July 19, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
727 
quick, for witliin a few days £20,000 worth of seeds of 
all sorts have to be sent in small parcels to a million 
different individuals in all parts of the United States. 
This is the sum annually appropriated by Congress for 
investment in germs of things vegetable, to be dis¬ 
tributed throughout the country in order that products 
of the soil may be improved in quality. If you would 
like some you can get a share by simply writing 
without delay to the Department of Agriculture, 
Washington—a postcard will do—and making the 
request. Mention what you want and it will be mailed 
to you free of charge in a bundle marked “ Official 
Business.” If you have no place to grow Beans and 
Potatoes in, ask for flower seeds, and you will receive 
enough to make your garden bloom for an indefinite 
period. Anyone can obtain a portion by merely 
communicating the wish. 
Probably this newspaper will not charge anything 
for advertising the fact that Uncle Sam is distributing 
this year’s seeds of a better quality than ever before. 
Some time ago the seeds given away by the Government 
acquired such a reputation for badness, that many 
farmers would not even take the trouble to plant them, 
considering it improbable that they would ever come 
up. But things are managed differently now, and the 
seeds you get from Uncle Jerry Rusk are accompanied 
by a guarantee that they will sprout. They are all 
tested, in fact, before they are sent off, and the 
manner of this testing is exceedingly interesting. 
First, however, it will be best to tell where the seeds 
come from. Hitherto they have been bought from 
farmers and seed growers, who sent samples to 
Washington and received orders on the strength of 
them. But this year an agent has been employed to 
travel all over the country and buy up whatever seemed 
best. Tne result is that all the. seeds now being 
distributed are exceedingly fine, and the department 
represents a certain Potato it is sending out as probably 
the most excellent article in the shape of a Hibernian 
tuber ever obtained by cultivation. It never offered 
Potatos before this season, by the way. The germs of 
this wonderful vegetable will be sent to you, if you 
make the request, twenty-five “ eyes ” in a wooden box, 
all cut up-and ready to plant. Of course, the notion is 
that the farmer, observing that the Potatos grown from 
these twenty-five eyes are superior to any others of his 
crop, will keep them for seed, and other agricultural 
persons in his neighbourhood will obtain from him 
specimens of the vegetable for planting, the product of 
all that particular district being in this way improved. 
Such, indeed, is the whole idea and purpose of seed 
distribution—that the vegetables and flowers grown in 
this country shall be as good and pretty of their kinds 
as possible. 
The seeds bought of the farmers by the agent are sent 
to Washington in bags, and in this shape are piled in the 
. storage department of Uncle Sam’s barn, which is a big 
brick building just behind the main structure of the 
Department of Agriculture. An enormous room ad¬ 
joining is filled with women sitting at little tables and 
measuring out seeds from sacks into brown paper 
envelopes. Some of them use quart pots, others pints, 
and so on down to mere thimbles with long handles for 
such little seeds as Carrots. Obviously, too, the 
envelopes differ in size. Each envelope, having re¬ 
ceived its measure full, is sealed up, and a label is 
pasted on it, telling what seeds it contains, giving 
directions for planting them, and saying at the bottom, 
“Please report results.” It is desired to know, you 
see, how the seeds turn out. Finally, the packets are 
put up in bundles of fives and tens, and after being 
addressed, they are sent off in this shape. If you ask 
simply for “some vegetable and flower seeds,” you will 
probably receive ten envelopes of the former and five of 
the latter. A sample bundle of ten vegetables would 
very likely contain a quart of Corn, half-a-pint of 
Beans, half-a-pint of Peas, and some small envelopes 
of Cabbage, Pumpkin, Tomato, Pepper, Radish, Cucum¬ 
ber, and Beet. Quarts are also given of Buckwheat 
and Lawn Grass. A separate room in the barn is 
devoted to the putting up of flower seeds, which are 
purchased from the big seed houses. . . . Write 
to the department for the seeds you want, and you are 
all ready to go into business. Own your own kitchen 
garden ; every city family should have one on the 
window-ledge. Flowers will do as well. 
Two-thirds of the £20,000 worth of seeds go to Con¬ 
gress, each member of which gets about 5,000 envelopes 
of them yearly. Usually the department sends them 
off under instructions from the Congress men. The 
remaining one-third is distributed by the department 
as it sees fit. Its generosity is often abused, for people 
sometimes send as many as a dozen times for seed in 
one year. As a rule they get them, too ; for it is the 
policy of the department to be very amiable, and to 
conciliate everybody.— Brooklyn, N. Y., Times. 
GARDENERS’ MUTUAL IMPROVE¬ 
MENT ASSOCIATIONS. 
(Concluded from p. 715J. 
Discussions. 
Nervousness here, too, is often shown by members, 
and yet discussions are the very life of these meetings. 
They are not only the means of disseminating know¬ 
ledge, but by joining in them members acquire that 
important qualification in these days, the power of 
expressing their ideas in an intelligible form. With a 
view to encourage general discussion, it is a commend¬ 
able custom to give the secretary good notice of any 
paper intended to be read, so that he may announce it 
for the information of members, that they may bo 
prepared to discuss it when the proper time arrives. I 
would strongly advise the younger members in such 
cases to look up books bearing on the subject to be 
dwelt upon, and mark carefully therein any references 
to the matter about to be debated, and then read these 
at the meetings. This is a perfectly legitimate manner 
of proceeding. The younger members are not expected 
to treat the matter from a practical or experienced 
point of view, and the course here recommended for 
adoption will give them courage, and serve as a train¬ 
ing for the more important and influential part they 
may be naturally expected to play as their connection 
with the association extends. A word of advice here. 
I would earnestly impress upon those who promise papers 
to read them, or get someone else to do so for them, on 
the date fixed. It is not very cheering for a secretary 
to receive, a day before the meeting, a note, intimating 
that the paper arranged for cannot be read. I have 
known one or 'two cases iu which such notice was not 
even given. Nothing is more disappointing—I had 
almost written exasperating—than for the members to 
find the reader, for whom they had prepared matter for 
discussion, not to put in an appearance, and much 
injury is done to the association. It is a good rule to 
allow each member who speaks in reply ten minutes. 
This generally gives a chance for all who wish to do so 
to join in the discussion, and then, if time permits, a 
few members will be able to speak a second time. 
Exhibition of Plants, &c., at Meetings. 
It is the custom in some societies for the members to 
exhibit plants, cut flowei’3, &c., at the meetings, and 
for marks or certificates of merit to be awarded to the 
best exhibits. An interest is thereby aroused in such 
meetings that must be an advantage to those assembled. 
It is a capital plan, as tending to develop good cultiva¬ 
tion, and a spirit of healthy rivalry. The idea of 
illustrating the paper sometimes by the fruit or plant 
on which it treats is a most commendable one. For 
instance, suppose a short paper is read on Madresfield 
Court Grape, and fine examples be exhibited, which 
are free from blemish. The reader would doubtless be 
called upon for an explanation of the system of culture 
which produced this much-to-be-desired result. This 
would prove of great value to growers of this variety 
there present, who had not been so fortunate as the 
lecturer in preventing cracking. Instances of this 
character might be multiplied, but one instance is 
quite sufficient to convey the object I have in view in 
drawing attention to this most important matter. 
Library. 
This is a useful addition to any sooiety. Its great 
advantages are so self-evident that no words of mine 
are needed to point them out. Money spent in good 
books is never wasted. I refer for one moment, by 
way of encouragement to others similarly engaged, to 
the prosperous Gardeners’ Society at Birmingham. In 
the first year of its establishment, some three or four 
years ago, the sum of £60 7s. 6 d. was received for the 
library ; 100 volumes of books were then purchased, 
and twenty books and thirty-two bound volumes of 
magazines and other periodicals presented, making a 
total of 152 books. By the courtesy of Mr. Hughes, 
the ever-busy and efficient secretary, I have seen a list 
of the books in the library, and a very satisfactory one 
it is. Mr. Hughes has also informed me that two most 
excellent works have recently been added to their 
library, viz., Sowerby’s English Botany and the Here¬ 
fordshire Pomona. 
Attendances. 
Where other engagements permit, these should be made 
as frequent as possible by the members to the extent of 
a little personal sacrifice at times. It is only by con¬ 
stant attendance and attention at these meetings that 
the good derivable from them can be maintained and 
shared in to its fullest degree, and yet another most 
important point highly worthy of earnest consideration 
by those concerned. There is nothing more distressing 
and discouraging to a reader than to find a poor atten¬ 
dance. He has gone, doubtless, to a lot of trouble ; 
made researches costing him valuable time and care, 
given expression to (may be) new ideas—indeed, has 
done everything, so far as he is individually concerned, 
to make his subject a successful one, and has as his 
reward a miserable attendance. It is very distracting, 
too, for members to come late after the reading of the 
paper has commenced, or to leave, as they do some¬ 
times, before the task is finished. Members should 
make a point of being at the meetings when business 
begins, and always, if they can possibly do so, stop 
until the close of the discussion, which forms one of the 
most valuable and instructive features of the evening. 
Always give readers a good attendance, and thorough 
attention. It is an appreciation which they esteem, a 
recompense for voluntary labour rendered for the 
general good, and an act on the part of the hearers 
which calls for no great sacrifice in any way. As good 
examples are always well worthy of record, it may be 
mentioned that the members of the Birmingham Society 
make an average attendance of 100 per meeting. 
Excursions, &c. 
Last year the members of the Birmingham Society 
made a trip to the famed gardens at Heckfield, and it 
would be a good thing if a plan of making excursions 
were more generally adopted. New modes of gardening 
practice would, doubtless, be noticed on such visits, 
which could not fail to benefit those taking part. 
Having an affinity with the excursion plan is 
the capital custom followed ,in some societies of the 
members at the conclusion of the session dining 
together, thus constituting a happy break to the more 
serious business in which the members had, up to that 
time, been engaged. 
Mutual Assistance. 
A “notion ” occurs to me here that I should like to see 
carried out. It is this : —That in all meeting places of 
these associations there should be a “benevolent box,” 
into which the members might voluntarily—not com¬ 
pulsorily—drop a mite now and then, these donations 
to be devoted to alleviating distress caused by a 
member’s illness or loss of employment. 
Prizes for Essays. 
In some associations prizes are offered for essays on 
horticultural subjects—a capital idea, as fostering 
thought and creating a taste for literary work; although 
not absolutely essential, yet an acquirement of the 
latter qualification by gardeners would tend to much 
good. The members of the Chiswick association are 
fortunate in receiving much assistance in this direction, 
year by year, through the generosity and thoughtfulness 
of Mrs. S. A. Lee. That these competitions have done, 
are doing, and will do yet much good, I am persuaded. 
One, however, would like to see the matter taken up 
more widely, and with greater spirit by the [members 
generally. 
Papers. 
It is the custom of some societies to rely a good deal 
upon what might be called “outside aid.” It may 
be well to have a particularly strong outside light to 
shine occasionally, but outsiders should not be wholly 
depended upon, or, indeed, to any considerable extent. 
It is much better that the members should contribute 
a greater portion of the papers read at the meetings. I 
have been inquiring about a neighbouring association— 
that at Kew—as to their course of procedure in these 
matters, and I am told that they have no outside aid 
whatever. Perhaps the rule would not be very easy of 
application, but I should like to see one put in motion 
requiring every member to contribute a paper during 
the course of the session. The members, by contributing 
the papers, would be more in touch with each other, 
and the discussions be better, as the members have 
naturally some reluctance in criticising a paper read by 
a comparative stranger. Young men are somewhat 
reluctant to contribute papers, and yet they have 
nothing to fear or lose by a little bold action—indeed, 
very much to gain by such a course. The preparation 
of papers induces thought, and consequently attention, 
which must be of service to those so employed. If 
young men employed in gardens were to provide them¬ 
selves with a note-book, and jot down therein short 
notes of the things that arrest their attention in the 
course of their daily vocations, much good would 
inevitably result. How valuable such records might 
prove in after life ! And from these notes, often short 
papers might be prepared, and the difficulties tho 
writers have met with could be touched upon. In 
most cases the problems would satisfactorily solve 
themselves when brought under the notice of their 
fellow members. 
