The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1899-07-05
Fool Legislation.

Gently ADJOURNED placed on the StaCuC
books the following piece Of fool legis
latiOn:
An Act in Relation to the Sale Of Gar
den, Melon and other Vegetable
Seed in the State Of Florida
Be it enacted by the Legislature Of
the State of Florida:
Section 1. That from and after the
passage of this act it shall be unlaw
full for any person or persons, firm OF
firms, or any one doing business II
Florida, to sell or offer for sale any
garden, melon or vegetable seed unless
the original package in which the
same is enclosed or in which the seeC
are sold shall have written or printed
thereon on the outside in plain letters
a guarantee as to when, where and by
whom all such seed were grown.
Section 2. Any person or persons vi
olating the provisions Of the first sec
ton of this act or of falsely represent
ing such seed shall be guilty Of mis-
demeanor, and on conviction thereof
shall be punished by fine of not less
than twenty-five nor more than one
hundred dollars.
Section 3. This act shall take effect
upon it's approval by the Governor.
Approved May 10Th, 1899.
The above law is one that no seeds
man who carries a full line of vegeta
bic seeds can comply with.
The intent Of the Trainer of this
law was good, but it cuts people whose
place of business is in the State and
cannot touch the outsider whose place
of business is located outside of the
State. If enforced, it simply legiti
mates all seedsmen out of the State
of Florida.
The seeds handled by any regular
scotsman are obtained in five different
ways; list, what he grows himself; I'd
what he contracts directly with an
actual grower for; 3rd, what he con.
tracts for from wholesale seed con
tractor; 4th, what he buys from whole
sale seed dealers; 5th, imported seed
from foreign houses, the business
tranaction generally be conducted
through the foreign firms American
broker or agent in New York city.
The seed actually grown by any firm
Of seedmen in the United States is
practically nothing as compared with
the whole amount used. In the con
tracing direct with individual grow
ers the scotsman knows who the
grower is and when and where the
seed is grown, but he is not going to
be fool enough to place that growers
name and address on every package of
that seed he sends out. How long
would it be before his customers
would be transacting business direct
with the grower and cutting the seeds
man out all together.
In the supplies that come from the
wholesale seed contractors the same
thing holds good. The wholesale con
tractor is not going to state to his Gus
toners who the individual growers are
that grows those seed for him. How
long would it be before his customers
would be dealing direct with the indi
vidual grower instead of through him
In case of the retail scotsman buying
at wholesale from the wholesale see(
dealers, the wholesale dealer is Ger
tainly not going to give the name an(
address of the party from whom hi
bought the goods to his customer.
In the case of imported seeds tina
are largely used in Florida, the indi
vidual growers deliver the seed the!
grow to the wholesale contractor. HI
in turn delivers it to the wholesale
seedsmen. This seed is sold to Ameri
can houses generally through the me
dunn of the New York agent of thu
foreign house. How under heavens il
tho retail SeedSmen in the IInitel