ENGLISH SEED THE BEST.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 249, 19 February 1898, Page 3

ENGLISH SEED THE BEST.

An English correspondent of the Mark Lane Express writes as follows : " Supplying as wc do, a large number of farmers, wno more or less trust to our judgment and experience to send them only such seeds as will give them satisfaction, we have found it desirable to institute trials of the different kinds of seed?, both Home grown and foreign, which are annually distributed to farmers throughout the country ; and, in making these trials we are no longer surprised to find that the more intelligent and observant farrrers positively refuse to iow>foreign seeds if they can insure getting reliable English even at double the price, Thei'e are, of course, some agriculturists who look at the extra prime cost of the article, in most cases not exceeding 2i 6tl and 33 per acre, forgetting that this penny-wiso course may lose them at least a ton of green food or half a ton of diied, worth to them at least £2 to £3 per ton, the cost of tillages being in both cases the sime ; aud the ultimate state of the land being certainly fouler than it would have been after ft heavy crop. We have especially noticed, and this after repeated trials, that English white clover comes quite a fortnight earlier than German or American, and produces full 2-5 per cent. more, eddish, not only in its earlier stages, but extending even through the autumn .months. The German variety produces a small weak plant of a yellowish cast, with a small stem acd leaf; while the American is little, if anything, better than a weed, producing, however, a little keep during the summer months, and having more the appearance of our wild white clover. We have in the same way found that English red clover and cowgrass will E'roduce considerably more feed and eavier cuttings than those obtained from foreign seed, with the exception of one or two varieties, from which, no doubt, some of our best stocks originally sprang, aud have since been improved by cultivation and acclmatisation. We certainly consider that we are best serving our customers' interests in advising them to buy the best stocks procurable, irrespective of the prime cost, and shall continue to do so, feeling certain that there is more in it than most people* would credit, unless they had made trials themselves. Quotations given in same issue are : English white clover, 60s to 90s per cwt; Franch do., 50s to 753 ; English red, o'Os to 90s ; French and German, 50s to 80s; American and Canadian, 453 to 60<.