GO J -ERNMENT SEEDS. 



67 



The average weight of the seeds distributed 

 through the mail by the Department of Agriculture 

 each year, for the last five years, ending with June 

 30th 1888, was 400,000 lbs., or 200 tons. The offi- 

 cial, clerical and working force required to carry on 

 this work aggregates about one hundred persons, 

 of whom about ninety per cent, are laborers em- 

 ployed by the day. 



VALUE OF THE SEED AND PLANT DISTRIBUTION TO 

 THE COUNTRY. 



The following, taken from the annual reports of 

 the Commissioners to the President, indicates the 

 value of the distribution. The first Commissioner 

 (Newton, 1863) says: "The dissemination of sor- 

 ghum and imphee seed has been worth millions of 

 dollars to the country." The second Commissioner 

 (Capron, 1868) says : "The result of a single im- 

 portation of wheat has alone been worth more than 

 an annual appropriation for the whole Department. 

 If but a tenth of the seed distributed is judiciously 

 used, the advantage to the country may be tenfold 

 greater than the annual appropriation for Agricul- 

 ture." In 1870, J.R.Dodge, Statistician and Editor 

 of the Department reports at that time, says : 

 " While the cost of the seed distribution in i86g 

 was but half a dollar for each thousand of the peo- 

 ple, there is reliable evidence that a single speci- 

 men of grain in one of the thirty-seven states has 

 realized in enhanced production ten times the 

 amount expended for all seeds sent to all the states 

 that year." The third Commissioner (Watts, 1S71) 

 says : "The increased production of wheat, oats 

 and grasses by reason of the distribution of new 

 and improved seeds, pays more than ten times the 

 whole amount expended by the Government in this 

 Department, and such is the appreciation of this 

 by the farmers of the country that the demands 

 upon us are increasing to a degree beyond our 

 ability to supply." The fourth Commissioner 

 (Le Due, 1878) says : " The increased production 

 per acre by the Excelsior White Schonen oats 

 some years since was 2.5 bushels per acre, and a 

 like increase is reported from a distribution of the 

 Board of Trade oats in the northern and the Rust 

 Proof in the southern part of the country during 

 the past two years. But the average increased 

 yield fairly attributable in like period to improved 

 varieties of seed would amount to forty million 

 bushels, now worth $15,000,000. Taking the last 

 three years as compared with the three previous 

 years the increase was two bushels per acre. This 

 in forty millions acreage yearly would be eighty 

 millions of bushels increase, or a gain to the coun- 



try (at present prices) of about ^80,000,000 per 

 annum. " 



A prominent agricultural writer in speaking of 

 the benefit of the "seed distribution" says : "A 

 great deal of good has been done by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. The introduction of the sor- 

 ghum plant is a noticeable example, for the value of 

 the crop, according to the census of r88owas^ii,- 

 000,000. Scores of varieties of most excellent 

 seeds have been put within the reach of the masses 

 of the people." Maj. R. L. Ragland, of Virginia, 

 says : " The beneficial results arising from the in- 

 troduction of the Fultz wheat, sent out by the De- 

 partment has, every year since its dissemination, 

 more than paid the whole cost of the Department. 

 A crop of Fultz grown by me the third year from 

 seed originally received from the Department gave 

 twenty per cent, in yield over the old varieties, and 

 sold for a profit of $561 over what could have been 

 realized from the old kinds." 



Maj. Henry E. Alvord, then Director of the 

 Houghton Farm Experiment Station, in a report to 

 the Department dated May 4th 1886, says ; "The 

 seeds received this season, as a whole, for the first 

 time in my experience with the Department, 

 answers the definition of new and useful. " Professor 

 E. H. Jenkins, Vice Director of the Connecticut 

 Experiment Station says ; "The seeds have been 

 of good quality, not more failures than we expect 

 from those of our seedsmen." Dr. C. A. Goess- 

 mann. Director of the Massachusetts Experiment 

 Station at Amherst says : "The seeds have been 

 of good quality, and in several instances of par- 

 ticular interest to our locality." 



The following extracts from letters received at 

 the Department in 1887 from the few of the many 

 recipients of seeds, are but a fair sample from the 

 hundreds received each year : 



" When I compare the vegetables that are now in our 

 market with the market of forty years ago, there is a 

 marked difference, and I believe the distribution of 

 seeds by the Government has been a potent factor in 

 making the change. " "We have found all seeds sent 

 to us from your Department exceptionally clean and of 

 good germinating qualities," " All seeds received from 

 the Department have germinated well, and proved true 

 to description. I consider the distribution of great value 

 to this country, as it places new and desirable varieties 

 in the hands of people in different localities." "The 

 garden seeds received from you compare favorably with 

 those received from our best seedsmen, and possess the 

 advantage of being more certain to germinate. " " I am 

 confident that the system of distribution by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has not only introduced many new 



