COOPER'S SEEDS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 3 July 1917, Page 6

COOPER'S SEEDS.

[Published by Arrangement.]

Messrs F. Cooper Ltd., seed growers, of Wellington, are showing a very fine exhibit of root crops; potatoes, etc., and this should be of especial interest to Taranaki farmers. Their very fine specimens of mangolds and carrots are worth more than a. passing alance, and probably no finer root* hare beesstaged in this show before. At the Palmerston North Show, held just recently, it was freely acknowledged that .omo of the mangolds and ,cari-ots shown at the Government stand and- in the competitions were easily the best ever shown there, and it is worthy of remark that they were nearly all i grown from Cooper's seeds. Messrs | Cooper Ltd. are now producing seedson a method that ensures quality; they have between 300 and 400 acres of their own, on which they grow pedigree seeds, and on these farms the greatest care is taken in selection of strains, the proper development of each root, and the prevention of crossfertilisation by bees. When t: _se s^ed?; , are harvested they are sent io various farms, who then grow them for Messrs Cooper, and the area thus emp'oyed 1 > between 3000 and 4000 acres, employing directly and indirectly some hundreds of hands at harvesting time. It is claimed by Messrs Cooper Ltd., and they speak with ,a world-wide experience, that there is no better climate in the world than New Zealand for raising seeds. Now that a thoroughly systematic system of seed selection and development is in vogue they are in a position to supply all classes of seed for farm and garden crops certainly equal, and probably superior, to the seeds raised in any other part of the globe. Evidence of this can be seen in their stand. Specimens of Cooper's Mammoth Long Red Mangold, Cooper's Red-top Sugar Mangold, -Cooper's Jersey Queen, and in Cooper's \ Matchless White and Belgian White ! Carrots. One of the latter measured just two feet long, and some Matchless WJiite Carrots weighed i over 151b 'each. Garden seeds and peas, etc., are also extensively grown, and when it is mentioned that no less than 60.000 bushels of peas alone were sold by this firm alone last year the magnitude of their operations can be slightly understood. Years of work in the production of high-grade farm and garden seeds has eventually told its tale, and to-day Cooper's Seeds are accepted as representing the highest in quality, quite capable of more than holding their own against seeds produced in I any other part of the world,