Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 83, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1917 — SATURDAY, JAN. 13, 1917. [ARTICLE]

SATURDAY, JAN. 13, 1917.

THE “FREE SEED” GRAFT AGAIN The anxiety that has held the nation on the tiptoe of expectancy for the last few weeks is at last at an end. , The house of representatives, by a vote of forty-four to seventy-three, has again decided to make the usual annual distribution of free government seeds. To that end, it has voted an appropriation of $243,000. And the battle, of course, is more than half wbn. Citizens, consequently, may once more go about their business -with minds put at. ease and the ■wrinkles of worry smoothed from their brows. The house of representatives has not been heedless of its duty. Long before the early robin has returned to herald the approach of spring the government seeds will have reached the hands of an eager and clamoring public. Tn neat government packets, whereon is imprinted a suggestion .that the recipient “report results,” these flower and vegetable seeds will arrive at their destination. Inasmuch, however, as the further inscription on the packet will bear the information that the seeds are of varieties of flowers and vegetables that are already, well kriown and thoroughly tried, the recipient will disregard, as usual, the injunction to “report.” What, he asks himself, is the use’ If congressmen still imagine that constituents are really ' grateful for this munificent gift that arrives under the congressional frank they are misinformed. Government frhe seeds are an embarrassment. The frugal soul of man hesitates to destroy them utterly, but common sense, on the other hand, and experience combine to advise him that planting them is attended by risks top great to assume. Government'

Feed is rarely the best seed; very often it is not, even apod seed. Germination is uncertain and final results are not always satisfactory. course, Jones, living in a city apartipent and never ■ setting foot off the asphalt of his city streets, to ay feel hi nisei f somewhat fl altered •when the remembrance is laid at the door of his flat, but Smith, who cultivates his back yard and knows the business of gardening, is neither flattered nor grateful, He is indignant. The average farmer, who gives the matter serious thought feels much the same way. And estimates have been made repeatedly wh,erein ’figures occur and recur to show that 90 per cent of the distributed seeds is never planted at all. The 'public, in short, does not approve the procedure. The appropriation of $243,000 is a wgste. Applied to assisting producer and consumer to closer relations, to the advantage of each, it would serve a genuinely useful purpose.---Indianapolis News.