i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
i73 
BltsitWSS. 
THE NORTH CAROLINA AGRICUL¬ 
TURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 
GOES OFF HALF-COCKED. 
Bulletin No. 67 lately issued by the 
above Station, gives the details of a great 
number of tests made to determine the 
viability of seeds which were purchased of 
various firms. Many were found to be 
“ old, musty and stale ” and the per cent, 
of vitality was low. So far so good. As 
the firms of which the seeds, whether good 
or bad, were purchased, were not men¬ 
tioned, these tables were of value simply as 
showing that some people sell seeds which 
are not worth the prices asked and paid 
for them, a fact that many of us were 
cognizant of before. 
In one or two other statements that 
appear in this bulletin, there are errors 
which, coming from an official source, are 
both serious and inexcusable. We quote: 
“ In Europe all respectable seedsmen 
give a positive and definite guarantee of 
the purity and vitality of their seeds, and 
there is no reason why American seedsmen 
should not do the same. So long, however, 
as seedsmen think they can force their 
wares, on their own terms, upon the con¬ 
sumer, no advance of this kind need be ex¬ 
pected, and just so long will the long- 
suffering public be annoyed and defrauded 
by stale and weed-infested seeds.” * * * 
* ‘‘The custom is, in Europe, for seeds¬ 
men to sell seeds under a specific guarantee 
of purity and vitality. 
Who are the “respectable seedsmen of 
Europe ? ” What constitutes the “ custom 
in Europe ? ” One of the largest and most 
respected seed houses in the world is the 
firm of Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co., of Paris. 
We find the following in one of this firm’s 
recent catalogues. 
Messrs. V. A. & Co., give no warranty, 
expre s or implied, as to descrip¬ 
tion, guaHty, productiveness, or any other 
matter connected with the goods they send 
out, and they will not be in any way re¬ 
sponsible for the crop. If the purchaser 
does not accept the goods on these terms 
they are at once to be returned .” 
The following is taken from the cata¬ 
logue of the London firm of Cooper, Taber 
& Co. : 
“ Cooper, Taber & Co., Limited, give no 
warranty, express or implied, as to d s- 
cription, quality, productiveness, or any 
other matter, of any seeds they send out, 
and they willnotbe in anyway respon¬ 
sible for the crop. If the purchaser does 
not accept the goods on these terms, they 
are at once to be returned.” 
And the same “ guarantee ” in substance 
may be found in the catalogues of all the 
leading seedsmen of Europe, as, e, g., Hurst 
& Son, Nutting & Sons, Carter, Dunnett 
& Beale, all of London, England ; Sutton & 
Sons of Reading, Harrison & Sons of Lei¬ 
cester ; Ernst & Benary, Erfurt, Germany; 
Blaine Fils Aine of St. Remy, and Vilmorin 
Andrieux & Co., Paris, France. 
Is this the positive and definite guarantee 
which the North Carolina Experiment Sta¬ 
tion alludes to ? 
In the current catalogue of Thorburn & 
Co. we find the following “guarantee,” and 
it is substantially the same as that which 
may be found in the catalogues of Hender¬ 
son, Burpee, Gregory, Landreth, Ferry, 
Vick, Storrs & Harrison, Vaughan, Fot- 
tler, Johnson & Stokes and all other lead¬ 
ing American seedsmen: 
“ While we exercise great care to have 
all seeds pure, reliable, and true to name, 
our seeds are sold without any warranty, 
express or implied, and without any re¬ 
sponsibility in respect to the crop. If our 
seeds are not accepted on these terms, they 
must be returned at once.” 
Wherein do they differ from the “guaran 
tees” of the leading European firms? 
French seedmen are protected by law to 
the extent that the seller of seeds is simply 
responsible for the amount of money paid 
for the seeds. The disclaimer of Vilmorin 
& Co. refers to the seeds which they export. 
None is needed in their home catalogue. 
But let us see what this “ definite guar¬ 
antee” given by “all respectable seeds¬ 
men ” of Europe, as given in the North 
Carolina bulletin, amounts to. On page 85 
we find: 
“The following form of guarantee is 
given by a large English seed association, 
and is, in effect, similar to that given by all 
European seedsmen: 
1. ‘ Our seeds are sold guaranteed pure, 
clean and of the percentage of vitality 
named in our catalogue. 
2. This guarantee is subject to the an¬ 
alysis of the botanist of the Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Society. 
8. If the result of the analysis does not 
confirm the guarantee, the association will 
take back the seeds and pay cost of carriage 
both ways, but seeds must not be sown be¬ 
fore making complaint. 
4. The seeds once sown, the responsibil¬ 
ity of the association ceases. The result 
depends upon so many things besides the 
quality of the seeds, that the growth cannot 
be guaranteed.’ ” 
There is not, we venture to say, a reputa¬ 
ble seedsman in this country that would 
not gladly give a similar guarantee. From 
the writer’s personal knowledge, these 
seedsmen exercise every care to grow or to 
buy pure, clean and fresh seeds. They can 
not afford to do otherwise. A pound of 
seeds, not true to name or mixed with weed 
seeds, would do them tenfold more harm 
than their profits would amount to. There 
is not one reputable seedsman in the coun¬ 
try that would not gladly “ take back seeds 
and pay the cost of carriage ” if from any 
cause they were found to be foul or stale. 
Our seedsmen merely insist that the “ seeds 
must not be sown before the complaint is 
made,” the very provision which the N. C. 
Bulletin quotes as a portion (and it is the 
essential portion) of the “positive and defi¬ 
nite guarantee” given by the European 
seedsmen. 
A guarantee that seeds shall be free from 
all other seeds except the varieties pur¬ 
chased and true to name is manifestly im¬ 
practicable. Only a fool or a rogue would 
give it. Is the N. C. Station aware that 
seedsmen can not tell cauliflower seed from 
cabbage seed, early cabbage from late cab¬ 
bage seed, Savoy from the smooth-leaved 
varieties ? They all look alike if grown 
under the same conditions. The A.merican 
seedsman imports cauliflower seed from 
Holland or France from the most responsi¬ 
ble growers, and it proves to be Savoy cab¬ 
bage seed. Our seedsman guarantees it to 
be the variety ordered, and he sells it to his 
patrons at a profit, let us say, of from $8 to 
$20 a pound. A pound may give enough 
plants to set eight acres. The growers 
would be justified in claiming damages to 
the amount of several thousand dollars. 
It may be claimed that mistakes on the 
part of capable, trusty seed-growers do not 
occur. This is absurd. The marvel is that 
they do not oftener occur. The following 
is a well authenticated fact: 
A clerk stole a bag of cauliflower seed 
from his employer, a well-known and 
trusted grower. To avoid discovery, he 
bought a lot of cabbage seeds, worth at 
the time a dollar a pound, which he care¬ 
fully substituted for the cauliflower seed 
worth at the time $50 a pound, all of which 
was sold during the season. To the many 
and bitter complaints which, in due time, 
were received from his customers, the 
grower earnestly protested that he had 
grown, harvested, bagged and labeled the 
seed, and that there was positively no 
chance of any accident or mistake having 
occurred. In 18 months afterwards, the 
thief was detected and made a full confes¬ 
sion of his guilt. 
Seed-growing, if carried on for profit, 
must be conducted on a large scale. It is 
manifestly impossible that one man can 
do the entire work himself. He employs 
others, and is necessarily constrained to 
trust, more or less, to their vigilance and 
integrity. And so it is with the seedsman 
and nurseryman as well. 
The botanist of the North Carolina Sta¬ 
tion continues: 
“ The jeweler warrants his watches and 
rings to be of a certain fineness and weight; 
the honest dry goods man warrants his 
wares to be all-wool or all-linen, as the 
case may be; and so also with the shoe 
dealer, grocer and other merchants. There 
is no real and valid reason why the seed 
merchant should not also give a real and 
definite guarantee of the quality of his 
wares! The necessity of such a guarantee, 
for the protection of the purchaser, is much 
more urgent in regard to seeds than in any 
of the above-mentioned cases.” 
Yes, the jeweler is obliged to take back 
the watch if shown to be inferior to the 
guarantee. And that is just what the hon¬ 
est American seedsman is willing to do 
with his seeds. If the purchaser of the 
watch, relying upon the guarantee, misses 
a train the next day, because it had run 10 
minutes too slow, and thereby loses the 
chance of a speculation which would have 
brought him $5,000, it would scarcely be 
fair to hold the jeweler responsible 
foi that amount. To insist that the seeds¬ 
man is responsible for the full value of a 
crop that might have been grown from 
fresh, pure seeds true to name, but which 
failed because the seeds were not true to a 
guarantee, seems to theR. N.-Y. an equiva¬ 
lent case. 
The best protection that a farmer or gar¬ 
dener may reasonably secure, lies, first, in 
dealing with reputable firms that will 
gladly rectify errors and, second, in testing 
his purchased seeds for himself before they 
are sown. The R. N.-Y. is ever ready, in 
all just ways, to place the interests of its 
subscribers first and foremost; but to ad¬ 
vocate any law which shall hold seedsmen 
responsible for the mature crop as affected 
by bad seeds, would soon result in bank¬ 
rupting every reputable seedsman in the 
country. The rogues, alone, would reap 
the benefit. 
THE TRADE IN GRAPE VINES. 
THE indications are good for a very heavy 
business in grape vines, so far as the num¬ 
ber of plants demanded is concerned. There 
are several causes on which we base this 
opinion. Grape culture is a reasonably 
profitable business in all sections where 
soil and climatic conditions are favorable, 
and never before was it on a sounder basis 
than it is now. The consumption of good, 
fresh grapes has increased wonderfully 
within the last decade, and has created for 
this noble fruit a popular demand which 
is far from being adequately supplied, and 
which will probably not be fully met for a 
good many years to come. Southern 
grapes find a ready market in the North, 
at a season when grapes there are scarcely 
much advanced beyond their bloom, and in 
return Northern grapes are shipped South 
by the car-load long after the last Southern 
berry has been picked. Grape growing 
and grape shipping have become a system¬ 
atized business, which is justly attracting 
more and more followers. But aside from the 
planting for market in the various sections 
of the country, there is an increasing, large 
scattering demand from farmers and vil¬ 
lagers for some choice vines for their gar¬ 
dens and yards, for home consumption. 
Even in almost any city yard, where fruit 
trees and small fruits would find no place, 
there is room for a few grape vines, planted 
against the wall and trained to form a 
shade for the back porch, and furnishing 
many a fine breakfast relish for the family 
table. The taste for such matter is con¬ 
tagious; the good example set by one is 
soon followed by his friends, and in neigh¬ 
borhoods where the nurseryman had one 
such customer a few years ago, he will now 
have a dozen. It is true the orders are small 
individually, but in the aggregate they 
count up, and owing to the better prices 
obtained they form the most pleasant fea¬ 
ture in the nurseryman’s returns. 
This brings us to another cause which 
contributes a full share to the increased 
planting of grape vines—the extraordinari¬ 
ly low prices at which well-grown plants of 
tried and standard varieties can now be 
procured. Ten dollars, and even less, will 
buy all the plants needed to set out an acre 
of vineyard. The fact is that the whole¬ 
sale prices of grape vines (and of many 
other nursery products as well) have been 
willfully depressed to such an extent that 
little or no margin is left to the grower. 
While all other lines of trade are form¬ 
ing combinations and trusts, the nursery 
business as yet has kept aloof, and, let us 
hope, it will continue to do so. Trusts are 
an evil, but, on the other hand, a little 
more spirit of fraternity, a little less jeal¬ 
ousy, a few degrees less of selfishness, a 
little better friendly understanding would 
be of great and much desired benefit to the 
entire nursery profession. While I fully 
indorse and believe in the motto : “Com¬ 
petition is the life of trade,” I also hold 
that such competition should be a friendly 
one and should make us all strive to im¬ 
prove our methods and our calling. We 
should vie with each other in the introduc¬ 
tion of valuable new fruits, in producing 
only the best of trees, plants and flowers, 
in disseminating useful knowledge and in¬ 
struction upon horticultural subjects. In¬ 
stead of all this, competition unfortunately 
hinges too often only upon the best ability 
to underbid and undercut each other, in 
the wild chase after a few paltry dollars. 
This country is large enough, and there is 
room for every tree, plant or vine that the 
nurseryman has grown. Let us compete 
in our efforts to extend the fields of horti¬ 
culture ; let us stimulate our increasing 
taste and demand for fruits and flowers, 
and we will find ready sale for all of our 
products, without having to wage war up¬ 
on our competitors. g. E. Meissner. 
Bushberg, Mo. 
IMPLEMENT NOTES. 
Friends who ask about the Butterfly 
harrow spoKen of by Mr. Chace in a recent 
issue, are informed that it is made by the 
Higganum Manufacturing Co. This tool 
is jointed in the center so that it can easily 
adjust itself to uneven surfaces where the 
field is not level. 
Most of the large implement dealers 
make water barrels hung on wheels, and 
suitable for wheeling slops and swill away 
from the kitchen door. We are glad to 
see that drains and sink holes are being 
filled up on good farms. 
Geared machines for use in spraying 
orchards can be had from quite a large 
number of dealers. These machines con¬ 
sist of a large tank resting on two wheels. 
Suitable gearing on one wheel works a 
pump at the top of the tank and also re¬ 
volves a dasher inside the tank. The 
machines are recommended for use in 
spraying orchards, but are not considered 
as useful in potato fields as the ordinary 
sprinkler. We find that many farmers 
agree with Mr. Warn that throwing the 
poison mixture violently upon the potato 
vines is more injurious than merely drop¬ 
ping it upon them. 
It seems safe to say that hundreds of 
potato growers will use sprinkling carts 
or “ bug wagons ” for the fi rst time this 
year. Many of them will be led to this for 
the reason that they hope to check the 
blight by the use of the Bordeaux Mixture 
with the poisoned water. 
Best Tool for Surface Work.— Is the 
R. N.-Y.’s answer to P. W. S., Pontiac, 
Mich., on page 135, regarding the Cutaway 
harrow based on experience ? I question 
the soundness of the advice. While I was 
visiting the Ocala Florida Exposition last 
winter, the agent of this harrow called a 
friend’s attention to it. He knew it was 
just what he wanted and would send him 
one anyway. When my friend advised me 
of this, I] expressed my doubts as to its 
working satisfactorily on any ground he 
had on account of the stumps and rubbish 
on the land. When it came, it was tried 
thoroughly with just the result I had pre¬ 
dicted. It was then put in the tool-house 
where it doubtless remains. In clean 
ground it would doubtless answer the pur¬ 
pose ; but dry sticks and palmetto roots 
were so numerous that it rode over 
them all the time and could not get down 
to its work. The disk and all that class 
of harrows on coming to brush or sticks 
they cannot cut, must mount and ride 
over them, and one disk is sufficient to 
throw all others near it out of the ground. 
The Acme, the best of all this class of har¬ 
rows, on encountering a flat stone as large 
as a dinner-plate, must ride over it, which 
throws out a part at least of the harrow. 
On clean, smooth ground, the Acme is the 
best pulverizer I have ever used. E. w. 
R. N.-Y.—We have used the Cutaway on 
land somewhat like that described by our 
correspondent, viz. : well dug over with the 
mattock. The tool did fair work ; when 
heavily weighted, most of the small roots 
were cut off. We assumed from the 
description that most of the larger roots 
had been dug out. The Cutaway is more 
of a plow than a harrow anyway. The 
Acme will undoubtedly leave the surface 
in better condition for seeding, but as there 
was to be no plowing, we believed that by 
working with the Cutaway both length¬ 
wise and crosswise of the field, the ground 
would be well stirred up. 
Terry’s Tools.—I was greatly inter¬ 
ested in the picture of Mr. Terry’s tools 
given last fall. Mr. Terry has solved the 
problem that presents itself to every young 
farmer: “ Can I obtain a competence in my 
chosen calling by uniting brains with 
energy, science with practice? ” and the re¬ 
sult is a 50-acre farm that pays better than 
the majority of those of his neighbors four 
times the size. But the young farmer must 
not be discouraged if he cannot afford all 
of the tools in the engraving; for he can 
commence with half the number and by 
dint of economy soon secure the rest. There 
are some tools, however, he ought to have 
besides the ordinary outfit we meet on every 
farm, namely—an Acme or Cutaway har¬ 
row, the Planet Jr. cultivator, and, if he 
annually raises five acres of potatoes, the 
Hoover or some other good potato-digger. 
The absence of the modern harpoon horse 
fork in the illustration, which with ropes, 
hooks and pulleys, all complete, costs only 
$8 or $10, seems a serious omission. We 
have four of them and in putting up 400 
tons of hay they save us an immense 
amount of labor. The saving of labor is 
the saving of time, and time saved is money 
earned. Another great labor-saving ma¬ 
chine and one that ought to be on every 
comparatively level farm is the Keystone 
hay-loader, with which three men can do 
the work of six in the old way. Perhaps 
Mr. Terry does not need it, but I would 
have one if I only had 10 acres'.of hay to 
harvest annually. e. t. d. 
