The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-29

$500 an Ounce for Flower Seeds-Oats at SIS
a Bushel-Costly SQUASH Seeds.

New York Sun
In many of the offices around and in the big
Produce Exchange there numerous little
shallow boxes piled on window sills tables and
desks. The boxes are generally filled with corn
and wheat and other grain, samples of the stock
held in the big elevators and stores along the
river fronts and in the fleets of canal boats in the
Brooklyn basins. A-grain dea. r was running
his hand through a sample of No. spring wheat
when a young man said:
Good as goldl'
'Yes, but unlike some other farm products, it
is not worth its weight in gold.'
''Sqvashes, for instance2"
''Perhaps you would like to know something
about high priced farm products. There is a
new variety of oats, called the Clydesdale A
measured bushel weighs fifty one pounds While
they will not retain their full weight in this
country, they will double the market value of
the product of an oats-feld. The enterprisng
farmer pays So bushel for his seed There is
the new Fife spring wheat, which sells for So a
bushel, and the new styles of field corn known
as Chester Mammoth and Golden Dent sell for
about the same.
I'm the matter of garden seeds, the farmer
must pay prices that make him squeal Last
year Newark man brought out what is known
as Hendersop's White Plume celery. Unlike
common celery it does not need to be banked
up to whiten tie leaves and, what is more,
these leaves are as much like ostrich feathers
as anything you can imagine. During the
American Institute fair the plants on exhibition
were frequently torn to pieces by guests
who used the leaves for button hole bouquets.
The scotsman who is introducing the plant paid
$3.50 for small truck-load of the plants, and he
now sells the seed at $40 pound.
ga new French bean is selling at fifty cents a
quart The new Eclipse beet seed sells for So so
pound while the seed of the new lettuce called
the Oak Leaf sells for So an ounce. Even new
variety of parsley is high priced the seed OF the
style called Emerald selling for So a pound.
You sarcastically mentioned the squash.
That was because you didn't know all about
squashes. There was a specimen of new
squash on exhibition in this town last fail for
several weeks that that weighed 223 pounds. It's
flavor was as excellent as its size was enormous.
The seeds obtained from this big squash sell for
three cents apiece, or SD an ounce.
But when you want to find farm products
that are really worth their weight in gold you
must take the flower seeds raised by the far m
er's wife. This year there are great variety
of new flowers. 1t would bewilder you to name
them. These seeds are always sold by the
packet at from % to so cents a packet That
sounds cheap. but there are new styles in
daisies, ladys slippers, petunias, and pansies,
the seeds of which are worth in the market by
the ounce sum that will take your breath
away. The petunia grandifora is sample. 1t is
an exceedingly beautiful flower. The packages
of seeds contain 800 or 400 seeds each, but the
seed is an impalpable powder almost, it is so
fine. The package retails at 70 cents, but by
the ounce the seed is worth $500. An ounce
will make 5000 packages You can see what
the retail price of flower seed and the retailers
profits are from that statement"