The Washington bee., 1899-06-17
GIRL SEED PACKERS
MARVELLOUS RAt ltHTY THEY DISPLAY
IN PUTTING UP SEEDS.

/ iN FO iN1 OF SGEOS.
Hundreds of Them Employed in the
Wholesale Seed Houses of the Large
Cities-Somewhat Different Stamp From
Ordinary Factory Girls.
Unless il be lightning speed steno-
grapher or bicyclist pedalling for a
4 wager. no human beings in New York
work faster than the girls putting up
seed packets in the wholesale flower
| houses.
How many of those can you fill a
day." was asked of a girl manipulate
ing ounce and quarter-ounces and
quarter-pound packages of seed in q
downtown store.
'Forty-eight a minute" came the
prompt answer, with never a pause In
the dipping and measuring and pour
| ing in, and before the visitor could
even take i'm the idea of how many
this might mean in an hour, the little
lowered paper squares, all sealed and
ready for shipment, had mounted up
in sufficient quantities to make new
ly emptied basket necessary to hold
them.
II have been filling seed packets
here for six years." said the expert
later, when mOmentary lull made
conversation possible "Oh, of course,
when | first came | couldn't begin to
do what can now. My fingers could
MT move fast enough, and these little
measures seemed too small to take
hold of readily, but with a little prac.
tice | got on better, and after a TIME,
in season or two, | could turn round
sharp and be of use. By three of us
working together. one opening the
bag, one filling, and one sealing, we
can turn out a quantity.
The firm takes on new girls to help,
but experience and practice are need
ed in the seed business, and in work
ing with high-grade seeds or with the
mixed papers filler has to be exact
and trustworthy or she would do dam
age.
"What are the most expensive seeds
we work with? Petunias, the fancy,
newly grated kind, and calceolaria.
''The finest petunia seed is worth
| $25 an ounce" the seed meaSuerer
went on, land part Of an ounce would
furnish ever so many plants, so we put
up very small quantities. and the seed
! is as light and fine as chaff or down,
so it must be worked with very care
fully to avoid waste. Certain extra
grades of calceolaria and petunia
seeds come as high as S120 an ounce.
/ know that S4O0 pound for petuniaS
sounds like fairy tale but the great
est pains are taken to rear those
plants. of course nobody ever buys
whole pound, so the proportionate
value is great. In vegetable seeds the
most expensive that we have to con-
slider is the caulifiower. That is worth
$40 pound and is put up in very
small measurements. The most of the
vegetable seed however, are easy to
work with
There are hundreds of girls i'm the
wholesale seed houses. Most of them
are taken in November and work
steadily until February. but In the
spring season. along about May, in
variably calls for a fresh relay of
workers. and after the first stock Of
ALREADY -to-sell seed packets has been
depleted. the girls and all hands have
to work to the utmos: to get ready
a new supply. People who have plant
ed their seeds and had them fail to
come up send for duplicate aSSort-
ments. and those who had perhaps no
| idea of planting at all are moved TO
experiment with flowers and vege-
tables when the first warm days come
and there is a feeling for outdoor oc-
: cupation. For this reason. although
the regulation seed orders are all filled
and provided for during the winter
season. the demand is never to be cal
culated definitely. and every large firm
has To turn in and put up a new sup
ply when the planting season is actual
ly on.
Most of the girl seed workers work
under supervision. and are valued only
because they are small fingered and
alert, and can do the delicate work
more eXpediously than man. Those
who, like the 4S-package-a-m eX-
pert. have learned the business and
are not only quick but exact and re-
liable, are kept on the payroll all the
year and regarded as valuable adj
juncts to the business. A leading seed
house takes on from 60 to 100 girls in
the spring rush season.. and keeps two
dozen or so employed regularly. The
| girl fiower-Seed worker is seldom Il
wage Garner from compulsicn. because
there is no help for it, as is the case
with the factory girl. the girl seam
stress, or the larger proportion of shop
girls. The seed business is too ir
regular to be considered as q legiti-
mate trade to be depended upon for
| living wages. and so the seed girls are
drawn from those having homes and
parents to support them. but who
work for pin money, and because the
business is light. clean and pleasant,
and the pay in fair proportion to the
work Most of the girls live out of
town i'm little suburban hCnes. near
Jersey City and Brooklyn, and a man
who engages batch after batch Gf
them says that the Irish Americans
seem to succeed best and sick to the
business longest Working among the
seeds and becoming familia. with the
nature and needs Of plants and flowers
generally leads the workers to expert
ment on their own account 'gith grow
ing things in their home plots and this
makes them additionally valuable TO
the business.
Some of our girls have remarkable
memories and can carry more seed
knowledge in their heads for use. off
hand. than any man in the t,ade." said
a seed store proprietor who had been
eXtolling his woman heat worker.
/ ..Thpy can recall how many inches