1412 
THE RURAE NEW-YORKER 
February 13 , 
Ruralisms 
A Seedsmen’s Non-Warranty Case. 
—Interesting reports are given in Eu¬ 
ropean gardening periodicals of a law¬ 
suit brought by an English farmer 
against a well-known firm of seed po¬ 
tato merchants for the 'recovery of 
losses occasioned by planting potatoes 
sold without warranty as the com¬ 
mercial variety “Up to Date,” but 
which were, as shown by subsequent 
growth and crop results, a mixture in 
which there was scarcely two per cent 
of the variety contracted for. The 
plaintiff claimed the sum of $1,575. as 
his loss in the transaction, the yield 
being not over five tons to the acre, 
whereas a fair average crop for the 
season was 12 tons per acre. He con¬ 
vinced the jury he had given the plant¬ 
ing good care and cultivation, but the 
crop was so mixed, containing almost 
all known British varieties, and so 
irregular, that he had not sold any of 
it, but had practically given it to his 
workmen for digging and clearing t..e 
land. He figured a loss of $125 per 
acre for the area planted. The de¬ 
fendant seedsmen testified they were 
satisfied that all the seed potatoes fur¬ 
nished were of the “Up-to-Date” va¬ 
riety, and that the original invoice 
and all subsequent correspondence had 
attached pink slips on which were 
printed the usual non-warranty clause. 
The whole contention resolved itself in 
whether the plaintiff knew when he 
bought the seed potatoes that the de¬ 
fendant did not warrant them to be 
true to name, or in any other way. He 
wanted “Up-to-Date” potatoes, was 
willing to pay for them, and expected to 
get them. The judge and jury were of 
the opinion that the slips attached to 
the invoice and subsequent letters 
formed no part of the original purchase 
agreement, and that if the seller fur¬ 
nished faulty goods he could not shel¬ 
ter himself behind a disclaimer that 
could not be shown by the evidence to 
have been accepted by the buyer. Ac¬ 
cordingly, a verdict was rendered for 
the sum of $1,210, less the price of the 
seed potatoes, which were billed at 
$160, as the damages to be recovered by 
the farmer. The defendant company 
appealed from this verdict, and the case 
will be argued later in a higher court. 
Should Be Some Responsibility.— 
From the above it appears that at least 
one jury in the world believes that 
some degree of responsibility should 
inhere in a seed-selling transaction. In 
the absence of a direct agreement to 
accept the seed potatoes with no guar¬ 
antee that they were true to the desired 
varietal name damages were awarded 
to make good the losses incurred by 
the buyer. The non-warranty slip at¬ 
tached to correspondence after the 
order had been accepted could not be 
taken as evidence that the buyer real¬ 
ized he was taking the entire risk of 
worthless stock after agreeing to pay 
the price demanded for the article he 
desired. Such printed disclaimers on 
correspondence and packages of mer¬ 
chandise—like the limiting clauses on 
certain railroad tickets—should be poor 
defense for failure to fulfil the implied 
contracts. Few experienced planters 
would accept non-guaranteed seeds or 
tubers at any price, if they thought the 
seller was entirely relieved of responsi¬ 
bility in the matter. No one asks the 
seedsman to warrant the crop under 
varying cultural and climatic condi¬ 
tions, but commercial planters do expect 
that sufficient responsibility be> assumed 
to insure reasonable care in filling 
orders and some willingness to replace 
losses occasioned by palpable errors. 
Fortunately, all reputable seedsmen in 
practice assume such responsibility, 
though some appear to deny it by in¬ 
sisting that their printed non-warranties 
protect them from all claims, even from 
gross mistakes and downright rascality 
on the part of chance employees. The 
planter wants to buy the seeds he asks 
for, and not a container with a varietal 
name on it and something else inside, 
and in the absence of an express agree¬ 
ment that he accepts the goods entirely 
at his own risk, the seedsman should be 
expected to furnish the exact variety 
and quality desired. 
Reputation Counts. —To err is hu¬ 
man—mistakes occur in every business 
and vocation in life. The commercial 
seedsman, carrying a stock of perhaps 
3,500 varieties of seeds and tubers, 
- grown in all civilized and half-civilized 
lands of the earth—many labeled in 
strange languages—and whose business 
activities are compressed into an over¬ 
whelming rush at busy seasons of the 
year, is no less liable to unfortunate 
mistakes than other business men, and 
with scarcely an exception seedsmen 
are as anxious to adjust these undesired 
differences with their customers, but the 
serious nature of the possible losses— 
often many times the value of the arti¬ 
cle ordered—deters them so that refuge 
has been taken under the now familiar 
non-warranty clause. This is all right as 
regards unreasonable claims, but should 
not and in practice does not greatly 
stand in the way of considering reason¬ 
able grievances of customers. The 
writer has had long acquaintance with 
prominent seedsmen, and regards them 
as among the squarest of all his busi¬ 
ness friends. The desire is universal 
to do a perfectly satisfactory trade and 
retain the confidence and good will of 
customers by every legitimate means. 
The claim is strenuously made that it 
is absolutely impossible to warrant 
much of the merchandise they handle, 
as they have no practical means of 
verifying its genuineness during the 
short time it remains in their posses¬ 
sion. Every endeavor is made to pro¬ 
cure the best and freshest seeds, abso¬ 
lutely true to name, and in a few cases 
they are grown under direct super¬ 
vision, but often seedsmen do not know 
just what they are handling until re¬ 
ports, favorable or adverse, come in 
from the buyers. Reputation and per¬ 
sonal probity count for mpre in the 
seed trade than in perhaps any other 
class of business. It is sheer folly to 
deal with any seed house you may have 
reason to suspect, no matter how entic¬ 
ing may be the offers. Deal with the 
most reputable seedsmen you may have 
knowledge of and the non-warranty 
clause will cut a small figure. 
Canterbury Bells. —One oi the best 
and most easily grown plants for the 
hardy garden is the Canterbury bell, 
Campanula Medium, seeds of which are 
so abundant that they cost a mere trifle. 
Planted early under glass and given 
space for full development the nu¬ 
merous varieties may be had in bloom 
the first season, but it is better to treat 
them as hardy biennials, to be sown 
one year and bloom the next. A few 
strong plants may live over and flower 
the third year, but as a rule they ex¬ 
haust themselves with the first profuse 
bloom. Seeds may be sown in a shel¬ 
tered box or bed of fine soil in May, 
and the plants thinned or transplanted 
to their permanent quarters during suit¬ 
able weather in late Summer. They 
need little Winter protection—a light 
covering of litter between the clumps 
may prevent heaving, but the crowns 
should be exposed to the weather. The 
showy, large blooms cover the plants 
from base to summit, and open in mid¬ 
summer. Any well-enriched garden soil 
suits them. They should have about 
two feet of space for full development. 
The colors are lavender, blue, rose, 
striped and pearly white. The double 
kinds have from two to four perfect 
bells, one within another, and are very 
handsome, but on the whole less to be 
desired than the more elegantly formed 
single bells. Some of the double whites 
are very pure and waxen. There is a 
larger flowered section with colored 
calyx as well as corolla, known as the 
Cup-and-saucer Campanula, catalogued 
as C. calycanthema. There are about 
300 species of Campanula. w. v. f. 
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