Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1162, 15 July 1885, Page 4

. . It is well enough to sell on commission iron or lumber, hardware or dry goods, as such articles can safely be carried from year to year. But with seeds or comraision the case is different. Why ? What is this' system of commissioning seeds? We will explain.' A commission seed house sends to a merchant a box containing from 200 to 500 packets of seed. The merchant does not invest a cent in toiese seeds, simply giving them room i upon his counter, his customers fingering out such as suit their fancy. At the close of the season the commission agent comeH along, and by counting the packets left. to hand arrives at the number sold. The merchant hands over the cash roceiveci on the sales, and the agent pays back'' to' the merchant a commission on the sarrte. Thus far no objection can be raised to the system. But now comes the objectionable feature — viz., the disposition of the unsold seeds, an average of about 75 per cent, of all originally deposited. This is what is done with them — the boxes and seeds are shipped back to the commission house and reassorted, the deficiencies supplied by papers, perhaps new, perhaps not, perhaps out of other returned boxes, and the rejuvenated assortment sent out again on its travels — an agricultural tramp. Very little reflection will convince one that if only 20. to 25' per cent of the packets are sold annually, that quite four years are required to use up alf'the original papers, perhaps twice that period for some. Can any reliance be placed in any such seeds 1 — "Landreth's American Catalogue." ' J