The Opelousas courier., 1908-02-01
THE FARMER
The Improved Seed" Swindle, re Cholera Cure" Fakir.
the Finishing" of Cattle Fraud and Other Low Schemes
Employed to Separate the Agriculturist from
His Hard Earned Cash.
By w. M. HAYS,
assistant Secretary u. S. Department of Agriculture

The man who sold Burbank pIums
In a region so cold that they could not
stand the severe winters is more gull
w than the man who steals your
purse. He gets a paltry 81 each for
trees that would have been valuable
elsewhere, but for this small consider
alton he robs the farmer of his time,
his land, of his opportunity to use
hardy plum trees, and even robs him
n his neighbors of their faith in the
possibilities of a family plum lot.
Our experiment station and depart
ment plant men are rapidly learning
the seed and plant variety business.
They are not only learning how to
create new values by breeding, but
they are learning how to distribute
new stocks of seeds and plants. They
are organizing the testing of varieties,
SO that few mistakes need be made.
They are coming to insist for them
selves, for the domestic scotsman and
nursery man and for the foreign seed
house that the varieties must be
tested within each state. before they
will endorse them Seed vendors are
gradually coming to see that they
must get into line with the eficient
and vigorous public seed service, and
will produce wealth. A general label
ing law is being talked of, and this
would make it dangerous to sell two
varieties cut of the same bin of seeds,
or sell trees under their wrong name
it would prevent the clothing
ing two-thirds, cotton and one-third
wool.
Now the seed or tree swindlers en-
deavor to convert all the newly Gre
ated sentiment arising from the work
Of the plant scientists for careful seed
selection into grfst for their mill. AS
most of their representations are
made by personal solicitors, they
are able to claim department"
endorsement with a freedom and
recklessness which they would, per-
haps, not S in printed matter sent
through the mails-although they do
not hesitate SO to construct their
letters and circulars as to deceive.
Whether the claims of these swind-
lers are made personally or by mail,
as in some of the most exaggerated
seed catalogues, the intent and the
result in most cases is the same. The
expectations of the ambitious and
progressive farmer are raised to the
point of exaggeration. He is con-
vinced that by planting or by sowing
the seed offered by the fake concern
he will multiply his crop production;
that his richest acres will greatly in
creas their previous production and
that his poorest land, with pedigreed
seed, will break the record of his
choicest fields in corn, oats, barley,
rye or cotton. and the forage crops
from his wet lands will give him tons
of nutritious fodder.
OF course seed which will perform
such miracles of production naturally
CONES high in price-these swindlers
r too shrewd to charge an ordinary
price for seed carrying claims so high
as theirs. In some instances the price
is double that which the farmer would
pay for bonafide. purebred, standard
varieties, the yield of which has been
tested by experiment stations,
while in other cases four, and
even six, times the normal price
is charged.
Now as t o the results: They are
disappointing. Now and then the
yield is fair as from ordinary seed, but
seldom does it exceed that limit. More
frequently it falls below that standard.
The reason for this has been discover
ed by a few farmers, who have had
enough of the true spirit of progress
to dig into the history of the seeds
for which they paid so fancy a price.
Here is what they found: The great
propagating concern, is without the
acres of land devoted to the raising of
seeds so eloquently pictured by the
agent; the scientific specialists
claimed to be in the employ Of the
concern dwindle into q corps of young
men who draw salaries of $50 to $50
a month and their scientific labors'
consist of travelling from one place to
another and buying corn, wheat and
other grains direct from the farmers
In remote locations from the region
in which the grains are expected to be
sold for seeding.
These grains may be shipped to a
dummy firm having the address of
the warehouses of the seed company.
There this common product of un-
known fields is nicely cleaned, re-
sacked into presentable packages and
sold to the farmers as the choicest OF
selected seeds.
There are many good seed mer-
chants, some of whom grow much of
their own seeds; or contract for them
before harvest, superintend their har-
80 - 1880 49, 49, 4r...r