Arizona republican., 1906-10-05
FREE SEEDS SAVED
 FROM THE FLAMES
To Make a Congressional Exhibit of
 Their WOrthIessness.

kindleth,' quoted a Long Island farm CT of a religious turn Of mind a few days ago when he saw about ten thou Il sand packages of government free II seeds" being burned in the yard of a Il neighbor in one of the suburbs of Brooklyn. Why are you burning the Il seeds? 9" he asked. Because they are worthless was the reply. The farmer Il thoroughly agreed with this statement, Il but he thought they might be made useful. What will you sell them for ?'' he asked. You can have all you can carry away for half a dollar" was the reply, so he loaded up a bushel bag II and took it into New York. Here he T told his story to a seeds dealer, with Il the result that these despised seeds | will form one of the principal exhibits in the anti-free seed campaign when congress reassembles. These ten thou if sand or more packages of seeds which ' a generous government forced upon unwilling Long Island farmers were not being destroyed because they were old or worm-eaten as was once the | case. They were probably good enough | in their way but they were not good enough for the Long Island truck farmers, although especially designed for truckers. They were destroyed be- cause they were of the commonest va rieties, many of them being seeds that had been on the market twenty or thirty years. In fact. some of them are so old that they have been discard ed by the more enterprising seedsmeu for newer and improved varieties and . the only place they are ObtainabIe is at the department of agriculture. which sends them out in the congressional free seed distribution as new. rare and valuable" seeds. At one time the free seed distribution was a joke, but it has now become a serious matter, for . congress is wasting a quarter of a mill ! lion dollars yearly in this manner. to say nothing of the S25O, GOO it costs the ! postOffice department to handle them. | 4 The farmers are getting very tired of ! the farce. The up-to-date and pros- ! porous farmer considers it an insult to his intelligence for a member of con- gress to send him five-cent package ! of the same kind of seeds his father ] planted twenty years ago and attempt to palm it off on him as something ! ! new, rare and valuable" ! To determine just how new" these seeds are, which had been rescued ] from the flames. the seed dealers ex- ] amined their catalogues with interest ! ! ing results. It was round that one variety of parsnip. two of lettuce, : three of turnip. one of tomato. one of onion and two of radish seed had been l catalogued by a New York firm in IST9 One of lettuce. one tomato and one musk melon came into use in 1884 Five other varieties of lettuce were in troduced between IS75 and 1890. The newest variety of seed was an onion
 introduced by a Philadelphia firm in 1899. while the oldest was traced back thirty years and no one knows when it was first presented. In view of these facts. which will be presented to congress. it is scarcely possible that it : will continue the fiction that it is send ing out new. rare and valuable" seed. even if it continues the distribution in
 the face of the ridicule heaped upon it
 by the agricultural and daily press.
 and the condemnation expressed by farmers and their organizations.
 
 Senator Clark. who has represented
 Wyoming in the United States senate
 during the past eighteen years. ana
 who is one of the republican leaders in
 politics in the northwest. passed
 through Washington this week on his wa to the New England states. On
 the death of the late Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, followed by that of Senator PIatt of Connecticut. Senator ! Clark succeeded to the chairmanship of the committee on judiciary and in that
 position has demonstrated his legal
 ability to the qualification of his many
 friends Speaking of politics, while here. Senator Clark said:
 The continued popularity of MT. Roosevelt in the northwestern states
 will have much to do with sweeping
 Colorado and Montana back into the
 republican column this fan. resulting
 in the retirement of Senators Patter- son of Colorado and Clark of Montana.
 II is very probable that the "snelter king" MT. Guggenheim, will succeed
 MT. Patterson, and that former Sena- tor Lee Mantle or Representative
 Dixon will come to the senate instead
 of Mr Clark of Montana. The north
 west is as much in favor of MT. ROOse-
 welt as it ever was. 1T not more. The
 people there would like to support him
 for another term. If he will not run
 again they would support any one of
 half a dozen candidates who might
 be nominated. but, of course, with less
 majorities than MT. Roosevelt received.
 Vice President Fairbanks is very well liked through the northwest states"
 For the past week or ten days the nerves of the army and navy have
 been taut to the limit over the Cuban
 situation. As usual the preliminary
 work falls on the navy, which will sup
 ply the marines and sailors necessary
 to police the cities in case their safety
 is threatened by insuTrectionists or
 armed bands of marauders masquerad-
 ing as patriots. But should the Cubans l eventually become ugly a problem almost as grave as that of the Philip ! pines will confront our authorities. The Cubans are adopts at guerrilla warfare and managed to keep several hundred thousand Spanish soldiers busy for years While it is unlikely that any large force would take the field against American arms, much
 apprehension is felt as to the possibil-