Evening star., 1914-11-16
Free Seed This Year, c
100000 Packets. d q

packets for
Free Seed This Year, congressional
100000 Packets. 1issr'ou.,on.
being selected now and the packing for
distribution will begin in December
and continue until spring. This dis
tribution will include all the staple
varieties of vegetables. flowers and
cereals. Formerly. the seed grown In
the United States was chiefly produced
within radius of a hundred miles of
New York, Connecticut, eastern Penn
sylvania, New Jersey and on Long
Island. Now. the industry extends
across the continent. Lettuce and rad
tsh seed. which are large items in con-
gressional distribution, are grown in
California. which leads the world in
these products.
Part Of the American supply of flower
seeds comes from Germany. France and
northern Africa, because they can be
raised there more cheaply than in this
country. The war will not interfere
with this years supply. as most of 1t
1t is likely that shortage of i'm
ported flower seeds next year Will in
crease the business of raising them in
this country.
In planning for the distribution of
seeds, consideration is given to the
climatic conditions of the different sec
tons of the country. 1t would be
Wasteful to send to the northern re-
g1ons the plants which can be develop
ed only in the warm southland. In ar
ranging the distribution, the map of
the country Is divided into fve sec
tions. and seeds are distributed ac-
cording to the climatic advantages of
each.
About three-fourths OF the seeds for
congressional distribution are vege-
table seeds. The rest are flower seeds.
The weight of these seeds exceeds a
hundred thousand pounds, or FIVE hun
dred tons, which will more than fill
twenty freight cars. These seeds are
purchased through competitive bids OBJ
tained in the spring from the princi-
pal seed growers in the country. At
least two hundred growers enter into
competition. The quotations are opened
in the presence Of such bidders az care
to attend, and referred to the bureau
of plant industry for the advice of ex-
perts.
When consignment of seed is re-
ceived a small quantity is taken from
the middle and
How Seeds Are Tested near the top
by Federal Experts. at least % one e.
quarter Of all the bags. 1t is thor
oughly mixed to make a composite
sample. From 100 to zoo seeds are Sc
lected and placed between moist blot
ters in terminating chamber fitted
with automatic contrivances to keep
| the blotters moist and the temperature
right. At the end of a week or more
according to the kind of seeds, the blot
ters are examined.
The number of seeds is counted to
determine the percentage of germina-
ton. The average termination of the
seeds distributed free by the United
States government is 1877 per cent, in
comparison with the average of 5S per
cent termination of seeds purchased In
the open market.
These seeds are all packed and
contract includes labor, printing on
packets and envelopes, filling packets
sealing. franking and delivering them
at the post office for mailing.
Great machines are employed in pack
citing the seeds. These machines meas
ure the exact quantity of seed into the
packet. seal and drop it into the hop
per leading to the bins below. There
| are twenty-three of these macnine'
now in use from December until April
1850 packets per minute. Five pack
ats containing different varieties o
| seeds make up a packet or combination
These are assembled into envelopes b.
girl operators, who sit before endless
belts in front of the seed bins. eacf
operator handling only one kind OF
seed =,
when the envelopes reach the end o,
the belt they pass through machines me-
which seal them at the rate OF o,oyc
nor day Four of these belts and seal
ine machines are now in use. and the
daily output of 100000 packages Is
mailed to the addresses furnished by
senators and representatives.