The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-02-18
How Uncle Sam Packs Seeds.

600 Of seeds by the Government has
begun said Mr.. Il. +. Brown, invcn-
tor OF the various machines used in
the distribution, to a Washington Star
reporter. 81 have the contract this
year for the first time, and have added
new machines and improved the old,
so that there will be practically a new
plant. They are planting seed in the
South and Pacific States, while the
New E%nglandcrs arc gathering their
ice crop, and consequently VIC must
| govern our distribution accordingly.
We have divided the country into six
divisions for this purpose. BY De-
ccmber 20 seeds will have been sent
to Alabama, Arizona, California,
Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Missis-
sippi, New Mexico, South Carolina
and Texas. By December 81 Arkan-
sas, 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, will be sent
by March 81.
"Undcr the present system this
work is lei 10 the lowest bidder and 1
have the contract this year. The re-
suit Of this rivalry is that there is
close competition in lagos, and the
wages paid are about the same Nc
those received by folders and counters
Of houses distributing circulars Of va
rions kinds, about 81 q week, While
this is net large, girls come from these
houses to seek employment and, while
We will employ in all about 100 girls,
We have over 200 applications on Ale,
not counting those employees Of last
year, many Of whom want to come
back. We will give them the prefer
ence, because they were tried last
year and found satisfactory and be-
sides havo had the experience.
"We have seeds in stock to supply
the first two sections Of the country
named. We have printed envelopes
and wrappers for this work and this
portion Of it is completed and organ
lied. Altogether We have on hand
about one third of the seed. We get
our seed from all parts Of the world.
The best cabbage in t., world arc
raised in Long Island. California
furnishes lettuce seed Of such a supe-
rior quality hat recently arrangements
were made by which the world supply
Of lettuce seed will come from that
State. California furnishes good on
ion seed, and California and Michigan
furnish our radish seed. This is q
progressive step as the result of some
experiments recently. Up to q short
time ago all our radish seed came from
Europe"
AT the building, 221 Thirteen and
One-half street, used for the distribu-
ton of Government seeds, workmen
are busy remodelling the plant. An
other set Of bins to hold the seed is
being added and there will be another
row of machines to count and sack the
seeds. The process is so accurate and
so complete that the scales show every
package Of lettuce seed to weigh 128th
of a pound sand every package of to-
mato seed to weigh the 240th of a
pound. But what is more remarka-
BILE, package after package Of flower
seeds, after going through the bins,
chutes and machines weigh exactly
the same, thc.lweight in the instance
Of one hower.beipg ne.one-thousandth
Of q pound, and in another one-twelve-
hundredth of a pound. Starting at
the top of tho building the sceds de-
scend to the maill carts, sorted, sacked,
tagged and routed for the postofice
authorities, almost all by machinery.
On the uppersfoor there is q row of
small bins with chutes to the ma
chimes just below. Boys fill these
bins with seed from sacks az it comes
to the department from the various
sources. Automatically it is fed to
the machines, each operated by one
girl. These machines measure the
quantity, put the seeds in the small
sacks and seal the sacks. A chute
carries these sealed sacks to large
bins on the next floor below, bins
large enough to hold 200 900 of these
packages. Belts run along the out
side of these bins, sixteen in number,
and o larger sack is used here. The
belt carries the sack along the bins
and girls stationed along place in tho