Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-10-02
THE SEED
=. =, Conducted in the United state.-
interesting Suggestions.

1HE S..S sSSubN.SS
:. !, Conducted In the United state,-
o"' interesting Suggestions.
Although farmers are deeply inter-
...l in the seed and plant business,
thew know very little about the way
which 1t is carried on. At times
I,,e are complaints made by farmers
VI gardeners who are disappointed in
~ seeds, and for want of knowing
-. the business is conducted blame
,,v easily be cast upon innocent par
=. or indeed may attach to the pur-
noser himself instead of to the seller
~ grower of the seeds. In running
80 y list of the seedsmen in the
E.;-od States and Canada we find about
[nc thousand five hundred who are
,oocnized as regular dealers in a mer-
entjle sense; that is they make a
n"rial business of selling seeds. OF
Ehose about one hundred are growers
: seeds as well as purchasers and SELL
rs producing in part the seeds which
hoy sell and buying direct from farm
We who make a special business of
.rowine on contract for them other
k;nds which they do not grow them
Lives. Some few of these seedsmen
RE large importers, one of them alone
ften purchasing in one year as much
4 forty thousand dollars worth of
l,bbaee seeds alone. The importa-
iou of seeds is a necessary part of the
BUSINESS, because there are some plants
rbich thrive best and produce better
ced in certain climates, as, for in
tonce, field beets and mangels in Eng
apd. sugar beets in France and Ger
many, cauliflower and cabbage seed in
Germany, tuberose bulbs in Italy and
kouthern France, oats in Ireland and
Scotland, and other seeds in variety
rom every corner and end of the
earth. which is ransacked for novelties.
The production of seeds and bulbs is
business of great extent. One
prominent scotsman cultivates over
Fix hundred acres; another has a much
kreater area of land under cultivation,
6ayiag a farm of about forty thousand
bcres in Illinois, where oats, corn, and
bther staple seed crops are raised. One
prominent florist grows gladioluses in
arge fields. and n of the largest
sights is to see his crops in full bloom.
But by far the largest quantity of
kecds sold is grown on the contract
kystem by farmers who have special
opportunities and abilities for the
business. One farmer known to us
grows every year about forty acres of
evergreen sweet corn for one seed
house, and under such circumstances
that there is no possibility of any mix
lure with other kinds. This is an i'm
portant point with seed growers and
dealcrs who are anxious to secure per-
fleet purity in their seeds as we'll as
soundness and healthfulness. The
growers of seeds almost always-and
always should-test the quality of the
seeds they grow by terminating them.
The seedsmen are careful in making
contracts to provide that all seeds
grown for them should be subject to
thorough tests, and throw around their
business every possible safeguard and
security. 1t may be comforting to
farmers to know that, as a rule, the
persons upon whom they depend for
the goodness of the seeds they are OBJ
|liged to purchase are honest and con-
s%nentious. and conduct their onereus
(and laborious business with the most
%scrupulous care to secure good seed.
AT times circumstances occur which
| will confound the wisest and the most
cautious men. Some seeds, the pro-
duet of a crop grown in an u%nfavorable
season, will either fail or will produce
poor and imperfect plants. We have
known cabbage and carrot seed grown
in Il very dry year, to produce plants
which run to seed the same year the
seed is sown, and thus become annual
instead OF biennial. Thus at times no
amount of caution and provision will
secure imperfection. Some seeds too,
as carrots, soon lose their power of
termination, and when :n unfavorable
season happens there are two difficult
ties to encounter, upon one or two
others Of which the farmer is almost
sure to be struck.
Farmers have often been advised to
grow their OWL seeds. They might as
we'll become their own doctors and
tallors or shoemakers as do this. 1t is
a special business. One kind Of seed
alone may be grown upon a farm in a
large quantity, at much less cost and
with far greater certainty than a
small quantity could be grown, and a
farmer who would undertake to grow
either his field or garden seeds would
ind Il load of work and care upon him
greater than that of all his farm be-
sides, and with little. probability OF
securing good quality or purity in the
seed he should grow.-Henry Stewo't,
N N. Y. Times. .."....