The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-12-28
The Government seed shop.

Year after year the free seed distri-
seem that the United States govern
ment will have a monopoly of the seed
business in this country, says the
Practical Farmer. A law made in
the first instance for the introduction
of seeds of plants that may be new
to the country in order that they
might be tested and valuable crops in
trOduced, has been converted into an
electioneerng scheme by congressman.
In spite of all the opposition of the
secretaries the evil grows instead of
diminishing. Secretary Wilson, in his
recent report, tells some plain truths
in regard to it, and advises that the
law be restricted to it's original pur-
pose. But is there any need of a
law that has been found so easy to
perVert into fraud on the country?
One of our contemporaries, we do not
just remember which, suggests that
when the law was framed there might
have been a use for the government
introducing these things, but now,
when in all civilized countries the en-
ergetic seedsmen are ever on the look
out for valuable novelties, and the
commercial connections of seedsmen
all over the world are such that no
plant of real economic value anywhere
is likely to escape the attention of the
trade explorers, the trade can be de-
pended upon to find these things and
TO introduce them, and there is not
the slightest reason for the govern
ment giving away garden seeds that
can be bought for a trifie by mail all
over the land, than there is for their
distributing other goods that some
people would like to have given them.
If the government is to keep up the
seed gift business why not extend it
to a general paternal pauperization of
the people in every line of goods. Just
at this season why should not Con-
gress go into the Christmas gift bust
ness for the whole people? 1t would
be as sensible to ask for contracts from
the toy shops and the bric-a-brac deal
ers and to let congressman send out
Christmas packages free through the
mails as to buy up the seed stocks of
the country and to distribute packages
by the million all over the land, thou
sands of which are thrown in the fire
by gardeners who know what they
want, and who will not trust the de-
partment seeds to make their crops
If the government is to keep explorers
traversing the earth and seeking seeds
and plants of all sorts, would it not
be more sensible to place the collec-
lions in the hands of the experiment
stations in all the states so that their
value may be tested and no loss in
Cured by private planters who are de-
pending on the seeds to make some
thing to eat from their gardens and
farms? The great bulk of the new
introductions fail to be of value over
| what we already have. A few years
| ago we received a number of varieties
| of olSra, for instance, from the depart
| ment, which had been collected in AL
| geria. Not one of these proved equal
| to the White Velvet, which has been
grown here for years, and the intro
duction was entirely useless. And the
same may be said of many other things
introduced simply because the govern
| ment explorers find them on the mar
| ket OF foreign lands and are not IA
| mitiar enough with the particular ar
ticle to judge if it will be a valuable
| addition or not. If the trade was de-
| pended upon these things would not be
| brought in unless it had been DSst er
| that they had unusual value. WThe
whole seed distribution has grown into
| a gigantic fraud on the seed trade