3 
SEED-TIME AI3© HARVEST. 
your own and plenty of it. The writer of 
this is in business, “and knows how it is 
himself,” and has had plenty of experience 
and knows well what he is talking about. 
If you think it does not pay you to give any 
of your magazines away, don’t do it. I 
would not, as the old sententious saying 
goes, “business is business.” The magazine 
is good enough and cheap enough, and I 
think worthy to stand onits own merits. 
I wish it every success. 
Note. We sincerely hope we have a few 
friends among our patrons and customers, 
and must admit that a strong feeling of 
friendship pervades our extensive business 
correspondence which, in a great measure, 
makes what would otherwise be a perplex¬ 
ing task, a very pleasant pastime. We 
really did not mean to intimate that we 
believed we admitted no friendship in our 
business, but simply that our friends must 
not expect us to keep watch of our sub¬ 
scription list and retain this name and that 
name, because they are friends. Our rule 
is to drop all names when time of subscrip¬ 
tion marked has expired, and we simply 
wished our best friends to understand that 
in employing others to write up the wrap¬ 
pers such instructions are given, so their 
names are as likely to be dropped as any, 
and it is their duty, if they wish to receive 
the magazine, to see that they are kept on 
the list. 
The Government Seed Store. 
The following facts and figures are ex¬ 
tracted from a letter to the Boston Adver¬ 
tiser from its Washington correspondent, 
and serves to show how Uncle Sam tries 
-to help along the seed business of America: 
The seed business began small, but last 
year $75,000 was voted for its support and 
this year $100,000 is set aside for that pur¬ 
pose. Formerly the business was done in 
the basement of the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment, but two years ago a spacious building 
was erected for that purpose, which also 
now shelters the Civil Service Commisson, 
so that the applicants for office have as a 
soft monotone to the drudgery of their ex¬ 
amination papers, the gentle rattle of peas 
on the floor below. 
—- : . ' :xr 
I went down there the other day to find 
160 women and 58 men busily employed in 
putting up the seed. The men get $1.50 a 
day and the women $1.25. Mr. Longley, 
the chief, with a manner worthy of an En¬ 
glish Bishop, presides. Every year he buys 
tons of seeds. Some come from abroad; the 
greater part are grown in this country. He 
is constantly on the lookout for new varie¬ 
ties, tried by the department gardener, and 
if a success, sent out. Two-thirds of tire 
appropriation he spends in seeds, the rest 
in putting them up. Half the women paste 
together stiff paper envelopes for the small¬ 
er kinds, and others sew cotton bags for 
the farm seeds. Then boys with different 
sized scoops fill them, and at long tables 
other women gum the envelope flap, or 
with quick stitches sew the bags. Then 
they are piled up in heaps like a small grist 
mill, waiting to be sent away. This work 
is going on all the year. Now the winter 
wheat is being prepared, to be followed by 
the cotton seed for the South. 
Let me give you an idea of the quantities 
sent out. During the year just over, Mr. 
Longley has mailed 3,622,738 packages, all 
going free. Of these 2,912,730 are given to 
the Congressmen, although by law they 
are only entitled to two-thirds. Then the 
Agricultural Department has a crop corre¬ 
spondent in every county and a general one 
in each state. The former got 395,905 pack¬ 
ages, the latter 72,450 while miscellaneous 
applicants received 279.653. And so per¬ 
fect is the system that great books are kept 
wherein each recipient and what he gets 
are set down. The seeds are of all sorts, 
from field com and potatoes to the rarest 
flowers. Peas, beans, corn and potatoes 
are put up in quart sacks, and the flower 
seeds in tiny envelopes. The list includes 
over fifty kinds, while of vegetables there 
are 128 varieties, and of flowers 131; Last 
year 2,351,835 lots of vegetable and 563,638 
of flower seeds were distributed, turnips 
ranking next, with 425,858, wheat 66,290, 
tobacco 114,671, potatoes 12,229, sorghum 
34,359, while of the poor, despised sunflower 
565 packages were given away. The flow¬ 
ers catch the feminine constituent, and 
are. therefore, in great demand among the 
members. Under the proclamation by 
