Arizona republican., 1906-03-18
GROWTH OF
 THE GRAFT
How the free Seed Bus
 mess Sprang Up
The Efforts Being Made tO Suppress it and the Obstacles to be Over- come.

Washington. March CSpeciaI) )-
 In their efforts to suppress the free seed graft, the majority of the house committee on agriculture will have
 the support of Representative Tawney of Minnesota, chairman of the com
 mtttee on appropriations. Speaker l Cannon is against further appropria- tions for the free distribution of peas, beans, corn, turnips and peanuts, and,
 while the members of the committee
 on agriculture are fully informed on
 the subject, Uncle Joe" thinks they should be backed up by others not on
 the committee. Consequently MT. Tawney is securing data on the sub ject which he will present to the | house should there be an attempt to override the committee. He mas re- ceived a very interesting letter from Secretary of Agriculture Wilson re- viewing the history of the appropria- tions for this purpose. Secretary Will son practically takes the ground that congress, and not the department, is responsible for the growth of this form of graft, and that if the congressman are willing to fOregO their little pack cts of seeds, ne is more than willing
 The secretary states that the first appropriation for seeds was in 1859 when the commissioner of patents was allowed S1,0OO for collecting agricul- tural statistics and the purchase of seeds of new and rare varieties of plants" From 1899 to and including
 1865, the total amount expended in collecting statistics and supplying seeds was $672,724. The appropriation for the current year for seeds alone is $29O,OOO, or almost one-half
 nf ha twenty-siX years from 1889 to 1865 in the encouragement of agriculture. Secretary Wilson notes that "The pur- pose of the early legislation for the 1 introduction and distribution of seeds was to introduce into this country seeds of new and improved varieties and of new crops in order to increase the horticultural and agricultural products of the United States" As long as it was confined to this purpose great good was accomplished. But he continues: AS the demand for the new seeds being introduced by the de- partment increased, such demands naturally found expression in requests made to senators and members of con-
 gress, and in course of time the mum
 Der of these requests became so great that it was impossible to fill them with strictly new varieties of seeds, hence the practice began of sending out larger quantities of packages of vege- table seeds"
 Secretary Wilson thinks consider able good has been accomplished in
 this direction, but adds: "The distri- button of such seeds increased, how i ever, so that by about 1890 it had be- come the most prominent feature of { the distribution, and although the dis | tribution of new varieties of field crops
 was not entirely lost sight of the proportion of such seeds introduced was exceedingly small, and the origi- nal purpose of the legislation, namely
 the introduction of new and improved
 varieties, was not kept prominently in | the foreground" Accordingly in 1897
 congress specified that S20O00 should | be used for the Introduction of new
 crops from abroad and a separate sec ! ton of foreign seed and plant intro
 duction was established, which has
 done much good work.
 Secretary Wilson thus compares the
 graft" seed distribution with that
 which is recognized as legitimate and | proper. There is no doubt" he says.
 but that although the amount that is expended distinctly for this work | of introducing and developing new
 crops is relatively but a small prOpor-
 tion of the entire appropriation, the relative amount of good done by this branch of the work is far in excess of that accomplished by the mere dis tribution of miscellaneous standard