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Vol. LXVII, No. 3070. 
. NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 28, 1908. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
THE “NON-GUARANTEE” OF SEEDS. 
From a Seedsman’s Standpoint. 
At the last annual convention of the American Seed 
Trade Association the question of a “disclaimer” was 
discussed. The Association finally passed a resolu¬ 
tion pledging its members to use the following official 
wording on all packages, all stationery and also in 
conspicuous places in offices and stores: 
“We give no warranty, express or implied, as to 
description, quality, productiveness, or 
any other matter of any seeds, bulbs, or 
plants we send out, and we will not be 
in any way responsible for the crop. If 
the purchaser does not accept the goods 
on these terms, they are at once to be 
returned.” 
We are often asked why the seed 
trade stands practically alone in refus- 
ing to give any guarantee. The follow¬ 
ing statement has been prepared by a 
seedsman and, we assume states the 
trade side fairly. 
“In the writer’s experience, and in 
conversation with most of the seedsmen 
and seed growers of this country and 
abroad, he has never met a single per¬ 
son who does not regard the ‘non¬ 
guarantee’ as absolutely necessary in 
selling good-sized quantities of seed. In 
small lots the non-guarantee is some¬ 
times omitted for policy’s sake, so as 
not to antagonize a customer, who has 
no knowledge of its necessity, and to 
whom a full explanation would be im¬ 
possible, and also where risk is small. 
Why this unanimity? There must be 
some good reasons, or else would not 
some seedsman smarter than the rest 
cut loose from present methods and 
sell ‘guaranteed’ seeds? Some seedsmen 
do advertise ‘guaranteed’ seeds. They, 
however, qualify this in fine print below 
the large-lettered guaranty, by saying 
they will refund money paid for such 
seed as does not give satisfaction, 
though, of course, they cannot be re¬ 
sponsible for damages through loss of 
crop. It is this crop loss which* the 
writer means by guaranty. 
“To begin, a seedsman cannot follow 
the seed he sells a customer from his 
store until the time it is planted. There 
is only the farmer’s word in a case of 
poor seed to prove whose or what seeds 
were planted. Many times where gar¬ 
deners and farmers have had seed trou¬ 
bles, purchases were made from several 
sources, and no records kept of the dif¬ 
ferently placed orders, so certain seeds¬ 
men have been unjustly blamed. Often 
seeds from one house are used to fill out 
a field planted with seed from another 
house. Which lot went wrong? 
“There was once a four-acre field of 
peas. A first planting was made of seed which was 
really fine; toward the end of the planting the seed ran 
out, so another bag, which was poor seed, from a 
different source was obtained. This seed was used to 
finish the field, and to give good measure, was then 
cross-drilled through the entire field. The farmer 
made a claim against the first seedsman, as well as the 
second, and it cost one good seedsman a $25 expense 
bill to visit the field and determine the trouble. I could 
give many other instances of mistakes in planting. It is 
a true saying, ‘the dishonest are always with us.’ We 
have honest seedsmen and honest farmers, as we have 
dishonest seedsmen and dishonest farmers. A dishon¬ 
est farmer buying ‘guaranteed’ seeds with a crop failure, 
could wait until all evidence except that of prejudiced 
witnesses was lost and then enter claim for damages, 
and collect them, and the seedsman would be unable to 
tell whether or not his seed was ever planted, and 
whether or not there was a poor crop as reported. 
“Often good seeds, owing to poor soil, adverse cli¬ 
matic conditions, insect enemies and fungus diseases, 
produce such monstrosities, that even the most expert 
find it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to decide 
from the one crop alone, where to lay the blame where 
it belongs. The writer has seen the same parcel of 
Scarlet Globe radish in different soils produce such 
different radishes it was impossible to recognize a 
similarity between the two lots. This particular varia- 
ton has caused many seedsmen trouble. Every year 
our house expects and receives complaints on ruta¬ 
bagas and Winter radishes, which are planted early in 
the Spring, running to seed and making no roots. 
Nevertheless on every package of such seed is printed, 
‘Do not plant until July.’ The same sort of complaint 
comes true of vegetables, like spinach, cauliflower, 
peas, etc., planted too late to produce. Onion maggots 
ruin the stand of hundreds of acres every year, and 
yet hardly a season goes by but some ignorant planter 
so damaged claims poor germination of seed of high 
vitality. Blight on vine seeds sometimes produces a 
crop of most curiously shaped fruits, which results 
cannot be attributed by the amateur grower as being 
due to anything but poor seed. 
“Further, many seed planters have 
never given a thought to the risk of in¬ 
surance on a parcel of seeds. Suppose 
a seedsman, for example, sells a pickle 
manufacturer 100 pounds of cucumber 
seed. In case that seed i*s poor, the 
pickle man can -easily lose several thou¬ 
sand dollars. Perhaps the seedsman’s 
profit was $15. Would anyone guarantee 
such a lot of seed, with the possibilities 
of mixture in growing, harvesting, ship¬ 
ping, storing and marketing, and with 
such a profit? If the pickle man wants 
a guarantee or insurance, what should 
he pay for the same? Is $100 insurance 
too much ? How about the greenhouse 
man whose seed bill for a house of 
tomatoes or cucumbers may be $2, and 
who can lose thousands of dollars from 
poor seed? A disgruntled or careless 
employee of a large seed house might 
easily cost the house a fifty-thousand- 
dollar loss on guaranteed seeds. 
“The above are some of the reasons 
why seedsmen do not guarantee seeds. 
There is a general impression that 1 
seedsmen use their ‘non-guarantee’ to 
cover their carelessness, and often¬ 
times dishonesty. I can say positively 
that such is not the case. There can be 
no doubt that a seedsman should know 
more about the seed he is selling than 
his customers, who take ‘the risk,’ how¬ 
ever, with the careful and reputable 
seedsman, there i$ almost no risk, and 
when mistakes do happen, which errors 
extreme care cannot always prevent, the 
honorable seed dealer considers the case 
on its individual merits, and the cus¬ 
tomer is seldom, if ever, a loser. Cer¬ 
tainly where a man sells one kind of 
seed for another, and reasonable care 
could prevent such a mistake, there is a 
moral, if not legal, obligation on the 
part of the seller, which most reputable 
firms acknowledge. 
“In closing, we should like to ask 
what proportion of the thousands of 
orders filled by the seedsmen of this 
country do not give satisfaction? Hojv 
long do you think a large seedsman 
could do business on a reputation for 
quality (without entering into the seed 
merit of the seeds in question), that the 
United States Department of Agriculture Congres¬ 
sional free seeds have? Here we have a seed business 
run without any idea of profit except as regards pos¬ 
sible vote getting for the Congressman, which should 
increase rather than diminish quality, and we can 
refer to hundreds that think the seed so distributed 
is not worth a place in their garden.” l. h. vaughan. 
The upper picture on this page shows two good 
varieties of peaches in Pennsylvania. The iower one 
shows a family group preparing vegetables for market. 
A GROUP OF PEACHES IN A PENNSYLVANIA ORCHARD. Fig. 422. 
ON A WESTERN NEW YORK MARKET GARDEN. Fig. 423. 
V 
