SEED TRADE IN UNITED STATES The trade in seeds is carried on along two main lines ; farm seeds and vegetable and flower seeds. Each line is represented by a trade association and in the main dealers in vegetable and flower seeds belong to the American Seed Trade Association, and dealers in grass, clover and other farm seeds belong to the Farm Seed Association of America. Some of the larger firms deal in both lines of seeds ; in fact, a few firms doing a large volume of busi ness not only handle farm and vegetable seeds both at wholesale and retail, but engage as well in the contract growing of vegetable seed. With a few exceptions, however, the largest dealers in farm seeds handle no vegetable or flower seeds and most of the larger vegetable and flower seed dealers carry grass, clover and other farm seeds in a small way only, to provide for retail trade.
The trade in farm seeds flows in general in two directions. The farmer producing clover or grass seed commonly sells to a local jobber or elevator man who is either an agent of some wholesaler or is in touch with the general market. Such lots are shipped to a large dealer having facilities for recleaning, by whom the seed is cleaned, graded, bulked and bagged in ac cordance with quality and designated by the various grade names used by the dealer. Sales are then made to country merchants who, in turn, sell to the farmer. In some seed producing sections, especially those far removed from terminal markets, large dealers have established cleaning plants where country run seed is cleaned. The cleaned seed is then shipped to the central warehouses for assembling, bulking and distributing. While the bulk of the farm seeds passing from the wholesaler to the consumer goes through the hands of the country or city merchant, some firms do what is known as a "mail order business" in farm seeds. Such dealers advertise in farm papers and sell direct to consumers in any quan tity desired. In some cases such business is known to reach a volume of one to three million dollars per year.
Preparing field seeds for marketing is the most important function of the wholesale dealer in farm seeds. Alfalfa, clover and grass seed, especially as it comes from the producer, contains a certain proportion of dirt and weed seeds, all of which must be removed. The size and
colour of the "berry" also vary in different lots and these must be mixed and blended to produce a uniform sample. The large dealer is, therefore, equipped with cleaning mills of various kinds, some designed for special purposes as the removal of dodder or buckhorn seed. In the process of cleaning, a given lot of seed may be handled five or six times before it is considered fit for market. Country run seed is bought either on the basis of a certain price for the clean seed, the screenings sometimes being re turned to the producer, or on sample, the buyer estimating the loss and paying for what clean seed he believes will be secured.
Seed of some hardy varieties of alfalfa is produced by special growers but in general there are no special growers of grass and clover seed. There are, however, regions where the production of certain farm seeds is so common that such production is a regular part of the cropping system practiced. This is the case with alfalfa seed in the Southwest, in Utah, Idaho, portions of Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, and Okla homa ; with red clover seed in Idaho, in the Arkansas valley in Colorado and in north-east Indiana and north-west Ohio ; with white clover seed in Louisiana ; with meadow fescue seed in Mis souri and Kansas ; with timothy in Iowa, north-west Missouri and Minnesota ; with Kentucky Bluegrass seed in Kentucky, Missouri, and Iowa ; with orchard grass seed in Kentucky and Virginia ; with bent grass seed in Oregon ; with lespedeza seed in Tennessee, Ken tucky, and North Carolina ; and with sorghum and Sudan grass seed in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. There are some special seed corn growers and the new hybrid corns are now handled generally by the seed trade. The organization of Crop Improvement Asso ciations in many States has stimulated some of the best farmers in the production of improved varieties of small grains. Much of the seed thus produced finds its way to the consumer through the bet ter seedsmen. Important as this movement is, it represents but a small portion of the small grain and corn seed handled by the farm seed trade; the larger part of such seed differs from market grain only in being more carefully cleaned and graded.