ou know, this article might be useful, but it is boring (unless you are really into it today).
There is no gossip, or any details that make things come alive. Even the photos are boring...I can't make myself copy them.
The first part wasn't too bad...
This article, written in 1900 about the seed business, is a good overview of the growth of the seed industry. This post contains:
Thirty years ago one hundred letters a day was considered a large business; to-day some houses receive over six thousand letters a day during the busy season. Firms that twenty years ago employed only one or two clerks now employ a hundred during the winter months.
Throughout the West the seed business has flourished; a Wisconsin firm writes that its business has increased 500 per cent in the last fifteen years; a single warehouse of a Western firm now has between 7 and 8 acres of floor space.
THE EXPORT TRADE
That the growth of the trade during the century has been great scarcely needs emphasizing, but it is difficult to secure figures showing the rate of increase. Only a few seed houses antedate the civil war, and the great majority are of recent origin; the statistics of exports date from 1855 and no separate records of imports of seeds were kept before 1873.
Clover and grass seeds, especially timothy, have always taken the lead in the seed export trade, and until recent years garden seeds have not been a considerable factor in the total values.
In 1825 some 10,000 bushels of clover seed were exported to England within a few months. How long this trade had existed we do not know. From 1855 to 1864 there is no record of any seeds exported except clover, but the value of exports increased from $13,570 in 1855 to $2,185,700 in 1863, the war apparently having no effect on the trade.
(This is the data I found remarkable.)
The total value of the clover seed exported during this period aggregated $5,393,663.
...
SEED GROWING
Before the beginning of the century only three seed farms had been established in the United States, though for many years seeds were grown by farmers and market gardeners. Home-grown clover and grass seeds, flax, hemp, and Connecticut onion seeds were on the market during colonial times, but the impression prevailed that garden seeds could not be successfully grown in America, and for the first sixty years of this century almost all the vegetable and flower seeds were imported.
It was natural that clover and grass seeds of American origin should be offered earlier than garden seeds. The former grew freely throughout the colonies and produced seed in abundance, while it required special skill and care to raise good garden seeds.
Eliot, in 1747, and Spurrier, in 1793, both refer to clover seed and grass-seed crops, and describe methods of harvesting and cleaning.
Nicholson, in the Farmers' Assistant, 1814, describes most of the grasses used to-day, and says that they seed freely.
Flaxseed was an article of export at an early day, and a considerable quantity of clover seed was sent to England in the early years of the century.
ESTABLISHMENT OF SEED FARMS.
The present development of garden-seed growing began when David Landreth established a small seed farm at Philadelphia in 1784. At first but a few acres were cultivated, and these were mostly occupied by the nursery. As the business grew, more land was added, until in 1860, some 600 acres were under cultivation near Philadelphia alone.
The Shakers, who came to America in 1774, began growing seeds at Mount Lebanon, N. Y., twenty years later. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century their seeds were more popular than any others, and outside of the large towns they supplied almost the entire demand. The well-known probity of these people and the excellent culture of their farms gave their seeds a wide reputation. Their wagons went from village to village, and they also sold on commission at 25 per cent, taking back the seeds that remained unsold.
In 1839 the Shaker colony at Tyringham, Mass., devoted 4 or 5 acres to the cultivation of garden, medicinal, and herb seeds, and their annual sales sometimes amounted to more than $3,000. A seed farm was established at Enfield, N. H., in 1795, one in Connecticut between 1810 and 1820, and three more before 1830.
Other seed farms existed for a short time, but were abandoned. The Clairmont seed gardens near Baltimore, Md., supplied some of the dealers of that city about 1851 and probably earlier.
At a still earlier day there was a seed garden in New Jersey, on which Grant Thorburn spent his fortune between 1808 and 1813. ...
Of the other seed farms in existence in 1890, thirteen were established between 1830 and 1840; fifteen between 1840 and 1850, and nineteen during the following decade.
RAPID INCREASE IN SEED GROWING DURING THE LAST FORTY YEARS.
The opening of the civil war found the country still largely dependent upon imported garden seeds. The heavy taxes and the premium on gold raised the prices of all imported seeds to such an extent that the dealers began to look anxiously for a home supply. During the first year of the war the trade in seeds fell off, prices were high, and seeds scarce. This condition stimulated home production, and as many seed farms were established between 1860 and 1870 as during the thirty years before the war.
It was found that many vegetable seeds could be grown as well in this country as abroad, and that all kinds, for which the climate and soil were suitable, were much more safely grown under the eye of the dealer. Growers also became more expert, and market gardeners found that they could get as good seeds from the seedsman as they could save themselves, and at less than one-half the cost. The seed grower secured a critical and profitable trade, and the market gardener found a reliable source of supply for his seeds.
This critical trade and the constant demand for better varieties stimulated the seed grower to do his best work. Seeds of the standard varieties were more carefully grown and new sorts, earlier, larger, or of better quality made their appearance every year. But it was by demanding reliable seeds rather than new varieties that the market-garden trade exercised the best influence upon the seedsman. To a man who expended annually $100 to $300 per acre for labor and fertilizers, it was of the utmost importance that his seed should produce exactly what he expected, and he well knew that it was not economy to buy cheap seeds. It is valuable trade, when secured, was retained only by supplying seeds of the highest quality regardless of cost.
Since the close of the war the business of seed growing has rapidly increased. Notwithstanding some importers of seeds declared in 1867 that American seed growing was a myth, there were at that time more than 2,000 acres devoted to raising vegetable and flower seeds. In 1878, Mr. J. J. H. Gregory estimated the total area devoted to growing garden seeds at about 7,000 acres. Of these, 3,000 in the State of New York produced peas and beans; 250 acres, other vegetable seeds; and 50 acres, flower seeds.
The remainder was distributed as follows: Michigan and northern Illinois, 1,600 acres; Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 1,000 acres; Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, 1,000 acres. The acreage for California is not given, but seed growing in that State was then practically consigned to lettuce and onion seed, and the industry had been established for only about three years. Of the kinds of seeds which were sold in the United States, Mr. Gregory said:
More or less of half the varieties are imported. Of mangel-wurzel, about all; rutabaga, about nine-tenths; spinach, about nine-tenths; cauliflower, nearly all; lettuce, about half; carrots, about half; eggplant, about half; parsnip, about one-third; radish, about all. ... It is the general belief of American seedsmen that foreign-grown radish seed is larger and better than home-grown. Parsley seed is largely imported. Brussels sprouts, broccoli, chicory, endive, kohlrabi, and Swiss chard are almost wholly imported, as is salsify, to a large extent. Of celery, the finest varieties are grown in this country in the vicinity of our large cities. Of cucumbers, but a few, and those of the fancy-frame sorts, are imported.
Of peas, most of the hard sorts are home-grown, and probably rather more than half of what are called the softer or wrinkled varieties. The Dutch or rough-leaved turnip seeds are all home-grown. Of cabbage seed, but few varieties are imported, and these are confined almost wholly to a few early sorts. Onion seed is almost entirely an American crop."
Gregory, J. J. H.: Culture of Vegetable Seeds, in the Report of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture, 1878, p. 110.
