FRAUDS ON THE AGRICULTURIST. TO THE EDITOR.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 23, 28 January 1899, Page 2

FRAUDS ON THE AGRICULTURIST. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir— ln this day's issue of the Evening Post is an article calling for more than passing attention, especially so as it deals with a subject of interest to one and all — viz. , the defrauding of agriculturists. Now I am not going to say anything regarding the adulteration that goes on in chemical manures, but I wish to say a feAV words regarding bad seed. The great majority of your readers will at once condemn seedsmen on reading your article relating to the suplying of bad seed, and never for a moment think of the large number ot genuine dealers, merchants, and associations who simply deal in seeds as being a line of goods in a number of articles in which they deal. Seed dealing is becoming a common • thing amongst wholesale houses and shop-keepers now-a-days, and I venture to say these are the sources from which much of the bad seed is sent forth. The seed trade is one requiring years of experience and toil before one can even know the rudiments of it — in fact, it is trade not learrft in a life-time, there being always something new to learn in it, and no seedsman who has a reputation to lose or win will risk sending out bad seed. Ho uses every care and precaution — if he is a seedsman — to send out only the best quality of seeds, which, if sown under fair conditions, will- give every satisfaction to tln> purchaser. But then he cannot supply cheap seed, and this is where the trouble comes in. Old unsold stocks must be de stroyed, and new stocks brought infroixthe well-known sources, and from suitable places adapted for,, the growing of th,e different classes of seed. This is one of the things a seedsman has to know, but which a general dealer neither knows nor cares about. As long as it is a good line it's all right with him, and his reputation does not suffer if it turns out a failure or not ; but let a pocket or a small amount of any kind of seed turn out bad, and thiseedsman loses a customer at once, and hU business will soon cease to exist. No one will be more willing to submit his seed^ to a thorough test by a Government analyst I than a seedsman of respectable standing. I and if this was done, not only would it be better for the agriculturist at large, but for the genuine seedsman also, and would thus clear away a lob of dealing in one oi the most important articles of commerce that effects the whole community. OJ course there are times when the seed h not at fault, such for instance as when the ground is not properly prepared, but fur uiers and gardeners who have had any ex perience soon find out how to sow and under what conditions. I have seen 'sampler of seed offered by geneval merchants at lov prices which simply meant ruin to tlv purchaser, as it could not grow under any conditions. I n,m sorry to have, token up po much space, but I could not allow yoiu article to pass by without stiying ft .fey words in defpnee oi hona fido seedsmen, many ut whom can still be found in thi* •nul p.verv other country, in spite of Mvi unfair and unscrupulous competition ihai exists. — I am, etc., Gardiner. Wellington, 26th January, 1393.