No. 33.] 21 
habits of such insects. Thus, for a perfect illustration, the Scarlet 
Runner bean is partially sterile if the visits of bees be prevented. In 
Nicaragua, where the flowers are not visited by insects, the species 
is quite sterile. Oftentimes bees, however, acquire the habit of ecut- 
ting holes in the flower in order to get at the honey, and when they do 
“this they do not come into contact with either the pollen or the pistil, 
and hence their visits are useless to the plant. These facts, as noticed 
by Darwin, give clear expression to the indebtedness we are under to 
agencies at first thought far remote from practical affairs, and illus- 
trate in a manner the diversities of agencies to be considered in calcu- 
lating the results of an experiment. 
We have no criticisms to offer concerning the distribution of dead 
seed, or seed of such an age as to be unreliable. ‘ No such cases have 
come under our observation. Occasionally varieties have failed to 
germinate or to vegetate, but these few cases may rather be considered 
accidental than as having a general meaning. It is time now that we 
should cease the quoting of adulteration and fraud proven to be car- 
ried on in Germany and England as applicable to this country, and 
from reasoning from these foreign facts conclusions derogatory to our 
seedsmen. In our country competition amongst seedsmen admits of 
no gain from fraudulent practices, and prima facie honesty should be 
looked for in preference to fraud. It is a good maxim in thought, as 
in law, to consider a man innocent until there is reason to believe him 
guilty. | | 
From our experience with duplicate trials in germination, we must 
deplore the system which shall condemn one seedsman and inferen- 
tially indorse another, through variation in the germinating proper- 
ties of seed from single packages sold. That this method may be a 
just one when practiced on a sufficiently large scale seems probable, 
but not when undertaken with few samples, and without the check 
upon our conclusions which are to be derived from duplicates. Prima 
facie, so far as our own observations teach, seedsmen’s seeds, irrespect- 
ive of whom purchased, are certainly not inferior in germinating 
properties to those raised from single plants at the station. 
We have made no trials with “commission seed ” this year, as our 
trials last year seemed sufficient to condemn a system which is capable 
of so much abuse, and which, in the light of our mail and express 
facilities, seems unnecessary. It would seem to us asif self-protection 
would lead seedsmen to abolish this method of sale which places them 
at the discretion of so many agents, many of whom may be careless. We 
would not condemn the custom of distributing gocds for sale, but 
only the method which removes from the seed the real guarantee of 
the responsible parties, and which, while the packets are indorsed by 
the seedsmen, yet are really dependent upon the care and good faith 
of series of agents far removed from the distributing center. It is 
probably to this system in vogne that we are indebted to the reluc- 
tance of many to patronize seedsmen directly and try improved kinds 
of seed, for those who have been deceived by ‘‘ grocery packets” of 
seed can scarcely be expected to feel encouraged to extend their future 
attempts to secure change of varieties, or of seed. 
One of the objectionable features that we would call attention to is 
the multiplication of synonyms in our seed catalogues ; a multiplica-- 
