The Caledonian-record. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-current, 1922-03-28
SEASON FOR
CONGRESSIONAL
GARDEN SEEDS
Interesting Experiences
of Vt. Delegation in Dis
tributing Them

w aSnlnEtOn, Mdfcn Z0-tOlllCl-
dent with international treaty con-
tovcrsies in the Senate, bonus bat
! ties in the House, and tariff tinker
ing by committees comes now the
annual gratuitous distribution Of
, Government seeds to ar agrarian
constituency. Without stopping to
think much about it the average
recipient of this perpetual Con-
gressional largess scarcely appre-
ciates the magnitude Of this task
and therefore the presentation of a
few of its features may not be out
of place just at this time.
Although this particular method
of reaching the hearts (and votes)
of the folks back home via the
roundabout gastronomie route is
regularly assailed by the editor
ial highbrow in columned
denunciations of the "free seed
graft" yet the returns seem to in
dicate that the seeds are pretty
generally appreciated by the peo
pie and very few instances indeed
are on record of any serious pro
test from the receiving end. How
ever, since it takes the proverbial
exception to prove the rule, up in
Senator Pages office they keep
among the most treasured arch
ives a letter from one Vermonter
who in sending back to the donor
his particular packet of potential
! garden products, informed the
Senator that he didn't believe in
the practice, thouh it was all a
waste of good money, and the
scdds wera't suited TO Vermont
J soil or adapted to Vermont eli
mate anyhow.
Over against this burst of indig-
nation the members of the Yer
mont delegation in Washington
are accustomed to balance the hun
dreds of letters received from time
to time testifying to the benefits
derived from iudicious planting of
these evidences of Congressional
interest in constituents prosperity.
Through a Vermont farm machin-
cry manufactury at Bellows Falls
a number of packages of seed were
given out and in due course back
! to Washington came report that
/ the employees of the establishment
made most profitable use of them
in plots of ground allotted to the
workers, so that, in the language
of the communication, "this hither-
to uncultivated land took on new
beauty" and in addition to bios
Soming like the rose put a consid
cradle crimp in the H. c. of l..
Tales of home gardens conducted
at profit of many dollars abound
in the members mails, from the
account Of a small schoolgirl who
raised and marketed produce to the
value of $40 from one package of
seed, to that of man who claim
ed to have carried off the honors
in prize garden contest from his
Congressman donation.
Various ways of getting their
annual quotas Of Government seed
to their constituents are employed
by the Nermontcs, in Congress. In
Senator Dillingham; office Char
| iic w tDD SuDtllHltHuS lIte dtUICSS-
ing Of the reams of fran. slips to
individuals throughout the State.
These franks are then forwarded
TO the Agricultural Department
which pastes them on packages Of
the seed and mails them to thou
sands of persons in Vermont. This
method is followed in part by f..
A. Silsby and Proctor Page in
Senator Pages office. Here also
they supplement it by dispatching
small sacks of seed packages to a
number of Vermont schools
through the Department. Con-
gresham Porter Dale send various
sized consignmcnts to the subordi-
nate Oranges in each town of his
district according to the numerical
size of the Grange, there being
something like hundred of these
societies scattered throughout the
]