464 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Noy., 1901. 
SEEDS THAT NEVER GROW. 
In the beginning of the last month, in the course of a trip through the 
wheat districts of the Downs, we fell in with a farmer who was weeding what 
struck us as a very poor straggling plot of onions. On inquiry as to the cause 
of the innumerable “ misses,” he stated that he had bought 9 lb. of onion seed 
at 6s. per lb., had sown it all, but only about 2 lb. of it grew. This is by no 
means a solitary instance of the results of seed imported from the South as this 
lot was. Farmers cannot afford to lose money by receiving bad seed, in 
addition to the expenditure of labour and loss of time, but as long as dishonest 
seedsmen exist, so long will the unfortunate farmer be ‘ had.” 
In connection with this matter, the Sydney Mazl prints some amusing 
lines on 
THE SEEDS THAT NEVER GROW. 
I nearly hate the thought of spring, 
With its delightful sun, 
For well I know the mail will bring 
A pack from Washington ; 
A little package duly franked, 
No postage stamps to show, 
And it contains those little seeds— 
The kind that never grow. 
Our good and zealous Congressman, 
Remindful of our vote, 
Upon his memorandum’s page 
uts down a little note. 
And when the proper time arrives 
For us to wield the hoe 
He sendeth us the little seeds— 
The ones that never grow. 
There’s squashes with enticing names, 
And cabbages, I wot, 
So large that you would think that one 
Would shade a garden spot. 
So, with the pack from Washington, » 
You amble forth to sow, 
With many a drop of sweat, the seeds 
That never care to grow. 
How often have I plied the rake ; 
How oft I’ve lounged about, 
With eyes alert to catch the first 
Signs of the naan sprout ; 
In vain, in vain; my hopes have fled, 
My heart has filled with woe 
About the seeds from Washington— 
The seeds that never grow. 
But yet each year my hopes revive, 
Its spring reclothes the tree, 
And to my homestead surely comes 
The package marked “ M.C.”’; 
And, foolish-like, again I wield 
The sprinkler and the hoe, 
And, like a ninny, plant the seeds 
That neyer care to grow. 
They were sent to the Mail's correspondent by a seed firm in Phila- 
delphia, and we think them worthy of a place in the Journal, as they are @ propos 
of a proposal in the New South Wales State Parliament that seeds and plants 
should be distributed free, from experimental farms to the farmers. It was, 
however, shown to be a miserable failure in the United States, where the plan 
was tried. 
