Evening Star Newspaper, March 19, 1922, Page 61

-fhe home country. " John Quincy Adams, Part 4—8 Pug E5d WASHINGTON, D. C, Z1 MAGA SUNDAY MORNING, NE SECTION Sy Sh, 5 MARCH 19, 1922, Uncle Sam’s Free Seeds Expected to Produce $150,000,000 Crop T a cost of $360,000, food prod- ucts to the value of $130,000,- 000 will be grown from 100,~ 000 packages - of Vegetable seeds and 10,000 packages of flower seeds which are being sent out from ‘Washington by each and every one of the 96 senators and 4335 members of under 13,000,000 franks the House, (free postage) to home gardeners in every state in the Union.” And aside from questions of policy rogarding this often-called “seed graft,” which causes an annual scrap and a yearly crop of derisive jokes, there is an interesting human-interest story behind this congressional dis- tribution of free seeds—the origin of the custom, which gave’ bifth to the present Department of Agricul- ture; the field and laboratory job of testing all these seeds, the pMysical task of putting them into ‘packages and preparing them for postage, the fact that in some instances they are the only contact between men in the mountains and their government, the letters from people who have derived pleasure and profit from these seeds— even the story of the historic build- ing which Is used as “the government seedhouse.” on the main thorough- fare of the National Capital. This 1s Congress' seed season; doubly so, for the question of con- tinuing for the fiscal year of 1923 the annual appropriation of $360,000 fs now under consideration, and within the next two weeks the time expires for members of Congress to complete the considerable task of writing names and addresses on the 13,000,000 franks or postage-free slips which will carry the seeds everywhere throughout this country. * %k ¥ ¥ 'ALTHOL'GH the purchase and dis- tribution of seeds by the govern- ment, which began in 1839, lald the foundation for the establishment of the Department of Agriculture as it exists today, for some years now ft has been the policy of the department tn oppose this particular appropria- tion, on the grounds that the monéy ! can be better spent on procuring new and rare seeds and cuttings from for- eign countries—which 4&Ctivity by agricultural explorers has been pre- wiously described in The Sunday Star. So the Department of Agriculture has acquired the habit of leaving out this item from fits budget estimates and Congress just as regularly in- serts it. according to time-honored eustom and to meet the requests that eome in a veritable flood of letters asking for free seeds. That's what the House has just done—inserted egain in the agricultural appropria- glon bill for the fiscal year starting July 1 next an item of §360,000 for free seeds for congressional distribi- tion. It ts a foregone gonclusion that Ghe Senate will approve this amend- fment. Now let's look over the historical ®ackground for this annual “graft.” Yhe purchase of seeds and plants by the government may be said to date back to colonial days. As early as 9743 the British parliament granted $600,000 to promote the cultivation of indigo and other crops in the American colonies, and the assem- blies of the various colonies appro- priated small sums from time to time to encourage the cultivation of plants new to the country, such as hops in Virginia, mulberry trees for silk culture in Georgia and vineyards for the establishment of an American wine industry, lately Volsteaded out of existence in this country or at, Qeast driven under cover. Our greatest patriots contributed mctive assistance to furthering this encouragement to food production. ¥ranklin, while in England as agent for Pennsylvania, sent home silk- worm eggs and mulberry cuttings. Thomas Jefferson, during the five years he represented this country as minister to France (1784-1789), forwarded numerous seed samples to > Other representa- tives of this country during early days followed these notable examplés wuntil, during the administration of instructions were given to all United States con- suls to forward plants and seeds to fwashington for distribution. * kX K BTOTWITHSTANDING these efforts to introduce new seeds and ants, many varieties of fru The following is from a letter of & mother 2o her sinsteen-year-old son. whom, together With & younger dauglter, she is supporting educating by hard work. We print it in The hope that it may do a good service both e mothers and to headstrong youth.} SUPPOSE you cannot realize that no matter what other folks do or do not do to make me happy it does not affect me, because I #m not responsible for them. I have mot tended them from babyhood, guided their steps when they were unable to go alone, molded thelr characters along the lines I felt were right, only to find myself absolutely out of the running—opinions flouted and wishes disregarded. Some day you will know, my son—perhaps after twenty years or more of toil, sleep- Jess nights, self-denial at a time when good clothes and good times tmeant more than they ever will at sny other time, pain, and suffering, and many other things—that there @re some things in this world that soney cannot repay—obligations that Jove and consideration alorie can ever @ischarge. Then I will expect you to pemember this. b 1 am sure that the day will come, gor I can hardly believe that your @gélf-sufiiciency is anything more than @ passing phase. You've made up gour mind that every word I'say, 1" ef advice, is fault-findin my griendly words of warning as to dan- (ger ahead are an interference With yrour right to do as you please. Would #t not be a strange railroad company | ‘ N v l ‘ Will Boys Ever Understand? D ——— Vegetables were scarce or unknown. There wére few seed farms, nurse- ries or seedmen. Seeds were mostly grown by the farmers themselves. Interest jn better seeds and secyring new seeds and plants resulted large- ly from the agricultural fairs. In 1839, through the sfforts of Henry L. Eflsworth, ¢commissioner of patents, 'S appropriation of $1,000 was made for the purpose of collect- ing and distributing seeds, prose- cuting agricultural inyestigations and procuring agricultural tics—with which 30,000 packages of seeds were purchased and distributed. This appropsiation marked the be- ginning of the Department of Agri- culture. Demands upon members of Con- gress for seeds became 80 numerous and insistent that it was impossible to fill the orders with new varieties of seeds. The practice of sending out larger and larger quantities of vege- table seeds thus developed. These seeds proved very useful, especlally in the new communities to which they were largely sent. During the years from 1889 to 1893 practically the entire seed appropria- tion was expended for standard vari- eties of vegetable and flower seeds. In 1894 & change was advocated and action taken to discontinue the cus- tomary distribution. This action was not approved by Congress, which, in an act approved April 25, 1896, chang- ed the wording of the previous act. The Attorney General, to whom the question was submitted for decision, held that the purchase and distribu- tion of meeds, including vegetable and flower seeds, were mandatory and left ! the Secretary of Agriculture without | Pape! discretion. Congress has specifically reserved for itself the distribution, with proportionate allotments to each member, of five-sixths of all the seeds that, knowing the danger ahead, would feel that folks ought to be able to take care of themselves and listen, and therefore neglected to put up signs before railroad crossings? Until you get this thought through the outer crust of your self-compla- cency youll never have ‘a chinnel through which an uhderstanding of the depths of my love and devotion can flow. I don’t intend to tell you that I expect to love you less—be- cause you're part of me—but as far as outward signs are concerned ft may be hard for you to realize this. I wish you might know how gladly I have worked that you and F— might be educated. And remember, Bill, there seems to be something well planned out in the scheme of things, whereby, when you were & baby and unable to conduct your life as you feel you are able now, I was the one big, outstanding feature of your existence. Then there comes & time when all the strength lles in you and my turn is over—I must nec- essarily look to you—to your love and affection, or else I am frank- to confess that my life is a failure. In- stead of investing in houses and other provisions for my old age I have put all of my esgs Into one basket—my investment has been in futures. Not only money, but youth and strength are invested, and you can give me back nothing of the last two. Think it over, but don't talk ith me about it. i (From the Independent.) M AKING the Back Yards and the Waste Places Into Vegetable and Flower ) Pro_ducing Plots—Members of Congress Are Busy Sending Out Packages to Their Constituents—The Use of 13,000,000 Franks—Entire Plan Costs Around $360,000—Good Words for the Quality of Seeds Distributed—How the Scheme Originated and Its Development—Methods of Distribution. atis- | ment. So that is where “congres- slonal seed distribution” originated, . The value of the congressional sesd distribution consists in the wide dis- tribution, by senators and members of Congress to applicants in all parts of the country, of standard varieties of garden seeds of known value and of the best quality. * K K ¥ Now. then, it costs Uncle Sam about three and a half cents for every package of seeds sent out by a con- gressman. Each package contains five different kinds of seed. The fol- lowing kinds of vegetable seeds are purchased for free distribution: Peas, beets, lettuce,-onions, radish, beans, corn, carrots, cucumber, parsley, par- snip, squash, tomato, turnip and watermelon. There are fourteen com- binations, so that'a member of Con- gress cin select the five different kinds of seeds he wants to send out in one package. Similarly, there are twenty-two different varietles of flowers, such as chrysanthemum, as- ter, cosmos, balsam, candytuft, dian- thus, nasturtium, poppy, sweet peas, petunia, zinnias, mignonette. That package containing five small rs of seeds which costs the gov- ernment three and a half cents if bought in the open market would cost 50 cents. 3 The office of seed distribution in the Department of Agriculture keeps an exact account for each member of Congress, just the same as & bank ac- count. The member is credited with his quota and is allowed to draw against that quota, just the same as against a bank account. From one sample package, contaln- ing five small papers of seeds, any person can raise at least $16 worth of food, according to the agricultural authorities. Deducting $5 for waste, loss _ in . transit or carelessness in ‘planting or poor soil, it leaves a $10 ‘net production. Members of. Congress are sending out this year 13,000,000.0f these large packages (five papers in each) which, it is conservatively est mated, will return $130,000,000 fqbd products for an outlay of $360,000, which ocertainly should have some ef- fect on the ecomomic life of this country. ‘When the annual fight over the ap- propriation is being waged the claim is often made that the free seed dis- tribution comes near wrecking the Post Office Department and s re< sponsible for an annual deflcit. Thé records show thit the run is usually from 1,600,000 pounds to 600,000 of 700,000 pounds and that if the office of the seed distribution pald postage on each package the same as any private . individual, the postage bill would never have been more than $131,000 and that it would average about.$95,000. * % % % 'VERY seed sent out is tested for vitality and for trueness to name. These tests are made on the experi- tental farm of the department, near Arlington - National Cemetery, al- though the germination teses are mostly made in the laboratory by us- ing blotting paper. All seed has to —_— to automobile factories for distribu- tion among the operatives and which are being sown in plant garden plots. Similarly large quantities are being sent to the cotton mills in the south Through a Vermont farm machinery company at Bellows Falls some seed packages were distributed last year. The Polish employes were especially enthusiastic and were allocated cer- tain sections of a big park. Young be of the particular variety ordered. The department, while opposing the congressional distribution, takes very good care that the seeds are all good before they are sent out. It sets a very high standard to which the standard than is often required com- merclally. If the seeds do not reach that standard they are shipped back to the contractor from whom they were purchased at the latter's ex- pense. Some years they reject a very large amount—this year, for ex- ample, about 150,000 pounds, after it had reached Washington—because the germination was not high enough. ‘This is sent back as not good enough HEN you called for a stack of hot cakes in the morn- ing and had difficulty in trying to keep the watery- 1ike sirup properly juggled on top of the cakes, it didn’t occupy much of your atention. You just took it as ‘e matter of course. But down in the bureau of chemis- try of the Department of Agriculture, in a litle room surrounded by Bun- sen burners, test tubes, a lot of bot- tles filled with mysterious-looking 1liquids, a chemist has been working to find & way that the sirupimanufac- turers could make the sirup thick enough to keep it properly balanced on top of one hot cake until you can drop enother one on top of it. And the chemist has succeeded. He has been studying the problems of the sirup manufacturers to find out how they can thicken their sirups and at the same time prevent crystalliza- tion In the process. Besides making the product thicker for breakfast table use, the results of the experi- ments indicate that it will be possi- ble to put the product up in con- tainers and sterilize it so that it will not crystallize or “sugar.”. The tests have demonstrated that by adding a small quantity of an ensyme or chemical ferment, known as invertase, made from- yeast, it is possible to boil down sirup to a greater thickness without danger of crystallisation. In the past the sirup had- to be made rather thin or it would “sugar,” -but thin sirup was very apt to ferment when held in storage or shipped in' bulk: without proper sterilization. Only when put up in airtight containers could it be sterilized; and then there was still some danger of sugaring. The use of invertase promises to change all this, and already & number of manu- facturers are giving it a trial. Sugar._cane sirup contains two kinds of sugar—sucrose, Which is present in the largest proportion, and thérefore provides most of the sweet- ness, and Invert sugar, which is sim- ilar in sweetening power, but which seeds must register a much higher| for congressional seed distribution, !but there is no assurance anywhere {that the very same seed is not dis- | posed of commercially. | Uncle Sdm buys these seeds on straight competitive bids, and when |any contractor's deliveries show a | consistent poor germination he is | blacklisted. Each bidder is informed {why he did not get the contract, told | who did get it and why and the price paid. This is a straight official letter. The demand upon members of Con- gress for seed this year is greater than ever, and in many cases appears to be owing to the poverty of the people. The congressmen are get- !ting more letters than usual asking Government Chemists Solve Serious Breakfast Problem does not crystallize so readily. By using invertase at the rate of one pound to about 800 gallons of semi- sirup a part of the sucrose, or cane sugar, is changed into invert sugar. The process is similar to that em- ployed by-bees in inverting the sucrose in nectar, as a result of which their food (honey) can be put up in more concentrated form without dan- ger of sugaring. Other well known enzymes are the diatase found in saliva, which changes starches into sugar, and pepsin, which digests pro- teins in the stomach. This discovery of the governmental chemists has created an increased de- mand for a product sold heretofore only in small quantities. It was formerly sold by the gram, but it is row being made in large quantities for sirup manufacturers who are try- ing out the new process. Sugar in sirup can ‘be inverted by the use of acids, but acids have an injurious effect on the flavor and the color of the preduct. Invertase is ab- solutely inert except for the effect it has of changing one kind of sugar to another kind. It is not injurious to health and, of course, there is only a minute quantity of it used .in mak- ing a gallon of sirup. So it will be seen that while trying to improve your food the workers. of the gov- ernment behind the scenes at the same_ time are creating new Indus- tries or increasing them as well as recommending only those things for your food that will not be injurious to your stomach. The work of the bureau of chemis- try in developing the invertase proc- ess makes possible the manufacture of sjrups of desirable demsity or thickness, products which will ex- hibit far less tendency to sugar and | of ‘greatly improved keeping quality. It should be of advantage to manu- Ineturer- who desire to market maple and cane sugar blends, for they can use the ordinary maple sugar or sirup and pure invert sirup made from cane sugar. Soda fountain sirups may also be made thicker, which will mean better keeping quality and a ‘saving in cost of transportation. truck gardens have resulted, and “this hitherto uncultivated land took on new beauty,” writes the congress- man. for seeds, and usually from persons who say they cannot afford to buy seeds this year. Congressmen are coming more and more to send their quotas of seeds out —not to the voting lists in their dis- | tricts, but to the school children, to civic organizations, chambers of com- merce, banks and factorles for work- men and a great deal to miners. These packages «of seeds in many places, especially in the mountain- * ¥ X % ITH the department opposed to the congressional seed distri- bution, and with Congress habitually tor it Oliver F. Jones, originally from Cincinnati, who is in active charge of this work, has had an un- enviable job as buffer between the ous sections, received every year|department and Congress for about through the congressmen, are the|tWenty vears. He probably knows only bit of mail that is received from |all the members of Congress more in- one end .of the year to the other|timately than any othér man in and are the only connecting link be- | Washington, because he is calling tween these hardy mountaineers and | UPon them in their offices every day in their government. the year. At present he is getting more e s than 200 telephone calls a day from . them, dictates about 100 letters a day | "THE seeds are designed primarily 10| o them and has twenty or thirty of meet the needs of the man with{ them calling on him in his office each a little back yard in the citles and | gay, small towns, and induce him to havel whe seed distribution is conducted seed in this package, please see that|pe does keep well informed about i it reaches some one who will. Note|R A, QOakley and J. E. W. Tracy pur- on each package. If you want some | that enters into the congressional more information on gardening, write | gistribution and supervise the me- to the Secretary of Agriculture for|chanical and physical work of filllng any of the following farmers' bulle- | the packages and mailing them. Mr. tins, which will be sent you free:|Tracy is in charge of the seed ware- Garden in the North, Home Garden- | seeds. | for distribution among the operatives. | a garden and raise a few vegetables. | ynder the bureau of plant industry, little or nothing do not see. Last year a new custom was started: [of which Dr. Willlam A. Taylor is|COn8ressional distribution of free On the back of each package Was|chief, but he has too many other du-[S6ds 15 quite a more complicated printed: “Don't waste this seed! If |ties to give detalled consideration to | 2usiness than people generally know. you cannot make good use of the|this one federal activity, although Members of Congress say their mail t.|shows them that through the free re cut up into single slips and counted into bundles by expert counters from the bureau of engraving and printing. As a member sents in an order a blue slip 1s made out calling upon the seed ‘warehouse to deliver that quantity, and this {s accompanied by the correspond- ing number of franks. The seed pack- ages are either sent to the office of the member of Congress, if the franks are not addressed, or are mailed out direct- ly from the seed house if they are ad- dressed. These franks are now coming In at the rate of 200,000 or 300,000 a day. March 31 is the last date on which or- ders may be submitted by members of Congress, which means that about 5,000,000 franks have yet to be received within the next two weeks. All of these seed packages will be sent out before April 10. Each member is en- titled to 20,000 packages of vegetable seeds and 2,000 packages of flower As each of these packages con- tains five small papers of =sceds, it really means that 110,000 papers of seeds are sent out by each member ot the Senate and House. The way in which these seeds are first put into the small papers and sealed and then put one each of five different kinds into a larger package and sealed, with the member's frank pasted on each package for direct mailing, is an interesting part of the congressional distribution eystem. This is done by contract and this year a new contractor is on the job, Frank Clarke of Waco, Tex., who has speeded up the work by devising u new gluing machine. * ¥ % % FOR only three years in the last twenty-two years has a company of Fitchburg, Mass., missed out on this contract. Mr. Clarke was mak- ing a seed distribution for some banks in Texas during the war that were giving away sceds instead of calendar: He heard of the congres- sional distribution, sent in a bid and got the job. Under the terms of the contract he is severely penalized for any mistakes or damages—if a franked wrapper is torn, if the right assortment is not in each package, and even if the wrapper is soiled. The seed envelopes are filled by ma- chinery, which automatically weighs the content of each envelope. Two girls work at one of these machines, one filling and the other sealing the little envelopes on a revolving belt. Filling and sealing 36,000 of these little envelopes is considered a good day's work. The girls get piece- | work over 20,000 a day. The writer saw two girls at work who have run up as high as 48,200, which means that they had to fill and seal 100 packages a minute all day long. Other girls sit at big tables past- ing the congressional franks onto the container on which are printed the names of the five varieties of vege- tables or flowers that are to be placed within. A belt carrier runs beside huge bins into which the small packages of seed have been dumped. As the girls finish pasting the franks on the big envelopes they are car- ried, one at a time, along this travel- ing belt roadway and in front of a bin at regular intervals are girls, each of whom s&lips in a small en- velope and the container proceeds to an inspector and then past another girl, who seals up the package by machinery. There are sixty-four of the seed bins, which, when less than half- full, contain about 25,000,000 pack- ages of seed. By the use of the au- tomatic weigher on the larger pack- ages of from 1 t0 5 pounds, such as beans, alfalfa and dry land seed, it has become possible to run 100 pounds i minute, and increases the output from ten to twenty pounds. This is one of the very busy cor- ners in Uncle Sam's world's largest industrial plant, which those who are prone to criticise the government of- fices as taking a long time to do The [ seeds plan Uncle Sam gets very close carefully the directions for planting |chase under contract all the seed |l© the People. Fighting Giraffe. THE giraffe has neither claws nor sharp teeth with which to de- The City Home Garden, The Farm phouse, located at 339 Pennsylvania|fend itself or to attack its enemies, avenue, which is not at all modern, | so when it is out of temper with on\; ing in the South, Control of Diseases and Insect Enemies of the Home Vegetable Garden, and Saving Vege- well vantilated or lighted, and not fitted | of its own kind it does not attempt with sanitary equipment of modern type. [ to disembowel its adversary, as a This building is well worth special | rhinoceros might, or tear it, as a table Seeds for the Home and Mar- ket Garden.” the best reflex from the free seed |Lincoln. It has been used as the seed seeds. A little. schoolgirl writes in |The second and third floors have twen- that she has raised $20 worth from one | ty-two feet of headroom. The third package, A Providence, R. I, man, fioor, which was the banquet hall, is enthusiastically tells his congress- |suspended by four two-inch iron bars, man that his garden netted him $50 [and measures 44x88 feet. This was and that he took a prize offered by a | done so that there would not have to merchants’ association. A home gar- | be supporting pillars from the floor be- dener in Chicago, 1ll, asked his|low, which was the ballroom. The only congressman to find out why lettuce entrance that the President had to the and onion seed pent out by Uncle | ballroom was down a winding stairs Sam produced while others did mnot. |and through a small door not more than Pictures it In show that an eMerly [ five feet in height, so it must have couple in HMamiiton, Ohio, got a fifty- [been an interesting spectacle to see dollar prise for their back yard, of- [ Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln fered by the chamber of commerce, [bending their tall frames to duck Srown from a package of congres- | through this ln‘nuid:or:ly. ‘ slonal seeds and watered from an old pump and an oil-fashioned hand | THE third floor is now braced from sprinkler. “The people are coming the second floor with big timbers, to know that the government seeds | because during the Spanish-American are always good,” writes in an agri- | war the floor collapsed, due to the fact + cultural college nfan from Mississippl. I that in a space 26x22 feet boxes of Some meiiibers of Congress get seeds | ammunition were piled without any for use on their own personal gardens, | thought of weight until about 435 tons and one”Texas member has just sent | was too much of a load and the floors in & testimonial to Uncle Sam, say- | fell through. This is not a govern- ing: “I have had ekcellent results, |ment-owned bullding, but has been the seeds germinated well and proved | rented by the department and used as suited to our climate.” a seed warchouse for about ten years. Detroit, Mich., is an excellent ex- The filling of the orders of congress- ample of the new system in distribu- | men is an interesting part of the free tion of the congressional seeds. A |seed distribution. The members supply great many packages are being sent | their franks in sheets of ten. They attention. It was erected in 1844, and | tiger would. was ths scene of receptions, banquets|it a long and pliable neck, which It is from scores of letters coming [and inaugural balls for Andrew Jack- | terminates in a very solid head, and daily in the mail of congressmen that | son, Martin Van Buren and Abraham | it uses the upper part of itself like But nature has given a flail, swinging its neck round and plan can be had. By the thousands | warehouse for about ten years. There|round, and brings its head down at they testify that the ocongressional [are three floors in the front of the|€ach swing with a thump on its an- sceds do grow, and better than other | building and five floors in the rear.|tagonist. The other combatant uses precisely the same tactics, and the two ani- mals, planting themselves as firmly as possible by stretching out all four legs to the utmost, stand opposite to each other and hammer away with their heads until one or the other has Lhad enough. Volcanic Deposits. ‘HERE have been reported the re- sults of physical, chemical and biological studies of the ash deposits In the Carib country of St. Vincent laid down at the time of the eruptions of the Soufriere in 1902 and 1903. The deposits, which range in depth from fourteen to eighteen inches, consist of coarse, sandy types. They show small contents of organic car- bon and nitrogen, are extremely defi- clent in calclum carbonate and con- tain moderate amounts of ailable phosphoric acid and potash. They give evidence of a moderate activity of putrefactive bacteria. Nitrogen- fixing organisms of the Azotobacter type are present. The soil possesses appreciable nitrogen-fixing and am- monifying power, but no nitrifying power. Considerable progress has been made in the conversion of these sterile ash deposits into fertile sall.