Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-25
PACKING THE EDS
NEARLY FORTY MILLION WILL
BE DISTRIBUTED.
Interesting Work Being Carried on in
the Building on 1S4 Street
The Departments Plans.

'The work of distributing $4,000, 600 of
seeds by the government has begun said
Mr.. B. F. Brown. the inventor of the va
rious machines used in the distribution. II
have the contract this year for the first
time and have added new machines and i'm
proved the old so that there will be prac-
tically a new plant. They are planting
seed in the south and the. Pacific states
while the New Englanders are gathering
their ice crop. and consequently we must
govern our distribution accordingly. We
have divided the country into six divisions
for this purpose. By December 20 seeds
will have been sent to Alabama, Arizona
California, Florida. Georgia, Hawaii, Lou
isiana Mississippi, New Mexico, South
Carolina and Texas. By December 81 Ar
kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ore
gon. Tennessee and Washington will be
reached. The other states are reached in
January, February and March Idaho
Maine, Montana. New Hampshire, North
Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming come last
and seeds to this. the sixth. division wilf-be
sent by March 81.
Wages Paid to Employees.
Under the present system this work is
let to the lowest bidder and / have the con-
tract this year. The result Of this ri
valry is that there Is close competition
in wages and the wages paid are about the
same as those received by folders and coun-
tiers in houses distributing circulars of va
rious kinds. about 81 a week While this
Is not large, girls come from these houses
to seek employment and white we will en-
ploy in all only about 100 girls we have
over 200 applications on file, not counting
those employees Of last year, many of whom
want to come back. We will give them the
preference because they were tried last
year and found satisfactory and besides
have had the experience.
I'VE have seeds in stock to supply the
first two sections of the country named 1
have printed envelopes and wrappers for
this work and this portion Of tits completed
and organized. Altogether we have on
hand about one-thrd of the seed. We get
our seed from all parts Of the world. The
best cabbages in the world; are raised in
Long Island. California furnishes lettuce
seed OF such superior quality that recent
~ arrangements were made by which the
world supply Of lettuce seed will come
from that state. California furnishes good
furnish our radish seed. This Is progress
slve step as the result of some experiments
recently. Up to a short time ago all our
radish seed came from Europe."
Packing the Seeds.
At the building 221 13h street. used for
the distribution of government seeds, work.
men are busy remodeling the plant. An
other set of bins to hold the seed is being
added, and there will be another row Of
W ScuiiS anu SdCh tu0 SeeUS. Inc
process is so accurate and so complete that
the scales shew every package of lettuce
seed to weigh 12sth Of pound
ana every package Of tomato seed
to weigh the 24Oth part OF a pound
But what is more remarkable, package af-
ter package of flower seeds after going
through bins, chutes and machines weigh
exactly the same, the weight in the in
stance OF one flower being one-one-thou-
sandth of pound and in another one
twelve-hundredth of a pound Starting at
the top Of the building the seeds descend
to the mail carts sorted, sacked, tagged
and routed for the post office authorities.
almost all by machinery.
On the upper floor there is a row of small
pins with chutes to the machines Just be-
low. Boys fill these bins with seed from
sacks as 1t comes to the department from
the various sources Automatically it is
FED to the machines, each operated by one
girl These machines measure the GUAM
tity, put the seed in the small sacks and
seal the sacks. A chute carries these
sealed sacks to the large bins on the next
floor below, bins large enough to hold 900
ooO or these packages Belts run along the
outside Of these bins, sixteen in number
and larger sack is used here The belt
carries the sack along the bins and girls
stationed along place In the sacks the va
rlet1es needed. No mistake can be made
An operator cannot pick up any other va
rlety and she cannot we'll miss the sack
as 1t slowly passes the wide belt Col
onel James Morrison, inspector in chief
also looks after that