be ample time to undo the beneficent 

 action of the framers of the organic law creating 

 the Department of Agriculture. 



THE SEED AND PLANT DISTRIBUTION. 



During the administration of President John Quincy 

 Adams, the consuls of the United States were instruct- 

 ed to procure and forward to the State Department 

 such plants and seeds as they deemed most desirable 

 for trial in this country. The first distribution of 

 rare seeds and plants was made by Hon. Henry L. 

 Ellsworth, the first Commissioner of Patents, after 

 the te-orgauization of that office after iS j6, before 

 any action had been taken by Congress. Many 

 members, however, came to the aid of the Commis- 

 sioner, and cheerfully tendered to him the use of 

 the franking or free postage privileges accorded to 



